Jonathan Has Strong Will to Save The Country – Omilani [interview]

Apr 12, 2010 (Daily Independent/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Yinka Omilani, an insurance underwriter and shipping magnete, was the National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West for four years, before handing over to the incumbent, Tajudeen Oladipo, in 2008. He was Senator of the Federal Republic in the abridged Third Republic on the platform of defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).

In this interview with Assistant Politics Editor, MAXWELL ODITTA, the former member of the governing council of University of Lagos reveals what his predecessor and immediate boss at the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), Olabode George, told him when he visited him (George) at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison. He also paints the picture of the Goodluck Jonathan he knows, from his days as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State.

YOU WERE National Vice Chairman of the PDP in the South West, and that was when the people of the region received the PDP, as it were. Before then, the South West was a predominantly an Alliance for Democracy (AD) enclave. Everyone remembers the general elections of 2003; how five South West states were swept off at once to the PDP. Many people say they saw it coming; others confessed they were taken by storm. What strategies did the PDP leadership in the South West at that time deploy to make it possible?

It's a very good question. It has always been advantageous for people in any geo-political zone of Nigeria to be associated with the mainstream of political life of this country. If you are excluded, you miss a lot, because statutorily whatever you are entitled to may be given to you. But there is no direct access to people who are really in the centre. So, we thank God that in 2003, the people of the South West decided on their own that if you cannot beat them, you join them. More so, people say charity begins at home. The former President (Olusegun Obasanjo) is one of the respectable leaders of the South West. Despite that the South West people did not vote for him in 1999 election, he won the election. So, if they had failed to vote for him again in 2003, he would have won the election all the same. It was too obvious for anybody to say they voted for him for one reason or another. But I think the main reason was that the people of the South West wanted to belong to the mainstream of government in the centre. They didn't want to be seen as an opposition any longer and that was what accorded us that success at that time. Again, people felt the candidates that were picked all over the South West could be trusted and should be given a chance, after a lot of hardwork. Thirdly, on my assessment of what was on the ground between 1999 and 2003, there was hardly anything done by the AD government of the South West. May be they were constrained by funds from the centre or something, I cannot say because I was not there. So, those are the facts that contributed to the massive support by the people of the South West for the PDP.

You are from Osun State where politics is very volatile. At that point in time, former Governor Bisi Akande lost his position. I cannot remember his going to court to challenge the outcome of that election. Till date, his popularity in that state appears to have been dwindling. How was it possible to clinch that state in the midst of the crisis there?

Yes, I will tell you that the then Governor Bisi Akande is a good man. He performed to the degree that he considered acceptable to himself. As you rightly said, he is against everything - anti every structure - that could bring confidence and that can repose confidence in the government of a state. One, he was at loggerheads with the Council of the Obas. During his tenure, the Obas - the traditional rulers - were not recognised by him. Not only that, he also had problems with the civil servants who are the powerhouse of the administration. He was at loggerheads with teachers and so many other things. So, the obvious is too obvious that with all those crises and lack of trust on the part of the citizenry of that state, they will take anything that offers an alternative to such a government that is anti-people's interest. That was what helped PDP to take over Osun State.

Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola is a prince and he had been a governor before in Lagos State, as a military officer. He has the antecedent of being a governor or knowing how to manage the political resources of the state. That was why people voted for him. I will like to refresh your memory, if you were current then, that it wasn't as easy as I have described it. There were quite a lot of internal scuffles. We had to carry out about four primaries, the last of which was held at Eagle Square in Abuja. We had to carry all our supporters there. So, it wasn't easy as it appeared. But we thank God that Oyinlola won the primaries at Eagle Square. And ever since, we have all been working together as one people with a common focus, which is to increase the level of development in Osun.

Among the five PDP governors that came into office in the South West at that time were Ayo Fayose of Ekiti and Rasheed Ladoja of Oyo. Somehow along the line, the party fell out with these two governors. Of course, we know the things that happened through media reports, especially. But as someone who was responsible to the National Working Committee on events in the South West, what would you recall to be the reasons the party fell out with these two former governors?

Let me take Ekiti first. Ayo Fayose was very lucky to have won the election by the time he did. The feasible candidate the party would have preferred was Sir S. K. Babalola. But when Fayose demonstrated that he had grassroots support - he is a grassroots politician - and at the last rally before the election we saw the evidence. So, the party decided that the boy should be allowed to contest. We gave him a chance. He won the election, though most of his opponents did not go to court immediately over his victory. But he allowed the office to get into his head. So, he made those who were closer to him as friends, who got him into the office, to become his enemies. And then he chose a wrong godfather among the highly-placed party members.

And so, he goofed. That was what brought about his downfall and he was impeached and sent out of office. He tried his best during his tenure, for the short time that he was there. I could remember he doesn't like opposition. He doesn't have any room for the opposition. Immediately he left, you could see the crowd of people from the AD who came to join the PDP. I received in one day 450 persons in Ado-Ekiti who have come to join the party. It is not my doing; it is God's own doing. So, he got himself into trouble. That was why he was removed.

The other governor, Ladoja, had a case in court, if you remember that. His own election was challenged. So, there was nothing anybody could do because the court has supremacy over who and who, depending on the presentation. Then he had crisis that he could not handle. A wise man would always remember when he gets to the top the route he had taken to get to the top. Instead of that, Ladoja forgot and drew a battle line with Baba (Lamidi) Adedibu because Baba made him really a governor. When I say made him, I mean gave him the necessary support. And so, he broke the line of communication between himself and Baba Adedibu, and that was what brought about his downfall.

You know, in Nigeria, two plus two doesn't make four. The court decided the case in his favour. So, he had to go back to his office for sometime. So, that was the scenario. And till today, the PDP has not lost its hold on Ekiti as well as in Oyo. No other political party can out-stage the PDP in those two states we've mentioned. I hope that is clear.

Of all the states in the South West, Lagos was not won by the PDP in 1999, 2003 and 2007. Now, from the way things are, it seems the PDP is strategising for 2011 in Lagos. But the dividends are not very clear yet. Why is Lagos very difficult for the PDP to win? Why is it that when political watchers think the PDP might do well, the party still flops and the AD, now the AC, maintains firm control?

The problem with Lagos State PDP is leadership. Majority of people who are in the leadership in Lagos are not united. United we stand, divided we fall. If you want to do a census of people in politics in Lagos, you will find more people who are highly-placed, people of integrity who have served in one capacity or another at the national and state levels in the PDP than AD or AC. But 'if it is not me, it can't be you' is the problem of Lagos PDP - me and myself.

At the time I took over the leadership from Chief Olabode George, there were about 21 groups in Lagos PDP. As I am talking to you now, you cannot have less than four groups in Lagos PDP, minimum of four. So, that is the problem, and that problem is difficult to solve. It's very difficult to solve. We, most of the leaders of the party, and Ahmadu Ali when he was the National Chairman, came to Lagos. We did reconciliatory meetings. Tony Anenih came one time to watch the primary election within PDP, not the real election. He saw all the causes, because once your own candidate that you believe in loses out, the next thing is for you to gang up against whoever is the official candidate of the party, instead of joining hands to ensure the success of his candidature. That is the style in the business. And I believe that may be people are working tirelessly now to see that that 'my and myself' is changed.

Since this is what you have observed, won't it be necessary sometimes to disqualify some aspirants deliberately for creating strife and division within the party, like those who have consistently done that, who have consistently shown that unless they are the flag-bearers, nobody would make any impact in that party?

You see, there is no amount of eagle eyes that you have that you can see the root of problems in Lagos PDP. Take for example, you have a group, and we as leaders of the party, don't know who and who are in your group, because you oil them and they are loyal to you. My own group will be loyal to me, because I oil them and hold on to them. So, this is why it is still a problem to all of us that appear to be at a bit higher level to solve that problem. But we think commonsense will prevail. Let them see what they are losing by their not being in government in Lagos State, because it is whatever the party can do for them that they can enjoy. They are not in control of the government, and most of the people in politics want empowerment. You cannot receive empowerment when you are not in the government. So, I hope they will realise it.

Are there not some cases where the AC, for instance, sponsors some aspirants in the PDP who do not stand a good chance of picking the party's ticket to make the atmosphere volatile and cause trouble in the PDP?

But that's politics. That's politics at its best. You know I said it earlier, united we stand, divided we fall. If there is no crack, lizard cannot enter a fence. Can it? Once there is a crack, whoever will want to make use of the crack will see that it is expanded to his benefit and advantage. So, I don't blame them. If there is no crack the lizard cannot get inside the wall. It has to expand the thing to accommodate itself.

Let's look at the unfortunate circumstance of former Deputy National Chairman of your party, Chief Olabode George. Everybody agrees that he is a reputed leader of the PDP in Lagos. I don't know if his being in prison would have affected that leadership. Most of the people fighting are either loyal to him or are fighting him on account of other people. So, he is at the centre of the party crisis in Lagos. Have you seen him since his imprisonment?

I visited him in the prison when I came back from Britain. I wasn't around when he was jailed. You see, I have always been telling people that no two persons are exactly the same. The style of doing your job, though we have the same job, will be different from the style with which I do my job. To manage a party, as I told you earlier, is a collective responsibility. It is not a single person's responsibility. He was the leader of the party in Lagos, and by the grace of God, he was also a leader at the centre, because he was the Deputy National Chairman of the party. But let me give you an idiom: a tree does not make a forest. That is why Lagos PDP has disintegrated into groups. Without any doubt, you see that if another method has been used to harness all interest groups together, it would have benefited the party in Lagos more than "to thy tents oh, Israel".

I don't know, may be you were a bit in the farm before. If you want to eat pounded yam, get firewood; get the pot ready; light the firewood; put the pot on the fire and the yam is inside the pot. You cover it up, waiting for the yam to get done before you pound it. But if you discover that this firewood is not glowing well, you remove it. Will you have pounded yam? Because there will be nothing to cook the yam to the stage of having pounded yam. That is exactly Lagos PDP problem, because if you don't want control or what I say, go away. It is either you accept what I say or you go. That is the problem in Lagos. And in a democratic setting, everybody has a say. The majority will have their way; the minority will have their say. That is the way I perceive party organisation. May be that's why I wasn't all that very successful, because my own approach is different from those of others.

When you heard the news of George's incarceration, how did you receive it? When you went to visit him at the Kirikiri Prison, in what frame of mind did you meet him?

In the first place, I was surprised that he was jailed, because it gave me a lesson that nobody is above the law. Because with his position and the people that matter in the country that he knows, I think such thing shouldn't have happened to him. But whatever went wrong, only God knows that. I pitied him because I didn't know what he did. We don't discuss things like that. It is not my responsibility to put my nose into how he administers where he is made a chairman. It was initially a shocking story because I wouldn't have expected him to get involved to that extent in running the place. But people learn by their mistakes. So, I got back and I went to see him. He was in very sober mood. He calls me egbon (elder) because I am older than him. He doesn't call me by my name. He was sober and he discussed with me. Well-meaning people are giving him the courage to bear what has happened to him because they go there to visit him, particularly some of his supporters in Lagos. I met so many of them there, far away from the maximum prisons. I went there and sat down with him. We had a long talk. But I think he has learnt his lessons. One of the lessons I think he has learnt is that the journey of life is not always as smooth as the top of a table. The journey of life must have ups and down.

If you don't experience the ups and downs, you must know that at the end of it, there is likely to be crisis. That is what is happening, because I know his standing in society. Knowing the Nigerian factor, they would have saved him from that embarrassment. But he said "egbon, I have come to learn." That's all. That's what he told me.

On the last note, do you know Acting President Goodluck Jonathan very well? And from what you know, what do you expect of him in the next couple of months, before May 29 next year?

Goodluck Jonathan is a man of integrity. He is not a rabble-rouser. He is a well calculating politician and listens to people before he reacts to anything. On various issues, he knows exactly what he wants and where he wants to go. But he gives people around him opportunity to air their views. That is very important because he makes everybody important and he bases his decision on collective responsibility. Nobody is left out. So, I think he will succeed, God helping him, because it's only God that knows the end from the beginning. But he has a very strong will to help this nation, if the atmosphere would accommodate such aspiration, because you may wish to do something and the atmosphere may not allow that. He is a good man. God has endowed him. Before he became governor of Bayelsa State, I met him. Then Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was the governor. We sat down together and talked.