THREE months ago, there was the news of a serious crisis hitting the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), culminating in the party holding parallel congresses. With Chief Akin Oke-led executives eventually recognised by the national leadership of the party and the other faction reportedly dumping the party, where do you think your party stands in terms of strength in Oyo state?
Well, like I have been saying and I will continue to say, politicking is about conflict management; how you are able to resolve your conflicts is what makes a party. We always say it that it is not possible not to have conflict, because there is always one ticket on offer, which if you are lucky you will have 10 people with the same interest. But when you have close to 100 people gunning for the same ticket, how do you manage that? It is something you have to resolve. For all the stakeholders to accept the resolution is what makes a party. So, that some people call themselves Unity Forum; it’s normal when you are in a party that is in hot demand, especially a ruling party like ours. It is normal.
So, all the issues you alluded to were normal issues that were blown out of proportion by the press. It was an internal affair of the party. But you people saying one group supported this one and one supported that one; it is always normal.
It is normal to have crisis; yes. But you just said the resolution is what matters and in this case, do you think the issues have been resolved to the point that the APC remains as strong as it used to be?
I will tell you yes, because this not the first time that we would have crisis and resolution. Remember that in the 50s, there was crisis between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Ladoke Akintola in the Action Group. In the 70s, there was crisis between Awolowo and others and in the 90s, there was crisis between the late Chief Bola Ige and Chief Olu Falae. But Falae and Ige remained together in the party. Don’t forget that Bola Ige started the AD and was ready to be the presidential candidate of the party but it was eventually Chief Falae that emerged then. So, as I said, crisis is always a normal thing in politics, because it is what you want that I also want and every one of us cannot have it.
Have you resolved the crisis?
It has been resolved; that’s what I am saying.
But some people in the APC have defected to the ADC…
I said it is normal to have crisis. Remember that at the beginning of this interview, I cited the issue of Awolowo and Akintola. But what happened when Akintola went to NNDP and Awolowo stayed with the Action Group? In the late 90s when chief Bola Ige registered the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and Chief Falae ended up getting the presidential ticket, Chief Bola Ige chose to stay in the party despite being lured by the opposition. In this government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, I remember in 2014 on the way to the 2015 election some people broke away and formed the Labour Party? But what happened? We faced the election and we won. So, if the people that left us in 2015 could not stop us from winning the election in 2015, the first time in the history of Oyo State that a governor would win for a second term tenure, then I want to tell you that those who left cannot stop us from winning in 2019.
Let me even tell you that a substantial number of the Unity Forum stayed behind. Those who left APC were only a few people interested in positions or have the ambition to stand for election and perhaps felt they might not get the ticket. In any case, if they had stayed in the party, they might have won the ticket. I mean the only reason they left is because they thought they would not be able to get the ticket. But I would say those who left were wrong, because if they had stayed, with the direct primary the new executive at the national level has embraced, they should be able to test their popularity. You test your popularity and if you win, you get the ticket and if you don’t, you cooperate with the party. I have always said that offering to serve the people should not be a do-or-die thing; if I offer that I want to serve the people and they say they are not interested in my service, then I should go and serve myself. So, those that broke away from the APC are being driven by their inordinate ambitions and they might not even get the tickets in the parties they have gone to. So, why couldn’t they stay in the APC and brace the storm.
There is the saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. In the APC today, there are more than 20 governorship aspirants, with the possibility of more still joining. How has the party been managing the number?
You said too many cooks spoil the broth, but that is when there are not many stoves and pots. When you have many pots and stoves, too many cooks will fulfill what we call the more the merrier in English. If I want to cook for a million people and I have 15 cooks and you are saying it is too many; I would even look for more. So, the number of APC aspirants to the exalted position of the governor of Oyo State is an indication of the acceptability of the party. This happened because of the excellent performance of the Governor Ajimobi government, because if the governor did not do well, no one will want to inherit a liability or burden of being seen as inheritor of a failed government. But because the governor has been able to record tremendous achievements, that is why people want to key in.
But I can assure you that all those in the race are aware that only one person will be chosen and those aspirants I see are not those with inordinate ambitions. They are the types that will readily support whoever is picked.
You are not looking at the post-primary crisis that may arise as a result of the high number of aspirants? How ready is the party to manage the crisis in the event that grievances arise after the primary?
If you don’t have primaries, you will have crisis; if you have primaries, you will have crisis, so if I may ask you, which one would you prefer? I would prefer that we have the primary so that those in the race would see how things are. And let me tell you that all those aspirants are quite aware of the constitution of the party; that we have three methods of electing party candidates. We can do it true the direct primary, which will involve every member of the party across the state. We can choose indirect primary, which will only involve delegates and we can choose the option of consensus, whereby the aspirants will convince the national leadership of the APC that they want a consensus. Whichever modality the party adopts is okay by the party in Oyo State.
Talking about post-primary crisis, I want to assure you that we will resolve any crisis that comes up. If we say there won’t be crisis, it means the aspirants are not serious, because if they are serious, some of them will be jolted if they fail to pick the ticket. But I can tell you that with the calibre of aspirants we have in the party, they will see it as a fait accompli if someone wins the ticket and those who do not win will support the winner. We are not trivialising that it would be easy, but with God on our side, we will resolve whatever issue comes up.
But a publication is being circulated about the criteria for Governor Ajimobi’s successor. Is it true that a certain individual has already been anointed to succeed the Oyo state governor?
That is not correct. No one has been anointed. If you have been following the trend, Governor Ajimobi, who is the leader of the APC in Oyo State, has said it at different gatherings that there is no anointed candidate. He has continued to reiterate it that all he wants is a successor who is god-fearing and would continue to implement the development blueprint of the state; someone who will follow the development master plan. It will interest you that this state had no master plan before the coming of Governor Ajimobi. But today we have urbanisation master plan and a lot of development efforts that cannot be completed in the life cycle of the present government are there. And this government is blessed in that if you look at the quality of the APC governorship aspirants, it is clear that you cannot get that in the other parties. The governor has said that there will be a level playing field but that he is proud of the quality of people in the race. And I am proud too, because if you listen to any of them, you will know there is no washout.
You said the party in Oyo State is ready for any modality adopted by the national leadership towards picking the governorship candidate. Have you learnt a lesson from the crisis that followed the direct primary exercise in Osun State where the outcome of the exercise polarised the party?
It is said that history is borne out the experiences acquired and I can tell you that the experiences acquired in Osun have guided us to know that we need an updated party register and you can see that the national leadership of the party has directed a fresh membership registration nationwide. It is necessary to have an updated APC register in Oyo State because the party has got new members in large numbers and a few who have left. Even those who have left might want to come in at the last minute to vote, but if they have deregistered themselves, we cannot accept such people to vote. So, anyone who comes in when we are updating the membership register is our member. What happened in Osun is a good test case for us and we will ensure that every APC member is registered and there won’t be any crisis.
and then