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Do you think the PDP can win the governorship election in Ekiti State, if the party presents former Gov. Ayo Fayose as its candidate?
Any Ekiti person who has followed the politics of the state since 2003, when Fayose was governor, would know that there is no chance of Fayose winning any legitimate contest in the state. We are hoping the contest we are about to go for will be legitimate; if it is legitimate, there is no chance for him. We are hoping we won’t go back to the era of illegitimate contests. You will recall that in 1983, the old Ondo State, which included Ekiti, collapsed the entire democratic process when the government of the day tried to use all forms of illegitimate means to install a governor. We are hoping this election will be free and fair and the contest will be proper and legitimate. With Fayose’s candidature, taking into consideration all what happened when he was governor, there is no way he will win. That is why some of us are very vehement about not letting one man compromise the integrity of some of us who are members of the party.
The leadership of the PDP in Ekiti State is divided over the emergence of Fayose. What caused this?
There are some elements within the PDP in Ekiti, who have gangster mentality. Those elements with gangster mentality within the exco are always comfortable with Ayo Fayose’s candidacy. Unfortunately, we are not a group of criminals; we are a decent, educated and responsible people who have a culture and integrity to protect, and a vast majority of us don’t believe in Fayose’s candidature.
Don’t you think the defection of Dayo Adeyeye from the group clamouring for consensus candidacy to Fayose’s camp has scuttled the Ekiti South Senatorial District agenda?
Dayo Adeyeye was present and he voted in the election, which accepted me as the consensus candidate of the party. He was present and he voted. He scored no vote at all out of the 12 of us who were there and contested. Not one out of the 12 aspirants had faith in his ability to be a rallying figure. There are those who are vehemently opposed to him because he doesn’t have the wherewithal and what it takes to be the consensus candidate; he got no vote.
Did he not vote for himself?
He voted for himself. But the process was that you vote for yourself and vote for another aspirant. But the vote you give to yourself is discounted because everybody voted themselves. We all started with one vote so we discounted that one vote and counted the others. It is an internationally acceptable method when you are doing consensus. He said if it was a consensus, you had to get 12 votes but that was where he got it wrong. We all agreed with the method of voting for yourself and voting for one other person and anybody who scored the highest vote would become the consensus candidate.
He was the first person to congratulate me and others congratulated me also. We agreed that if the result was not acceptable, we would put it to further test. So when we finished the voting and I won with five votes, he had the opportunity to say he didn’t accept but nobody said. Everybody spoke and said they agreed. We had agreed that whoever emerged the consensus candidate would look after the interest of other persons. We said it would not be statesmanlike to begin to share positions among the 12 of us because we are representing the people of the state. He could still have got a ministerial appointment or any other appointment within the group of the 13 aspirants, even though Bisi Omoyeni was not present.
Adeyeye criticised Fayose and the primary which produced him but has now accepted to work with him. How do you see this?
He did not only criticise it, he went to court over it. It is so upsetting when you see somebody with this kind of behavioural pattern and the person wants to occupy the highest position of authority in the land. It shows some people don’t have character.
Why was Adeyeye’s nomination as a minister rejected?
I really don’t know why he was stopped on two occasions. There are several reasons why he was stopped but I don’t want to speculate because I don’t have the documentary evidence. But it is a common knowledge that he was nominated as a minister before and petitions were written against him and he was stopped.
Why was your group of 13 afraid of primary election?
No, I am not afraid and I don’t believe others are afraid. President Goodluck Jonathan called us last year and told us he would superintend over a process that would come up with a consensus candidate for Ekiti State. He said this when he met with the leadership the party in the South-West. He said he would rather have Osun and Ekiti come up with consensus candidates. He said we should come up with the consensus candidate by the end of January or latest, the first week in February. That was the instruction and the admonition of the President at the last meeting we had with him. That was why everybody proceeded with the consensus arrangement.
There are speculations that you are fronting for Gov. Kayode Fayemi. How true is this?
I am too civilised and I am too exposed to take politics as a do-or-die thing. Kayode Fayemi was my wife’s classmate in high school. As for Niyi Adebayo: the relationship between the Aluko family and the Adebayo family started a long time ago. Niyi Adebayo and I were in the United Nigeria Congress Party at some point. Later he went to the Alliance for Democarcy and I went to PDP but we are still friends till today.
Are they saying because Kayode Fayemi is the governor and I want to be governor, I must abuse him every day? This shows the level of exposure of those who are saying that.
I have had opportunities of going to the AD, Action Congress and Action Congress of Nigeria, if I wanted. I have never been a member of their party but I have friends in every party and I have no apologies for that.
Don’t you think this will lead to PDP failing at the poll?
We are at a crossroads in Ekiti now. We have two candidates now. The constitution stipulates that the party chairman shall be at the primary. But he was not there and some other members of the exco were also not there. The legal adviser of the party has resigned.
It is so upsetting when illegalities are carried out with impunity. The so-called primary was a gross violation of our own constitution.
We are talking about the governor of a state; the responsibility of the governor of a state is far-reaching, too deep for somebody of Ayo’s character. I would rather have a Fayemi as the governor than have a Fayose as Ekiti State governor and I will say this any time.
It is not a matter of party; we are talking about the responsibility of a governor.
