He also dwells on the race for the chairmanship of the PDP, insisting that Professor Adeniran remains the party’s best option. Group Politics Editor, Taiwo Adisa, presents the excerpts:
Former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar has said that your party is not providing real opposition, come 2019, you think PDP would be ready to give the APC a run for its money?
There is no two ways about it. If I have the authority, I will draw the election closer. If we are to have elections tomorrow, I can assure you we have over 25 states that we will take over first.
What of the presidency?
That is a done deal now. It’s not even an issue for me to be worried about. My worry is to keep the PDP intact as a family. I don’t want anything that will rock the stability of the party and that is why those that are at the helm of affairs today should be over sensitive to issues and what is coming up in future, this election that is coming up in 2019; not any other thing.
As the Director-General of the Campaign organisation of ProfessorTunde Adeniran for PDP National Chairman, how is the campaign going?
Well, we thank God. We are doing excellently well. We are reaching out to the critical people that matter in this game. We are giving everybody his due regard, due respect. We’ve been going round to consult so that we don’t make it a media issue. We have visited all the critical stakeholders of the party under a very quiet scenario and of course, we know how deep our discussions have been, the issues that have been raised, the concerns that were also raised and what other issues they have suggested strongly that should be done in the party. So, as far as the campaign organisation is concerned, we are not leaving anything unturned. We are reaching out to both the high, the middle and the low. It’s a people-oriented party and that has been the beliefs of the party as a people-oriented party. That is why it’s called power to the people.
But the campaign has also been mired in some controversy by some insinuations and rumours, majorly about the funding of Professor’s campaign. Some said that he is being used by certain forces, certain moneybags…
There is no controversy in the campaign organisation. No campaign organisation can create controversy. Campaign organisations will not do anything that will create controversy. Controversies are usually being created by people who distract themselves from the main issues of substance. Controversies are being generated by people who are already feeling defeated in the process. Controversies are being created by people who have no confidence in themselves, who have no confidence that victory will be on their side, who have no confidence that they will win the election. So, the best they could do is to try to malign the strongest, the most honest, the most sincere and the most consistent person.
So, there is nowhere a campaign organisation can create crisis for itself. It’s practically impossible. After all, I’m not new in campaign organisations. I’ve been in presidential campaign four times at the highest decision making body. I’ve been part of the process right from inception. So, there is no way I would head a campaign organisation that will generate crisis. But those who have complex, who have no sense of feeling that they are going to win this election, who see Professor Adeniran as a threat, they have nothing to talk about his being inconsistent; they have nothing to talk about lack of transparency in all the positions he has held; they have nothing to talk about he having a dubious character; they have nothing to talk about that he has been under security investigation by virtue of the positions he has held. All they can say is that certain characters are the ones bankrolling the campaign. It’s a defeatist behaviour and they don’t have the monopoly of creating crisis, simply because they are defeated already before the convention.
How do you clarify the relationship between Professor Adeniran and Senator Buruji Kashamu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo? What do you say about their relationship?
Let me take it one by one. One, the issue of Buruji, there are some people who felt that they can attack the campaign organisation by bringing Buruji into the campaign organisation. There is no relationship more than party relationship – being in the same political party. That’s the relationship. There is no intimate relationship between the campaign organisation and Buruji and I challenge anybody who has anything otherwise to prove that otherwise. There is no meeting that has been held that I was not part of. So, it is absolute rubbish. It has absolutely no sense. We respect every PDP member. We respect Senator Buruji as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of PDP. We respect the fact that his election emerged from Ogun State. It wasn’t Adeniran who promoted his political emergence from Ogun State. it wasn’t Adeniran who made him the National Vice Chairman of PDP during Bamanga Tukur time. He had risen through the process. The party supported him to rise through the process and the party has been meeting with him. If Buruji is a virus, why are they meeting with him? Why are they discussing with him?
We had the divide during Ali Sheriff’s time. Myself and Prof Adeniran stood firmly, hundred percent behind Makarfi. We fought to support Makarfi. We fought to consolidate Makarfi and by God’s grace, he won the Supreme Court judgment. So, there was no alliance. Even when the case was ongoing, Buruji was hundred per cent pro Sheriff. We were completely hundred percent against Sheriff. So, why are they now saying that there is a romance? Where did the romance come from and how? Let them prove it. Otherwise, they should stop this rubbish and concentrate on their campaign.
Secondly, the issue of Atiku, I was the former Deputy Director General, Atiku campaign organisation. So, if it is closeness, I am close to Atiku and I do relate with Atiku. There is no time that I have discussed Prof.Adeniran’s campaign issues with the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. I have never done that. Secondly, he is not a PDP member. If he wants to come back to PDP, he hasn’t come back to PDP. There is no single fund that has come from former Vice President Atiku to this campaign organisation, directly or indirectly and if there is anybody who says he is the one liaising between Atiku and Prof Adeniran, he should come out and say it. To the best of my knowledge, no single individual we have mandated to relate with Atiku on behalf of Adeniran campaign organisation. If there is anything, I can go to Atiku directly. We don’t pretend. We will support our friends. Anybody who supports us, we will accept it, because they are not under duress to support the campaign organisation. They do so willingly. If willingly they will support financially, we will accept and we will never deny them. We know the people who go to Atiku in the night to lobby him, collect some support from him, get some endorsement from him in the guise that they will protect and they will promote his presidential bid. They are the same PDP elements. We have the facts. I’m not an underdog person. There is no political movement that I will not know and I will not know the characters that are behind it. So, it’s absolutely rubbish. Let them prove it and if they can’t prove it, and they continue with this nonsense, we will go ahead and mention some of these things.
But is there any historical alliance between the former Vice President and Professor Adeniran?
The historical alliance is that they were in the same party.
The insinuation has been there that he(Prof) is working for him(Atiku) or he is in the same camp and all that.
I’m telling you there is nothing. Which camp? Camp of a man that is not in PDP? Does it make sense? He is not in PDP. He has not come back to PDP. So, it doesn’t make sense. If there is any historical alliance, the historical alliance is that they have been in the same cabinet when Prof.Adeniran was a Minister and Atiku was the Vice President. Of course, it’s under the same platform of the party. So, if there is historical alliance, that is the historical alliance. But there was a divorce because Atiku left PDP. Atiku campaigned against PDP. So, where is the current alliance? There is none.
There are people who have been going to Atiku in and out, wanting him to come back for their own strategic reason; for their own political reason in the future.
They are the ones creating these because they felt that if there is a suggestion of alliance between Adeniran and Atiku, their future political interest will be in turmoil. That is a complex behaviour.
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