The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State, Sikirulai Ogundele, speaks to OLUFEMI ADEDIRAN about the crisis within the party, and the efforts of the party towards bringing aggrieved former members, including former governors, Gbenga Daniel and Ibikunle Amosun, back to the party
Why is the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State embarking on the registration of new members and revalidation of old members?
Procedurally, this is a very sensitive time when party positions are going to be contested and the party executives will emerge. This has its procedure, and the procedure is one; to show intention; two, to purchase form; three, to be screened and congress will take place. The congress is an elective congress whereby people will be voted for, and positions have been zoned to various places for fairness and justice.
We are going to be fair and open. This is just the foundation of any party structure and if you mess it up, it is really going to bounce back on the party, and it will negatively draw that party backward. One has just got to put round pegs in round holes. We are going to have ward congress, local government congress, and the state congress before we have the party’s national convention.
As I promised when I emerged as the chairman of the party, ours is an all-inclusive administration, and to God be the glory, to some extent, I have achieved this. I have successfully brought in some of those people who broke away from the party due to poor management of information. Politically, we have got to disagree to agree, and when this disagreement is being poorly managed, it leads to people breaking out of the party. It happened in the PDP; misconceptions and misplacement of judgment pushed many people out of the party, and that badly affected us, and one of the reasons why we have had a record of losses at the polls.
It started in 2015 when two governorship candidates emerged from the PDP, and at the end of the day, Gboyega Isiaka broke into the Peoples Party of Nigeria, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole also broke out from the party to the Action Democratic Party, and late Brg. Gen. (Tunji) Olurin remained in the PDP and carried the mandate of the party to the polls.
They all contested that governorship election from different political parties, and they shared the supposed solid votes of the PDP in four or five places. We lost from there, and it has been serial like that. Since then, we have not been able to get it right as a party. Considering the hardship Nigerians are going through, we are looking forward to having a very successful outing in 2027.
Some members of the party are expressing the fear that the crisis may break up the PDP in the state after the forthcoming congress. Do you agree with this?
There are 39 positions at the state level to be shared into senatorial districts, and we have applied fairness, justice, and equity. If truly we have a genuine intention to run an all-inclusive party administration, these positions must be fairly and equally shared. We must apply a sense of justice to it. So, there is a political arrangement that has been taking place before the election. We have applied all measures that will lead to a crisis-free congress. We are talking to our people to get them convinced about why we must not go into any row at the polls. These are just party positions, and we are still going to have elective positions, and we cannot afford to be in disarray before the coming election, we must be united.
The PDP we have today is a party that reflects on all groups in the party. Those people who have broken away from the party have been called back, they got convinced about why we must be in the same party; they are all tired of having NGO political parties. NGO political parties are parties that cannot even win an election.
So, all these positions will be internally shared to have a reflection of all faces, and all groups. Call it reform, call restructuring, you are right. We have harmoniously shared the positions, and we are all going to go to the venue of the congress and just rectify our decision. We have talked to our members; some voluntarily stepped down for the anointed ones.
Are you making moves to bring back former leaders of the party and other aggrieved members back into the party?
We started this move four years ago, and I can tell you that this is reflected in the result of the last election. Some leaders are in a political party, and they have followers, but our concern is to target the followers. So, we have been able to get a large number of all these followers to our party, and we are still working on their principals. So, in the shortest time, we are going to get their leaders back into the party, and we have got some of their followers convinced of why we must be together, and they have all agreed.
We got the former governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement, Adekunle Akinlade, from Amosun’s camp; we have got followers of some of the former governors, including Gbenga Daniel. So, at the appropriate time, they will talk to their principals, and they will yield. We are talking to them. Many people complained due to the leadership rascality on the part of the previous leadership of the party, and this pushed them out of the party. We are working on all these things, and at the appropriate time, they are all going to come back to the party.
The former deputy governorship candidate of the party, Adekunle Akinlade, and others have accused the leadership of the party of preventing them from participating in the ongoing membership registration and revalidation. What is your response to this allegation?
They felt aggrieved and they raised the alarm, and promptly, the party structure in Ogun State responded, and took their complaints to the appropriate quarters which is the national, and the national headquarters responded to their plight. Based on these agitations and complaints, other national bodies of the party extended the closing date of the registration and revalidation exercise by one month, giving room for those who were being disenfranchised to be part of the exercise.
How on earth can you say Jimi Lawal, who bought form from Abuja, and registered as a member of the PDP in Ijebu, is not a member of the political party? Some of all these shenanigans have got to stop. We have been invited to Abuja and the National Working Committee of the party has warned those that are being found guilty of the complaints. So, an extension was approved, and this led to a change in all the dates of the congresses. That is to tell you that the PDP has got a listening ear.
Some people think that the power tussle among blocs to claim structure and control of the party may lead to the breakup of the party. What is your view about this?
Politically, grouping or faction as you layman put it is allowed. There is freedom to associate; you have the right to associate with your like minds, and you also have the right not to. That is the beauty of democracy, but the party, as I’m speaking to you now is under my leadership as the chairman. Ladi Adebutu was a governorship candidate, and he lost that election, and the party must get back to the hand of the chairman. Whoever is brewing trouble over sole leadership of the party, the time has come for such a person to rethink. This has been one of the reasons we have a record of losses at the polls.
We have gone back to the drawing board, and we have identified that when the party is being seen or perceived as being in the pocket of one person, people will not come and join it. As I said a few months ago, the party that I want to run now must be an independent PDP. There won’t be any attachment of any personality to the party. That is only when people will freely come and join the party and exercise their franchise. That is when they can run for internal party positions and general elections. So, when you give the impression of independence of a political party as it’s supposed to be when people are convinced that this party is independent of its activities, they will come and join; they will come and invest in the development of the party, but when the party is being perceived or being seen to be in the pocket of one Mr A or Mr B, the party will not grow.
Has PDP learnt from its mistakes?
We are supposed to have learned from our mistakes, but we cannot have 100 per cent achievement politically. Since we are not all from the same family background, we are not bound to behave the same way. So, we are still going to have bad eggs in the party. While the good ones are moving the party forward, the bad ones will be drawing it backward. This is normal and political.
Recently, you accused the governorship candidate of the party in the 2023 election, Ladi Adebutu, of being responsible for the party’s woeful performance at the polls. What informed this position?
In the last election, even a madman would know that denying former governor Gbenga Daniel the party’s Senate ticket would spell doom for the party. Daniel was criminally denied running on the platform of the PDP and the ticket was given to just an ordinary person. We would have had five House of Reps members today; Daniel would have won on the platform of the PDP with the House of Reps members. The personality of Daniel would have been reflected in the other senatorial districts.
But somebody somewhere decided to be so highhanded despite all the pleas of the presidential candidate who came to Ogun State twice to beg, persuade, and solicit for having Daniel on the ballot alongside him, because the election was held the same day, and that would have reflected in his election too. He came to Ogun State two times to beg, (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo also intervened. So, if somebody truly wanted to be governor, all the arrangements that would have made things easier for that person to win should have been embraced, but he is not destined.
Is the party planning to zone its governorship ticket to Ogun West Senatorial District since it is the only zone yet to produce a governor in the state?
This issue is too sensitive for me to dabble into. I have reacted to the issue on an occasion, and I was misjudged, and the statement was misplaced. The PDP has been so magnanimous with the Yewa; on two different occasions, we have given our tickets to the Yewa people. In the PPN, the two candidates that emerged directly or indirectly from the PDP were the Yewa people – Late gen Adetunji Olurin and Gboyega Isiaka. In 2019, we supported Adekunle Akinlade as Yewa bonafide son. If I go down memory lane, telling you the history of Baba Afolabi Olabimtan of those days, Chief Soji Odunjo of those days, you will agree with me that there is a problem with Yewa people, and I don’t want to dabble into it now, because in my party, we are just trying to get things together, and I don’t want to discourage anybody.
Zoning is not constitutional; we only have zoning arrangements for political-administrative convenience, fair sharing, justice, and equity. Zoning is not constitutional, but we must just do the right thing. The party’s governorship candidate can come from any part of Ogun State; it is too early for me now to preempt what is going to happen, but politically, a candidate will emerge, and the best candidate will emerge from our party, a direct son of Ogun indigene will emerge from our party.
What is your assessment of the APC administrations at both state and federal levels?
The Bible says that we should not judge, and anybody who does not want to be judged should not judge. My observations have always been soldier go; soldier come. This is (President Bola) Tinubu’s time; this is Dapo Abiodun’s time. We have made noise for years, and our noise has never been reflected in anything. So, why must I continue to make noise of no significant value? Nigerians should just continue to pray for God’s guidance for Tinubu and for him to be able to lead us well.
Nigerians voted for him, Nigerians got what they voted for; they got what they are suffering for, they asked for it. Nigerians requested and voted for this hardship. We cannot blame anybody who treats Nigerians badly because some of these Nigerians are so concerned about selling their conscience for peanuts. Go to anywhere in Nigeria today, they sell their votes for as low as N4,000 to N10,000, and anybody who invests his money into a business will look forward to having proceeds. They have turned politics into business. When you invest money into a venture, you want proceeds; Nigerians have turned politics into business
