2015: PDP will end Saraki’s dynasty in Kwara – Oyedepo

 Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, the Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kwara State chapter in this interview with NEWS EDITOR (Saturday), AJIBOLA ABAYOMI, takes on the leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Senator Bukola Saraki and vowed that his party will ensure that the incumbent governor of the state, Abdulfatah Ahmed is defeated during the general elections. Excerpts…

With political giant, like Senator Bukola Saraki leading Kwara APC, do you think your party can reclaim power during the general election?


I am happy that you talked about giant and not giants in APC. Bukola Saraki’s leadership in APC is a fake one. You cannot compare him with his dad, late Chief Abubukar Olusola Saraki. In a democratic setting, no leader rules forever. With time, what you call dynasty will expire and another one will come to being. When Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu was alive in Ibadan, he was dictating the pace of Oyo State politics. When Joseph Takar was there, he was in charge of Benue State . When both of them died, their leadership died with them. Even when Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe and Tafawa Balewa died, none of their family members occupied the same political space they had. By February this year, we shall show the whole world that Bukola cannot wear that over size shoe left behind by his father except you are saying those of us in Kwara State are not human beings anymore. It was the PDP that made Bukola governor in 2003. Could he or his father have won the poll, if they had joined another party?   In 2011, when Chief Olusola Saraki was alive, he was defeated by the PDP when he chose to join another party. Don’t forget that it was the PDP that helped Bukola to defeat his dad who was the original owner of the dynasty. Even in 2011, Bukola was almost defeated before votes from the suburb rescued him during the senatorial election. Of course, he was lucky to have used the benefit of his office as governor to control the security and the electoral process. That was a sigh that the end of Saraki’s dynasty is in the offing. The current crop of politicians holding sway in Kwara State government took away the mandate given to them on the platform of the PDP to APC. However, they were not able to take away the people of the state with them to their party. To that extent, we are confident that we are going to reclaim the state during the election. The people are not happy that their mandate has been taken to the APC.

Where did the Kwara PDP get it wrong that made all the elective office holders in state except a Senator to decamp with Bukola to the APC?

The mistake was that the PDP under the leadership of Bukola was not democratic. Candidates without clout and political relevance were the ones imposed on the party.  Those types of politicians had no choice than to follow him because they were not even accepted by their own people. There is nothing on ground since Bukola became governor that will make the people of Kwara State to be so fanatical to support him and his stooge, Governor Ahmed Abdulfatal during the general election.

But how come that the big wigs in the PDP folded their arms and allowed Bukola to choose all the candidates while he was in PDP?

To be honest, when the PDP was in the hands of Bukola, the party was not democratic. When he joined the PDP, he drove those he met in the party and became an octopus. He began to take decisions alone. That was his undoing. Power intoxicates a lot such that when some people become governor, they will be behaving as if they are God onto themselves.

The APC is so confident that those of you in the PDP are just remnants of the power block in the state as such you are not a threat to the party?

They are not being honest. The only set of people that left the PDP with Bukola were commissioners and the handpicked political office holders he appointed like the Local Government chairmen, House of Assembly members, councilors and the those chopping from him. The real power brokers are still with the PDP. Immediately Bukola joined the APC, more than 80% of those that left the PDP and more 80% of those that were with him refused to defect to the APC. So the PDP is now stronger.

But how do you intend to blend all the stakeholders in the PDP given the picture you painted?

To those who are used to one man command structure, our party now is strange to them. There is strength and unity in diversity of interest. We are going to do away with the one man political culture.


But Kwarans are used to one man leadership style in politics as shown by late Olusola Saraki?

That is not the culture of Kwara people at all. We are not made to be subservient to one man. The slogan of the PDP is now freedom to the people. The reliance on one man knowledge is inimical to societal progress. That is why there has not been progress in Kwara State for years.

What will the PDP do differently if you are able to regain power?

Let me start with agriculture that has not been truly tapped into. The present governor and Bukola brought 15 Zimbabweans farmers and wasted several billion of naira on them without any meaningful achievement. We are going to ensure mechanised farming by empowering the farmers. We also have plans for the health sector. In the area of education, for over 10 years now Kwara has been scoring less than 10% in West African Examination Council (WAEC) in terms of aggregate pass mark for both English and Mathematics. The primary schools are in comatose. We shall provide for quality and affordable education and open up the rural roads. Again, we are going to ensure that there is provision of portable water in the state. In all the areas, I have mentioned the present government in Kwara State under Governor Ahmed Abdulfatal has failed.

The governor is almost four years in office, are you saying he has nothing to show for that?

You can ask anybody in the state to tell you when last they had water except through their own borehole. The governor said he renovated Omu-aran Hospital. Some people were involved in an accident and were taken to the hospital; you cannot believe that it was the relatives of the victims that bought fuel to power the generator in the hospital.  To make the matter worst, the people had to be moved to a teaching hospital in Ilorin. You can imagine the lies they tell the people. Unemployment under the present governor is on the increase. When he was building stadium, Aviation College and faking agriculture development, the people of the state were never with him or Bukola, I was in the APC. I defected to the PDP because Bukola joined the APC. If he joins the PDP today, I will run away from the party. I had written petition against him to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and other agencies, so people like us with different political ideology can never work with him.

Since the man is yet to be convicted or indicted on any of the allegations you raised against him that shows that he is innocent, why don’t you let him be?

There are lots of criminals working along the streets that the law is yet to catch up with. Governor Ahmed is from Kwara South like my humble self but he won’t win second term in office because his government made no meaning to the people in terms of infrastructure, health, education and employment. By the time we release score card on him, you will shed tears for the state. The allocation he has collected for over three and half years shows that he has underperformed just like Bukola, his predecessor whom for eight years also failed the state. It is not in the interest of the people of Kwara to vote for the APC at any level. Anybody that even leaves PDP to join the APC will be devaluing he or herself. Those with Bukola are only following him because they are chopping from him.

Some have alleged that elections have never been free in Kwara State, how are you looking forward to the poll this time around?

The machinery of rigging formerly in the hands of Bukola is no longer there. Police, Department of State Security (DSS) and other security agents will no longer give him cover. All we are asking for is a level playing ground. If the people voted APC in a free and fair manner, we will congratulate them. But by the grace of God, they will not win. There is nothing strange beaten an incumbent governor or party. That has been demonstrated in Ekiti State last year. Kwara State has depended on monthly dash from Abuja for long. If the state is unable to If the state is unable to get statutory allocation for one month, then the state government will collapse. We have a governor that cannot make the state to be financial independent after 12 years he and his masters have been in power, he is a failure. We have more than 2.5 million people to motivate for productivity in Kwara State but the governor is not creative at all. If the state government is organised, they can even live on tax. In Kwara State, government has failed in all ramifications that is why people beat up tax collectors because there is no presence of government anywhere. I am both the local government and state government where I live in Ilorin, the state capital because I provide my own water and the security called olode myself. In fact, whenever people sighted tax collectors, their thought is always that maybe the governments are not even contended with the money they are making and as such they still want to milk their pockets. You can’t blame the people because the state government is not responsive at any level.



An interview by Daily Independent.