There is an agreement on second term for my executives —Olafeso, ex-S/West PDP chair

Dr Eddy  Olafeso, the immediate national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South-West, speaks on the ongoing power game in the party in the zone, challenges facing the country. Hakeem Gbadamosi brings some excepts:

 

There is a raging crisis in the South-West PDP; what do you think is the way forward.

You call it crisis, I call it competition but there must be decency. There are rules to this game. Democracy is about participation; it’s about people showing interest in one position or the other and democracy must has a long history and should be able to understand how our people can come together. For me, our desire is to work extra hard to make sure we bring unity into the South-West so that we can take our place of pride among the nations.

The early days of independence showed our strength, commitment and great leadership; that we have lost along the line and the reason being that we are no longer having quality men and women coming out to lead, who are desirous of serving the society and not themselves.

I can speak for myself; I have been there (zone executive) for two of the four years because we spent the first two in court; five courts during the Buruji Kashamu era, and I never showed any form of animousity or anger towards him because he was displaying his right under the law, to sue and be sued. But we survived that and we all became friends and we did the best we could. For me, it is not about abusing one another; that will not lead to a tangible development; I mean if what you do is to wake up every day to abuse one person or the other.

We must recognise leadership. So, I am getting into this to ensure that we bring ourselves back together again to win more states in the South-West and position ourselves for the 2023 general election, where we can displace the mediocre APC government across the land.

This is far more important than individual positions and for me, I have demonstrated that in my first tenure, and I would do so again and that’s exactly what I intend to do again. You would observe that by my own political practice, I don’t abuse people and when people abuse me, all I can feel for the person is sympathy because leadership is about bringing everybody together. You cannot do my own job for me; neither can I do yours for you. But, collective leadership; ability to rally one another is the only way the party can move forward in the South-West and that’s what we are going to commit ourselves to.

 

But the PDP in the South-West is divided into factions: the camp loyal to governor of Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde and the other to a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayo Fayose. Which group do you belong to?

For sure, ex-Governor Fayose supported me in my first tenure; he fought side by side with us. He stood for the party and did everything when there was nobody to fight for PDP. For the two years that we are in court, he never left our side and never took a decision one day that was for himself except for the development of the party.

When this position came and we had a meeting at the residence of the governor of Oyo State, and I told him I was going to contest for governorship of Ondo State and he said; ‘no problem; if you’re able to win, we will support you but if not, just come back and take your position because you have performed creditably well for the party in the two years you have served as the zonal chairman.’ And we left the place.

There was a committee set up really that insisted that the existing zonal structure should be left the way it is, so that we can return and complete our two-term tenure, bring stability and coherence into the zone. But suddenly, things started changing without carrying all of us along. Our constitution is clear as to the calling of caucus meetings and those that are supposed to attend such meetings.

But the governor decided to carefully select some people to attend and those of us that have constitutional rights to attend were left behind, that was the breaking point. You cannot take a decision on the position I am occupying without being in that meeting to say one or two things, no matter the circumstances having served for two years. And we have a better and superior knowledge of how to manage the zone much more than anybody else.

So, for me, I belong to the Ayodele Fayose group and we are looking as much as possible to ensuring a quick resolution between Governor Fayose and Governor Seyi Makinde so that the two can work together with other leaders and bring peace to the party in south west.

I want you to believe me that it’s not worth it for anybody to grandstand in politics because nobody wins alone. All of us must work together to attain success and the reason we failed before is the fact that there is so much division.

We must be careful of what we do and what we say so that we don’t fall in to the same trap again and the APC will come from behind and decapitate that opportunity for us. So for me,  Fayose remains our leader;  he’s my leader. You will recollect that  Fayose was a governor when Dr Olusegun  Agagu, of blessed memory, was the governor of Ondo State.

We were special advisers,  government people, serving the five PDP governors then: Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Gbenga Daniel, Adebayo Alao Akala, Olusegun Agagu and Ayodele Fayose. They were all our leaders, so Ayodele Fayose is my leader. I believe in him and I know he has the love of the party at heart and he fought while there was nobody there to stand and fight for the party.

 

Some people see Fayose working for the presidential ambition of Senator Bola Tinubu and so he is determined to hijack Ekiti PDP….

This is not possible. This man spoke on a television station recently that only somebody that has a mental problem or brain damage will work for person in another party How are you conjecturing what is on somebody’s mind that he has never mentioned by him and you continue to act on that? It is not possible.

You are saying that whatever Ayo Fayose says is what every leader in the South-west said. Let me tell you that we are all in the six states of the zone and we are in the majority in the six states including Oyo State, Oyo State is 50/50.

Our group in Lagos. Ogun,  Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states, we are cohesive and when we sit, we analyse things. We are not about working for anybody and if Fayose decides to work for APC many of us will walk away because that’s not the idea, the idea is to develop our party and we should not even be discussing something that does not exist. I can tell you that Fayose is not working for APC and I can say this openly a thousand times that all we are concern in a better government to run 2023 in Nigeria.

The country is dead, so what exactly will be the motive behind it to support APC one more time, to do what?  What do think will change under any leadership from APC?  None.

 

Why did your group reject the reconciliation committee headed by former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola?

It has to be rejected because it was the friends of Governor Seyi Makinde that actually put together that committee, not the South-West caucus. That is the reason we are not there when the decision was taken. Oyinlola is my brother, a leader. We respect him as an individual but by taking that position, it is like he has taken sides in a situation where he should have been the godfather that will settle the matter. So, as far as we are concerned, we thank God that the National Working Committee (NWC) set up a reconciliation committee under Senator Bukola Saraki, a former  president of the Senate and we are relating with that the committee. We have  been to Abuja to speak with them and they are happy we are seeking peace. We are interested in peace, despite the blackmail; despite all the lies and untrue things that they put in place here. Our party is diminishing in Ondo State; we must do something to bring everybody together so that we can have a bigger opportunity and platform that every one of us can work together to unseat the APC government.

 

But the party in Ondo State is not supporting you?

No, the Ondo State PDP is supporting me. By the time the congress comes, you will know if truly I am in the majority in Ondo State or not. There are going to be about 110 votes; if 15 people are not supporting me, that is their business and it is democracy. We have not even gone for the congress, so you don’t know who is supporting me or not. With their body language , they appear to be working for another candidate out there from Oyo State that I am yet to take mental note of in this matter. But the truth is that we are doing very well in all the six states of the zone and we are very hopeful that we will succeed; and succeeding means unity and commitment to party growth, commitment to the dictates of the constitution: chasing away arbitrariness and absurdities. We are very sure that in a very short while, we can bring about a very strong, formidable and virile party in the South West.

 

Why do you think the Adams-led PDP leadership in Ondo State is not supporting you?

I was the last but one national vice chairman; I am from Ondo State. In the same meeting that was called in Oyo State, Adams that is supposed to be our leader from Ondo State, that is supposed to have defended the position that well, that we still have somebody here who has the constitutional right to run for second term, brought home an ex-officio and organising secretary, while they zoned my position to Oyo State, where there is a sitting governor. And they took even the woman leader from Ogun State and all of them in Oyo State.

In a very small federal constituency; the governor gathered everything in the South-West and put them in his home base of Ibadan-East and Ibadan-West. Everybody feels that this is not just right, and when they came back, that is the beginning of our disagreement with them.

While they have a right to take a decision on who they want to support, we too have the right to pursue our dreams within the confines of the constitution and say we have the right to run for second term; and we are going to. Let me appreciate everybody from Lagos to Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states for their support. We have a massive support behind us and we are very confident we are going to win the election.

 

Are you not scared of another factional congress?

It cannot happen because the constitution stipulates that the National Working Committee (NWC) is in charge of all congresses: both local government and states, as well as zonal and national conventions. It is where the NWC sends its committee to conduct the congress that is the authentic one. So, if you take anything that is not authenticated by the NWC, you are wasting your time and nothing can happen out of that.

Our desire is to make sure that it is peaceful because our ambition is not worthy of the blood of anybody;  the fact that they have over-militarised our processes. You were there when we were doing the governorship primaries in July last year in Ondo State and how much violence they visited on even some of us, the aspirants at that time. The vehicle of the then state deputy governor, Agboola Ajayi’ was destroyed; Dr. Bode Ayorinde’s vehicle was shattered; many of us were bludgeoned; a former House of Assembly member from Ose, her home was ransacked. How can that be possible? That is the reason some of us said no, let us go to a neutral ground; if you know you have the support, bring all your men.

The last one was in Ondo Stat; the other one was in Osun, there were some we did in Abuja. So, it is not a big issue; we all should be able to take a decision on where we are all going to be comfortable. As at today, four state chairmen, seven out of 12 zonal caretaker committee members have decided that Ibadan would be too violent for our congress and that we must find a neutral ground where people can vote peacefully for whom they want. We are not enemies and we must recognise that. Something came to my attention and it was a sloppy talk from Taofik Arapaja. Quite frankly, if that is about the competition, then, lack of content is probably what to blame because if he has content to his campaign, he would not be focusing on an individual. I heard a very sad statement credited to him that he doesn’t know Eddy Olafeso.

He wouldn’t know me because he wasn’t there when we were in the struggle to make Oyo State PDP: he had already migrated. He is known to constantly migrate. And if you want to know Arapaja, please ask from former Governor, Alao Akala; ask from Baba Rashid Ladoja; my own leader; and ask from every other person he has really worked for in the past. And I pray Governor Makinde will not equally regret bringing him up to come and compete with me in this zonal congress. For me, there is no bitterness of any sort; Governor Makinde will still be my brother from now till eternity, we have absolute respect for each other. But we must not blackmail one another. My life has been lived; I was commissioner for information and strategy in Ondo State.

I have worked with all my colleagues from the NWC to the zonal and the entire country.  I want to advise him to pay attention to wanting to lead a people, wanting to lead the South-West PDP: it is not an easy task. It is meant for a very cerebral and highly dedicated member. I relate with Governor Seyi Makinde and equally relate with  Ayodele Fayose; I relate with former Governor Oyinlola because they are leaders and during elections, you will be in your own state while others are watching for you in your own state.  You can disagree on the basis of method and approach but not abusing one another.

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