Former Deputy Director General of the Godwin Obaseki campaign organisation in 2020, Gideon Ikhine recently left the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress. In this interview, he tells ADEYINKA ADEDIPE why he left his former party and what he hopes to achieve in the APC
What led to your exit from the PDP despite being the DDG of Obaseki’s campaign group?
Having been with the party for 24 years, one thing you can say about the PDP is the unity of purpose, love, and comradeship within the party.
But in the last three years, we have lost that sense of comradeship. The party has become polarised at the state level. Instead of people doing things the right way, personal interest now overrides the corporate objective of the party.
The PDP is not on the right track in the state. The party conducted primaries, and had candidates, only for the national body to take sides and accept candidates that emerged from a primary election arranged by people who were never in the party but in government and this led to the party not fielding genuine candidates of the election.
The question then is, where are we going with such impunity? The PDP has a governor in the state but the governor should also realise that the party has an executive and that he cannot override the function of the party executive.
People like us decided to work with the APC rather than watch impunity reign. The APC was more organised in the last election. It had a good primary election and fielded good candidates. For the first time in history, the APC won in my zone (Edo Central) especially in the Senate and House of Representatives elections, though the one for Esan West, Esan Central, and Igueben won by the PDP is still at the tribunal.
Having worked with the APC in the last election and playing a leading role in the victory, I didn’t see staying in the PDP as an option.
Do you think leaving the PDP at this time will advance your political career?
I cannot boost my political career on falsehood. It needs to be built on a solid foundation. How do you stay in a party where there is no internal democracy? The national body came to the state, went to the government house, picked a list, and said those on the list were candidates of the party. Is that how to boost my political career? Anything that is done on a foundation of deceit can never last long.
You asked about boosting my political career but what I stand for now is building something that will have a lasting legacy. I think we can achieve that in APC.
Do you have any personal differences with Governor Godwin Obaseki?
No, but we must learn to align issues. I was the deputy director-general of his campaign organisation when he came into the PDP in 2020. We had a very good working relationship all through the campaign.
He backed all the ideas we brought to him and that was how we won. After the win, I was not invited to governance so I had to restrict myself to the political party where I was made the deputy DG for his campaign.
The fact that I wasn’t part of his government doesn’t mean we had differences. He made his choice and I also made mine.
Can you throw more light on the claim that candidates and political leaders including you collected money to make Obaseki a candidate when he crossed to the PDP?
I heard people were paid but I cannot say whether it is true or not. I can only speak for myself. Obaseki has never offered me money. When he came to the party, he asked me what I wanted, I said I wanted him to win the election. I have never collected money from him as compensation for stepping down or accepting him into the party.
I wasn’t part of the people that brought Obaseki to the PDP. People who brought him into the party were Tom Ikhimi, Senator Clifford Ordia, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, and the bigwigs in Abuja. We don’t know the arrangement he had with them but I heard he said he paid a lot of people.
How much support did you give to Obaseki in 2020 and did you suffer any political or personal losses as a result of that?
The losses cannot be quantified. Before Obaseki came into the PDP, I had gone around the 192 wards in the state twice and met with political leaders. I was also in Abuja with my team for over one month trying to bring back the likes of former Governor Lucky Igbinedion, Senator Victor Oyofo, Senator Isa Braimoh, Col Tunde Akogun (retd), and Mike Oghiadomhe to see the reason why they need to come back to the party and take leadership roles. These were people who had turned their back on the party and I spent a lot of time begging them to come back to the party and they gave reasons for their actions. After a while, they decided to come back to the party. Those were some of the efforts I made to rebuild the party. By the time Obaseki came in, I put my vehicle on the road again to support him.
We might be looking at losses in terms of finance but the most expensive commodity in life is time. You can lose money and friends and get them back but if you lose time, you can never get it back.
I don’t see any financial contribution as a loss; I see it as my support for Obaseki’s emergence as a governor. What he is doing with the opportunity is left to him. But for me, I have contributed financially and in other ways which I don’t consider as losses.
What is your relationship with Obaseki and Chief Dan Orbih?
Let me quickly say that some people have asked what was my reward after working with Obaseki. What I will say is that I am a major contributor to his emergence as the governor in 2020. I was one of those who welcomed him into the PDP without a fight.
I have been friends with Dan Orbih for over 40 years, but he is not just a friend. His political leadership is unparalleled. He believes in the party and the rule of law. When I ran for the post of governor before Obaseki came, Orbih was the leader of the party and he threw his weight behind Ogbeide Ihama against me even though we were friends.
I have left the party today, but we are still very good friends and politically, I respect his leadership. If Orbih wasn’t a good leader, Governor Obaseki would have overrun PDP and made it his personal estate.
How extensive is the work you said you did for the APC in the last election?
I put a lot of funds and time into the election for APC. In my senatorial zone, I was visible but some leaders did not work with us. They stayed with the governor for reasons best known to them but after the election, they must have realised that they were not popular with the people.
What are you bringing into the APC and how sure are you that your supporters will come with you?
We are already in the APC and the value we are bringing is to strengthen the party, strengthen the leadership, and ensure that democracy and the rule of law prevail.
How did leaders of the PDP take your defection to the APC?
I don’t like the word defection. I did not defect to the APC. We had a collaboration in the last election and after that, I knew that was the best place for me to be. I would have been a stranger there but most of the leaders in APC were formerly with PDP, it is like reuniting with your old friends. So we are going to work together in unity and love.
How would you work with other leaders of APC to reclaim the governorship seat for your new party?
First, since I left the PDP, the governor has been calling for and holding meetings, trying to reconcile the party, a move he never made in the last three years. He is trying to ensure that people do not move with me but it is too late. Most people are just hanging in the PDP but in days to come, you will see bigwigs joining me in the APC. As long as I am alive, Edo State will never be in the hands of an opposition party. We must align with the party at the centre. I can assure you that Edo will be an APC state. We are working hard towards this.
What is your take on the Esan agenda that Edo Central should produce the next governor?
I take exception to the Esan agenda clamour. There can never be anything like Esan agenda. I would rather go with the Edo State’s agenda to make anEsan man the next governor of the state. Esan man does not have the power to say he wants to be the governor. It is the entire party structure that will decide that. The Edo South and Edo North will have to come together to give Edo Central (Esan) the chance to produce the next governor. For the Esan, it should be more like an appeal and lobby for other parts of the state to support candidates from the Central. It should not be seen as a birthright.
Is it true that you will be running for the governorship next year?
I am running for the governorship under my new party. I have listened to the people’s voices who are asking me to contest. I still have structures in place to realise that ambition. But I am also focused on reintegrating my supporters into the APC and making the party stronger.
Why did you decide to run in 2020?
After the death of Chief Tony Anenih, people were very cold. I always believe that leadership is influence. I can recall that not many people wanted to run on the platform of PDP. But I was ready to reawaken the consciousness of every member of the party. The state was a PDP state but the people needed encouragement.
The first three years of APC under Obaseki were wasted on fights. Obaseki accused Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of wanting him to share state funds. We were not moving forward as a state and saw a vacuum. The mood in the state was not good that’s why when I began campaigning, I started from the villages and hamlets. We went with food and encouragement to the people. I was determined.
I knew it was an avenue for me to come rebuild the state. Unfortunately, that aspiration was cut short by people who brought in Obaseki. That vacuum is still there today and Edo people are still crying for a saviour and I am sure that saviour will come from APC next year.
What will you do if allowed to govern?
What I have is a vision that will come to pass through the collective will of the people. The first thing I will do is market my vision and make sure everyone buys into it. There are lots of things to be done in Edo State in terms of economy, infrastructure, tourism and other areas.
