Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu, a two time member of the House of Representatives, is a governorship aspirant in the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He speaks to DARE ADEKANMBI of the crisis in the party, the chances of the PDP in 2023, among other issues.
It was reported that a peace committee in your party, the PDP, traced the current crisis in the party to the friction between Governor Nyesom Wike and Uche Secondus. Why do you think the falcon and the falconer have suddenly become political adversaries?
To God be the glory, PDP is waxing strong. When I hear the kind of description as you have given in your question, my mind is boggled. Who is the falcon and who is the falconer? This is a hunting analogy, an analogy of a prey-predator thing. It is not a prey-predator relationship that exists between the two of them. That is not what we have in the PDP. What we have in the party now is a simple friction of political interests. And where interests and aspirations differ, people pursue them in diverse ways. Sometimes, some show more decorum than others. But in the long run, it is about interest and not a do-or-die thing and certainly not a falcon-falconer thing as you have painted it.
The truth of the matter is that this is PDP, a party that has existed with decorum over time. I am happy to say we have been able to build the party into an institution with a methodology of resolving differences and we have been able to become a cohesive and truly national party. In PDP, we have a rainbow of ideas, concepts and that is why we are the foremost party in the country. We are a truly Nigerian party. Yes, there are differences of interests and aspirations. These differences are currently being addressed.
So, you are not bothered that the current crisis in the party can tear it apart?
Please and please do not use the word ‘crisis’ to describe what is happening in the PDP. This horrible description is painful. What crisis? We have a difference of opinion and as of today, it is not a crisis. It is in the ruling APC that there is crisis. It is in APC that they have a crisis of confidence, a crisis of governance. But in the PDP, we have an institution that is enduring and that has all its organs in place. That is PDP, a party that is capable of governance. When we had differences, one of the organs of the party, the Board of Trustees, stepped in and resolved the differences. That is why we are able to go forward. The institution of the BoT does not exist in APC and that is why they have a crisis. Today, a court has pronounced Buni’s leadership of the party as illegal. So, in APC, they don’t have the institutions that can step in to help the party.
PDP has endured because we have all the organs in place and they are functional. When we had differences, we were able to resolve them. But when you have differences that you are unable to resolve like they do in APC, that is when you have a crisis. In PDP, we are going forward. We shall have our Convention at the end of October.
You have tried to give a distinction between your party and the governing APC. But to the ordinary folks on the streets, there is no difference between the two parties. It is six and half a dozen.
There is a world of difference between our party, PDP and the APC. In the culture of the PDP, we have national spread and a culture of total national participation. We believe in federal distribution of assets and liabilities. We are a party with a federal outlook. We do not concentrate all interests and efforts in Daura as we have now. We do not concentrate all efforts and thinking in one clan or tribe because PDP is a Nigerian party. But APC, by design and nature, is clannish. It belongs to one family or one group.
17 Southern governors met in Lagos and demanded that the next president should be from the South. From all indications, it does not appear like the PDP wants to pick a Southern candidate. All who are jostling to replace Secondus as national chair of the party are from the South…
Can I ask you one question?
Go ahead, sir
If Club A sets rules guiding it, can those rules be imposed on Club B? If the governors gathered together and came to the conclusion that this is what they want, should that be binding on PDP? Club B will make a decision on what is best for it. God willing, we will arrive at what is best for us. We will go through the process of zoning. If it is in our interest to zone it to the South, we shall zone it to the South. If it is in our interest to zone it to the North, we shall do so. Irrespective of what APC has done, we shall act in the interest of Nigeria and I am sure we shall do the best for the country.
Talking about PDP in Ogun State, who controls the structure of the party in the state…[cuts in]
The people own the structure in Ogun State. We are all united. There is no victor, no vanquished. We are one, united family. There are not groups in the state anymore. We are one PDP.
We know you wanted to be governor in 2019. Are you still eyeing that position in 2023?
You know I have not stopped running. I told you that service is my heritage. I have been running over the last seven years or thereabouts. I will not stop putting up myself for service to the people. I joined politics in 1991. I went to the National Assembly for the first time in 1992 and for the second time in 2015 to 2019. I have participated in every election since then and I shall not stop participating and putting myself up for service. Until my strength cannot carry it anymore, I shall continue to be a servant of the people till the end of my days.
Do you think PDP is strong enough to upstage the ruling APC. People talk about APC being the fold of big politicians like former governors Gbenga Daniel, Ibikunle Amosun, Olusegun Osoba, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka and others. Who are those actors in the PDP that you think can make for a balance of power in favour of PDP?
The electorate of Ogun State, one million people who are seriously pulverised by poverty, traumatised by insecurity, are with us in the PDP in Ogun State today. You can compare this potent army to a dozen of leadership properly known as people associated with bad governance, a class of people of bad, failed, discredited governance. Last month, we published an advertorial about the local government councils in the state who have got over N64billion in two years as a national allocation and that money was squandered away and Ogun State has nothing to show for that money. At the appropriate time, we shall legally ask them to account for that money. We will call for a proper auditing. I am afraid to tell you that the feeler we are getting as of now is that we will see a lot of startling revelations coming to the fore. This is a pattern that you will see over several years.
The dailies, over the last few days, are awash with stories of aides of the governor who are under serious scrutiny of the EFCC. There has been a court order of forfeiture of property and freezing of accounts belonging to aides of the governor. At the appropriate time when the unmasking begins, we will begin to enumerate how much work has Ladi Adebutu done and how much has Ladi Adebutu earned such that his finances have improved, that his debt of N10billion has suddenly disappeared? What oil well has Ladi Adebutu run into, what windfall has Ladi acquired that his personal finances are now rosy? At the appropriate time, we shall address all these. We are not in a rush, but we like to observe the Latin phrase festina lente-make haste slowly. We are in the opposition and we do not intend to burn ourselves out. The dossier is full.
Why is it that the only interest of this government in Ogun State is to be preoccupied with federal roads? All the state roads are begging for attention. Why is it that the federal roads the governor is bothered about? Is it that in repairing the federal road, there is a mechanism that provides some undue advantage of benefit? Why is it that the same money we expend on federal roads can’t be spent on state roads? Why do you want to dress up somebody else without clothing yourself first? I would have thought it would be very interesting if we make state roads and fix access roads to our rural areas and township roads so our farmers can bring farm produce to the markets and we retool the economy of our rural people and enterprise in our state? I was chairman, House Committee on rural development and I know those rural roads are the major supply lines connecting small villages to small towns. Not to talk of the large cities where the majority of Ogun State indigenes and residents are living. Those ones have been abandoned.
The governor of the state is your kinsman from Iperu Remo. Why did you go to him to tell him your observations…
We are not only both from Iperu, we are both from Etiobale in Iperu and his father was a member of the same club as my father. But that does not change the fact that the truth must be told.
If you are so confident about PDP in Ogun, I am sure you won’t express the same optimism at the national level where PDP governors are even defecting to join the APC ahead of the crucial 2023 elections.
Our governors, after their defection, were not able to carry the PDP members along with them to APC. What does that say? In my view, such governors must have acted on self interest or maybe because they want soft landing or because they don’t want to face the EFCC. You have to take into account these factors. If a person leaves PDP truly because he believes in an ideology, he will go with his cabinet members and the structure of the party in his state. If that happens, I will say we are missing a big politician. But when a person leaves the PDP and the people say good riddance to bad rubbish, it means we won’t miss the person. The day one of these governors defected, his vacuum was immediately filled and there are about 10 people jostling to replace him. Then, that is good riddance to bad rubbish.
We have how many months to elections now, about 18 months? Even 18 days in politics is a long time. Up till 18 days to the 2015 presidential election, Dr Goodluck Jonathan thought he had a party. Even we thought we had a national chairman in PDP. But the events that unfolded afterwards showed us that we could not say unequivocally that the party was intact, 18 days to that election. At the end of the day, people that we supposed were of the PDP extraction from the Northern part of the country went and voted for Muhammadu Buhari, the APC candidate. When the sword of Damocles moves away from the neck of some of those APC governors and they don’t have the fear of the EFCC again or the fear of Buhari, then you will see what happens. I can assure you that the next president of Nigeria in 2023 will emerge from the PDP.
For people like us, maybe it is easier to talk because I am not a government appointee and I don’t take contracts or any powers of approval. Every day when they ask my bank managers to provide them with the details on my account, my bank managers continue to provide them with details and necessary information on my accounts and there is nothing to be seen. In fact, there is no surplus. I am a farmer. I live from hand to mouth. Not many people can live this kind of live. Often, people are constrained by the kind of live they live and because of that, they are afraid.
Are you optimistic PDP will give a good showing at the presidential election in 2023?
What are you talking about? PDP is the party to beat. There is only one party left and it is PDP. APC was a contraption coupled together around Buhari for the purpose of just getting Jonathan out of office. It has served its purpose. End of story. So, Nigeria will move on with PDP.
As a billionaire son of a billionaire, is your driving force the fact that you must surpass your father whose shoes are very big…
Why do you want the EFCC to come after me? Who told you I am a billionaire. I am a poor farmer. I ranch cattle. I have a pig farm, a citrus farm and I manage my life. I do some real estate. I am building a processing plant to put value to the animals I have ranched. I get by, that’s all.
Given all these things that you do outside of politics, how do you find the time to relax?
Working hard is relaxation, isn’t it? You must enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy what you do, then what is the basis of life? To enjoy what you do is the best relaxation. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy service to the people, working hard. The few hours I get, I use the time to do recreation. I savour it and then I spend whatever is left for the service of God. I do praise and worship to thank God.
You are one politician that has never left the PDP for any other party since the beginning of the Fourth Republic. You have only been to the House of Representatives once since 1999, though you were in the National Assembly in the aborted Third Republic. People say you are pumping much money into politics from which you are not making so much…
Point of correction, what do you mean pumping in money? By your question, you gave the impression I have surplus money. I told you, don’t get me into trouble. I am managing myself. I just do my bit as a good Nigerian. I do it because I believe we have to sustain the system and we just have to do well for our nation. If we don’t make an effort to sustain democracy, you will surprised the system will fall into the hands of charlatans only. Can you imagine the structure of the opposition party, PDP, today falling into the hands of hoodlums and garage boys for instance? What does the Yoruba race stand for, a race known for education, ideology and a people known for trade, commerce and heritage? The party could have just been surrendered to touts and motor boys. It is not that I am trying to criticize the APC which is a party that has gone that way if you look at the party form Lagos State. It has become a culture in that party. The APC in Lagos is run my motor park guys. This means you don’t need to go to school or be educated to be a party leader in that state? All people need to do is go through the motor parks and then rise to become party chieftains. If people of pedigree, good schooling, of culture don’t participate in politics and we keep on saying politics is dirty and just walk away or go and hide our faces, then the dirty people will take over and make laws over us and then we will continue to obey them and pay obeisance to them and even pay ransom to them.
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