PDP chieftain and former member of Ondo State House of Assembly, Alex Akinnadeju, speaks with Special Correspondent, JULIUS ALABI, on factors that worked against the party in the last election and his fears for it ahead of 2016 governorship election in the state.
Crisis in PDP and poor outing in the general elections
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was full of impunity at that time. They were fighting people they had no capacity to fight, particularly former President Olusegun Obasanjo. I advised that they should go and reconcile with him. Also, majority of candidates for Senate, House of Representatives and even for governorship were handpicked. Nobody went for primaries. I don’t know how people can practise democracy like that. They had not gone to election when I told them that with all these impunities, PDP would not win. I also said that those who actually worked for them were not reaping the fruit of their labour, but were forgotten. Third, during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign, did they put the right pegs in the square holes? He ought to have settled all the frictions in each of the states before picking his coordinators. But he did not mind.
To be honest with you, those who worked for PDP were the members themselves, and those who voted or worked against PDP were PDP themselves. So PDP voted against PDP.
Agenda at revamping the party
For now, the party will not be in a rush. To be sincere with you, PDP did not expect defeat at all. We saw it and we told them, but they did not take it. So that threw a lot of spanner in the works. My prayer is that they must learn from their mistakes and as long as they don’t learn from their mistakes, it will take the party a long time to get its acts together. But if they learn from their mistakes, they will bounce back to the surprise of many people.
During or before the election, PDP did not think of merging with other parties. It was merger that brought about the All Progressives Congress (APC). The day APC was registered was the day PDP should have readied for them. Unfortunately, they were never ready; they were carried away with lust for office. They were dining when the house was burning.
But if anybody says that is the end of PDP, I want to smile at the person, because that person is not a politician. In Britain, it is either Labour or Conservative; in the United States of America, it is either Democrats or Republicans. No party can do it all through. Majority of those who are in APC today were in PDP. Those who made the party (APC) today are all PDP. So three-quarters of APC members were PDP men. I don’t know what they lost. All they need do is to go back to their drawing board and allow the round pegs to be in the round holes throughout the local government areas and the state.
This time around, they must open their eyes. Once they can do that, the sky is the limit for the party.
APC defectors returning to PDP
Yes, we can bring them back. They are running to APC for positions. Only those who are elected or given positions will remain. They will soon become enemies to themselves. They think that everybody that defects to APC must have a position. Is that correct? So they will come back to PDP hungry and then they will fight like wounded lions.
PDP preparations for 2016 Ondo governorship election
PDP would hardly win the election because they have not got it right. The gap between the old and new PDP is getting wider everyday, while some liars are saying that there is peace in the party. How can you bring light and darkness together? Unless we throw everything down and sort it out, if we go to an election like this by next year, I can assure you, APC will capture everything. I am a political analyst and I have vision. My vision is beyond two-year time. I have looked at it critically; if we do any election now, that may be the end of PDP in this state. Those who want to fight in the party are never tired, because there is no honesty in the affairs of the party in Ondo State chapter. I cannot pretend; I know there is problem in the fold. So, if anybody is telling you that things are better than yesterday, he is lying. They fail to know that human beings are more developed than what they are saying. You can see that in the last election, the money put down during Senate and House of Representatives was nowhere to be found, but when it came to the House of Assembly election, there was money. They knew that there was fire on the mountain; they came out to campaign for the House Assembly election. If they are like that in the next election, I assure you APC will win. I don’t believe in deceit.
Resolving the crisis in the party
Yes, there will be solution soon. A lot of people will defect to other parties. They will go away because I have sampled their opinions. They will never be satisfied with half bread. They will not like anybody to deceive them. That would be the situation.
Effect of Olanusi’s defection on PDP
It affects us. He (former Deputy Governor, Ali Olanusi) went back to his constituency and won all the elections there. Only a fool would say it did not affect us. It affected Bode Olajumoke’s election. Olajumoke would ordinarily never fail an election. The man spends a lot of money and has influence. He is a man everyone loves, but you could see, they deceived him at the election and the man lost everything he had. Even the director-general of his campaign was a mole; he defected the moment Olajumoke lost the election. He was planted there. That meant that PDP was not organised when the election was held. If a political party could put a mole to be a campaign director general of a senator, you would know that the party was not ready to win an election. So they either leave us to do the election in our own way or they continue to deceive themselves. Everybody should be allowed to go to the primaries. Anything short of that, there will be no election that PDP will win in this state.
But with what I have seen, they will not allow people to go for primaries and they will suffer. Truth is sacrosanct. Ondo people are getting better every day. If they refuse to listen to us, PDP will never win any election in Ondo. They need to be transparent to the selection of those who will contest in the local government election in October. The build-up for PDP should start from the local government election. If there is any imposition at all, that will be the end of PDP in Ondo.
