Hon. Sikirulai Ogundele has been the chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in Ogun State for more than 8 months now, and there is no doubt that he is well loved within the PDP’ s caucus. He is a grassroot politician who knows his onions and had served in various capacities in Ogun State. A few weeks back, City People’s Assistant Society Editor, ABIOLA ORISILE, was at the 55th birthday of Hon. Ladi Adebutu, which was organised by the Ogun PDP and she had an exclusive interview with Hon. Ogundele, where he spoke on why they picked Hon Ladi and why he is a good choice for Ogun governorship race. He also spoke on why various factions of Ogun PDP have been reconciled.
Why did you decide to celebrate Hon. Ladi Adebutu at 55?
To God be the glory. We thank God for his life. God has been so magnanimous in his life. He has convinced us with his magnanimity that he is a generous person. Very reliable, very responsible and responsive. The joy of any politician is to be responsive to his people. We give glory to God for giving us somebody as good as Hon. Ladi Adebutu. We noticed some qualities in him and we shall continue to give glory to God and also say we are not disappointed. We saw uprightness, of people at heart.
There are different kinds of politicians. Some are just there to make money, but Ladi Adebutu’s case is quite different. He has always been looking beyond making money in politics. He is extremely generous and responsive to the challenges of members. Any time at his house, you are likely to meet no fewer than 200 people, who are fed on daily basis. There is this Yoruba saying that “Ti Ounje ba kuro ninu ise, ise bu se” (people are given basic needs of life, like food). If it is money, he has it. He is a successful businessman. He has the biggest piggery farm in Nigeria.
He is doing well. What I am so particular about is his genuity of intension as a politician. He is so concerned about the plights of the less-privileged and its is one of the outstanding attributes of Hon. Ladi Adebutu.
What are the chances of Hon. Ladi Adebutu emerging the PDP standard bearer in the next governorship election?
I have said it that this was the first time the party would be solidly behind a particular aspirant. You know, you have to aspire first. But Ladi Adebutu’s case is different. We have been out of government for 8 years as it would be 8 years in 2019. We have taken it as our last lap. We had election in 2011, we lost and same in 2015 and at our village people say one thing, “stroke must not strike a person 3 times”. The third time is always the end of the story. We then out lined some qualities for the best candidate and the qualities that took us to governance many years ago. As the man in power has got money. The governor of Ogun State has once confessed that his party used money to win Ondo and Edo elections. So, we out lined the qualities that we would be looking for in a candidate, who could beat the incumbent. All these qualities are necessary for the candidate who is going to face (APC) irresponsive government that so much believe in money. The person must also be rich. The person must be ready to spend money. Another quality is that the person must be popular. The 4th is that the person must be less controversial. The 5th is parental influence. The name of the person’s family must be sellable. So all these qualities we found in Hon. Ladi Adebutu and we quickly appealled to him and we told him to come and run the party for us and to the glory of God, he has been so tremendous doing that.
We influenced him to come and contest for the governorship and we want to use the influence of his father, the personality of his family’s name, and pedigree. There is no doubt that Hon. Ladi Adebutu is rich, he is also influential, he is more than ready to give APC a run for its money. Another thing going for him is popularity. There is no street in Ogun State that you would mention Baba Ijebu and people would not know the person you are talking about. He is a responsive politician. Those are a few of the many qualities we saw in him which we believe could take the PDP back to the government House in 2019 and we are all going to put our weights behind him. The responsible leaders in our state and politicians have put their weight behind him.
Do you think within the party other guber aspirants would also throw their weight behind him?
Yeah, we are appealing to them, if they want to come, let them come but we have an agenda that we are running. Some other people may want to contest for other elective posts. The agenda we have is that out of the 40 elective posts we have in the state, the slot for governorship is reserved for Hon. Ladi Adebutu, while 39 other seats are contestable and are thrown open to interested members. The 3 seats in the Senate, the 9 reps, the House of Assembly and other contestable posts.
How do you see the victory of Alimodu Sherif?
Alimodu Sheriff and his cohorts are evil tools of the APC administration. Mark my words, Alimodu Sheriff has been known to be playing that mole role for long. When he was in the ANPP and when he was the governor of that state, he deceived them. When he was in Senate, he did the same thing. Alimodu has been known to be playing that role.
Honesty, speaking, we have prayed to Almighty God to stop that kind of thing. And by the grace of Almighty God, he is going to meet his waterloo. We are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the present APC administration had been using him. For example, Jimoh Ibrahim said sometime ago that he has achieved all he wanted. He is indirectly telling you that he had achieved what he wanted by just disrupting the political affairs of the PDP in Ondo state. Don’t forget he is in the same camp with Alimodu Sheriff. He said he had successfully thwarted Mimiko’s State.
So, they have their game plan. So, we cannot be together. We are electoral-minded people. We believe in success of elections not just about collecting money from the ruling party. We are positive electoral-minded people. They are not after the success of the party. As I said earlier, it has been the practice of Alimodu Sheriff. So, the victory he got from appeal court is transient. It is not a credible judgment.
Does that mean you pitch your tent with Makarfi faction?
If you look at Makarfi, 99% of the fathers of the party, the governors, Senate members, House of Reps members are with Makarfi and who is who and fathers of the party are all with Makarfi. What Sherif is running after is a fake and temporary judicial success.
What are your achievements as chairman of the PDP in the last 8 months?
As I promised when I was made the chairman 8 months back, I told the people that my emergence was to end divisions in our party and to God be the glory, that has become a reality. We used to have 4 camps of PDP in the past. Hon Dimeji Bankole camps, Otunba Gbenga Daniels Camp, Okupe’s camp but now we are all together against the self-acclaimed leader of PDP, Buruju Kashmu. Ogun State is an elitist state, so we cannot afford to be in association with somebody who is a fugitive. Ogun State that has Baba Obasanjo, cannot allow a miscreant and a confirmed fugitive to take leadership of the state. That is impossible as we can’t open our eyes and allow that to happen. We have decided to fight him tooth and nail and the battle is more than half won.
You are a grassroot politician, who has served in various posts including being a member of the House of Assembly 2 times, how did politics start for you?
I used to be a very strong critic. I was Dr. Beko’s person and up to date Wole Soyinka’s person. I used to be a critic at the policy of the government and we would look at some of government intrigues and antics and pick them up and look at. At a time somebody just walked up to me and said you are enlightened and well educated and you have travelled round the world and you have got good ideas, and he said since you have good ideas, why don’t you join politics and inculcate your ideas. That was one of the reasons I joined politics. And again, I slept over the issue and I thought if you refused to join politics and you are part of those who call politics a dirty game and you run away from politics, you will allow politics to be played by miscreants, disoriented elements to contest elections and either by way of manipulation and rigging, they get themselves into offices, there is nothing you can do but to obey their laws.
I mulled over it for 3 months and I came back with the view that if you cannot beat them, joint them, and you make your stand known. It is generally known that if you asked people about who Hon. Sikirulai Ogundele is, they will tell you, Sikirulai is controversial. They would tell you Sikirulai is a juju man. Some would tell you Sikirulai is stubborn, some would say, he is wicked, but all these are exeptions to my calmness and kindness.
I attended a seminar in Columbus in the United States sometime ago and I was convinced that this world is evil not because of the evil doers, but because of you and I watching them, committing evils with impunity and not doing any thing to stop them. Hence, if anything goes wrong, I will tell you. I have had confrontation, altercation with Baba Obasanjo when he was the president. Baba Osoba and you must have read about me and Osoba then.
Chief Otunba Gbenga Daniel before we became close, we had altercations. That is the difference between Otunba Daniel and some other politicians. When you make on observation, he will look into it. He is just always being misjudged. So, that is just one of the reasons I joined politics. God has not forgotten me and this is why they said Sikirulai is still there, based on his firmness and that is what has taken us to where we are now.
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