Why it’ll be difficult for Ogun PDP to unite —Otegbola

Senator Ayodeji Otegbola and a chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in the Senate between 1992 and 1993. The Awori-born politician, who is also a former chairman, Federal Housing Authority (FHA), speaks with BOLA BADMUS.

YOU were a National Assembly member between 1992 and 1993, what is your take on the state of the nation?

We are in a state where nothing is easy for anybody whether rich, poor or middle class, because nothing is working. Every aspect of our life is up and down. And as much as everybody tries to correct it; it is getting worse than it used to be. I am not talking like this because I belong to the PDP; what I have seen of the APC is that they don’t know the direction of governance. They are not able to manage the success which the country freely gave to them and they are trying to blame the problems on the electorate that voted them in.

But the Buhari government has insisted that the damage is so enormous that it would take a long time and efforts to correct it. Don’t you agree that they need more time to do it; just like the APC National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, also said that Nigerians should exercise more patience before things normalise?

Nigerians are always very patient; we always give government more than enough time to adjust. What Senator Tinubu said is what has been usual with Nigerians; Nigerians are not given to violence. Like even in our economic policy, we talk and talk without doing anything; that is what is happening even now. All these demonstrations we are talking about, that’s the best we can do; shout for one day and keep quiet for nine months and our leaders are taking advantage of that. We adore anybody that stole money, the moment they want to punish that person; the people would rise up in his support. I heard that a welcome party was organised to welcome former Delta State governor, James Ibori back home and everybody knew that what we were not able to do; they were able to do it in London by imprisoning him for the money he has stolen. These protests against the administration of Buhari are just to show that we have some resentment about what they do, but that would be the limit. We might have the parade for one day and we may not do anything again.

To what extent would you say Buhari has been able to accomplish his main campaign promises on anti- corruption and the fight against insurgency?

To a large extent, he has been able to keep his promise on the Boko Haram issue; even though he builds on the success against Boko Haram by the [Goodluck] Jonathan’s government. But the way he has done has exposed the fraud of some military officers in Jonathan’s government, who were expending military money on themselves. Buhari has ensured that the money is spent on the development of the Army and that is why the Army was able to prosecute the war with up-to-date equipment. So to that extent, he can be given credit for that. I think that is probably the only credit he could get.

Other aspects of security; there is nothing to show. Kidnapping is still rampant from state to state, the armed robbery aspect is still going from state to state and herdsmen attack is even worse. So, those are the various aspects that need to be addressed and the Shiite issue, as well as the Southern Kaduna crisis are also there. These problems should be resolved. What is painful is that either by omission or commission, Buhari is keeping quiet on very important matters that affect the country, except if they affect Muslims or people from the Northern part of the country; that is when you see him making sparing statement. He is not saying things that can make Christians see him as a good leader.

Talking of corruption, people who have been clamped into prisons are people from the other side [opposition]; never have we heard of anyone on their side except the man that confessed and said he would return the money. Even those who left the PDP and joined the APC were not arrested. So, that shows that they are being partisan on the aspect of his drive towards corruption.

There are cries in the land about lack of jobs and high cost of living; how did we get to this stage, in and what do you think Buhari should have done that he did not do?

Buhari seems to be taking governance for granted. When he was elected, he went into a sort of retreat for himself without doing what they call transitional arrangement. From the time the results were out in March, 2015, he would have assembled the best brains in every aspect of governance and sit them together to advise him on what he should do. If you are talking about brains and what matters in the whole world, I think Nigeria has a portion of those types of people and he can see that by going into other countries to see where Nigerians have worked to improve the lot of those countries. Even Trump also said that during his campaign that everywhere American jobs had been taken; you would find a Nigerian there. He asked why they don’t use their expertise in their own country. So, good brains are out there and I wonder why it is very difficult for him to select those that can help him? And if it is difficult, why didn’t he use the knowledge and expertise of those who are experienced in governance of the country to formulate his policy, even though he brought harsh programmes as manifesto during the electioneering period? A majority of those things they said in the manifesto were not practicable.

But instead of changing the tune now, they should have formulated a new programme and sell that programme to people. They have not done that. I said it before that the goodwill, the honeymoon that Buhari was enjoying could not last for more than two years; after two years, people would see what is wrong. I have listened to radio and watched the television programmes, where people have suggested ways to go, but government seems not to listen to all these discussions. What is the essence of publicity; what is the essence of communication if people say things when all you do is just hear about them and do nothing about them?

Your party, the PDP has been having crisis for the past two years and many people expect the sort of truce reached last Thursday to bring a relief. What do you think is the way forward for the PDP?

The loss of the presidential election affected us greatly and the rush by some people, who think there is a greener pasture in the APC, also affected the PDP. This has been going on nearly in every state and today, each state has crisis of one nature or the other. It is only quite lately that the Ali Modu Sheriff vs Ahmed Makarfi incident came into it. So, we may have unity in the PDP at the centre, but unity in Ogun State is going to be very difficult.

Why?

This is because the situation we have in the state is quite different from what is happening in other states. At the moment, we have three major factions. We have the Buruji Kashamu faction; we have the Otunba Gbenga Daniel faction and there is the LADO (Ladi Adebutu) faction and even the fourth, the Dimeji Bankole faction. Between Dimeji and LADO, I cannot see any problem; because both of them have enough wealth in their pockets and they are both young and they have a future. But for Buruji and OGD, they don’t see that both of them can work together to build the unity that we need in Ogun. When people intervene and bring them together, on the surface, they would say ‘yes, yes’, but the moment they step out of that meeting, they are at each other’s throat again.

Gboyega Nasiru, who has been our governorship candidate on two occasions, is now in the middle of both of them. Buruji feels that OGD is the one secretly supporting GNI and because of that, he is not giving his good time and thought into supporting GNI. OGD also felt that secretly, Buruji is the one supporting GNI and he also will not give GNI a full support, so GNI is in the limbo.

What are the elders doing?

The elders are ready to queue behind anyone of them; they queue behind them and if they don’t get what they want, they shift. They shift from one camp to the other. And when they are frustrated, the elders just come to themselves. We hope that one day, somebody would just come and resolve the matter. Recently, I had 11 people from the Buruji camp; they were soliciting for my support towards the realisation of Buruji’s wing to produce the next governor. But there is a problem there; the exco that is recognised by the centre now is that of the LADO/OGD group, led by Sikirulahi Ogundele, and all of them are of the Makarfi group, whereas Buruji is of the Modu Sheriff group. When they came, I said I was not going to be part of these discussions anymore, because I have done all I could to reconcile and it has not worked.

People are already mooting the idea of forming a mega party; thinking that at the end of the day, the PDP might not be able to reconcile, given the level of crisis rocking it. What chances are you giving a mega party and have you been approached to be part of it?

Yes, but even then, the mega party has no leg yet; they are working on a zonal basis at the moment. I hope it would be as successful as it was for people to come together under the APC. I think the mega party would do much more.