In this interview with Deputy Editor, Jacob Segun Olatunji, National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olusola Oke, bares his mind on the recent peaceful resolution of the lingering crisis that rocked the Ondo State chapter of the party, the efforts being made to rebrand the party in the South-West and sundry issues.PEACE is gradually returning to the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), following reconciliations here and there, can you give an insight into what is responsible for this'You are right; there is now peace in the Ondo State chapter of our great party. Glory be to God and thanks to our leaders, all of who worked together to make it all possible.In this regard, first, I want to commend the efforts of Senator Bode Olajumoke, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, former governor of the state and a host of other leaders who were exploring the possibility of amicable resolution of the conflicts prior to my intervention. I also like to place on record the contributions and the support of Otunba Oyewole Fasawe and a host of others who were members of the National Assembly, who were all exploring available options for amicable resolutions.We found that the situation our party was then was not good; the people of Ondo State were yearning for change, and they were looking up to the PDP for the desired change. It was clear to us as leaders that our house was divided, arising from conflicts of interest and maybe extreme ambition on the part of some of our members.But it came to a point when I had to intervene. I invited the feuding parties to a meeting and we all talked to ourselves as members of the same family, and all of us agreed on the need for us to come together to meet the aspirations of the people of Ondo State and to provide the credible alternative to the onslauhgt that was going on and that is still going on in Ondo State.Are you saying that the lingering crisis is over now'Capital yes! The crisis is over, we are working together already. We have held series of meetings, we have held our stakeholders' meeting which was well attended by everybody. The admission by those who had earlier disagreed to come together is enough evidence for me that the crisis is over. Secondly, I convened a meeting of the elders and we were all parties to the decisions taken towards the dissolution of the State Executive Council that was in place.We all agreed to subscribe to a transition committee, we constituted a caucus, which was an assemblage of the leadership of different tendencies and we are at the stage of putting in place the Elders' Council. The activities that have been coming up since then convinced me beyond any reasonable doubt that the PDP in Ondo State has come to be one, and is working seriously to meet the expectations of the people of Ondo State.You are saying that the people are yearning for a change and you mentioned an era of waste in Ondo State, what do you mean by this'We have a bad government that has completely fallen short of the expectations of the people of Ondo State, that is not providing health, that is not constructing or rehabilitating roads, that is getting so much resources from the federation account and yet cannot account for it; a government that is destroying the structures that were put in place by the previous governments, a government that cannot regularly pay salaries and allowances of workers; a government that is noted for squandering the resources of the state, a government that has no focus. That is the government we have in place in Ondo State today, that is what I mean by yearnings for a change. In terms of waste, what I have just said epitomizes the change that I have described.But the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which is in control of power in the states of the South-West, is boasting that it will capture Ondo State in the next elections and now you are saying that the PDP will recapture the state.There is a common ground between the ACN and the PDP: that there is a bad government in place in Ondo State that needs to be changed. The only point of disagreement is which of the two political parties will replace the bad government. The ACN, encouraged by what has happened in other states in the South-West, is saying that it is the party that will provide the change. But we are noted for what we have done in the state, which stands as an eloquent testimony of our capability, the support we enjoy, the structures of our party, which have been tested'we believe we enjoy greater advantage over the ACN. Another point is that there is nothing cheering in the neighbouring states being controlled by the ACN to warrant their belief that the people of Ondo State will want to go the way of Oyo, Osun, Ogun and even Ekiti that is very close to us.What we are witnessing in those states now is a galore of failed promises. The people of Ondo State are very sensitive, they are very intelligent, they are very educated, so they have seen very clearly through the compass, and they will not want to follow the other states that are now languishing under purposeless governments like the one we have in Ondo State. Given our history as a performing party in that state, surely we will win, but we will work with the ACN to dislodge Dr. Mimiko from government. I believe that when the time comes, the ACN will support our candidate to dislodge Mimiko from office.During the last general election in the South-West, internal crises among various individuals and groups gave the ACN the upper hand in the zone; what are you people doing to put your house in order ahead of the future elections'Thank you. The answer to this is reconciliation. In Ondo State, we have achieved it; in Oyo State, efforts are on and have reached an advanced stage for true reconciliation. In Ogun State, efforts are also on to get our people reconciled. I think the ongoing party membership revalidation exercise will provide an ample opportunity for us to really harmonize the different tendencies in those states.The undoing of the PDP was not the strength of the ACN but the divided house of the PDP, and we are conscious of the danger a division within PDP will cost us. We have learnt lessons from it and that is why we are doing the reconciliations.In some states, particularly in Ogun State, some aggrieved PDP members who stormed out of the party in the heat of the last general election claimed that they were denied membership of the party. A case in point is that of the former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and his group.That is not true. In fact, I'm hearing it for the first time from you that some people who wanted to return into the party were denied membership. We have not receive any official report on this.But it was widely reported in the media'We don't operate our party affairs based on media reports; we expect that if anybody was refused validation, that individual or group should report back to the National Secretariat because we have advised that the revalidation exercise is intended to cover many things: one, to update the membership, to open our doors to people that were under 18 at the last registration to be able to register into the party; thirdly, to also open our doors to returnees, people that had left the party but are coming back to also come back into the party.So, we do not believe that any individual has the power to reject a winning member of the party, and if that happens, there is always an avenue for redress. But we have not receive any complaint in respect of any rejection from Ogun State or any other state for that matter.
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