Chief Sarafa Tunji Ishola, a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, is the chairman, caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State. He speaks with OLUWOLE IGE on the agenda to restore unity among the two factions of the party in Osun, the preparation to dislodge the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2018 governorship poll, among other issues.
Your party lost the August 9, 2014 governorship poll in Osun State by over 100,000 votes to the APC governorship candidate, who is now the incumbent governor of the state, Mr Rauf Aregbesola. What magic is your party going to perform to bridge this gap in the September 2018 gubernatorial election, as recently announced by INEC?
Right now, Osun people have realised the need to have a government that will cater for their interest and welfare and a government that would be responsive to the yearnings of the people. We are perfecting our strategies, not only to bridge the gap of over 100,000 votes deficit we recorded in 2014, but also to surpass it with overwhelming majority votes, which we believe and hope eligible voters in Osun would cast for PDP in the 2018 governorship poll. Virtually everybody has been disappointed by the APC government, having failed in all ramifications and we are now the bride of the people. They knew how their conditions were when we were in government and now they are in a better position more than ever to change the self-acclaimed change party come next year. We are not leaving any stone unturned to sack the APC government legitimately through the ballot in the coming election.
What informed your emergence as the chairman of the PDP caretaker committee in Osun State?
I think that question is better answered by the national chairman of the PDP caretaker committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi. But I want to believe that it is because of my antecedent as an elected council chairman, chairman of chairmen, Secretary to the Ogun State Government and former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Those must be part of the reasons I was chosen to head the Osun State chapter of the PDP caretaker committee.
Can you give us the details of the mandate your committee was given by the PDP national secretariat in respect of Osun?
My mandate is to unite all the members of the Osun State chapter of PDP and make sure we have a structure that is based on internal democracy as the party structure in the state.
Are you not worried that you may face a herculean task in your duties as the chairman of the PDP caretaker committee, considering the fact that Osun is one of the states in which your party has been facing difficulties before the conduct of the last senatorial by election?
Conflict in any human organisation is a normal thing. Even, in various homes, between husbands and wives or between father and his children, there is bound to be conflict or what I may describe as political disagreement. So, if you have it at the family level, you will expect it at the societal level. Therefore, conflicts are usual things in any of the human organisation. That we have intra party conflict here is not something that we can say is most unusual in any human set up. But, I must commend our people in Osun State, particularly in Osun West, because the feat achieved at the last senatorial district by election showed the readiness of our people to come together and that has made our job easier.
Do you think it is possible for your party to re-enact the same electoral feat in the 2018 governorship election in the state?
Yes, we will achieve that electoral feat. The people who made that possible are the people that are stakeholders in Osun State. So, if they can make it possible in Osun West, and being the senatorial district that is key in determining the state governorship election, I have no doubt in my mind that that feat will still be repeated.
What are your expectations over the reconciliation and consultation moves that your committee has embarked on since your assumption of duty in Osun?
The expectation is the need for inclusiveness, tolerance, unity and I must let you know that the spirit we have in Osun PDP now is spirit of inclusiveness, oneness and the spirit of working together. Those are the spirits that we have here and my expectation is gradually being met and I am sure that, by the time we finish our assignment, we would have achieved the objectives of the PDP National Caretaker Committee in Osun State.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said PDP is not a better alternative for the people of Osun come 2018. Their argument is that it would amount to retrogression if the people of the state vote for the party. What is your take on this?
What do you expect APC to say? But they were living in a fool›s paradise and deceiving themselves. The people of Osun State would have to decide which one is better; it is not for APC to decide for them. The people of the state would have to decide and compare the seven years of PDP and that of APC. This comparison would focus on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 14 (B). It is clearly stated that the primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the citizenry. The people of this state would be in the position to judge whether they were better off in the seven years of PDP or the seven years of APC. That would be the basis of comparison and that would inform their choice.
According to a recent release by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Osun have incurred over $96 million foreign debt and over N147billion domestic debt. Should your party win the forthcoming governorship election, how would your governor cope with the economic situation and the said high debt profile of the state?
As the chairman of the caretaker committee, I would not be able to articulate on that because I am not going to be the governor. I think we should wait until we produce our governorship candidate; he will articulate the position of the party and his agenda as the PDP flag-bearer. But what I want Osun State people to know is to compare the financial profile of the state when the PDP government handed over to the APC-led administration in Osun and what it is now. That will show how APC has run its live and the debt it has amassed.
What are the challenges you are facing since you took up the job?
The challenges that we, as caretaker committee members have been facing, are human. What is usually challenging is change; this because when people are used to a status quo, it is not easy to change them from such. This is because the walls that we are breaking down here are old. Some of them have been erected over a year ago, but we thank God. To build a structure is difficult and energy sapping, but it is easier to destroy. It took them time to build those walls, but to destroy is easy. We are destroying or pulling down the walls of division in the last two weeks. We have broken the walls considerably and we are happy with the positive and encouraging results we are getting.
You described as hate speech the recent outburst of APC against your optimism that PDP would emerge victorious in the 2018 governorship poll. Can you shed more light on this?
If you google to get the meaning of the word, ‘ignoramus’, you will know the implication of such statement. If you address a human being as ignoramus, that means you are attacking the messenger and not the message. If you say a messenger is blind, you are attacking the messenger and not the message. We released a statement and instead of APC to react to issues or providing your own perspective to the issues we raised in our press statement, you are attacking the personality that conveyed the message. It quite not ideal and civil to be attacking a personality, but you should attack the message. Moreover, a ruling party cannot be behaving like an opposition party. A ruling party has the duty to articulate its position and leave the issue of opposition to the opposition party.
In Osun State today, PDP is in opposition and APC should stop acting or portraying itselve in the garb of an opposition party. The duties of a ruling party are twosome. That was what the PDP did when we were in government. Apart from having responsibility to our party, we also have responsibility to the citizenry. So, the APC governor or government, apart from having responsibilities to their party, they also have responsibilities to the entire people of Osun State, including the PDP people. That was what I was trying to tell them. They should stop the issue of attacking PDP. A ruling party, whether at the state level or federal level, should learn how to be tolerant. That is what the presidential system of politics is all about. A lot people are still suffering from what I may describe as parliamentary hangover. It is only in a parliamentary system, like what they practice is Britain, that you have a permanent opposition. In a presidential system, after the election, it is the welfare of the citizenry that should be paramount to the government. But, what we are doing now is a situation where we are launching verbal attacks on the people and failing to address germane issues and, in the process, overheating the polity. When we get to the bridge, we will cross it.
Do you believe in the ability of INEC to organise an acceptable governorship poll in Osun come 2018?
We believe that INEC will conduct a credible gubernatorial poll next year that will be acceptable to all. They have no choice than to ensure that the Nigerian populace does not lose faith in their activities and as an unbiased electoral umpire by conducting an election that will stand the test of time. They have enough time to prepare for the poll and all the necessary infrastructures and logistics they need should be provided to create an enabling atmosphere for the conduct of a free, fair and credible poll not only in 2018, but also in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
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