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Sen Saraki spoke to premium times
Now, why did you leave the PDP?
A lot has been going on about the way the PDP is being run, starting from right after the last convention and they dissolved the congress of Adamawa. I am one of those who said we can’t just get up and be doing those kinds of things because it sends a wrong signal about the party. Take also the issue of the NGF and what followed with not following due process and internal democracy which now led to the party not holding meetings and the like. Take also the case of Kwara state: we concluded plans to go into local government elections and we have gone through primaries and the party had even gone to inspect the primaries and then all of a sudden, 24 hours later someone sits here in Abuja and just writes a list of 193 councillors and 16 chairmen with no respect at all for what the wishes of the people are! There is no way a serious politician who has the interest of his people be party to this kind of thing. Our main purpose of being in politics is to protect the interest of our people. So it was even not me, but the people who said we cannot continue to be in this party and support this kind of process. That is why whenever people ask me whether they are talking to me, I tell them that this decision goes beyond me as an individual. How do I go back to the state and tell the people that PDP is a party that represents their wishes? To them what the party did was like a rape on democracy. You know at the grassroots level, the people are not so interested on the president or governor. They are deeply interested in who become their councillor and chairman. So when they go through a process and Abuja said no, if you are a politician, you know what that does to you.
But some of these things are not new; they have always been there…?
No! It depends on the level of impunity. In isolated cases, when you have issues you resolve them, but not in the case of an entire state. You cannot totally disregard the structure and do something different. The level of impunity in the past has not gotten to this level.
In a way you are the godfather of Kwara politics now, and you said the people of Kwara…
(Interrupts) Let me explain something: some of you due to your profession, you see what is happening politically and you know that there is a change going on. So, even in politics now, there is nothing like the godfather. Today, whoever wants to continue to be relevant must be able to marry the wishes of the people vis-à-vis what you think should be the direction of the people. It is no more a case of servant-leader, where if the leader says we should go this way it becomes sacrosanct. No! One might do that, but he won’t last.
Are you saying you are not the godfather of Kwara politics?
I don’t like your use of the word godfather; because honestly it doesn’t happen like that. The level of participation in politics now is so high. That is why you will see shockers in 2015. Look at the registration exercise that we just did, it tells you that the ordinary people really want change. You can’t just sit down as a leader and say this is the way we must go. Many people are going in different direction with their leader. You see if not because of what happened in Kwara with respect to the local government election, we might have to work hard to convince the people to move. In Kwara, it was not the PDP as a party that was winning us elections. We only win elections through the hard work that we do. We are doing the work, and all we wanted was for the party to recognise that, but instead, the party left the majority and decided to work with the minority.
If truly the majority of the people of Kwara are tired of the PDP’ how come you are not able to convince your siblings to be with you in the APC?
First of all, I only have one sibling that is in politics. This is not the first time that we are having different political views with my other sibling that is in politics. It is not abnormal. It happens all over. We all have our own different political aspirations and wishes.
We asked because we thought Oloye (their father Olusola Saraki) reconciled the two of you before he passed on?
But at the same time, with the issues on the ground we might have different views and that is the beauty of democracy.
