The stormy petrel and strong man of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Otunba Segun Adewale popularly known as Aeroland fought his way to the top in the party. Like a medical doctor, he has diagnosed the crisis bedeviling Lagos PDP and proffered a single solution that can unite the party make it bounce back and be reckoned with in the state. He spoke with our Senior Political Correspondent OLANREWAJU ADESANYA, excerpts:
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) remains a virile political platform and this is an incontrovertible stance, but the major setbacks suffered by the party was majorly orchestrated by party’s bigwigs, busy imposing unpopular characters in key positions.
I make bold to say that PDP political chances started dwindling when genuine procedures give way to ‘Jankara’ arrangements.
In time past when we strictly adhere to party’s stipulated procedures, when the right and popular choice have the reins of control, disruptions as now witnessed had no place.
It is a fact that, I Segun Adewale would have had no place politically if fairplay was not entrenched in PDP as at then, I came from nowhere and even defeated the seemingly anointed one because our electoral process was not tampered with.
This feat I repeated a number of times, and it worked only because the process were fair. Since then things have become dysfunctional in that ruthless imposition have stalled the political movement that should have guaranteed a better progression.
Some of the grey spots I will vividly mirror here includes; numerous challenges like indegenous people factor, leadership tussle, endless in-house fighting which often robs us of our deserved victory owing to disaffection, lack of unity and proliferation of factional groups in the party.
These problems and many more stems from the fact that since the death of Engineer Funsho Williams, we have not really had any election into administrative offices and hierarchical positions within the party frame in Lagos State.
Often times it is an assemblage of leaders that determines who has what position in Lagos State, unlike other states where constitutionally entrenched congress remains the process via which officers are churned out to represent and direct the affairs of the party,this is not afforded in Lagos PDP and it’s quite unfortunate.
Here in Lagos leaders always come together to harmonize list every four, four years and the worrisome trend is that most of the said leaders can not even win their polling units, this same leader now replicate their likes in positions within the party and failure is the end result, there are instances that I can cite regarding this.
Though not passing the bulk, I know that Chief Olabode George is at the epicentre of all challenges we have in Lagos PDP, it is however clear he is a nice person and want the best for the party but he is surrounded by hypocrites who engage in praise singing without giving him sincere counsel.
Personally Chief Bode George is a fine politician and party chieftain who calls the shot here in Lagos, but his foot soldiers are not helping him to deliver the good as he should, I am a witness of his clear practice of fairplay in politics of Lagos, but for that my feats in 2011 and 2015 respectively would not have been possible, although he had a preferred candidate, he still allowed free, fair and credible primaries and elections.
I think for this great posture of his not to be misconstrued, he needs to be much more firm and also reprimand his lieutenants to emulate his stance on fairplay, for PDP to win Lagos through and through.
In 2011, I contested to be party’s House of Reps candidate in Alimosho, Chief Bode George’s boy M.M Lawal was also contending but I came from nowhere and defeated him because there was an election, if there were no elections, M.M.Lawal would have won and my name will not ring a bell in Lagos or in PDP.
Same scenario played out in 2015, when I moved a notch higher vying for the Lagos West Senatorial District seat. Chief Bode George’s interest was represented by Salvador, the person that brought PDP to Lagos,Chief Dapo Sarumi was contesting as well, we are about four of five and I won the election landslide but BG did not twist the hands of history backward by subverting the process and sending his preferred name to Abuja as winner .
As it is today, splinter group who claimed their loyalty is for BG are the ones fighting him in PDP all because they wanted the culture of list harmonisation to continue. Bulk of those bickering are his ilks, Dr Ogunkelu, Shelle and more.
Solution
The only solution to our predicaments in Lagos, where we have never won the Senatorial or gubernatorial election is to conduct proper primaries and elections as in 2015,when we had a number of House of Reps and House of Assembly members and even Senate, though we were robbed.
Due process churned out quality candidates that won elections; 6 members of the Federal House of Representatives and 8 members of the state House of Assembly.
The process was credible and therefore brought about credible candidates and we won all through aside few points where our people sold out in Mushin, Ifako-Ijaiye and Alimosho.
It is pertinent to note that if we continued with harmonisation of list in Lagos, factions that feigns loyalty to Chief Olabode George but abhors fair play will naturally take the lion share and the rifts ranges on, acrimony and animosity festers more within the party and victory will elude us repeatedly.
The sad tale is most of his lieutenants gives him wrong counsels that breeds failure. A clear instance is that of Dominic who was selected as chairman of Lagos PDP, he ended up disrupting the template of victory already laid and we did suffered a colossal defeat at the polls in 2019.
Dominic created a parallel exco from the state to ward level in the party, given our victory in 2015 we ought to have consolidated on that in 2019, but no we failed woefully due to imposition by the leaders.
A continued disruption of procedures, where hitherto congresses dictates emergence of party officials from ward to state level is an ill wind that brings Lagos PDP no good but outright failure and this must be discountenanced forthwith if we desired victory at polls.
I feel so passionate about this because sometimes next month PDP Southwest congress holds, the needful should be done to ensure unhindered procedural flow of the process.
When we have popular candidates no heights is unattainable.
We also contend with the idea of the indigenous laying claims to positions within the party, they claim to be Lagosians so basic leadership positions and even elective positions should be allotted to them, this in itself is a template for failure, we need check them out what they are bringing to the table; their political clout, economic and social prowess in the state.
It is a known fact that Lagos and Abuja are cosmopolitan states not indigenous, Lagos is the former state capital of Nigeria, while Abuja is presently our nation’s capital you cannot afford to give any indigenous colouration especially when the polity is in question.
So Lagos is a microcosm of Nigeria, the Igbos, Niger Deltans and more all have a stake here,so they must be factored in politically, we have to do things in common here with less attention to indigenous colourations, imagine what is in your indigenous claim if you can’t win your polling unit?
Facts they say speaks, I have always won my polling units, wards and more, either when contesting for a position or not. A popular candidate will always do well, so to end rancours in the party and guarantee sustenance of a winning streak, a free, fair and credible congress must be held.
It is disheartening to hear them make claim to being Lagosians and only celebrate their Nigerianess when a Nigerian citizen get appointment in the diaspora; UK, US and Europe. Many of them when the push comes to shove here they referred to others as of Igbo descents or South South and so cannot lay claim to positions their quality and clout deserves, we need to rework the system and allow credible process thrive.
In order for us to win election in Lagos, we have to go back to the drawing board and make sure that the right people, candidates, exco members are voted or appointed not selected by the leaders.
If we still go by selection, a lot of people will be against it and the party will be factionalized on account of preference of one above the others group loyalty problem arises, but credible elections put paid to rancour and faction because the popular candidate wins at the end of the day.
Our major problem is harmonisation of list, a style which debars emergence of the best candidates to represent us.
PDP National should come and ensure elections are conducted into offices as against sharing or harmonizing list in Lagos state.
Then we can now win Lagos. Lagos is not winnable if selection holds sway. Chief Bode George should work on his lieutenants making sure that elections are conducted,he should discourage sharing of positions as his people have the majority in such scenario and internal wrangling, more splinter groups arises and the battle continues for another four years.