A two-time Ogun governorship candidate, Rotimi Paseda has vowed to make sure that Gov. Abiodun does not come back come 2023 and he has started work on that project. Over the last few days, he has been meeting with various groups across the 20 Local Governments of the state.
To enable him to do that effectively he has resigned from Ogun APC.
Until he resigned from Ogun State APC, a few days back, he was a valued member of the party. He was one of those who contributed to the victory of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Governor of Ogun State.
But Paseda shock everyone recently when he resigned from the party after years of complaints that Gov. Abiodun did not fulfill all his promises to his group after helping him win. He said he complained to party leaders repeatedly and to the governor himself, but nothing was done about it.
Right now, Paseda is bitter about it and he says he is going to work against the victory of Gov. Abiodun in Ogun State.
What are the issues, City People asked him a few days back and he opened up on why he is so angry and bitter with the Ogun State Governor? What led to his recent exit from Ogun APC we asked him.
“If you believe strongly in the process of a political party, and you are 100% committed like I am, when you get frustrated and there is no repair to damages done, you have a choice. It worries you. You sit down and do nothing, and just pretend as if nothing is going on, and behave like an outsider from inside. Or you step out and try and correct it. I chose to get out, so that I will not be seen as doing something that can be termed anti-party.
My singular reason for resigning from APC is so I can actively work against Dapo Abiodun because I believe his imagined 2nd term is erroneous. He should not have been giving that 2nd term ticket for so many reasons from moral reasons, to the image of the party that is seen as progressive, we say we are progressive. We say we give everybody an open door, to be whoever you want to be, in the party. So, when we see things seriously going wrong, and the Apex of the party is not really doing what we think, or what they should be doing, to protect the interest of the grassroots, as well as the stakeholders, (which I am one of them), then it leaves me with no other choice than to step out. So, I am out. And I am not a member of any political parties, at the moment. I am not. I love my party, the APC. But I have to leave for now to enable me to fight Dapo Abiodun. How can I make a change? Or do what I think is right. Or try and correct the errors. Let me tell you the truth. As you speak to me now, there are too many people who are aggrieved at the party.
But I don’t want to continue to stay on and complain. Let me step out and battle Gov. Abiodun. Now, that I have stepped out, I am free. I am a free agent. I can now talk about the negative side of my beautiful party. What they have done wrong, specifically in Ogun State.
So, my party has not really done anything bad, outward or wrong in my eyes, at the national level. Our national leader as far as I am concerned is our national leader. He is an impeccable man. He is the one we want. But in our state, Ogun State, it is a different thing. It is a different ball game”.
How easy was it coming to that decision to quit APC we asked him? “It was very difficult. But once I took the decision, I had to go. I am in a party. I have reunited at that party before. I have financed a whole political party nationwide. So, I know the mechanism. And I know the rules of operating within a framework. But it was difficult to pull out of APC. It took me months, weeks, before the primaries, during the primaries, and after the primaries. I actually spoke to 4 of the aspirants for governorship, in the same party, that were aggrieved. I didn’t contest, because at that point I made up my mind, not to contest against Gov. Abiodun because I stepped down for him in 2019. We had a meeting. We had a conversation. I felt he was going to do what I would have done, given the opportunity. I thought we were on the same page. And I thought oh yes, this is a good man, why not step down for him? And I did not step down by asking for anything from him. I didn’t negotiate anything with Dapo Abiodun, except, okay, we are all going to work to make it happen. Once it happens, once you win, you should take care of A and take of B.
And I am referring to the people who actually did the work for him, the grassroots, the members, the people who worked for him, and members of the PASEDA Movement, personally, there is very little slot that the governor can give me because we are contested against each other. Maybe one or two slots, but really anything else is below me. So, it was not a decision that was made to step down for him based on personal gains, or based on the need for my supporters, and my followers to be involved. When we had this discussion, I told him, I was doing it not for any other reasons, not for financial reasons, because I did not take a dime from him, as a matter of fact, quote me, during the struggle for the primaries, I actually made available almost 6,000 OPC boys that registered in APC to support him. Before that time, they never did. These are followers I inherited from Fashion, that I re-engineered from the old traditional OPC to a reformed OPC, headed by educated graduates. It is not about Hooliganism or carrying guns. Nooo!
It is about security work. So, they were instrumental to his emergence. They came into party. This is 6,000 votes we are talking about. They have never done it before.
They have never been part of any political party. I got them to be part of it.
That is the main reason why I left the party. I would have still stayed within the party if they had picked another candidate to run for the 2nd term. But they didn’t. I respect the party’s decision. There is nothing I can do about it. But I can do something about me being in the party.
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