Why we used Option A4 for our primaries — Ekiti PDP chairman

Ekiti State is gearing up for local government elections next month. Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Chief Gboyega Oguntuwase, in this interview with Sam Nwaoko, speaks on the coming polls and sundry issues about his party. Excerpts:

Local government elections are to take place in Ekiti State in about three weeks and there seems to be a lull in activities. What’s happening in your party as regards preparations for the polls?

We are not just preparing for this election. We’ve started preparations for elections the day Chief Peter Ayodele Fayose was sworn in as the governor of Ekiti State. We knew we would be facing elections, including governorship election in 2018 and now, presidential election in 2019. Thus, we decided that our preparations would be ruled by our performance. We are a party that sells performance, we are a party that sells our activities that have been alleviating the suffering of the masses. We are a party that has been trying as much as possible to reduce the harshness and the heavy burden which would have been brought upon Ekiti people by the invasion on our purse by the past All Progressives Congress (APC) government under the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. We are preparing for election by embarking on a lot of infrastructural development. For instance, when you look at all the local governments in Ekiti State, works are going in dualising all the major streets in the council headquarters. You will also not just see a new face of Ado Ekiti, but you will see a state capital that can compare favourably with any state capital in Yorubaland and in the country as a whole. You look at the flyover, the dualised Ado Ikere road and other numerous projects that have been going on, are all geared towards selling and endearing our party in the heart of Ekiti people.

Is it all about your party, what other things can you point at as a ground for your acceptance?

There are several other areas which must also be in our consciousness. For instance, look at the area of peace in the state. The police authorities recently reckoned with Ekiti as about the most peaceful state in Nigeria. In Ekiti State, we thank God that there has not been any instance of political violence or murder. We are setting the records so that even the opposition can thrive so long as they do everything according to the dictates of the law. We are making sure that Ekiti is a peaceful place for both the ruling party and the opposition in Ekiti.

Your party went by way of Option A4, made popular by Professor Humphrey Nwosu, to select your candidates for the council polls. How has this impacted on your outlook to the coming election? What’s its overall impact on PDP as a corporate body?

Option A4, if not sabotaged as we have not sabotaged it in our own case, will give you a clear reflection of the popularity of the candidates that emerged across the 16 local governments. All the participants would know that they were given a fair opportunity, a level playing ground and that their votes had not been manipulated. What gets politicians angry is when they are not sure that there would be level playing ground; when they are not sure that results will not be manipulated. But when everybody would be on the line in queue behind the person you support, at the end of the voting nobody would be offended, nobody would feel cheated, nobody would say they have not been given a fair chance to contest. Again, it will clearly show those who are popular at the roots. When you look at the 177 councillors in the state, before you can emerge, you must clearly be popular among your people. This is one area PDP as a party doesn’t want to joke with. We want to build a broad-based party that has serious attachment to people at the roots. And we believe one of the best ways to do this is by employing Option A4 so that the most popular aspirant will emerge as the candidate of the party.

Looking into the grey areas as a party as the chairman, what are those grey areas you feel your party has not completely done as well as you would want, in the state? In what areas do you think your party should do more work?

There is no flawless political machinery. There is no way that you will not know that one way or the other, if you did this or that, it could have been better. But we have been able to comply, with reasonable standard, to a very large extent and that alone gladdens me as party chairman since we have not disallowed anybody who wants to contest from freely contesting. Knowing that the system is absolutely transparent and that the result of the election is truly representative of what the majority wants. That is why the majority of people that had lost congratulated those that won the election because it was free and fair. As far as I am concerned, we are saying that what was available at the local government election will also be available at the governorship election. We’ve been telling people that we are ready for a primary election. We are telling people that instead of politicising unnecessarily the decisions of some people within the party, you go to the field and work hard because the forms are available and would be made available to whoever that wants to be a governor in Ekiti State. Go and work. Make yourself a very relevant party person. Make yourself a person that even the party can vouch for. Make yourself a person that has discipline, not a person who, at the sight of any grievance, would want to wreck your party. As far as we are concerned, we have been telling people that what would qualify you to be a governorship candidate is how the party sees you. There are people who have not been to the party secretariat for three years and they are saying they want to be governor of Ekiti State. The party secretariat is undergoing reconstruction while work is going on at the new secretariat; there are people who have not brought a single block or a bag of cement to add to what we have. Are such people genuine PDP members? Are they serious PDP members? They should ask themselves what has been their contribution to the party and the party secretariat. We are not talking about people who because of mad ambition would want to be distributing sweets, distributing rice and distributing gown. We are talking about genuine party men who know there’s responsibility to the party and who know that building a party is a task that must be done and who genuinely want to be governor of Ekiti State and who know that two people cannot be governor at the same time and who will imbibe the sure discipline that whoever emerges as the candidate of the party they all must support. That’s the kind of person we want. Meanwhile, we are still telling all of them to go and work instead of abusing co-party members or the governor. Campaign round the 16 local governments, campaign round the leaders, campaign round those who like you, campaign round those who say they don’t like you. In the course of your campaign they may change their mind. But don’t be a weak politician who, at the sight of a mass crowd, would become daunted and doubt what you can do and what God can do for you.

The national convention of your party is coming up in a few weeks. What are the prospects of this convention for your party, looking at the bigger picture? What do you foresee for PDP?

This is not the first convention that the caretaker committee would organise. Recently, we organised a non-elective convention. It was peaceful and it shows that PDP still has strength all over Nigeria. Across the length and breadth of Nigeria, you could still notice the great PDP. This time we are going for an elective convention this time and I believe that the reflection of the convention will be the true position of our party men across the country. it will be a reflection of how the PDP feels towards the maladministration of APC. It would be a reflection of our frustrations, living under a decadent rulership of APC. It will be a reflection of a PDP that wants to carry out a revolutionary change, not a change of words, but a change for better. So, the convention will surely produce men and women who would be desirous of putting into life the real desire of PDP to regain power and to bring to being the ingenuity of the administrators in PDP in the affairs of Nigeria.