Director of Media and Strategy, Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Idowu Ajanaku, in this interview with Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo, speaks on the stand of the party on the national conference, Nigeria’s leadership problem etc.
The leadership of Afenifere, particularly the spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, has accused the leadership of the APC of betraying the Yorubas in respect to the proposed National Conference. How do you view this?
I like to say very quickly that Odumakin is my friend. Odumakin with all sense of responsibility was one of the pillars of the progressives during the military era. He was also there when we were struggling against the PDP in the South-West. But what must have happened between now and then is what I do not understand, but if my judgment is right, I think Odumakin developed this hatred for the leadership of the progressives perhaps after Jimi Agbaje, who was his ally, was not given the governorship ticket for the 2007 election in Lagos.
He has raised quite a number of issues about the APC as a party and its leadership. First, he said the APC has not delivered dividends of democracy since 1999, and that APC governments in the South-West have been awarding a kilometre of road at a billion naira. He also made a statement that APC members are enemies of the people because of their stand about the National Conference.
Let me answer your question from the rear. President Jonathan’s government has started from the top what they ought to start from the scratch in respect of the National Conference. Also, President Jonathan has set up about 70 various committees in which reports have been submitted to him in the last three and half years, yet he has not been able to implement a single report out of it. Besides, Jonathan has not been able to fulfill a single campaign promise to the people of Nigeria since he was voted in 2011. He is only using the National Conference to deceive the people.
The leadership of Afenifere has accused the likes of Chief Bisi Akande and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among others, of selling the Yorubas to the northerners because of the alliance between the APC and the G7 and General Muhammadu Buhari. What is your reaction to this?
That is a pure fallacy. The leadership of Afenifere, which include Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Femi Okurounmu, Olu Falae, among others, were the ones who supported Obasanjo’s second term ambition in 2003. If you look at the history of the Yorubas very well, you will discover that Obasanjo was a fierce enemy of Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was the patriarch of Afenifere. It will interest you to know that when Gbenga Daniel was the governor of Ogun State under the conservative Peoples Democratic Party, the leadership of Afenifere supported him. Another question to ask Odumakin, who is alleging that the progressive leaders have sold the Yorubas to the northerners is: was he not the spokesman of General Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 presidential election? Did he consult any of the Yoruba leadership before he took up the appointment? This reminds me of a recent joke in town about Odumakin: the man, as they say, has ported from the mainstream of Afenifere to Afenifere of Pa Ayo Fasanmi, from there to Afenifere Renewal Group, then to Save Nigeria Group. From SNG, he moved to Mimiko’s camp during the Ondo election and now people are alleging that the man has ported to President Jonathan’s camp.
Why is the leadership of the APC skeptical about the National Conference?
The position of the APC and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the conference should be critically looked into. When Abacha took over power in Nigeria, the first thing he did was to set up a National Conference with constituent powers. At that time, Afenifere, under the leadership of Chief Abraham Adesanya, did not want to attend it. This same Bola Tinubu at that time told the world that the man (Abacha) was not sincere. At the end of the day it came to pass. In 2003, when the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was about entering into an alliance with Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo for his second term, Bola Tinubu also raised objection that Obasanjo was not a man to be relied upon but the leadership of Afenifere did not listen to him. At the end of the day, all the AD governors, except Tinubu, were rigged out of office. In 2006, when Obasanjo started the process of National Conference, Bola Tinubu again raised the alarm that this man was not sincere. At the end of the day, Obasanjo used the conference as a tool for his third term agenda. Ironically, history does not change; it is men that have failed to learn from history. I could remember in 2003, the leadership of Afenifere went to the Ota home of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. People like Pa Onasanya, Abraham Adesanya, Olanihun Ajayi, Ayo Adebanjo, including Odumakin, when Obasanjo wanted their support for a second term. Obasanjo got the second term but failed to fulfill the promises he made to them. The tragedy of it now is that the same people are now falling for the same bait from a PDP president who is worse than Obasanjo in terms of keeping promises. Is that the same man Afenifere leaders are following? A man Senator Okurounmu said he does not know his left from his right some six months ago. In as much as I’m not against Nigerians sitting down to discuss our problems, because I will be pretending if I say that Nigeria’s present structure is not defective and there is need to sit down and address the imbalance. But President Goodluck Jonathan cannot be trusted with such a very serious national assignment. So, what we are saying now is that the likes of Chief Bisi Akande, Bola Tinubu, Chief Segun Osoba, and others are human beings and definitely will have their own faults, but when the Yorubas were seen to have been alienated politically by the PDP, Bola Tinubu stood up, provided the leadership, provided the muscle and all it takes to recue Edo, to rescue Ekiti, to rescue Osun and got good victories in Ogun and Oyo. I think such people deserve commendation and not antagonism. It is the same anger they showed towards the Ondo election. How can Afenifere take side with Mimiko, a man who is noted to be a serial betrayer? The man betrayed Ajasin against Omoboriowo; he colluded with Agagu to rig out Chief Ayo Adefarati who was an Afenifere leader; the same Mimiko, who was not in the struggle against the military.
Odumakin said APC states are doing roads for one billion naira per kilometre and that when Adebayo Akala was governor of Oyo, he was doing it at N50million?
It is a pure fallacy. The question you now ask is that where are those roads now? There are lots of other factors that add up to road constructions. For example, when the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu constructed the Oregun Road in Lagos, a lot of funds went into transferring of vital cables and other materials which were embedded in the contract. The road has been constructed for over 10years and still in very solid shape till now. In modern day Israel, there are roads not more than 10 kilometres that were constructed with millions of dollars because of the nature of the area. It is not the length of a road that ultimately determines its cost, but the quality, the terrain and other factors. Odumakin can make his point without necessarily twisting the facts of history.
Odumakin said the APC will be living in a fool’s paradise if it thinks it can unseat a sitting president but he failed to realise that it happened in Senegal. Is he encouraging the president to use security agents to rig elections in 2015?
