Like Buhari, Yar’Adua, Jonathan, we may beg someone to be president in 2023 —Alao-Akala

In this interview with WALE AKINSELURE, Chairman, Oyo All Progressives Congress (APC) Elders Advisory Council, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala speaks on the alleged support for Senator Teslim Folarin to get the party’s governorship ticket, zoning of the presidency, chances of the APC in Oyo and at the federal level in 2023, the purported Chief Bola Tinubu candidacy…

 

Some members of your party have tagged you as pro Senator Teslim Folarin for the 2023 governorship race. They, especially, say that the membership of the zoning committee released by your elders’ council justifies this belief. Are you indeed rooting for Folarin in the forthcoming governorship election in the state?

I cannot approve Folarin. I am not a dictator. I am not the party to approve Folarin. Let me tell you that lazy politician cannot become governor. Anybody that wants to be governor should work. They should stop giving Folarin unnecessary advantage over the rest of them. If I want to side anybody at all and I am given that power to select a candidate, I will not chose an Ibadan man. I am not supporting anybody; I am father to all of them. All those who want to be governor have, one way or the other, passed through me before. I know all of them. They should not allow the man to bulldoze them; they should not chicken out. The man is doing his own politics the way he knows how to do it best, they should also know how to play politics. Anyone who wants to be candidate under APC has to work for it. They should not be lazy and stop blaming Akala. If I have that opportunity to choose, I will not choose an Ibadan man because we cannot say that everything should come from Ibadan.

 

Would a serving political office holder stand a better chance at getting the APC ticket in 2023 than someone who is presently not holding any political office?

I don’t know. It depends on how the person presents himself before the people that will make him a candidate. He has to sell himself to the people. They should stop talking about Folarin and Akala. Why can’t they talk about Akala and Fatai Buhari? Moreover, charity begins at home. Gone are the days when somebody sits somewhere and says this is the candidate. There are procedures of choosing a candidate in the APC constitution and we shall follow those procedures to the letter. If two persons are contesting for a position and one person loses, the person will accept if we pass through the stated procedure. And, the person will be ready to work for whoever emerges as candidate. Political process demands a lot of politicking. Your sales representatives are the politicians; they are the ones to sell you to the people. What I am after now is how to have a good party structure not supporting one candidate.

All through your ward and local government congress, there were still records of parallel congresses and complaints, pointing to uneasy calm. All is still not well with your party and 2023 election is knocking.

It is going to be well and that is why we started very early. What is happening in the APC is not something unusual. Politics is about conflict resolution. There will always be conflict of interest and you try to solve it. The APC will have a lot of things to say, when the time comes, to take over from (Governor Seyi) Makinde in 2023. You must have heard the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Oyo State, saying that we the APC did not give him any problem the way the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did during its congress. It means everything went well. We had our congresses and we had an appeal committee for those who had complaints to make them. To the best of my knowledge, we had only about three or four appeals within Ibadan. We went through a lot before we are where we are now. They should not take any short cut. Anyone who wants to be a big man should start from being a small man.

What are you doing to ensure that after the state congress, the party does not become badly divided?

The party will not be badly divided when you do the right thing. When you follow the constitution of the party in allowing everybody emerge, the party will not be badly divided. We may advise but they are not bound to take our advice because the wish of the party is paramount. I am advocating that we should not zone the governorship to any geopolitical zone of the state. Everybody that thinks he is eminently qualified to be governor should apply and it should come from anywhere in the state.

 

What kind of candidate can the APC present that will defeat incumbent Governor Seyi Makinde at the polls?

The candidate that we will present to beat the incumbent governor is a candidate that is acceptable to the people. Acceptability is very important. The candidate must be sellable; must be one that we will not talk too much when we are campaigning. He has to be a candidate that has very good antecedents such that we can refer to what the person has done and say he has potential to do this and that. And the candidate must be a politician. I want a politician who knows what it means to be in political office. It is not yet time for campaign but I can tell you that APC will take over from Makinde in 2023.

The PDP has taken a position regarding zoning of the Chairmanship to the North, what would you advice your party, the APC, regarding zoning of National Chairmanship ahead your party’s convention?

I cannot say because so many factors will determine where the Chairman should come from.

 

There are those who have questioned the rationale behind Governor Mala Mai Buni also holding position of the National Caretaker Chairman of the APC? What is your stance on this situation?

Which is better between being the chairman of a party and being a sitting governor? Of course, being governor. So, we are forcing Buni to be there; we are begging him to be there to stabilise the party. Necessity is the mother of invention; necessity brought about his being there. I don’t think he will like to relinquish his governorship for chairmanship seat. Party chairmen are not paid and they have no vote to control.

 

Southern governors have taken a position that the next president of the country should come from the South. Are you in support of this position?

As far as I am concerned, I will support a president from anywhere so far as he is a very good man. In most cases, since the inception of the present democratic dispensation, those who became president were called upon to come and become president. Olusegun Obasanjo was called to come and become president; Umaru Yar’Adua was begged to come and become president; Goodluck Jonathan was taken by surprise to come and become vice president and then became president; Muhammadu Buhari wept saying that he wasn’t interested in contesting again but was brought to come and become president. They were all begged and called to come and become president. Do you know whether we will have to call another person to come and become president? It was against the wish of Obasanjo that they made him president; the same thing Yar’Adua, the same thing Jonathan; and then Buhari was brought in and God made him president. What APC did that time was good. They knew they can use the name of Buhari to win election and they used it. Did Buhari have a kobo, then? Those parading themselves wanting to be president may not become president. We might still have to look for somebody and beg the person to be president. By now, God knows who will be our president.

 

Chief Bola Tinubu is being tipped to become next president, with SWAGA as a major group rooting for him. What do you think of a Tinubu candidacy for your party?

There is nothing I feel about it. How am I sure that he will not be the one they will go and beg to become the next president? Anybody can be president, if he is sellable.

 

Buhari’s personality was the selling factor for the APC in the last two elections. Without a Buhari to sell, what will the APC be selling to the people in 2023?

APC will win in 2023 but it will be tough. Buhari’s influence is still there and we will still use his influence for the party to win. We are becoming stronger every day. People are leaving the PDP to join the APC. Have you seen people leaving the APC to join the PDP? We will still use his influence and name to campaign.

 

Don’t you think that Buhari’s influence has drastically waned with economic woes, hardship and persistent issues of insecurity?

With due respect to him, is Buhari the cause? Is Buhari the one that asked Sunday Igboho to be promoting Yoruba nation or that  the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) should continue agitating? What is happening regarding the economy is global. It is the COVID-19 pandemic that is causing economic problem for everybody. We will still use Buhari, in the far North, to win election.

 

You have attributed the economic woes to COVID-19, but issues of insecurity across the country persist. You are a former police officer, how do you advise President Buhari to handle the various security issues in the country?

The best thing is to equip the police well. The Police are in charge of security. If given proper apparatus to work, they will perform wonders, the way they are trained to. They should take care of the welfare of the police. In the past two months, the police have been parading some of its successes, especially arresting kidnappers. They should stop giving plentiful money to the Army; give that plentiful money to the police and see them do wonders. If anything happens to you, the first place you go to is the police station; you won’t go to an Army barracks. Why not strengthen those who are constitutionally empowered to take care of internal security to do so? Equip the police, train and retrain them and take care of all the training institutions of the police. Also the recruitment process should be worked upon.

 

There are those agitating for Yoruba self-determination. Where do you stand?

They have right to do that. The other thing is if they have the capability to succeed. But, I am for one Nigeria. There was civil war to retain this oneness. Are we going to throw it away just like that? God brought us together, so let it be. In England, we have the English, we have the Welsh; we have the Scottish; we have the Irish. The same thing in the United States; there are many tribes there, so it is not perfect anywhere. I was brought up in Ghana and they have so many tribes there. Moreover, let us assume that we are given a Yoruba nation, at some time, there will be complaints about the Ijebus or the Egbas dominating. The only thing is to see how best we can define our coexistence. The best thing to do is to let everybody have a say like the national conference done during the administration of President Jonathan. Implementing the recommendations of that conference will help us a long way. Also, our presidential system of government is very expensive; I will want us to go for a parliamentary system of government. If we want to be federal, we shouldn’t be one quarter federal and another thing. Let each region or state develop at their own pace. I want a system where the centre will be weakened and we should give power to the units that make up the federation.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…

Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train

The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…

[ICYMI] Lekki Shootings: Why We Lied About Our Presence — General Taiwo

The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the killings at Lekki Toll Gate, on Saturday resumed viewing of the 24hrs footage of the October 20, 2020 shooting of #EndSARS protesters by personnel of the Nigerian Army…

ICYMI: How We Carried Out The 1993 Nigerian Airways Hijack —Ogunderu

On Monday, October 25, 1993, in the heat of June 12 annulment agitations, four Nigerian youngsters, Richard Ajibola Ogunderu, Kabir Adenuga, Benneth Oluwadaisi and Kenny Razak-Lawal, did the unthinkable! They hijacked an Abuja-bound aircraft, the Nigerian Airways airbus A310, and diverted it to Niger Republic. How did they so it? Excerpts…