Former House of Representatives member Bimbo Daramola was recently suspended from the Ekiti State All Progressives Congress (APC). He spoke with Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU in Lagos on his ordeal, the politics of suspension, and prospects and constraints of reconciliation in the chapter.
What is your assessment of the APC in Ekiti?
Am I in a position to assess anything now? I am under suspension.
How do you view your suspension from the party?
I viewed the news on television. They wrote me a letter. People started calling me from far and near. They wrote me a letter from my ward. In any case, I am wondering how the absence of the sense of proprietary could make people to commit errors. In that same ward, from chairman to ex-officio; 26-member executive of the ward, I don’t know anybody there; how they were selected, how they were appointed. I complained. Nothing was done. In a ward that I practically funded. The meeting of the ward takes place in front of my grandfather’s house.
How do I view my suspension? I will allow posterity to judge. I am watching. They could suspend Segun Oni, Oyetunde Ojo, and others. They tried to suspend Chief Ben Oguntuase. Ife Arowosoge was complaining that they wanted to suspend him. It is a rash of suspension and a raid. Whatever could have informed it, whatever would have made those people to think that my reward should be suspension, I wish them the best of luck. I let posterity to judge. I commit them, that decision and everyone that was part of it to posterity. I know who I was and who I am in the party. We should wait for the judgment of history.
Could be say the confusion was an offshoot of the last primaries?
I am not too sure. Initially, when you love people; the party, your wife, everybody, you won’t see things that were coming. Ekiti will say ‘eti oloro maa ndi.’ So, I wasn’t in a position to see anything coming, before either the governorship or House of Representatives election. The kind of love I had was fuelled by sacrifice. I said people humbly to go and assess Bimbo Daramola as a member of the party, from the days of AD through ACD, AC, ACN to APC. Let’s look at Bimbo Daramola and his records. Because of my love for the party and the governor, I did not expect it. I was working to shore up the goodwill of the party, the goodwill of the governor, the goodwill of Ekiti. I was like Paul, committed to evangelism. But, the events that happened to me in the last two years have made me to take a back seat. People would ask: this has happened to you, how come that you were nit sensitive? This has been long in coming. Everything came to a head now. Like Jimmy Cliff said, I can see clearly now. A whole lot of things have become clearer to me.
Many people are blaming you for the loss of the APC and the gain of the PDP during the Hiuse of Representatives election in your constituency….
How can they blame me? Do you know that, up to now, nobody, except two or three people, wants to talk to me. I am a pariah of some sorts. Nobody wants to talk to me. But, they have forgotten that I came to politics on the crest of my faith. My ideology is rooted in Christ, who says that I have overcome the world. And when God says I have overcome the world, all these pecuniary things people are looking for, I am not looking for them. I am not looking for it. Is it not the same the party where I put my life on line several times? I am sure Asiwaju knows about it. I am sure Ogbeni Aregbesola knows about it. I am sure Baba Akande knows about it. So, if they decide to do that to me, it is fine. A man had 100 sheep in the Bible. One got lost. He left the 99 to go and look for one. A successful father had children in his house. One came to the father to say ‘give me my inheritance. I am going’. His father said ‘don’t go’. The Bible records that the prodigal son took his inheritance when his father was alive. You only share inheritance when the man had passed on. But, this man collected his inheritance when his father was alive. He assumed that his father was dead. In his mind, he must have constructed that his father was dead. The Bible records that he went to a far country. That far country in the context of politics meant that he decamped and went to another party. I never did that. He was very prodigious. He spent all and lost all the money. And then, other children were with the father. This means that when the party was on its knee, we were there. We did not leave the party. Adversity could be very beautiful. When you go to church, you are warned to be careful about the ‘evil of peace time.’ E sora fun ewu igba irorun. Adversity could be very beautiful. Baba Bola Ajibola taught me that. He said Obasanjo’s brilliance was a product of adversity. Obasanjo was a poor man. So, Obasanjo’s success was a product of adversity.
When this party was prostrate, all these guys, from the state to Abuja, where were they? They were the people stoning us. They were the ones who told us we had no future. When they offered me a million dollars to leave the party, I did not take it. It was not that we were in government. A million dollars. I can mention names. And we kept on building the party and gave everything for the party. Three major empowerment; I built hospital, purchased JAMB forms for 250 children, regardless of where you were coming from in Ekiti State. We were building goodwill for the party. But, when prosperity time came, what happened? They didn’t remember us. Some came back after squandering all that, and what did the father say? He said ‘go and bath him, put y ring in his hand.’ The senior brother said ‘what about those of us who remained with you?’ he said don’t worry. That is the situation. Those who were not part of us a back in the house. Nobody even have the presence of mind to say this journey started from somewhere. There were some people who were heavy lifters of the weight of the party at that time.
What’s your relationship with the governor now?
I don’t know. There is no relationship. The relationship is that he is the governor of Ekiti State and I am in my own corner as Bimbo Daramola. If we our 40 years of relationship did not amount to anything; he was two years my senior in school in 1978. Ninety five per cent of the people the governor knows today, he didn’t know them when he was my senior for two years. Where were they in 1978? If a somebody has been your neighbour for 40 years and he almost sleeps on your bed, you should not be afraid to be comfortable with him. If a relationship of 40 years did not count for anything, why would it count now?
Is reconciliation foreclosed in Ekiti APC?
People should take responsibility. First and foremost, there should be an admittance of the need for reconciliation. I was pleasantly surprised today when I woke up and saw in the CNN President Trump of United States and the North Korean leader shaking hands. Two weeks ago, they were at daggers drawn. I saw Triump taking guided steps and walking towards Kim Young, shaking hands. I was surprised. Anything can still happen. They two of them must have come to a point. My biggest worry is that people don’t realise the reality of posterity. Power is transient. There is a limitation. Power is limited. It will terminate one day.