Our defeat was a sort of self-inflicted injury. We inflicted the injury on ourselves but we have now learnt our lessons. We’ll recapture Kwara in 2023.
Alhaji Abdulkadir Oba-Ajara is an old horse in Kwara Politics. A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, he was Personal Assistant to the late Premier of the Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello in the 60s and a close confidant of the late Kwara political titan, Dr. Olusola Saraki. In this interview with Midlandpost, he bares his mind on Kwara politics and other sundry issues
It seems the PDP has gone underground in Kwara. Nobody is talking. Why is this so?
We are being careful and strategizing on the way forward. We want the masses to form their opinion first, between the past and the present administration. We think we should allow the masses to form their opinion because we wouldn’t want to force anything on people because they may say that the present government has not spent enough time in office and why are we castigating them.
Right now, our people have seen the differences. They would soon see our lines of action as we expose the inadequacies of the present administration.
When the PDP was there, they used the media, especially the radio to destroy individuals in the PDP; they destroyed the leadership. You know that people tend to believe whatever they hear on the radio. The radio is such powerful.
Now, we have allowed our people enough time to see who is right and who is wrong. So, in the next couple of weeks, you’ll see us role out our activities and people would be surprised how we are going to capture the confidence of our people. Many people have been coming to us, as it happened this morning. Some women group who were deceived into going into the group and have now seen the other side of the coin have decided to call it quit with them. Very soon, like I said, they are going to see us in full swing.
Personally, what do you think is wrong with this administration?
Nothing is right with them. Everything is wrong with them. The security is not there, the welfare of the civil servants is not there, the commercial activities which the people used to enjoy it is no longer there. The state is grounded virtually. People are crying. This is why we have mellowed down. We want the people to judge first before we now begin to show them the other side of the coin.
Perhaps the idea to secure the N35 Billion bond is to allow government bail itself out of financial inadequacies and plan for larger projects. Don’t you think so?
I don’t agree with that. Whatever and no matter which way you look at the present government, there is no iota of sincerity in everything they do. The money would go down the drain, the usual way. Now, this government is receiving big chunk of allocation from the federation account. It received close to N3 billion Naira and, the internally generated revenue is getting to almost N5 billion Naira monthly. Nothing is functioning. The administration in the local government is dead. The state executive council is no longer there. What are they using the money for?
We have not seen any major capital projects and we have not seen any development. Most of the things done by the last administration are being dismantled and nothing is being done to replace them. Look at the light-up Kwara project. They are being dismantled and nothing is done to replace them. Virtually all our streets are now in darkness. For me, there is nothing the present administration want to use the money for other than the 2023 elections to buy people’s vote. The money is not for any meaningful project. They think that people can be bought with money and they will be surprised.
Did your party learn anything in your defeat at the elections because one would think that you have not woken up to the reality that things are longer the same?
I wouldn’t say any serious thing has happened. The defeat suffered by the PDP was inflicted on the PDP by some aggrieved members of the PDP. It wasn’t the might of the opposition, the APC, that won the election. If you see the crop of people who went to APC, you’ll see that all of them, including the present Governor were all in PDP.
But there were the signs that the people were disenchanted with your party at a point.
Exactly. This is what I was saying, that it was as a result of disagreement. Some people felt aggrieved and that was why they left the PDP. But we are getting our acts together. We don’t need to tell the people what we are doing but I can tell you that we are mending our fences and solidly, we’ll bounce back.
Talking about the nation’s security, are you worried?
I am not only worried, I am highly disturbed. I cannot sleep with my two eyes closed because you don’t know how and where these people are going to strike again. I’m highly disturbed. The national security is in danger. Nobody is sure what will happen the next minute. Kidnapping here and there; killings here and there and the government is clueless. We are in a state of anarchy.
Do you support the idea of giving ransom to kidnappers before victims are released?
Honesty, this is what is encouraging kidnapping. They know they are making money from kidnapping and you don’t encourage them the more. A kidnapper kidnapped somebody, demanded for N10 Million, you gave him five million Naira. He’s done with that one. The next two, three hours, he is on to another plan; another target. They are making money effortlessly. So, I don’t see any reason or any sense in giving ransom to kidnappers. I am not in support of it at all. Let the government brace up. Let us rejig our security architecture so that our men, the police, army and the air force would be able to combat them.
We performed wonderfully well outside Nigeria. During the Congo crisis, our personnel that went there came back with commendations. Look at Sierra Leone, look at Liberia how we performed wonderfully well. But what are we doing now in our own case here. Don’t we have the military men again? Don’t we have the fine officers again? Where are our fine officers? The fact is that they are all there but something is happening somewhere. We need to investigate ourselves. Who are the merchants behind all these because I am sure some people are feeding fat on this evil and this is why we are prolonging this. It is over 10 years. Something that started like a child’s play has now assumed an international dimension. Honestly, nobody is safe May God help us.
Perhaps you’ll give us a little bit of your back ground
Oba-Ajara is my name. I am from a very humble background. I hail from Usman compound in Ajikobi and my mother came from Balogun Alanamu. I did my primary school in both Pakata and Baboko schools. I later went to the Institute of Administration, Zaria where I completed my higher education. I left the Institute of Administration and took up appointment as Personal Assistant to the late Premier of the Northern Nigeria, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sadauna of Sokoto, I left the Premier’s office in 1966 after the coup. It was the coup that sent me back to Ilorin, Kwara State. When I left the Premier’s office I was posted to the Nigerian Sugar Company, Bacita, where I worked with the Senior Personnel Secretary. I left Bacita to be on my own in 1971 and since then I have been on my own playing polities as a hubby and making farming my main stable. Farming is the business I face squarely, but politics, though, I’m very much involved but not too much partisan; just like a hubby.
Sir, let’s come back to Kwara Politics. If your party, the PDP was in power in the present circumstances, what is it that you would have done differently or how do you think things would have been?
I want to tell you one thing. You know people don’t normally appreciate some things that are in our hands until they get out of our hands. When we had Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Governor of this state there were lots of development. There were lots of welfare packages for people and there were lots of opportunities for everybody. But we have now seen that all those have gone. We are now yearning for a come-back of that type of administration.
You see, Kwara is lucky in having a man like the late Baba Saraki who laid the foundation for political arrangement in Kwara State. You would recollect that when Baba Saraki was alive, all the Governors that were produced then all virtually were through his efforts. There was a sense of direction. There was leadership, there was loyalty to the leadership, there was obedience to the dictates of the leadership and party supremacy.
But incidentally, when Bukola became leader he was able to manage what Baba left. We went for an election and his candidate, then Governor Abdulfathai Ahmed, emerged despite the fact that Baba Saraki put forward another candidate. After the first four years of Abdulfathi, Bukola, still supported him and ensured that he completed his eight-year tenure. 16 years of unbroken PDP regime. To us, the leader, Dr. Bukola Saraki that led people out of the PDP to APC was the reason why APC gained ground in Kwara. You’ll remember that when Bukola was going into APC, he was able to carry five serving PDP governors along into formation of APC. You see, he made them popular here, with that merger. But of course when he came back they were to blackmail him on so many fronts like alleging that he was exporting the state allocation from Ilorin to Abuja and taking N2 Billion Naira every month. You know, lies fly. People tend to believe lies easily. People can be deceived easily. So, what happened was that our people were deceived into believing that Bukola personalized the affairs of the State, that he turned the State into his own estate, which was never so. Nobody, no single person can make a state his own empire.
Can we then say that you paved the way for your own defeat in Kwara?
Of course that is what I was saying. It was a sort of self-inflicted injury. We inflicted the injury on ourselves but we have now learnt our lessons. I may not be part of whatever the new arrangement would be but, since the majority has decided to take back the state, we are bound to do that.
And how do you intend to achieve that?
To recapture Kwara?
Yes.
This is a strategy that we’ll keep to our chest. You can go to town and sample the opinion of the people. They will tell you that it has never been this bad.
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