Interview

Adewale charts course for Lagos PDP, ahead of state congress

Published

3 years ago

February 26, 2022

NANTA former Vice Chairman Adewale chides Turkish Airlines over unfounded fine imposition

Spread The News

Otunba Segun Adewale (Aeroland), a staunch People Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain had repeatedly made history at several congresses and elections of the party, winning convincingly given his ties with the party’s faithful has declared that aligning with leaders of the party who had paid their dues like Governor Seyi Makinde and Chief Bode George on the need for a consensus than an elective Congress is expedient, owing to the gang ups that usually ensues against any one, who eventually emerges at the congress, as the winner mostly takes all. Adewale speaks with National Daily ahead of the Congress slated to hold on Sunday,February 27 2022.

President Mohammadu Buhari contrary to the widely held believe signed the electoral bill after the National Assembly’s amendment, what is your take on that development?

With the signing of the electoral bill into law by the President, it makes everything opened but for this congress, it might be late because we have to adopt it and we can’t just say because the president has signed it we have to go that route now.

The Congress is fixed to hold on Sunday, as a stakeholder in the party what kind of Congress will you route for?

It is worrisome that the internal crack which has festered for too long, has continued to weaken the party to its foundation in Lagos State and rather than all the undemocratic bickering, the party should be warming up to take over government in the state by the next 2023 general elections. Right from time I have been an advocate of elective Congress,having tested it quite a number of times and emerged victorious, I am not scared of it being elective rather than a consensus harmonized thing.

However, I have come to realize over time that those who benefitted from consensus arrangement are the ones against it now, those who were formerly with Chief Bode George back then. Some of them with the backing of Secondus had already cornered the delegates at the ward and local government level via a consensus arrangement, mind you he has never tested his might at a fair Congress before, thus making the arrangement undemocratic.

The wisdom in this is that if we should toe the line of direct primaries to elect the 39 state exco and we come out victorious, then our ranks will be divided at eventual polls, where we need to win Lagos for PDP as a formidable front because of the winner takes all syndrome.

Those who loses will then team up and scuttle the move for progress. I have encountered this challenge most times in the past so I am speaking from experience, I once contested to be party’s candidate for House Reps and Senate consecutively and I won landslide even while not with the leaders, I know what I am talking about, back then all this characters I mentioned earlier teamed up and debar my eventual victory at polls but it is all history now.

So to forge ahead now and save acrimony I align with the leaders and National Working committee to opt for a consensus where all stakeholders will agree. That is what we must do to go into the election with one focus in mind winning Lagos fair and square.

So as it stands now, the Congress is a done deal for your camp?

It is a fact that cannot be controverted, that whoever I support will win, imagine who is our candidate in Chief Bode George’s camp now, he is a Doctor and a Lawyer, he really can’t be bought or when push come to shove decimated, I can confidently tell you that they will be disappointed.

I am working with the leader. While a lone ranger I won singly, I can’t lose, we will win and then the issue continues. Who knows who Shelle and Doherty are working for now? They were beneficiaries of Consensus but we have the people with us even their much trusted allies, at the right time we will defeat them. Imagine these set of people were the ones smearing the image of Chief Bode George as his foot soldiers in time past due to their greedy mien, we can see clearly, I for one I am not afraid of congress as my antecedents in that terrain are quite glaring, but even at that political journeys get scuttled later by machinations against my progress by those who lose elections. So that is why I am opting for consensus now having reasoned along with leaders like Governor Seyi Makinde, Chief Bode George and the National Working Committee.

We have a duty to ensure that this party survives, because that is where we belong, therefore, we must salvage it from any form of harm. Now from the look of things those whose ambition is to trade the party’s tickets, have positioned themselves with a bid to hijack the party’s State excos, as they have done at the ward and Local Government level, and such will spell doom for the party, if the trend is not immediately corrected.

So what is the way out?

The panacea for us now is for all critical stakeholders to give peace a chance, and allow democratic ideals to guide the selection process for the next state executives but those who had earlier benefited in the harmonization, by fixing people at the ward and Local Government level are now vehemently working against same Harmonization at the State level. I have said this severally, you cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stand, because, you cannot hold illegality with one hand and then be using the other hand to demand for legality.

It is very obvious that those calling for congress won’t win it but when another group wins, it will further polarize the party since it will play out in the winner takes it all manner but with the harmonization, it will allow a wider scope in the distribution of excos across various groups, which will help pull everyone together, and give sense of belonging to all stakeholders.

It is rather unfortunate that, these same people who have benefited immensely from our leader, Chief Olabode George, using his name to commit all manners of undemocratic acts, are now working zealously to thwart his effort of making sure that the party gets united ahead of the 2023 elections.

In essence you insist on the stance that having consensus arrangement will restore unity back to Lagos PDP, what will be your candid counsel on having a peaceful and yet credible congress?

Lagos is very critical for the party to win, at least Governorship for the first time since 1999, but the attitude of some of the leaders does not show that the party is ready. The last congress was marred by violence, which we don’t want again, this is another reason leaders should seat on a round table to iron things out. Nevertheless we are prepared to go for the congress on Sunday and whoever wins should reach out to one and another and whoever lose should accept it in good faith and work harmoniously with whoever emerges, because we’ve tried to avoid the possibility of any group taking it all.