Former Minister for Power and candidate of the Social Democratic Party
for Oyo Central Senatorial District, Elder Wole Oyelese recently explained the
circumstances that made him leave the People’s Democratic Party. Oyelese was
one of the aggrieved governorship aspirants who frowned at the way the party’s
governorship primary election was conducted in Oyo State. While speaking on Voices,a radio programme on Splash FM,
Ibadan, Elder Oyelese pointed out that to ensure fair play and transparency, he
held meetings with all aspirants. “I
called them, we had five meetings. I called them together because I don’t want
this kind of rancor and I said the best candidate should be allowed to run”, he
said.
Asked whether he was schemed out, Elder Oyelese said “well,
you could say it in a way because if a party had its constitution, for primary
elections, delegates were supposed to be selected, three delegates per ward.
But did they allow that to work? No, they didn’t. Instead of that, they said
they should use statutory delegates”. On where the idea came from, the former
Minister disclosed that “that was the order from the National Secretariat; an
unfair order because the same people that we had been arguing shouldn’t have
been officers of the party were the ones to now come and vote for the
governorship candidate. So ab initio, we knew that everybody had been schemed
out”.
“What was it that you did not get that got you angry and
made you leave the party?” the presenter queried. Elder Oyelese’s sharp reply was
“fairness”.
The reporter however probed further that “you wanted
something and when it was clear that you were not going to get it, you left the
party”. In his characteristic calm manner, Oyelese explained, “what happened
was that I wanted to become governor of Oyo State because I know that I have
ideas I want to sell to the state. I am always in quest of excellence and I
believe Oyo State can excel. But you see, you need proper leadership, you need
credible leadership to make things work. I was not the only one that was
schemed out; I would say except for Folarin, every other aspirant was schemed
out.”
On how Senator Folarin became powerful enough to scheme him
out of the party, he offered further explanation that “the Yorubas have a wise
saying that when you have an advocate in the court, in other words, the palace
of the king, even if you are guilty of an offence, the king will judge you to
be right”. And when he was asked “who is the king here?” Oyelese refused to
mention names. ‘Well, they know themselves”, he replied. Not satisfied, the
interviewer pressed harder, “are you talking about Senator David Mark?” And
this time he decided to answer directly. He said “well, he was one of them”.
When asked if Senator Folarin should be given kudos for
being a very good game player who understood the party and played his card very
well, Oyelese disagreed, saying “he couldn’t have understood the party better
than those of us who were his leaders. I will tell you something, there is this
wrong notion that politics is a dirty game. I want to believe that it is only
in Nigeria that politics is a dirty game. I will never call dishonesty being
astute or versatile in politics. What happened was pure fraud.”
It was put to Elder Oyelese that what happened was not
Folarin’s fault but that of the National Secretariat which needed a candidate
in Oyo State even when the centre could not hold. He however disagreed as he
said “no, we didn’t have that kind of situation. If there is no buyer, there
would be no more thieves. It wasn’t that he played his card well, what happened
was that some people over there were probably were looking for a malleable
candidate who could be turned anywhere”.
“Is politics not about influence?”, the reporter fired
again. To this, Elder Oyelese agreed but had this to say, “yes, it is about
influence but what I am about is this, when you want to peddle influence, the
people who are going to take decisions should be in the position to now judge.
It is empirical formula. Do you think that if candidacy had been taken into
consideration, Folarin would emerge?”
On the insinuation that Senator Folarin was preferred being
a former Senate Leader and a national figure, Oyelese pointed out that “being a
former Senate Leader means nothing except your performances are judged to be
good”. By the time the discussion moved
towards whether Folarin used his influence to get the ticket, Oyelese opined
that “there are so many things underground that you may not know about. There
is a person in the South West who had a lot of influence with the President, who
had a lot of influence with the Senate because of so many things that connected
them, including business. This person was the one who now carried Folarin, who
now sponsored him and I talked to the individual twice, look, don’t bring
problems for us in Oyo State. Go to your state, you have your ambition; face
your governorship ambition in your state but leave Oyo State alone”.
Speaking on the issue of the postponement of the election
and the consequence it could have on the country, he stated that “most of the
politicians around now are self-serving. It doesn’t matter how they get there,
they just want power. Ordinarily, there is nothing on ground that should create
this kind of tension. We are going to hold elections; this is not the first
time we are holding elections. But why are people shouting as if the roof is
already collapsing?”
For the situation, Elder Oyelese blames the system. “I blame
the system that makes politics the most lucrative business. It’s a bad system”,
he said. He went further that “that is the system that makes people want to get
there at all cost. It is the do or die politics that is killing this country”.
He further stated that ‘people are worried, will there be
elections, will there be no elections? I pray that Nigerians learn and that our
leaders also learn. Jonathan’s aides are playing his script but I want to say
that at times, those aides actually write the scripts for him. The Oyo State
situation is one I know very well. The Oyo State PDP is just a small section of
the society of Nigeria, what happened in Oyo State PDP was a script that was
written by one of his very close aides, one of the senior party officials. I
believe that Jonathan wouldn’t want his name to go down in history as the
President who almost changed the country but bungled it.”
Then came questions on the Oyo Central senatorial elections,
“can you beat Adeseun?” he was asked. The response was quick, “of course, he doesn’t
stand a chance.” He went ahead to describe the Speaker of the House of
Assembly, Honourable Monsurat Sunmonu who is also a senatorial candidate in the
All Progressives Congress as “my little sister”. On her chances, he said “she’s
alright but she’s not gonna win. She has a very little chance. It is about
electoral value, she just came on board to become the Speaker of the House of
Assembly that doesn’t mean that she has the tentacles in all the local
governments because she contested in one local government and now she is going
to have to contest in eleven.”
Finally, he gave his position thus, “we need a president who
will send his father or mother to jail if they have committed corruption. We
need a strong president. When I see a leader who doesn’t care what happens to
the poor people by just covering up corruption, I get worried but at the same
time, I don’t want a leader who will not have human compassion. Buhari is a
friend but I hope he will not be too engrossed in fighting corruption to make
people suffer in this country”.
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