The Nation Newspaper

Tag: crisis

  • Crisis rocks breakaway church in Edo

    Crisis has hit the Igbo Prayer Welfare Fellowship, a breakaway Church whose members were in the Diocese of the Benin Anglican Communion.

    The crisis started over appointment of bishops, priests and officials of the church.

    Some members of the church led by Chief Jerry Okeke, Chief Emma Owunna and Dr. Charles Ayeni pushed for a retired Anglican Priest, Ven C. I Umane, but were resisted by the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Church, Chief Luke Abbas.

    Abbas and other leaders of the Church were said to have insisted that Rev. Jerome Ekwo be made Bishop and Ven Umane be removed as Bishop.

    A suit instituted against Chief Abbas at an Edo State High Court was thrown away for lack of locus standi by the claimants to institute the suit.

    Abbas said the opposition group was planning to hold meetings at various places in Benin to cause further disaffection in the church.

    He said he was in possession of a letter purportedly inviting members of the Church to a meeting and advised members to shun the said meeting.

     

  • Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    The crisis rocking the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the pro-Obasanjo faction led by Senator Dipo Odujinrin has distanced itself from the activities of the Adebayo Dayo-led executive committee.

    Although Dayo, an engineer, has waved the olive branch to the faction, reconciliation nhas not taken place.

    The faction is said to be irked by the victory rally held at Ijebu-Igbo by the Dayo executive committee, where a party chieftain, Prince Buruji Kashamu, warned party members to be wary of “gerontocratic politicians masquerading as elder statesmen.”

    Since the court affirmed Dayo as the authentic party chairman, the other faction has been meeting, but its members have shunned the party activities organised by the state executive committee.

    The party chairman, sources said, has appealed to the Southwest Caretaker Chairman of the party, Chief Isola Filani, to broker peace between his exco and Obasanjo camp.

    Kashamu had fired salvos at the old PDP chieftains in Ogun State, saying that they should yield the space to younger elements and serve as their advisers.

    Sources said that he was reacting to Obasanjo’s warning to the party to beware of money bags, who he said, were bent on deceiving the people with the view of depriving them of a better future.

    Kashamu said that it was laughable that Obasanjo could denounce those he described as money-bag politicians, wondering whether they were not the ones that made him politically.

    “Was it not moneybag politicians that bankrolled his elections the first and second time? Was it not the same people he hobnobbed with when it was convenient for him to wrest the party structure from the immediate past administration in the state? Was it not the same set of people that he used to work for his candidate in the governorship election? This is the sort of inconsistency that Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati recently noted concerning Obasanjo,” he said.

    He noted that is a wise thing to re -unite the PDP family, but said that the former President should not pontificate on the re -union or how it should take place.

    Kashamu said: “it was not in Obasanjo’s place to set the parameters for such because he has continually shown his bias for imposition, do-or-die politics, injustice and illegalities – the very issues at the roots of the Ogun PDP crisis.

     

  • Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Odumakin

    Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Odumakin

    Afenifere Publicity Secretary Mr Yinka Odumakin has said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be consumed by its internal crisis, ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    He said that more attention and energy would be deployed by President Goodluck Jonathan to crisis management, instead of governance.

    He told The Nation that the sudden emergence of the PDP Governors Forum, which recently selected Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio as sitting chairman, has tilted the balance of power in favour of some vested interests.

    Odumakin, who spoke with our reporter on the state of the nation in Lagos, said: “The PDP Governors Forum and the Amaechi’s Governors Forum do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart, but they were founded for power struggle. There is none that is about the interest of the people of Nigeria but the power that be. The fora have nothing to do about the welfare of Nigerians.

    “The two groups are for themselves . It is the night of long knives; the wolves are out and they want to devour us. What is going on in the PDP is a personal fight between the wolves and the masses often pay for such internal crisis.

    “Those who take the people’s patient for cowardice, and when they protest they can use guns to chase them off the streets should know that, one day, the situation will change. We can actually see what is going on across the country today when the people are pushed to the wall. They confront the authorities force for force.”

    Speaking on the recent merger of the opposition political parties, Odumakin said the most important issue is practical leadership. He recalled that political parties, which had merged in the past lacked the courage to fulfill their vision.

  • Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    Ogun PDP crisis deepens

    The crisis rocking the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has escalated as the pro-Obasanjo faction led by Senator Dipo Odujinrin has distanced itself from the activities of the Adebayo Dayo-led executive committee.

    Although Dayo, an engineer, has waved the olive branch to the faction, reconciliation nhas not taken place.

    The faction is said to be irked by the victory rally held at Ijebu-Igbo by the Dayo executive committee, where a party chieftain, Prince Buruji Kashamu, warned party members to be wary of “gerontocratic politicians masquerading as elder statesmen.”

    Since the court affirmed Dayo as the authentic party chairman, the other faction has been meeting, but its members have shunned the party activities organised by the state executive committee.

    The party chairman, sources said, has appealed to the Southwest Caretaker Chairman of the party, Chief Isola Filani, to broker peace between his exco and Obasanjo camp.

    Kashamu had fired salvos at the old PDP chieftains in Ogun State, saying that they should yield the space to younger elements and serve as their advisers.

    Sources said that he was reacting to Obasanjo’s warning to the party to beware of money bags, who he said, were bent on deceiving the people with the view of depriving them of a better future.

    Kashamu said that it was laughable that Obasanjo could denounce those he described as money-bag politicians, wondering whether they were not the ones that made him politically.

    “Was it not moneybag politicians that bankrolled his elections the first and second time? Was it not the same people he hobnobbed with when it was convenient for him to wrest the party structure from the immediate past administration in the state? Was it not the same set of people that he used to work for his candidate in the governorship election? This is the sort of inconsistency that Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati recently noted concerning Obasanjo,” he said.

    He noted that is a wise thing to re -unite the PDP family, but said that the former President should not pontificate on the re -union or how it should take place.

    Kashamu said: “it was not in Obasanjo’s place to set the parameters for such because he has continually shown his bias for imposition, do-or-die politics, injustice and illegalities – the very issues at the roots of the Ogun PDP crisis.

     

     

     

     

  • Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Odumakin

    Internal crisis will consume PDP, says Odumakin

    Afenifere Publicity Secretary Mr Yinka Odumakin has said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be consumed by its internal crisis, ahead of the 2015 general elections.

    He said that more attention and energy would be deployed by President Goodluck Jonathan to crisis management, instead of governance.

    He told The Nation that the sudden emergence of the PDP Governors Forum, which recently selected Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio as sitting chairman, has tilted the balance of power in favour of some vested interests.

    Odumakin, who spoke with our reporter on the state of the nation in Lagos, said: “The PDP Governors Forum and the Amaechi’s Governors Forum do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart, but they were founded for power struggle. There is none that is about the interest of the people of Nigeria but the power that be. The fora have nothing to do about the welfare of Nigerians.

    “The two groups are for themselves . It is the night of long knives; the wolves are out and they want to devour us. What is going on in the PDP is a personal fight between the wolves and the masses often pay for such internal crisis.

    “Those who take the people’s patient for cowardice, and when they protest they can use guns to chase them off the streets should know that, one day, the situation will change. We can actually see what is going on across the country today when the people are pushed to the wall. They confront the authorities force for force.”

    Speaking on the recent merger of the opposition political parties, Odumakin said the most important issue is practical leadership. He recalled that political parties, which had merged in the past lacked the courage to fulfill their vision.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Cooling the Tunisia crisis

    Cooling the Tunisia crisis

    TUNISIA WAS the first Arab country to overthrow its autocracy in 2011, and for much of the past two years it has had the most success in building a new political order. Now the country faces the worst crisis since the revolution. On Tuesday, the prime minister of the Islamist-led government resigned after his own party refused to allow the appointment of a new, nonpartisan cabinet in response to the assassination of an opposition political leader. Though the streets of Tunis remain relatively calm, the risk is growing that uncompromising leaders will plunge the country into turmoil.

    As in Egypt, where such turmoil is advancing, Tunisia’s population has become polarized between secular citizens, who fear that their liberties will be eroded by the new government, and the Islamists, who have been slow to seek accommodation with opponents or to control their most militant followers. The Ennahda party, which formed a coalition with a secular party following an October 2011 election, has a moderate platform, but it includes hard-line clerics in its ranks and is challenged by more militant Islamist groups outside of government. Secular parties, meanwhile, have fanned popular fears that the Islamists will ban alcohol, deprive women of their rights and drive away the Western tourists upon whom much of the economy depends.

    It’s still not known who was responsible for the Feb. 6 assassination of Chokri Belaid, a prominent secularist and government critic whose slaying triggered the largest street demonstrations since the revolution. But Hamadi Jebali, a top leader of the Ennahda party, was right as prime minister to respond by denouncing the killing as “an act of terrorism against the whole of Tunisia.” Mr. Jebali pledged to set up a new government of technocratic ministers to serve until a constituent assembly completes a new constitution and new elections can be held.

    Unfortunately, Mr. Jebali’s sensible course, which could have begun to bridge the dangerous secular-religious divide, was blocked by the Ennahda party, which refused to accept that its ministers would no longer manage key departments such as the interior ministry, which controls the police. Many Ennahda stalwarts appear to regard their first election victory as inviolable; they fail to understand that a successful democratic transition requires accommodating the reasonable demands of the minority.

    Ennahda leaders are saying they still would like Mr. Jebali to form a new cabinet, though other, more hard-line leaders reportedly are also under consideration. The ex-prime minister, for his part, said in a speech to the country that he would do so only if a new government enjoyed broad support, the constitution were quickly completed and a firm date were set for elections. Those are the right conditions: Agreement on a constitution all sides can accept and a fair and free vote are the best way to defuse Tunisia’s polarization. Ennahda should listen to Mr. Jebali, before it is too late.

    – Washington Post

  • Workers behind UniAbuja crisis, says VC

    The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja), Prof. Sunday Adelabu, yesterday attributed the crisis rocking the institution, which led to its closure, to some workers in the university.

    He said the workers and some outsiders were hiding under the delay in accreditation to instigate engineering students to confront the school authority.

    The university has been in crisis following the non- accreditation of four courses, namely: Agriculture, Engineering, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.

    UniAbuja was shut last Monday when students offering the four courses said they would not allow their colleagues in other departments to write their examinations.

    Adelabu, at a news briefing in Abuja on the crisis and efforts to get the four programmes accredited, said: “The efforts of the administration have reduced students’ restiveness on the campus.

    “It is regrettable that a few of the university workers and some outsiders are hiding under the delay in the accreditation to instigate engineering students to confront the school authority. This is sabotage.

    “Three of the programmes: Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, which started with nothing, are now on the verge of getting full accreditation. The Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN) has written the university to convey approval for the beginning of clinical training. The engineering programme had earlier failed the resources verification by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and ought to have been stopped by the previous administration.”

  • Job crisis far from over, says ILO

    Job crisis far from over, says ILO

    The Director-General, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Guy Ryder, has said the dire job situation is an indication that the global crisis is far from over.

    Stressing the need to tackle employment crisis, the ILO boss, who spoke at the just-concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, warned that there cannot be growth without jobs.

    In a statement by the organisation, posted on ILO website, Ryder who, was asked about the jobs and growth conundrum during a panel discussion, said: “That simple logic … was not apparent to policy makers who started applying austerity in Europe to tackle the financial crisis.

    “If you had said that and had been listened to, three or four years ago, perhaps you might have been able to avoid some of the excesses of the jobs crisis right now.

    “It’s not the only element of the economic malaise we face but it is the quintessential centre of it all.” Talking about Spain’s unemployment rate, which has hit a record-high of 26 per cent, Ryder said: “The figures that came out this week are absolutely appalling … You can’t see the upturn.

    “But I do think that while we’re all, understandably, focused on Spain right now, we’re faced with a continuing global jobs crisis.”

    He warned that while the intensity of the financial crisis may appear to be receding, jobs’ markets are giving completely different signals.

    ”We lost over four million jobs – four million more unemployed in 2012. For 2013 it is another five million and it carries on. The horizon is not in sight,” he said.

    He had also emphasised that point in an interview earlier with Sky News television.

    “I think we shouldn’t go too quickly into the notion that the crisis is over.

    “For the people in the jobs’ queue, the crisis is very much with us and the queue is getting longer,” he said.

    Participants at the panel discussion, who included Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Jim Hagemann Snabe of the German software corporation, agreed on the need for the private sector to invest in education to help address skills mismatches. Technological changes “are going to require new skills sets,” Ryder said, adding that enterprises should play their part in training people.

    “Policies that work are policies that actually mix together formal education and work experience – that old idea of apprenticeship.” Ryder also said international agreements are needed to facilitate the migration of jobseekers.

    He pointed out that the crisis had brought about significant changes in terms of workforce mobility, citing the example of Spaniards seeking work elsewhere in Europe or in Latin America, and Portuguese workers getting jobs in Angola.

  • PDP crisis deepens as Clark attacks governors, Obasanjo

    PDP crisis deepens as Clark attacks governors, Obasanjo

    Prominent Ijaw and South-South leader Chief Edwin Clark launched yesterday a verbal attack at former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) for “rising against President Goodluck Jonathan”.

    He said the activity of the Governors Forum, which he described as an “oppressive and dictatorial forum”, is “getting more worrisome by the day.

    “The quality of governance in most of the PDP controlled states is very poor,” Clark said.

    The former Minister of Information said “the PDP is sitting on a keg of gun powder, which can explode at any time”.

    Specifically, he accused Obasanjo of destroying the party’s supremacy because he wanted control by wresting the powers of the party’s leader from the National Chairman.

    He also lambasted the governors for bastardising the slogan of the party from “power to the people” to “power to the governors”.

    Besides, Clark denied insinuations that Jonathan signed any pact with the former president that he would have only one term in office.

    “It is not true. It is not the former president who decides how many terms a president should do. It is the constitution,” Clark said.

    Clark’s Abuja news conference was tagged “open letter to the governors forum”.

    Recalling his political experience from the First Republic, the elder statesman said he had no regret attacking the governors because the matter affects the peace and stability of Nigeria.

    According to him, “the governors forum is now acting as an opposition party to the Federal Government”.

    “It deliberately breaches with impunity, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Constitution of the PDP, without any challenges. The Forum has now become a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria. Most of the governors today are more dictatorial than the then military governors,” the chief said.

    Comparing the NGF with the United States’ National Governors Association (NGA), the octogenarian said Nigerian governors abuse the constitution with impunity and are using the platform to manipulate the polity.

    “I have seen and made enquiries about your counterparts in the United States of America, USA. A governors’ association called the National Governors Association, NGA, does exist, but their existence and operations are practised and operated within the confines of the law of the land. This body, which was formed as far back as 1908 has never been a thorn in the flesh of the country. They are not politically ambitious. Each of the governors of the 50 states in the USA, who want to become the President of the country, does not use the forum to achieve this ambition,” Clark said.

    Going down memory lane, the nationalist said the overbearing influence of the NGF started when former Kwara Governor Bukola Saraki became its chairman.

    Clark accused the forum of double standards in the way it reacts to national issues.

    Questioning the sincerity of the governors, the elerstatesman said “Whereas the governors forum is said to have a peer review mechanism, the Forum is not known to have ever prevailed upon any of its erring members to do what is right. The governors made no comments about Chief James Onanefe Ibori, former Governor of Delta State, all through his trial and conviction, based on corruption both in Nigeria and in London. Neither did they condemn their colleague, who was accused of beating up a fellow Nigerian worker in this civilised world. But conspicuously support their colleagues for no good reasons.”

    “The recent action of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP in which 10 of the members met to take a decision even when the National Chairman was available and did not authorise his deputy to act for him, clearly showed that there was problem in the party. Instead of the Forum to join other party leaders to resolve this problem, it arrogantly supported one side of the dispute.

    “The controversy in Adamawa State is being fuelled by the governors forum by declaring its unholy support for the Governor of the state, Murtala Nyako. The Forum did not see anything wrong with Governor Nyako’s ambition of nominating his wife as the Chief Judge of the state.”

    Clark blamed the controversy in Adamawa on the selfish interest of the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; Nyako and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who all want their sons to be the governor.

    “Clark recalled that the conflict between the National Chairman and the President over who the party leader is started in the days of Obasanjo. According to him, the former president “punctured and destroyed” the party’s supremacy.

    “..somewhere along the line, the incoming President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used his military antecedents, indoctrination and perceptual conceptualisation to obliterate the known practice of the distinction of the party chairmanship with the leadership, and office of the President.

    “He prevented the late Chief Sunday Awoniyi from becoming the Chairman of the great party on the reason that Chief Awoniyi was a Yoruba man like himself. He preferred Barnabas Gemade, who actually became the National Chairman of the party. Much sooner and for no justifiable reason, he decided to replace Gemade with young Audu Ogbeh, who used to be a Miniter in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari government.”

    Clark recalled that Obasanjo removed Ogbeh and imposed Senator Ahmadu Ali over the disagreement on the kidnap of former Anambra Governor Chris Ngige and the politics of the state’s godfather, Mr. Chris Uba.

    “We witnessed the bastardisation of the party by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo and former National Chairman of the Party, Sen. Ahmadu Ali, who for their own interest frustrated all the founding fathers of the party and party faithful by de-registering most of the founding members of the party. Chief Obasanjo installed himself the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the party as a former President of the country. With all these actions, the party’s supremacy was punctured and destroyed. Members and all concerned reluctantly accommodated this unilateral attitude of the president in office at that time, while he got himself consolidated for the period he served.

    “Concurrently, the governors in the various states also assumed the same posture and in all circumstances seized the soul, the heart and disciplinary features of the party.

    “There is no more justice in the party due to the greed and corrupt attitude of the heavy weights of the party who made money, using the party. Today, they are using the same money to destroy the party.”

    “There is no unity in the party, it is fragmented everywhere.”

    He went on: “The Party’s progress in the country is accidental based on past glory and also due to the presence of petty, tribal and ineffective opposition Parties.

    “The slogan of the party has been turned upside down. The PDP members at the grass root no longer control the party and the power of the party no longer belong to the people. The people have lost the power, reluctantly accepting the slogan ‘Power to the governors’.”

    He added: “The PDP governors who now regard themselves as the leaders of the Party, are using their own structures to entrench corruption, lack of internal democracy, imposition of candidates within the structures of the party over the recognised structures as entrenched in the party’s Constitution.

    “The over-bearing influence of the governors forum in the polity has become a matter of serious concern. The activities of the PDP governors forum in particular have become very disturbing and calls for urgent correction as it is fast eroding the authority and the supremacy of the party and posing a serious threat to our democracy. The forum has become a powerful tool in the hands of the governors who now use it to pursue and promote their individual and collective interests with little or no regard to the letter and spirit of the party’s Constitution and supremacy.

    The octogenarian accused the governors of thwarting efforts to raise funds for the PDP because they want the party to continually depend on them for finances.

    He said most governors have hijacked their local government councils and have deliberately failed to conduct elections so as to impose their stooges in contravention of the 1999 Constitution and the Amended Electoral Act 2011.

    He added that they have seized the control of Houses of Assembly by appointing Principal Officers who have no financial independence.

    He wonderedwhy state lawmakers are afraid to adopt the Constitution amendment that grant them financial autonomy.

    The over-bearing attitude of the governors, he said, might be the reason people are opposed to State Police, which ideally should exist in a Federation.

    “Quite simply, the people no longer trust the governors. Our democracy is today imperiled because of the excesses of the governors who have put themselves and their interest over and above the interest of the nation.”

    The Director General of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Mr. Asisana Okauru did not respond to text messages last night. He also did not pick calls to his mobile phone.

  • ‘No crisis in Oyo ACN’

    ‘No crisis in Oyo ACN’

     Alhaji Abas Oloko is a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo State. He spoke with JEREMIAH OKE about the Ajimobi Administration and challenges confronting the party in post-Adesina era.

    Some members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) have kicked against the endorsement of Governor Abiola Ajimobi as the leader of the party in Oyo State. What is your reaction?

    There is no faction in Oyo ACN. We do not know any group called ‘Asiwaju Omoba’ in our party. No section of the state is opposed to the endorsement of governor Ajimobi. We are all one. Normally, the governor of the state should be the leader of the party because of the experience and the exposure. Look at the people who are holding that post in any state of the federation.

    Our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is a former governor, Chief Bisi Akande is a former governor. Chief Segun Osoba is a former governor. The late Alhaji Lam Adesina was a governor. Even during the time of Alliance for Democracy (AD), the late Bola Ige was the leader of the party and he was a governor. All these people emerged as leaders. If anybody wants to contest the position, he should come out. They do not vote for a leader, but the leader of a party in a state will emerge. The blood of politics runs in the veins Governor Ajimonbi because his father was also a member of the House of Assembly between 1979 and 1983. He is not a new man in politics and he is capable to run the party.

    How do you assess the performance of Governor Abiola Ajimobi?

    He has been performing excellently. After the late Kolapo Ishola left as governor in Oyo State, we have had three democratically elected governors and none of them has performed like him. In the past, look at how dirty and unorganized the state was. If you enter the state from Lagos or Osun State, you will be disturbed by its filth.

    If you had gone round Ibadan before the emergence of Senator Ajimobi as the governor, you will see how our people were dropping garbage everywhere. They built shops at the middle of the road. Imagine people building shops under a high tension wire, which is very dangerous for them. All these were as a result of the lack of discipline of the past administrations in the state. But within a year, Governor Ajimobi has returned the state to its old glory. So, I want to say Governor Ajimobi has been doing great job in the state.

    Do you see Accord Party as a major opposition in the state?

    Accord Party is a worthless party in Oyo State. Senator Rashidi Ladoja should go and rest from politics because he is too old to contest. This administration has achieved what he could not achieve during his time. So, I don’t see them wining any election in the state. Ladoja should go and relax somewhere and, if he contests for any election again, he will fail woefully.

    Why did you leave PDP?

    I left because it is not structurally organised; everybody wants to be the leader. They are all liars and deceptive. I started PDP together with the Late Chief Lamidi Adedibu in Oyo State and I discovered that they don’t have any programme for the masses. That is why the crisis is still lingering in their party. They can never win any election in Oyo State again, even if they succeed with their reconciliation moves because they are confused.

    The people of Oyo State are progressive-minded and they will never allow the people who are corrupt, wicked and who have no conscience to come back and destroy the state for them again.

    Some people have alleged that you are a political harlot for defecting from PDP to ACN. What is your reaction to this?

    I have defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before election, because the former governor, Alao-Akala, does not listen to correction. He was a stubborn fellow who always creates problem in the state.

    One of the reasons I defected was the issue of the chairmanship tussle oamong traditional rulers in the state. I went to the governor to complain that he should settle the crisis between him and make Alaafin as the permanent chairman of the traditional rulers in the state, but he objected. Even the history of Yoruba backs him up to be the head of all the kings, not only in Oyo state, but in Yorubaland. Akala even went to the extent of trying to divide Oyo town.

    Another incident was that of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). Akala lifted the ban on the activities of the union in, just to create problem in the state.

    The two incidents were aimed at creating problems for Governor Ajimobi, but the governor was so smart and he received divine wisdom from God to maintain peace in the state. With these reasons, I made up my mind and resolved that PDP is not a party of a credible people. I resigned and defected to the ACN. Even, if PDP in Oyo State resolves all its internal wrangling, it cannot beat ACN in the 2015 general elections because Yoruba people are tired of them. Their crisis is from the top. Somebody will say there is no executive of the party in the state, another person will want to be the governor, senator, and another person will want to be the party chairman. They are all having problems.

    Look at the serious problem they are having now at the national level. Do you think they can resolve it before the 2015 elections? Anyway, I am sure that, with the merger move of our leaders, we will wrest power from them at the national level in 2015.

    Do you have any regret leaving PDP?

    I do not have any regret at all because I am leaving a peaceful life now, unlike before when I was still with them, where crises, troubles were their watchword. They will keep losing elections in the Southwest.

    What do you think is the reason for the defection of prominent people like Olunloyo and others from PDP to ACN?

    We all defected because the crisis in PDP is terrible and we all want peace. Senator Ayo Adeseun is a grassroots politician and he has never lost any election. Senator Adeseun warned Alao-Akala not to venture into many things, but he refused to yield to his advice. Imagine, we went to a meeting in Lagos with President Jonathan; you need to see how rude Akala was to the President when he started banging the table, and said to his face that without him, he will win his election. That was when all of us knew that their is no discipline in the party.

    ive minded in the state.

    Some people describe Governor Abiola Ajimobi as a ‘go slow governor’. What is your reaction to this?

    They were saying that when he just came on-board. There is a reason for that because, when a new government emerges, he needs to study the condition of things in the office before he embarks on any project.

    Let me give you an illustration. When you want to drive a car and you begin to accelerate at top speed, that shows that you are inexperienced and that may cost you your life. It shows that you cannot drive, but when you start slowly, you will get to your destination safely and that shows you are an experienced driver. The same thing applies to the way Governor Ajimobi is running this state.

     

     

     

    He started by observing the situation of things in the state and today he has done a lot to improve the standard of living of our people. He has paid the civil servant their dues. He considered the welfare of the workers as paramount important to him and he has constructed many roads. The ongoing fly-over of Mokola junction will soon be completed in a few months time. Education in the state has witness a new dimension. He does not allow indiscipline and corruption.

    Do you have any political ambition in mind?

    My political ambition in 2015 is to ensure that Governor Ajimobi returning back to the Agodi Government House as the elected Governor of Oyo State.

    What is your message to the people of Oyo State concerning the present administration?

    The people of the state should give the present administration their full support and be patient with Governor Abiola Ajimobi towards the transformation of the state.