Interview

Okowa best choice as Atiku’s running mate —Kuye

A former member, South-West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caretaker Committee, Chief Taiwo Abayomi Kuye, in this interview with some journalists, among them BOLA BADMUS, speaks on the outcome of the Ekiti State governorship election, the forthcoming Osun governorship and the 2023 elections.

Your party has announced Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as its vice-presidential candidate, what is your assessment of the Atiku and Okowa ticket?

Answer: It is the best for us. I don’t want to talk about Wike because he is my friend and a real party man. When you want to talk about a political juggernaut and a real party man, talk about Nyesom Wike. The choice of Okowa is a family and internal affair matter and every issue arising from that selection would be settled at the appropriate time. The majority of you know that Atiku won the presidential elections in 2019 and the mandate was stolen but that would not happen again in 2023. Look at the time of releasing results in Ekiti unlike before when six to seven days after, we would be waiting for results from some states. But that one is not going to happen again because the process of voting, calculating results and transmitting immediately has made everything easy. This new process saves INEC the political challenges they have been experiencing in the past elections. So, just vote, calculate and send your results. Okowa is the best for us and if I go further, I would be exposing our strategy for the election but simply put that the pair is the best for PDP. On the issue of Wike, normally, if you are the one, you would be aggrieved and I told you earlier that it is a family affair. Wike is aggrieved but I know he would be the last person to leave PDP. Even if you cut his neck, he is going to be the last person to leave PDP. And it is also untrue that Okowa paid Ayu to get the slot because only Ayu cannot make him vice presidential candidate.

How are you sure that PDP would win South-East and South-South considering the rising profile of Peter Obi and the Labour Party?

If I start my analysis of Peter Obi, we will not leave this place because even in the region he comes from, he cannot get 25 per cent of votes cast from the whole of the East talk less of winning the North and other parts of the South. Peter Obi is a player so let him continue with the game at the appropriate time, he would quit the field.

Do you think Okowa would guarantee PDP victory in South-South and South-East?

Okowa alone cannot guarantee that victory. See, you are going deep strategically into the strategy of PDP and I will not tell you this because we have not started the campaign.

What are the chances of PDP in the South-West with Bola Tinubu being the presidential candidate of APC, against clamouring for power shift to the South?

You make me laugh, so with Asiwaju as the presidential candidate of APC, PDP would lose the region? You start from Lagos because Lagos is going to be 50/50 between APC and PDP, I can promise you. Lagos where he claims to have come from is going to be 50/50 in every election in 2023. In the governorship, we are poised to win. In the presidential election, it is going to be 50/50 if not more in favour of PDP.

What is actually giving you the confidence that PDP would win Lagos in 2023 considering the crisis in the state chapter?

Answer: We have settled all issues long ago and we have been working closely as a family. Normally in more cases, it is not a crisis that scuttles an election. Look at 2019, Atiku alone won five northern states for us when we were having only one before 2019. Compare that to now that APC popularity is sinking on a daily basis, so you can see what to expect in the 2023 elections. And INEC is more independent now than before. I’m sure of that and can see it from most of the re-run elections and off-season elections and particularly the Ekiti governorship election.

It is election plus determination because if we are determined that we will face this election, we will do so. If you want to kill us we will be ready for you to come and kill us. So, if the determination is there, we will go all out. Forget about the Bola Tinubu factor, I have told you that the outcome is going to be 50/50 in the presidential election in Lagos State. And on the governorship, Governor Sanwo-Olu is going to be unseated because Lagos is boiling, people are suffering and all strata of business in the state are suffering. So, what more is left? They cannot account for anything. We have packages for them and I just want you to follow us as the election campaigns proceed, by the time campaigns would start in October, you follow up and see what is going to be in the offing.

In the Ekiti State governorship election, your party came a distant third. What does that mean going into the 2023 elections?

The outcome has no implication for the 2023 elections because virtually 90 per cent of the membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saw the result coming. Even before the election, we knew and I knew personally that there is no PDP on ground in the state. Yes, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted an election in the state but PDP did not really participate in the election because that was the picture there.

How do you mean?

PDP was not prepared and we saw that loss coming. The handler of PDP in the state is Ayo Fayose, that’s number one. Number two, the candidate is relatively unknown to the Ekiti people; the preparations, the campaigns, the funding and everything showed that the party was not prepared. At every stage of preparations for that election, it was comatose.

Could that be the reason the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) and the party’s presidential candidate did not visit the state to campaign for the party’s standard-bearer?

That was not the reason. There was a mix-up as of Thursday last week, there was a problem being sorted out at the Wadata Plaza in relation to the picking of vice presidential candidate of the party, the Broad of Trustees (BOT) was meeting and so many meetings were going on until the wee hours of Friday. So, it was not possible for anybody to attend the grand finale of the party’s campaign in Ekiti. If we have had a strong party on ground whether Atiku and the NWC visited or not, we would have won the election. We have the State Executive Working Committee and members of the Zonal and National Working Committee in the state, those hands are capable of winning the state but we saw the loss coming. The loss of PDP in that election was already in the picture because the self-acclaimed god-father of Ekiti PDP, Ayo Fayose, did not even vote in the election. He was not even available on the day of the election, he didn’t vote and he was not even around. His polling unit was monitored from the beginning of the voting to the end, he was nowhere. So, the picture of losing that election was crystal clear right from the beginning.

The Osun State governorship election is around the corner; how prepared is the PDP for the exercise?

Take my word: we are going to win the Osun governorship election. Osun, as far as I’m concerned, APC is going to lose because we are prepared. A lot of things have been injected into the state chapter and we are more than prepared. Every faction has closed ranks in the state because Babayemi is seriously working for Adeleke, our candidate. For instance, over 2000 members of the party wanted to decamp to APC about three weeks ago, it was this man that called them back. He told them to stay back and win the election first before continuing with their rift. So, there is the focus in Osun and all hands are now on deck because everybody has come together to close ranks, so definitely, it is a win-win for PDP in Osun State.

There are concerns that the performance of the PDP in some of these off-season elections might affect the party’s chances in 2023, don’t you think so?

No, the Ekiti and Osun polls are staggered elections and when you look at staggered elections, people put more energy unlike when we have general elections. So, more energy is being injected into staggered elections. Like in Osun, our energy surpasses that of the APC and we are going to win. I have told you repeatedly that as far as the Ekiti State governorship election is concerned, it is an empty state for PDP. So, for me, following results on social media was a waste of time because I saw it coming. More particularly, the general mismanagement of the affairs of the country by the APC government is going to affect that election. In Ekiti, APC made available money, vote-buying was on the spree and there was no challenge. Did you hear of any crisis in Ekiti? No, it was not contested but let APC try such in Osun State, it will not happen. It is going to be anything for anything and I promise you that PDP is going to win that election.

Don’t you think that your party would have won the election if it had given Dr Segun Oni the governorship ticket?

Can you please add Segun Oni’s figure with that of the PDP and see whether it is up to the figure scored by the APC? So, everything put together, APC would have still won because we were not prepared. It has never happened in any election in Ekiti State that PDP came a distant third. They sold out.

Who sold out?

The master minder of that action sold out.

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