2015: How Oyo PDP gov candidate will emerge —Minority leader The Minority Leader of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Honourable Rafiu Adekunle of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), speaks with BOLA BADMUS on sundry issues affecting the polity. Excerpts: why did the House ratify the renewal of tenure of caretaker chairmen of local governments in the state? There is a pending case at the Court of Appeal and we believe that with that case, the conduct of local government election is not possible now. We cannot leave a vacuum in the local government administration, so, definitely, we had to renew. But if we consider the renewal done this time around, eight of the local government chairmen were replaced. The House considered the position in the guideline, especially local government operation in the state; that if the local government officials were elected, they were supposed to spend three years. We considered that the chairmen would be three years in July and that was why the House took the option of renewal for only three months. So, by the end of those three months, a person who has been in local government for three years would have completed his tenure and he is due to be removed. And we believe that within the three-month period, the issues relating to court case, which is actually is between the former occupiers of OSIEC officers and the governor will the resolved. The former OSIEC had a case in their favour; that the governor should reinstate them and we at the House of Assembly are admonishing the governor to honour justice by settling all these people by the provision of the law. There have been different views on performances of local governments. As a lawmaker, would you say performance justifies the existence of that level of government? Well, if I can go by my visitations to various councils, majority of them performed below expectation and some that even performed well focused on the development of the areas of their political leaders, not minding all other areas in the local government. There is little you should expect from caretaker chairmen because they do the bidding of those who put them there, their paymasters. What is your recommendation if there must be desirable local government administration in the country? Local governments should enjoy autonomy such that a state governor or government would no longer be able to tinker with their money. For local governments to perform effectively, the state legislature must also be autonomous. They should be free to discharge their duties. Without these things, effective performance by local governments will be a mirage. Look at the states, the Federal Government is not in any way influencing their performances. The matter of local governments is not the same. Contractors could be sent to local governments to handle projects, people that are not from the environment, who do not even understand the terrain. But if there is autonomy for the local governments, I think these things will not happen. If you look at the situation, the staff members at the local are under the control of Local Government Service Commission. The local government has no iota of direction or power over discipline or punishment of erring members of staff. The local government should at least have certain control over its staffers, not the state government. The PDP in Oyo State is enmeshed in crisis, isn’t it? Well, we are still a little bit in crisis, but much of it has been resolved. What efforts are being made to resolve the rest? The party elders have been calling meetings which those who are complaining have been attending. I think the last meeting we held at Chief (Yekini) Adeojo’s house had representatives from various factions. We had representatives from Yemetu and we had representatives from Dandaru. All of us sat down together. We had at least two members of the House of Representatives in attendance, Honourables Ajibola Muraina and Bonvic. And the letters written by the House Leader, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola and the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Jumoke Akinjide, were also read there, and I believe with that, things will become normal. The party has been in crisis for more than three years now and election is coming up soon… We are going to resolve it very soon. The problem in PDP is not peculiar to Oyo State. You see what happened in Ekiti PDP; they have resolved their problems since they named their candidate for the governorship election. Party members are coming together. Also, look at what is happening in Osun State, the party members are coming together. As soon as we name our governorship candidate, things will be normal and because we don’t want to lose, we have to come together. What qualities will the party be looking for in its governorship candidate in Oyo State? I think the constitutional provision stipulates on the academic qualification. It says that an ordinary school certificate holder can be governor. What we are going to do is to listen to the people, know their views and consider the acceptability of a candidate from the area where he comes from. If you are from Ogbomoso, we want know your popularity with your people. If you are coming from Ibadan, we want to look at the acceptability you enjoy from your people, ditto for whoever is coming from Oke-Ogun or Ibarapa before we can put him forward as our candidate. By that, if you are embraced by at least a majority of your people, then you are okay because we are not expecting only PDP to vote for our candidate, we expect other parties, including APC, Labour and Accord to vote for our candidate. So, we want to look for somebody who is generally accepted. Governor Abiola Ajimobi is believed to have done better than his predecessor who happened to belong to your party. Do you agree to this claim? No, because I don’t see what this present administration is doing that we had not done. How? If you talk of education, we constructed a lot of classrooms and you will recollect that it was PDP-controlled administration under Governor Rashidi Ladoja that introduced 30 students per class and constructed millennium schools and Governor Alao-Akala consolidated that. Akala did a lot on water provision and road construction. He started all these things. Definitely, if you are coming in, you have to build on what you met on ground. What I want to say here is that all these projects that have not been completed before the expiration of Akala’s tenure should be completed by this administration since it inherited the assets and liabilities. Like which projects? We have Odo-Ona Elewe Road, we have Akala Way, we have New Garage-Apata Expressway and then we have Saki-Ilesa-Ibaruba Road. We have Iseyin-okeho Road which has to be completed. We also have Iganna-Ejio Road. All these are projects of the former governor which, I think, this present government should complete. Then how would you rate the current administration? We cannot measure performance in Ibadan alone; it has to cut across the nooks and crannies of the state. If we want to rate the administration, we can give it 50 per cent in Ibadan. In the entire state, it is less than 40 per cent, because most of its activities are Ibadan-based. Most of the constructions undertaken by this administration are based in Ibadan. I don’t think most of the roads they are doing in Oyo now can be completed during the life of this administration. And any road they award now will be for political reason, not for the sake of the people, but for the sake of winning election in 2015. The PDP lost Oyo State in 2011 because Senator Rasidi Ladoja left for Accord Party and his party is waxing stronger. How are you going to win in 2015 with the situation still the same? In 2007, the PDP won convincingly even without Ladoja. How? We won we won convincingly in 2007 without Ladoja and Akala spent four years before the 2011 election. From 2007 to 2011, we did not see Ladoja as a member of PDP. Ordinarily, we mooted an idea that he should stage a comeback and I believe he is trying to do it all alone. With or without Ladoja, PDP will win 2015 election in Oyo State. The APC are already cracked with the coming of Labour Party and Accord Party. The influence of Accord Party does not go beyond Ibadan. Go to Ogbomoso, the PDP is 90 per cent in control. Go to Oke-Ogun, the PDP is 90 per cent in control. Go to Ibarapa, the PDP is in control. It is only in Ibadan that we can be talking of Accord or APC. But if you are talking of Ogbomoso, where you say PDP is 90 per cent in control, former Governor Akala is in control... Akala is recognised, he is a de facto leader there. But with the crisis in the party, Akala is still not fully assimilated into Oyo PDP. And if he gets so aggrieved that he leaves the party, what happens to your permutations? As far as I am concerned, Akala will not leave PDP. He cannot destroy a house he helped build. But former Governor Segun Oni left PDP in Ekiti State... He has an issue with the party at the national level. Akala has no issue with the party in the state and even at the national level. We attended the party congress held at Liberty Stadium. He led the exercise on that day. He endorsed the executive of the party that day. It is those that are not insiders that would say that Akala is not assimilated into the party. The only thing I will admonish him (Akala) is to be more involved in party affairs in the state. That is it. Credit: Tribune Newspaper
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 20:29:17 +0000
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