Buhari doomed in APC –Ajao, PDP chieftain Our Reporter November 23, 2013 2 Comments » ■Aregbesola not performing Prince Bola Ajao is Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State. He was also chairman of Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state. In this interview with BAMIGBOLA GBOLAGUNTE, he gave an assessment of the Rauf Aregbesola led administration in the state and concluded that former Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate in 2011 general election, General Muhammadu Buhari is doomed in All Progressive Congress (APC). Excerpts: What is your assessment of the present administration in Osun State since 2010? The Osun people in their hours of need around year 2010 needed a leader, they got one in Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, but they did not ask for his credentials. He started running the affairs of the State of the Living Spring like a sole administrator, against the spirit, letters and mandatory provisions of the constitution. For about 10 months, Aregbesola did not appoint state commissioners. This was not until PDP had to propose a list of state commissioners. Part of the plethora of serial breaches of the constitution he swore to on oath to defend and protect are- non- presentation of year 2013 budget to the state House of Assembly in the preceding year as demanded by the constitution, importation and imposition of personnel from other states on Osun people. There was a spirited effort to impose a Lagos judge as Chief Judge in Osun State, non-conduct of local government election, dissipation of meager Osun State resources on frivolities, such as hiring of helicopters, serial launching of the so-called Opon- imo in Lagos, America, Ilesha, etc as if it were a one stop shop solution to the myriad of obstacles confronting our educational system, running of hotel bills in Lagos and other parts of the country. He takes security vote every month and spent so much of scarce state resources to fund burial of Ilesha citizens such as the late Justice Kayode Esho and the late Papa Obadare, etc. He has demolished people’s properties without concomitant arrangement to assuage their anguish and pain; even the few shops left are being locked with government padlock every Thursday. Do you see the All Progressives Congress as a threat to the PDP in Osun State? The greatest inspiration and strength lies in the formation of the PDP. It was conceived and delivered by the best and brightest socio-political brains across the nation. It was well thought-out. It is well structured. Its membership traverses all the remotest nooks and crannies across the land. PDP’s watchword is fair play while its prime objective remains the common good. On the other hand, APC is a contraption. It is hurriedly put together unfortunately by archenemies. If these so-called leaders of the APC in the South- west are true disciples of Awo as they often claim; then they must be asked is it not the same Buhari that ordered the conduct of an illegal search on Awo. This was intended to frame up Awo and portray him a common felon in order to cow and tame his larger than life political influence particularly in the South-west Nigeria. Buhari has forgotten that the evil that men do lives after them according to William Shakespeare. You wait till the inherent discontent embedded in the so- called party play out and see that APC is dead on arrival. In the Southwest, the socio-political grandmasters –Afenifere are spoiling for war. They are itching to take their pound of flesh. The Afenifere group was the mastermind of AD from which Tinubu and his co-travellers benefited maximally by apportioning to themselves a huge portion of the seductive perquisites of power. It was this same AD that was dismembered by these latter day progressives using the Ige\Falae presidential imbroglio as the bait. It was this break away that led to the formation of ACD, AC, ACN and now APC. They have ditched and decked Afenifere into a seeming political irrelevance. Not to worry, Afenifere came out smoking in the Ondo 2012 guber election. If APC is good enough for the South-west you will not be seeing the resuscitation of UPN, SDP etc. Buhari on the other hand has no escape route in the hands of those same forces that sent him packing from ANPP. They are both domiciled in the new found APC. These people currently holding a larger chunk of the South-west by the jugular are neither progressives nor democrats. They are indeed political adventurers and vile capitalists. At the appointed time we shall meet in the trenches. As for Abere 2014, it is PDP for sure. How prepared is the PDP for the next gubernatorial election and what efforts is the party making to ensure that the best candidate emerge? We are prepared. As politicians, the next election is the next port of call. We are getting our acts right, we are putting our house in order and we are strategizing purposefully. Typical of this was the all aspirants meeting with the party executives on August 12, 2013 at the state party secretariat. As for the best candidate emerging, there are various angles to this viz- in the Holy Quran and in the Holy Bible, Almighty God does not choose the perfect, He perfects the chosen. Also, in as much as the candidate election cannot be predetermined, it is by majority rule as required by the provisions of our party’s constitution and the electoral act. The major duty on the part of the leadership is to offer all the aspirants a level playing field, with transparency, credibility, due process and fair play as the core value. Whoever emerges with this template is the best candidate of the party. Already we have an array of tested and trusted political gladiators as gubernatorial contenders. But for deference to age, seniority in party matters and above all and most important party supremacy; Otunba Omisore would have been governor in 1999 on AD platform. He remains a top-flight player in corporate Nigeria, a former deputy governor, a former chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation. I kept asking where was Ogbeni and his benefactor in the annals of Osun vocabulary when Alhaji Akinbade and his fellow compatriots were the compass for traversing the political road map of Osun. As a former Secretary to Osun State Government, he remains very potent. This is to mention but a few. Is it true that some members of the party have gone to court to challenge the party on the return of the money paid by some governorship aspirants in 2010? I think this is speculative. In any event, the current working committee of the party under the able leadership of Alhaji Gani OlaOluwa has not collected a dime as nomination fee from any aspirant either in the past or present. Therefore, the issue of suing the current state executive is not justifiable. The APC appears to be gaining attention of the masses by the day; will this not affect the chances of the PDP in next year’s election? This current regime in Osun has overstayed its welcome. If in some reckoning this government is gaining attention of the masses, it is certainly not for the good reason. Is it logical for a government that has wantonly, recklessly, viciously and maliciously demolished peoples properties and deprived them of their source of happiness to be gaining their positive attention, several thousands of houses of hapless and unprotected citizens have been marked for further demolition across nine major towns in Osun State, can this attract positive attention; is a government that is accumulating loads and loads of debt burden only for generations even yet unborn to grapple with the payment be remembered for good reason; is it possible for a government that has blatantly refused and neglected to pay workers their minimum wage be gaining attention for positive effect among workers. The Osun State people will demolish Aregbesola’s APC with their votes just like he had demolished their properties with reckless abandon in 2014. With the transformation in the state, do you think PDP can wrest power from the incumbent governor? What transformation? I beg to disagree; nothing has been transformed in Osun State in the last three years. This is typical of the crude propaganda we are being inundated with on a daily basis here. Is it the school system that has been transformed, and from what to what, tell me anywhere in Osun State, where any of their mega schools is in operation. Where is the transformation in the health sector? Is it in the area of employment? Is it the unfortunate O- YES scheme, which is not the pride of an average family in Osun that is the transformation? Whereas under the reign of PDP in Osun, a branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria was brought to Osun State. Osun State University (UNIOSUN) was established with campuses in all the six administrative zones of the state, NTA Osogbo was established, Gold fm 95.5 Ilesha was established, a division of the Federal High Court was established and constructed here in Osogbo, federal secretariat is ongoing in Osogbo, this is not to mention a legion of empowerment programmes for the peasants, artisans, petty traders etc such as NURTW, RTEAN, okada riders, express operators, ACCOMORAN, patent medicine sellers, meat sellers, etc. Some PDP governors in the north appear to be at loggerheads with both President Jonathan and the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, will this not spell doom for the party in the next general elections? This is a family matter and it is being sorted out the family way. The PDP has a chequered tradition of resolving this type of in-house squabbles. This is vintage democracy and internal democracy at play. In a large political household like ours, there are bound to be contending interests and forces; and in the overall best practice of party supremacy, the party shall overcome. There is no doom lurking around any corner for PDP.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 06:24:09 +0000
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