I dont know why people fail to understand game @hand. Why I Want to Take APC Guber Ticket from Ajimobi -Barrister Bayo Shittu … Says endorsing governor’s reelection bid is suicidal for party. Barrister Adebayo Shittu is a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State. He is determined to stop Governor Abiola Ajimobi from getting the governorship ticket of the APC for a second term in office. With Some of Your Recent Statements, Has the Battle Line been drawn between You and the Incumbent? Honestly, there is no battle anywhere. You must appreciate that democratic politics is about contest and competition of ideas, competition and contest of characters, competition and contest of ambitions and aspirations and of visions. Unfortunately, we have been operating within the APC under the wrong perception there would not be primary elections. A number of leaders of the party are giving the impression against the trend of APC. They failed to distinguish between ACN and APC. It is true that in ACN there used not to be primary elections but within the APC, the goal is to ensure that we give the best example of the practice of internal democracy and that is why in Anambra where there was a governorship election recently, there was a primary election which was even superior to what PDP used to operate. In Anambra there was direct primary, Ngige defeated his opponents by scoring 46,000 votes. In Ekiti, Fayemi scored 177, 000 votes, in Osun, Aregbesola in the primaries of APC scored 255,000 votes. So, I had the obligation to let the public know that the era of imposition of candidates is gone for good, that the era of sit tight rulership has gone for good and that the era when an incumbent will feel that because he has overwhelming powers and opportunity so, he would cage other aspirants has gone for good. So, what you have seen all relates not to the possibility of a battle but contest of ideas and enlightenment for the generality of members of APC. Is It True that Some Members of the Party Left Because they Were Sidelined? It is true that some of our leaders within the APC had for reasons of perceived frustration and injustice and relegation to the background decided to leave APC for greener pastures elsewhere. Those who left, many of them are very responsible politicians and citizens of Oyo State among who are the only two senators we have in APC in Oyo State, Senators Olufemi Lanlehin and Ayo Adeseun. Of course, they are not small kids who would just leave without having strong reasons. But I am one man who never runs away from battles either electoral or otherwise. I don’t start battles but I don’t run away when one surfaces. So, as for me and having regard to the fact that I was a founding member of APC, haven served on the merger committee of both the erstwhile CPC and APC itself for months, I don’t see what will force me out of this party, no matter what frustrations directed against me. I believe that in view of the vision of the party to establish the best of democratic practice, I would remain and benefit from this democratic practice. Why Are You Interested in Governor Ajimobi’s Job.? I am happy that you appreciate that I’m interested in Ajimobi’s job rather than being interested in working under him. I want to take over his job. Of course, I cannot take it over unless first, members of the party endorse my candidature to become the ticket holder of the party and if the people of Oyo State endorse me. You have to look at my antecedents: I was a member of the House of Assembly between 1979 and 1983 that was more than 30 years ago. I was also a commissioner for Information, Home Affairs and Culture. Lately, I was a member of the Judicial Service Commission of Oyo State. I was a member of the National Political Reform Conference and also Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice. The foundation for all these which is unique to me is the fact that of all the governorship candidates or aspirants in Oyo State, I’m the only one who had direct political tutorials at the feet of the late elder statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I was a student at the then University of Ife and from my university I was going for meetings of the Committee of Friends every Saturday at Park Lane, Apapa. I was the only student member of the Committee of Friends and I participated in the evolution of the manifesto and programmes of what then became the Unity Party of Nigeria. The four cardinal programmes you would recall was the fulcrum of the manifesto of the UPN even before UPN was formed, we had the Committee of Friends of which I was a member. So, I learnt politics from him and I also inherited from him the passion for service to bring about life more abundant to the people of my state. So, I don’t want to be governor for the fun of it, I don’t want to be governor because I want to steal money, I am one person who believe strongly in God and I fear him and I know that for those who steal public funds, the repercussions are very great. My aim and ambition is based on my passion for service. I come from a poor family background and lived through poverty and I believe there is no justification for our people to remain in poverty, I believe I have what it takes to bring about radical change and transformation in the lives of the people of Oyo State through my programmes. During Chief Awolowo’s UPN days, we had four cardinal programmes, in view of the advancement in society and in civilization I’ve expanded my own programmes from Chief Awolowo’s four cardinal programmes to seven. Let Us into Some of Your Plans and Programmes for Oyo State.? The first is free qualitative and functional education. A lot of party leaders in government pride themselves as members of the progressive party unfortunately none of them is implementing any of Chief Awolowo’s four cardinal programmes. I pray that God gives me the grace to be the first politician in recent times to revive and resuscitate Chief Awolowo’s masses-oriented programmes and the first being qualitative and functional education. The second would be comprehensive health and medical reforms, the third, integrated infrastructural transformation, fourth, full and gainful employment, we would ensure that the bulk of our university and polytechnic graduates and graduates of other tertiary institutions become employers of labour by the grace of God. The fifth is integrated agricultural and rural development, sixth will be industrial transformation of Oyo State while the seventh will be what I call citizens’ distress relief programme. Let me comment briefly on two issues, integrated infrastructural transformation. Today, we have a governor in place who is an APC governor. He has done very well in the areas of road construction, bridges construction, environmental sanitation and beautification of streets. All of these and more constitute just one of my programme, integrated infrastructural transformation. Full and gainful employment for all is to ensure that within three months of coming into office, we would do a registration of all unemployed graduates of diversified institutions. Thereafter, they’ll be taken through another three months entrepreneurship programme after which all participants will be required to produce feasibility reports as to what they think the combination of their degrees and diplomas and the entrepreneurship training could bring out so that government could not only mentor them but also give them interest free loans for them as capital. Again on the issue of citizens’ distress relief programme, I have mentioned the level of poverty that we have in Oyo State. More often than not you have a lot of people who may be they have gone through a skills acquisition programme, they want money to buy implements of their jobs, nobody to run to, you have people who need N5,000, N10,000 to start something, to revive their lives, to get empowered unfortunately there is nobody to look to. I want to give the example of the late Arisekola even as somebody who had not been in government he has touched lives of a lot of citizens of Oyo State. If an individual can do that much in the very local and humane way that Alhaji Arisekola has done, how much a government, why would government be insensitive to basic human needs? So, I want to assure that my programme on citizens’ distress relief programme is to bring succor and relief to all citizens in distress. But You Should be Supporting the Governor for a Second Term in Office.? Why would I support him (Ajimobi) when I have my own aspirations and when I believe I can do better for the citizens of Oyo State than the incumbent, Ajimobi is my friend, he is my brother but that does not presupposes that there should not be competition between me and him and any other person because Oyo State is the common property of all of us and under the constitution of Nigeria, we all have the inalienable rights to contest for any position we feel we can excel in. I believe that the higher interests of the masses make it obligatory for me to seek the position of governor and in any case a governor is supposed to spend four years renewable but that renewal is not automatic. If he has done well and the people of the state and the party feels he should continue of course, I can’t stop him but that does not presuppose that because he’s interested in a second term I should subsume my own interest and aspiration to his own. I have no such obligation not to contest, it is in the best interest of not only the citizenry of Oyo State for me to contest particularly it is in the interest of members of APC for me to contest. If you have been living in Oyo State you know that the immense goodwill that the governor enjoyed at the inception of this regime has been frittered away with due respect to him because a lot of people in our community whether civil servants, teachers, okada riders, market women and the ordinary citizens would tell you that you APC, if you love yourself and you want to continue to be in government, you must have another candidate and I have challenged people who may think I am saying this because of my own personal interest that they should undertake their own discreet investigation to see what the people of Oyo State feels, mine is to put myself up, the people will ultimately decide, for APC to endorse him for reelection would amount literarily to committing class suicide for APC. Even PDP which was disgraced out of government in 2011 are now regrouping because they perceived like the majority of the citizenry that the governor is in trouble with the people of the state. I don’t see any uphill task in dislodging Ajimobi within our party because I believe our party members are thinking, hearing and listening human beings who know that for our party, APC to field Ajimobi would be like we are tired of being in government and you would recall that ACN which is the major component of APC in Oyo State under the name of AD won elections in 1999. But it lost election in 2003, lost election again in 2007 and won in 2011 only because a lot of chieftain s of PDP because they had axes to grind with the then governor Alao Akala left PDP and worked for Ajimobi and the ACN and despite the cumulative effects of their effort, Governor Ajimobi won only by 33,000 votes which perhaps equals the votes of just one local government. Unfortunately, all of those people who worked for ACN then for Ajimobi to win have left in annoyance and out of frustration and are saying they are not ready to come back unless the governorship ticket is won by any other candidate who has not offended the politicians and members of the general public. So, compare 33,000 votes difference to what Aregbesola got in Osun, 109,000 votes, you know that if with the support of elements from PDP, he won only by 33,000 votes, and with the trend of people leaving the ACN, God saves us if Ajimobi should retain the ticket. It’s Like All is Not Well in Your Party.? I would like to confirm that the reign of marginalization, the reign of Mr. Know – all, the reign of sidelining within the APC continues because if you look at what happened during the last congresses for the election of executives at the ward and local government and state levels, it was a one-man show, the governor alone controlled who got what after haven deceived we of the CPC that he was going to be fair in the selection process. Unfortunately we complained to him, he didn’t respond, we also complained to the national leadership that this man had shamelessly deceived us into trusting in him that he would do justice. He failed and there is need for an amendment by the national leadership, unfortunately, I believed that the Appeal Committee set up was compromised along the line and that was why they found it difficult to give us a feedback or report of their appeal intervention. The party has a duty to be fair to all of us and I believe the party will live up to expectations of all of us to provide a level playing ground with regard to the forthcoming primary elections. Do You Have What It Takes to Win The Governorship Ticket? If the primaries were to be indirect primaries, then we would have something to fear because it is only the governor’s lackeys that are in control of the party apparatus but since the party has by its unfolding tradition decided that we would have direct primaries which would involve all registered members of APC throughout the state and throughout the country, we believe that once we are able to talk to people and they are able to reason along with us, we have a chance of defeating the incumbent for the ticket of the APC. Ajimobi knows that we are a big problem for him. Of course, he can decide to ignore us to his peril. Whether he ignores us or not, we are determined consciously to fight for the ticket and it is for members of the party to take their decisions. I would abide by the decisions of the party given free, fair, acceptable primary elections.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 08:26:22 +0000
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