Dr. Akin Onigbinde (SAN), a gubernatorial aspirant for 2019 elections on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD), is a former Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly. He spoke with Daniel Adeleye on the leadership crisis rocking the party in Oyo, Ogun and Osun states and other issues. Excerpts
WHAT is the situation in the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Oyo State now?
Let me step back a little and say that a number of us who are interested in getting engaged in the political process of Oyo State did an evaluation of the political vehicles in terms of existing political parties, their strengths, weaknesses as well as their challenges in the state. Though we have people who are truly and genuinely interested in the progress of Oyo State in the parties, there are also strange bird fellows. Those parties are presently laden with contradictions that will be very difficult to resolve. And in an organisation, it will not matter what the quality of your mind is if you associate or co-travel with people that don’t share those ideals. We reckon that we’ll only go and join the frail to start to fight the battles we did not create. That was why we decided to look for a platform that is crisis free and requires hard work, which we are not afraid to do. When you look at what is creating crisis in all these political parties, they are not things that relate to the welfare of ordinary persons. It’s conflict of ego, interest and ambition. And where that is taking the front seat, it will be difficult to discuss the issues that affect the ordinary citizens on the streets. That’s the reason we chose Alliance for Democracy, a party whose name is known, that has ruled Oyo State before and that has no crisis. If you look at the crisis going on in other political parties even as we speak, you see that it will be very difficult for them to deliver to the people of Oyo State.
But there has been disquiet in the Oyo State chapter of Alliance for Democracy (AD) over the alleged moves by supporters of PDP chieftain and former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, to take over the party machinery?
I will not understand the conversation we had with Senator Ladoja sometime ago as an attempt to hijack the party. Senator Ladoja at one time muted the idea of creating a working relationship with Alliance for Democracy and indeed a committee was set up to harmonize the processes of that working relationship. But somewhere along the line, there was a change of mind from the former governor. The meeting was called off by the representatives of Senator Ladoja and since then, there has been no communication from them. Senator Ladoja has gone back openly to PDP for good and AD continues to do its own work. It’s not possible for anybody to hijack the party because AD is operated on the basis of the participation of the members. We don’t encourage anybody to be the owner of the party.
So what led to the dissolution of the executive members of the party in Oyo, Osun and Ogun States?
Well the alleged dissolution was a curious development. The executives of those states are in office legitimately and their tenure won’t end until 2019. Let us even say that the tenure of all executive committee members was to end at a particular time, so, why would you isolate Oyo, Ogun and Osun for dissolution? All the committees were inaugurated at the same time and therefore their tenure should end at the same time. What we got to understand was that some people, at the behest of a PDP senator, were trying to get the executive committees out, so as to bring his own people in as members of caretaker committee. That was what they attempted to do at the national secretariat of the party. A caretaker committee of seven people was said to have been constituted. Out of the caretaker committee of seven people, five people declined to serve on the caretaker committee on the ground that it’s illegal because the constitution of the party does not make provision for any caretaker committee in any state.
What factor do you think will pitch the pendulum of victory to your party during 2019 election in Oyo State?
The people of Oyo State are very intimately concerned about the state of their welfare, issues that affect their daily lives like schools, prompt payment of salaries of workers, the health facilities and the state of agriculture in the state, which is one of the major pre-occupation of our people. And the people of Oyo State are desirous of government that will be on the same page with them as far as these issues are concerned. Like I said earlier, the fight and quarrel that are going on in APC and PDP has nothing to do with the people of Oyo State, it has to do with factions in those political parties. They are not fighting on how economy of the state would be better or over the welfare of the citizens. So the people of Oyo State are intimately aware and they are looking for a platform that is thinking about them.
You are one of the chieftains of the party vying for the governorship of Oyo State in 2019; what would you do differently if given opportunity to govern the state?
It has always been my position that issue of good governance is the one that relate to both the followership and leadership of any organisation. Yes, it is important that the leader must have a vision but it’s not enough for any leader to just wake up one day and say the people of Ibadan for instance, deserve certain things without engaging with the people to know what exactly their priority is. One of the things that I will put in the front burner is an increased communication and engagement with the people of Oyo State. There is so much arrogance and presumption of limitless power that people think they don’t need to consult with the people they lead.
The average people in various communities in the state bound themselves up to a society. In trying to do their businesses, they are looking for certain facilitation, some small amount of money to undertake their businesses. It’s not empowerment programmes that many politicians are doing that they want. What is the essence of giving sewing machine to someone whose interest is different from tailoring? Some will collect the so-called empowerment gadgets and sell them because that’s not what they want. When people take loans from micro finance banks, they pay back even though the payment condition is very uncomfortable yet they do it. That should tell us that is their emphasis. We must engage with the people to know what their priority should be. That’s the only way you can run a government that will make true difference in the lives of citizens. So we are going to ensure that we are humble enough to engage with the people to understand what their priorities are.
We’ll also wean the citizens from the mentality that government must provide everything. Everything of value cannot be provided by government alone. Good governance comes when citizens play their own roles and leadership plays its own role.
The call for restructuring of Nigeria appears to be the most popular demand in the polity in recent times. As a senior lawyer, what do you think is wrong with the current Nigeria structure?
Before you talk of the structure of any country, there is only one document we should look at and that is the constitution of that country. Even when you talk of organisation, it’s the constitution that defines what that society would be; who will be the officers, what powers they would operate and so on. The Nigerian constitution is labeled the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And when you say federal, it’s not a word that was imposed on a nation, that’s a word that defines her constitution. So we must ask a question that what federalism means. Federalism talks about federating units that have independent existence but have a common centre which take care of their common needs like foreign exchange, currency, international relations, security and so on. But as far as the administrations of the daily lives, the economy of the federating units are concerned, there should be liberty to run from their base. But that’s not what is happening in Nigeria today.
The need for restructuring is so fundamental because our constitution called us a ‘federal republic’ and yet we are operating like a unitary system of government. We cannot make any serious progress when the central government takes decision about the development of the states without recourse.
