In this interview that portends a fight-to-the-finish, Barrister Iyiola Akogun, sheds more light on the running battle that may consume APC in Kwara State. He says Gov. Abdulrasaq has not been modest with power.
A member of your party, one Alhaji Ganiyu Zubair has come out to say that he actually distributed the materials for the 2019 elections logistics- vehicles and motorcycles which had been part of the contentious issues tearing your party apart. Who is this man within the party structure that he was saddled with the distribution of the materials?
Zubair was an aspirant for the House of Representatives under the APC in the 2019 primary elections of our party but he failed at the primary level. He is presently a member of the Governing Council of a Federal Polytechnic in the East. I think he is relatively close to the Minister. So, if the Minister now asked him to do the distribution, that means he did it as someone who is close to the Minister- a confidant. He should know what he was talking about, since he was engaged to do the distribution.
But you were also part of the campaign team at that time. In fact, you were in the vanguard of the team. Was there any distribution as the man claimed?
Yes, there was disitibution. For example, I know that my ward chairman was given a motorcycle. So also was my youth leader. And so many of them like that were given cars. They are not saying that they were not given. Arc Ashiru was given a car for his campaign. Alajagusi was given; So also were all who contested for the National Assembly elections, including Olododo and others. Then they gave some to party leaders for the campaign.
So, how come some people in the party now said they didn’t see the materials?
They are just being mischievous. You see, if there is anybody who should talk about the distribution, it is me. I am a party chieftain and I did much to install this government. I didn’t complain that I was not given any vehicle for the campaign. It is true that Alhaji Lai Mohammed came with cars and motorcycles…
And money?
Yes, and money. And he distributed. For example, I know that the money we used for the elections, and I’m very sure of this, was provided by Alhaji Mohammed. The money we used for the campaign in my local government for example, where did we get it? We got it from Alhaji Lai Mohammed, not from the governor. The governor didn’t give any money to the party structure to do any election. And I think he said this himself. He said he put up his own campaign structure…
Outside of the party?
Yes, outside of the party. So, if he spent anything on the election at all, how will I be in a position to know when I was not part of his campaign structure?
But the Kwara State House of Assembly members are claiming that their elections were funded by the governor.
Look. I don’t want to use any bad name on anybody. Those people don’t know what they are saying. For example, I was instrumental for my own House of Assembly member, Honourable Awolola. What did he take from the governor? He didn’t take anything from the governor. Whatever we gave him was from Lai. Did the governor know any of them before they were inaugurated? Was it not when they won their elections and he took them to Ghana that they started taking money from him? After the election, he took them to Ghana and gave them dollars in the name of doing a retreat and all sorts. That was where they planted a union between the executive and the legislature. They are well bonded today, much to the disadvantage of democracy. That it is what is going on today.
So, where will all these take the party?
Well, only God knows tomorrow. You’re asking me about tomorrow. But I will say that whatever happens today must extend till tomorrow. To your question on where it will take us, my belief is that when there is crisis of this nature, one group must subsume the other, unless there is a national intervention, which has to be quick.
You talk about subsume. In what sense is this?
We have worked on reconciliation for a long time now and the governor has not permitted reconciliation. He is the one that should make reconciliation possible because he is the one holding the ace; the one who has the lever of power. If people are aggrieved against the governor, he should find a way to make sure that he assuage their grievances. He has not done anything like that.
But the party is saying that it is only a small group within that is fomenting trouble.
How do you mean?
The new Caretaker chairman recently said it is only a small fragment of members in the Kwara APC, who are in the minority that are working against the party.
You mean Samari and his group? If we are in the minority, how is it that they are manipulating? Will the majority continue to manipulate? They brought registration and revalidation, something that should be done in the open, for anybody that has interest to come out, they were doing it in government house. Something that should be done in two weeks, in my local government they spent three days. Even when you were there they will tell you the materials were not available; that you should write on a sheet of paper. It is only people who are afraid of the majority that can act that way. If they make a claim to be in the majority, with what? What is their evidence? It can only mean that they are afraid of the majority.
Again, look at the purported removal of BOB. He worked very hard here inducing people with money, it was impossible. He called people to Kwara Hotel to manipulate and rmove a vote of no confidence, it failed. He now ran to his friend in Niger State to make use of the Zonal, to write to the National headquarters for the removal of BOB. Is that how to remove people in a party? If he is in the majority, why was it impossible for him to remove a chairman until he now went out to do manipulation? If he is in the majority, why did he go ‘up’ to manipulate, to even win the primary? He was impose on us.
So, don’t let them fool anybody that they are in the majority. In fact, they are in what I will call minor-minority.
But they are holding the party now as everyone could see
Yes, they are holding the party, so to say, as a result of their influence at the national headquarters. But if majority is about number and not about having connection at the headquarters, then they are not in the majority.
Your party just announced extra two weeks for some states, including Kwara to continue with the membership registration and revalidation exercise. Is your group going to take any action? Or rather, would you be part of it?
Yes. We heard about it. We are swinging into action immediately. But if you look at it, why must there be another two weeks if there was no manipulation that we talked about. And that was what I was saying. Is there an extra weeks in Lagos, Ekiti, Niger or other APC states. It is only in four states that the party is saying go and do your registration again. If there was no manipulation, why would they take this decision? This why I say that people who are in the majority would not manipulate.
But your party said there is no stop to membership registration.
Yes, there may be no stop for membership registration. You can join the party at any time. But for the purpose of doing a congress, there must be a stop-gap. There is always a time to close membership registration for the purpose of the congress, even though it would continue soon after.
There is this salient question that people are asking. Does your party believe that it is so formidable that it cannot be toppled in Kwara State?
That would be a silly thought by anybody. And it is only these people that are manipulating processes that are thinking that way. I don’t know what they want to put together. Meanwhile, four tendencies that formed the Kwara APC came together during the 2019 general elections. The four tendencies worked together. Today, three of the tendencies are outside. Only one is operating the government the way they want. If the party is not rescued from that one tendency, the tendency is that APC will lose Kwara State. I don’t deceive people and I told them this at the national secretariat of the party when we went.
We worked together and we won. If we don’t work together we won’t win. If the governor is now saying that having been in government he has been able to garner a lot of followership, the discontentment of a few can truncate the victory of any party. And in this case, it is the contentment of so many people; of the majority. So, if the party is not returned to the actual majority in Kwara, and they field Abdulrahman Abdulrasak, Abdulrahman Abdulrasak will fail.
Are you saying that you are likely to go to another party?
Whether I go to another party or not, he will fail. What I’m saying is that if he is fielded for an election in 2023 under APC, APC will not win. Mark my words. How can we endure another four years of tragedy?
The last time we spoke with you, you talked about alignment and realignment. Could this be what you’re driving at?
In politics, there will always be this continuous alignment and realignment. If there was no alignment, ACN, CPC and ANPP won’t come together to form APC. They all came together to align and form APC. There will certainly be alignment and realignment. I remember I once told you about thesis and anti-thesis in politics.
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