A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and former House of Representatives candidate, Lere Olayinka, tells ABIODUN NEJO that local government elections are merely to give the impression that chairmen and councillors are not appointed or selected
What is your assessment of the recent council elections in Ekiti State?
My position is simple; we have not been having LG elections in Nigeria in the real sense of it. It is not about Ekiti State alone, it is about all states in Nigeria, no matter the party in control; the PDP, APC, or APGA. Local government elections have turned to appointments for people. Elections into local governments are a way of conferring legitimacy on those people. I don’t see them as elections per se.
So, how will you describe the council election in Ekiti State?
You would have noticed that in almost all states in Nigeria, it has become a one-party affair. Hardly can you see any state now doing local government elections and leading parties not in government in that state participating. In Ekiti State for instance, in 2015 and 2017, when the PDP was also in government, we had local government elections. The APC did not also participate. It is fait accompli that the parties in government will always carry the day. That was why I said it was more like affairs for any political party in government.
What about the recent exercise in Ekiti State where the APC won in all the local government councils?
An exercise in which only one party participated! It would just be like a yes or no now. As I said, it was just a way to say we would not just say we have appointed or that we have selected. At least, whether we like it or not, it conferred legitimacy on those who will continue to run the affairs of the LGs and the LCDAs.
The election observers said that major opposition parties did not participate in the elections because they were dazed by their loss in the last governorship and general elections. Do you agree?
I don’t agree with that. Will you also say that in 2015 and 2017 when the PDP was in government in Ekiti State, the APC was also dazed that time? In other states where opposition parties do not participate, will you also say they were dazed? The issue is simple; even if you participate, is there any hope? I don’t see that as correct. The major opposition party in Ekiti State is the PDP. The other one which is the SDP was just the coming together of people disgruntled over governorship ticket, who wanted to contest at all costs. The SDP ended with the governorship election. That is why there is no new thing about the SDP in the last six months.
The PDP did not participate in the LG polls. What are some of the reasons for this action?
As of the time the election was held, there was no PDP in Ekiti State in the real sense of it. They put an unknown caretaker committee in place. Maybe if the judgment restoring the duly elected state exco had come earlier, it could be that the PDP would have participated to fulfill all righteousness. But the caretaker committee was just there for mere formalities. There was no activity throughout the time the committee was there.
APC members are saying your party did not participate because those who matter in the PDP are now bowing before the present governor, and that the PDP remnants were aware that they would not make any impact. What is your reaction to this?
I don’t like the use of the word ‘bowing’. Even the governor will not like the use of that word. If the word was actually used by the APC, I want to encourage the person who used that word to stop using words like that because the governor that I have seen and observed from a distance in Ekiti State is not the kind of person who will encourage the use of that word – people bowing before him.
On the contrary, the governor is the one bowing before elders in the state; he is the one looking out for them, he is the one giving them the due respect and he is doing that across party lines. That is not to say that this has ended other political parties. If I see the governor today, will I not greet him? Will I not talk to him? Is he not the governor of Ekiti State? Is he not the governor of all political parties? Is he not the governor of even those not in political parties? The governor has just spent a year in office; the issue of politics of who will succeed him has not started. I want to commend the governor for what he has done. For the first time, we are having a kind of political stability in the state. For the first time, we have a governor who is not chasing away the PDP. Oyebanji is acting like somebody who has no enemy to fight; we must commend him for that. That to me should not be tagged as bowing before him.
By not participating in the LG election, will it be correct to say the PDP is opposed to democracy at the third tier of government?
No. In elections, participation is by choice. That you did not participate does not mean you did not believe in the process. What if you have looked at your cost? In the last general election, did all the parties in Nigeria participate? Look at all the states, where do you see opposition parties winning in LG elections?
How best do you think LG elections can be conducted?
They have advanced arguments for LG autonomy. The first and the last time we had an LG election in this country was in 1998 when the election was conducted by INEC. That was when allocation was coming to the local governments directly. From the moment we started joint accounts and local government money started coming to the states, local governments had become an appendage of the state governments, and there is no running away from that fact. Today, in Ekiti State, apart from the local governments recognised by the constitution, we have LCDAs. If you are to talk about local government autonomy in the real sense of it, where will you place the LCDAs in Ekiti State? The moment you are talking about local government autonomy, you are saying that the LCDAs should no longer be in existence. LG autonomy will mean that the money for Ekiti West, my local government area, should come directly. So, what now happens to the two LCDAs carved out of it? If we are talking about LG autonomy, we should look at factors like that. The reality is that local governments have become appendages of the state governments. Whoever is the governor controls what happens in the local governments.
How will you compare LG elections in Ekiti State under the APC and PDP?
There is no difference. Under PDP in 2015 and 2017, the LG elections were one-way, under the APC in the recent LG election, it was also one-way. No difference.
