•OYO State PDP Chieftain, Eng. FEMI BABALOLA
Have you ever wondered why some South-West members of the PDP don’t see anything wrong in Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate who is Northerner (Fulani) coming in to take over from outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, who is Fulani from the North, about to complete his 2-terms of 8 years in power? Have you also wondered why they are against fielding a Southern candidate to run, like the G5 PDP governors are agitating for.
We can tell you why. A chieftain of Oyo State PDP Engr. Femi Babalola, popularly called Jogor recently told City People that the issue of Atiku, a Fulani man, taking over from Buhari (another Fulani man) will not affect the chances of PDP’s victory at the presidential elections. “I can assure you that it will not affect the fortunes of Atiku Abubakar in Oyo State that was displayed a few days back when people came out en masse, party members came out, and they were chanting Atiku, Atiku, saying that is what they wanted. So, there is no problem with that. The members know their own, no matter what”.
What is Jogor’s reaction to the story making the rounds that Gov. Seyi Makinde is not supporting Atiku Abubakar for President, just like the other members of the G-5, and that he may be supporting another Southern candidate from another party. “I actually don’t know his mind. And Yoruba will say inu jin.
I don’t know his thoughts. But I know within myself that after sometime, he will feel that he should go with Atiku”.
How does Engr. Femi Babalola see Gov. Seyi Makinde’s opposition to the issue of the PDP fielding a Northern to replace a Northern for President, which is one of the issues that the G-5 governors have against Atiku.
“Basically, they have a common stand. And one of it is that a Northerner, should not take over from a Northerner. And the other one is that Ayu should resign, from his post.
And to me, I look at those 2 points, of a Northerner taking over from a Northerner, and Ayu resigning, and my response is, okay, if you have such a law, against it, or, an understanding as they say, what do they have to say about the situation in Oyo State where a Seyi Makinde, as present governor, benefitted from such a thing. And he is still contesting in the next election. Late Governor, Ajimobi for 8 years. But Seyi did not see anything wrong in contesting and taking over from Ajimobi. He didn’t say oh, an Ibadan man, has done 8 years, it should be unfair for another Ibadan man to contest and continue. We have other zones in Oyo State. We have people from Ogbomosho, Ibarapa, Oke Ogun people. So, why should it be an Ibadan man, replacing another Ibadan man? He didn’t see anything wrong there then. So, what I am saying is that he who comes to Equity must come with clean hands. If he had kept a principled stand then, me, Femi Babalola, will support him, that yes, this is what this guy stood for in 2019, so we are ready to support him.
And on the issue of chairmanship, I don’t know why they are bothered about somebody being the Chairman or coming from any section, for now, because we are just at the threshold of an election all candidates for elections have emerged. So, what will the Chairman do? What role is he going to play? Except people are up to mischief except people are up to some motives, which I don’t know of. What will the Chairman do at this time? The candidates have emerged”.
But the arguments of the G-5 is that the 2 top most party slots of Presidency & Chairman have gone to the North… “No. The truth of the matter is this. It is when you want to kill a dog that you give it a bad name.
To those of us that have travelled far and wide, in this country. Yes, you can say North. It is like saying South under South.
There is South-South, South-West, South-East. In the North, North-Central is different from North-East. We have 6 regions, so the people that sat down in their wisdom, to come with division of posts, knew what they said.
They said okay, we have 6 regions in the country, so we have to move round the regions in our division of posts.
At some point, some people said lets narrow it to North and South. If its North and South fine. But the issue is it is the President, not the presidential candidate. They are 2 diffrent things.
And what the Chairman said was that this man Atiku, by Gods grace will emerge as President, the day he becomes the President, I will resign. There are 2 different things – the Presidential Candidate is different from the President.
What we recognise is, the candidate, then Pesident and the Chairman, should not come from the same place.
What we are saying is, leave this man (Ayu) alone, what do we need him for? The Chairman practically has no role to play, until this election is over, so why are they insisting on his removal. Unless some people just want to be mischief makers, that lets be in control of the position of the Chairman and cause problems. That is the way I see it. Honestly”.
As a core, PDP member, campaigning for Atiku, we asked him to tell us why his presidential candidate should be the next President of Nigeria? “Number one, someone once told me that Nigeria is in trenches. I said No.
I corrected the person, that where Nigeria is now even below the trenches, that we can not even locate Nigeria.
It is like Nigeria is lost, somewhere in the moon. When you say something is in the trenches, you know where it is. The state at which we are now is that we don’t know where the country is.
As far as I am concerned we need Atiku, who has done this before. Of all of those contesting, he is the one who has done it before. He has been the Vice-President for 8 years. He has seen it all. That is the kind of person we need now. We don’t need a learner. We don’t need someone that will come in and learn on the job.
Some one who will say give me the 1st two years to settle down, I want to take my time and see out what is going on this villa. No. State politics and regional politics is different from National politics. National governance is different from state or regional governance. I stand by Atiku. He is qualified. He is competent. He has done it before. If you look at it again, he is one man that identifies talents. Atiku brought 90% of all the people that worked with Obasanjo during his tenure. He is just a very humble guy who doesn’t talk. He probably doesn’t fly his achievements around.
He was the man behind so many of the people that helped Obasanjo as President, achieve results.
Don’t forget that at some point the governors had to go and beg him to take over from Obasanjo. If he wanted to, he had the structure in his hands. He don’t.
I believe that the Yorubas owe Atiku in 2003, if he was a greedy man, if he was an over ambitious man, he would have been the President in 2003. So Yoruba owe him.
Number 2, is that in 1991. I was there in Jos. He was one of the guys that was asked to step down for Abiola.
So, we owe him. Yorubas owe him. If he had contested with Abiola maybe something else would have happened.
So, I believe we owe him from the South-West.
But can a divided party deliver victory for Atiku, at the centre and for Gov. Makinde at the state level, we asked. “Oh yes, I know him I know Gov. Makinde very well. He is a politician. Once Atiku wins the presidential elections, which he will win resoundingly, I know what Makinde will do. He will quickly adjust. We all want the PDP to win at the national level and state level. Everybody wants his party in government, even if you are not benefitting. There is pride in oh, my party rules that state. Remember, we formed this party from the onset.
And I will love to continously see my party in power, even when I am not beneffitting. I trust Gov. Makinde is declared the winner, I know what Makinde will do. I don’t have any doubt in my mind.
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