Buhari must not marginalise S/West

Senator LekanBalogunis a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South West region and member of the Board of Trustees of the party. Chief Balogunin this interview with OLUSESAN LAOYE in Ibadan submitted that the PDP leaders must act fast to reverse the fortunes of the party. He also called on President MuhammaduBuhari to look into the issue of poverty in the country now. Excerpts:

After the last general elections some of you were accused of anti-party activities and working against the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. This resulted in the call for your suspension and others from the party, what is the situation now?

I think the media got the story wrong. It was not me that they wanted to suspend. I think they were mistaken DrSakaBalogun for DrLekanBalogun. It was not me; however, I think it is wrong for anyone to want to suspend anybody, without subjecting the person to the trial of the party system. Those to be suspended were not alleged before a disciplinary committee and it was wrong to just conclude the suspension without putting them on trial because it would amount to sentencing them without trial. It is not done. Although like I said, it was DrSakaBalogun that they meant, not me.

But it was said that the measure was to be meted out on them because as members of the PDP they did not support Senator TeslimFolarin who was the governorship candidate of the party in Oyo State?

I supported the PDP candidate, I did but I don’t want to elaborate on this. I think it was meant to be DrSakaBalogun and not myself.

Before the last general election, there was a serious crisis in the party in Oyo State and this led to the defection of former Governor AlaoAkala to the Labour Party and SeyiMakinde to the SDP. The thinking was that if not for the division in the party, AbiolaAjimobicould not have been able to break the second term jinx. How is the party working towards resolving the crisis?

I keep telling the media people that the process of resolving the crisis is already on and you will hear when the final bells sounds that the people are back in the fold. It is not a one day process, it takes a bit of time but we are talking and I believe that with time, we are going to be one family once again.

The crisis in Oyo State cannot be isolated from the crisis that the party is facing in the entire South West. What are the leaders of the party doing to restore sanity in the South West PDP?

The consequences of the election are such that patience is the necessity. The outcome of the election has to become stable before you start taking decisions. The direction of the party would emanate from the stability of the events that led to the collapse of the PDP government and the emergence of the APC government. But it would take some time and I am sure that all of you will witness when the party will be stable again.  The collapse of the government was brought about by the leaders of the party in government, but it is not yet time to talk about this.

I will give you examples at the right time. But we warned them that they would destroy the presidency. I have text messages here on my phone to show that we warned them. I mean those who destroyed the government. Even the man whose Goodwill led them to becoming ministers they ignored his interest, they ignored the party’s global interest. They were just busy pursuing self interests and that was what led to the collapsed of the PDP presidency and not just the government.  Not that they were not warned, some of us warned them seriously. I won’t mention names at this stage but I will mention names at the right time.  They destroyed the Presidency and the man whose goodwill led them to becoming ministers thought that they were working for his interest to repay the goodwill but they did not, but were very busy serving themselves. That was what led to the collapsed of the PDP government and the Presidency. Some of us predicted it, even in black and white to the ministers involved.

The bottom line of all these is that PDP has now find itself in opposition after 16 years of being in control of the federal government,  how do you think your party would effectively play this role?

Well the PDP has no choice but to adapt with the present situation it has found itself.  Again it is just that new leaders might emerge and they would be those who are more in tune with the latest development. The opportunists’ elements would actually opted out of the party because they were opportunistic they were there because the party was in government and now that the party is no more in government, they would move elsewhere. These are hustlers in politics. I am not ready to start mentioning names now; we would talk about such people at the right time too.

With what you have said, then, what is the way forward for the PDP generally in the country?

I mentioned earlier that the party leaders are putting their heads together in Abuja and across the country. We hope that the way forward would emerge in the ongoing discussions in the country. But let me not pre-empt the way forward, it would emerge at the right time.

The APC has won the presidential election and the PDP now in opposition, what areas will you want the Buhari government to give special attention?

I think Buhari’s government should concentrate in leading Nigerians correctly, governing Nigeria properly and forget being the President of a particular party. He should take care of BokoHaram, unemployment, and take care of those who are working without salary. In fact, one could say that we are in the worst stage of our history as a country. This is the period when people would go to work without income. For the first time in my adult life I see a lot of poverty around me. People who used to seek help for medical reasons or school fees for their children are now seeking help for food, and yet they are working. The presidency must look into this and ensure that the trend is reversed. That way, he would become everybody’s president and not a particular party’s president.

Buhari’s government should not be chasing shadows, there are real and concrete socio-economic problems for them to tackle and I don’t have any doubt that the self discipline of the new president would ensure that something is done; otherwise we are in problem as a country. Poverty for once is stirring into everybody’s face. Again, we have always had large scale of unemployment but not as bad as it is now because those who are working were able to help those who don’t have work. But those who are working don’t have income to even support those without jobs, they are just working.

I receive a lot of cases here which are very pathetic. Some will come to tell you that they have three kids and a wife and they are working without anything to live on. Some would send text messages that their children are ill, one collapsed this morning, the child is dying and they have no kobo to take the child to the hospital, so the presidency must look into this problem of poverty in the land, hunger in the land and ensure that those who go to work have an income apart from tackling high level of unemployment in the land.

Right now the governing APC is in crisis following the national assembly leadership tussle; do you think this development could affect governance in the country and hinder Mr. President from fulfilling his promise of change?

The problem with our country is that our politicians work for self interest. They don’t work for the global interest of the people. Why should the election of national assembly officials cause crisis. You don’t go to one cafeteria to wait for the party to impose a candidate as senate president. What they did when they elected Saraki was right and that is the way it is done. The tradition is to elect your senate president on the floor of the senate, which was what happened. That should not lead to a crisis. I read several reports that APC is shocked with what happened. But what happened was the right thing and it was the tradition.  It wasn’t that they went out and chose a non-senator to become the president. That shouldn’t have been a crisis, the person elected is a senator and he is from the country. Our politicians just use party platforms to pursue selfish interests and it is not right for the country.

 It was said that it was due to the dispute in the PDP that paved way for the emergence of Governor Ajimobi for a second term?

I don’t want to comment on that. Yes, the performance of the PDP was not too good but I don’t know if it led to the victory of Ajimobi in the state.  Let us wait for the outcome of the matter in court. The matter is not concluded yet. Let us see what happened. We are still waiting for what will come out of RashidiLadoja’s litigation. We would be pre-empting the court processes if we start saying he won. Did he? Until the court declares that he won, and then we are going to take it up from there.

Again what happened simply confirms that Nigerian politicians use party platform to pursue self interests. It did not have to happen. I spoke to some of them before it happened and they said Baba I will rather lose fighting alone than to fight for somebody else’s victory.  That was the logic, it is not ideological and it is not political.

How do you now feel with your political son SeyiMakinde losing the Oyo State governorship election?

I am not happy about it. He is a very nice person, very good person and he is a potential material for the future. I am not happy that Folarin did not win and not happy that Makinde went the way it did.

The events now unfolding in the country have shown clearly that the South- South and the South East want to take over the PDP since they are the ones to provide the funds. What is your reaction to this?

What is wrong in any part of the country wanting to have a major say on what goes on. What is bad in their aspiration to have a stake? They can aspire to have a say, other zones should not be dormant and go to sleep as well, they could also aspire to have a major say.  Let us not speculate on what will happen to other zones. Let us leave that to time to take care of that.

But it was argued that this could deepen the crisis in PDP?

I don’t think so, because common sense will prevail at the end of the day. Why should any zone want to impose itself on other zones in the country? We are all Nigerians to share things equitably and everybody should look at what is being shared and see that it is fair.  Fairness is only fairness of course, not unlike our politicians who pursue selfish interests at all times, but time would check them. I am sure they won’t have their goals and their ways either.

As a leader of the PDP this is the party that almost controls the entire South West but now it has two states and the second one is by proxy, what does this suggests about the party in the zone?

Well I don’t feel too good and I don’t have political aspirations for myself anymore I am like everybody’s father now. The situation is not good for the PDP. Leaders of the party must put their heads together and do what they can to reverse the situation. The way democracy works and with the law of dialectics, events would solve themselves out with time.

Some people see what transpired in the national assembly election as plot to clip the wings of AsiwajuBola Tinubu who is the leader of the party and influential too?

What role you play should be determined by the wishes of the people. You should not lord yourself over the people. If what they are saying is what is happening, I think it is wrong. He should wait fordemocracy to take its process, to get the process to assign roles for people. You don’t scheme to lord yourself over anybody. In a way what happened in the national assembly is a good development to check that tendency if truly he has that tendency. I don’t have the facts to say he has those tendencies and I will not bother myself commenting further on that.

You are one of the leaders from the South West who spoke strongly against the marginalization of the South West in terms of appointments in the last regime, and with what is playing out now in the national assembly do you think the situation would at the end of the day favour the South West?  

Nobody knew that BukolaSaraki would emerge as the senate president but he has emerged. There would be a lot of more surprises to come. We have to be fair in sharing positions in the country. Dialectics like I said before is a law that takes care of things like that; I don’t want to bother myself about it. I don’t have the slightest fear that South West would be marginalized.

What is the way forward for the country?

The way forward is the government to provide good governance for the people. The present government and those in position of authority should govern well across classes, across parties, attend to areas that require government attention and I hope they do it well. The next few months would determine whether they will do it well and if they don’t do it well they will be sorry for themselves.