Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, the Executive Chairman of Federal Character Commission (FCC), is one of the leaders of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State who remained in the party after the exit of former governor Bukola Saraki and others. In this interview, he says the PDP in Kwara now has a "sophisticated machinery" to defeat the APC government, boasting that the Ekiti scenario would also play out in Kwara State. Excerpts:

What is the state of the PDP in Kwara State after its congresses?

The party congresses are normal fundamental rituals when you are putting together the structure of a party in a state like Kwara State. The party congresses took place in April and since then what we have been doing has been mop-up activities to consolidate, to get the structure to be firm, strong and ready as an instrument and platform upon which you can contest and win elections.

So the structure we have now gives a feeling of confidence as it is becoming stronger, more clear-headed and is more than ever before determined to become a viable instrument to wrest power from the temporary government we have in place now.

But the current government says their structure cannot be defeated, that the current PDP as constituted lacks the structure to wrest power from it...

Anybody can say anything. You know that politics is a dynamic institution.

People keep going in and coming out. Even if they have been there for 100 years, something was before that time and nothing is permanent but change. It is time for them to be pushed out. The time is here and they recognise that the people that are armed sufficiently, ideologically and temperamentally to push them out are here. They know each and everyone of us in the PDP now that without us they couldn't have become what they have become today. If we have reason for remaining in PDP and they have the reason for going out of the PDP, we wish them good luck. The good luck is that, we will come and take the place, re-establish the supremacy of the PDP in Kwara State.

Going by what transpired in Ekiti where the PDP candidate defeated the incumbent governor, do you think such could be replicated in Kwara State?

The subsisting conditions in Ekiti and Kwara are very much alike. So the condition that obtains in Ekiti is 99.99 per cent ready to happen in Kwara state. You will find that even in Ekiti, there is a firmer ground for somebody to claim that he would not be movable. First, the government in Ekiti was not a defecting government, it has been the government in power for four solid years.

If it has failed to deliver on this occasion, I was told that they have run bankrupt of ideas and new ideas must take over and as the new ideas have taken over on the side of the people of Ekiti so will it take place in Kwara. You contested the PDP ticket in the 2011 election. Are you thinking of contesting again or what is your plan for 2015?

I did not contest in 2011. I was an aspirant and because we needed to salvage the image of the party, to keep its unity, we came home to some kind of home-made arrangement which zoned out some people and left the stage for a person who was never on the platform until that arrangement. So I was a very active participant in 2011. This time around, I am also an active participant in the ongoing political dispensation.

So will run for the governorship this time?

There is going to be governorship but nobody is going to say anything about that now because saying so would be going against the grains, against the regulations of INEC. So if you are going to ask that question, come back again next month when INEC would have blown the whistle and then you would know those who are running and those who are not running. And there is a lot of body movement.

But so many people seems to be aspiring already?

Yes it is their legitimate right to struggle and to aspire.

During the recent PDP retreat, one of the guest speakers challenged the party to engage the youths. Is PDP working towards that challenge?

I think that is a rhetorical question. It is a question which answer you already know. If there is anybody in PDP who has promoted and is still promoting the course of the young population in Kwara State, it is those of us in the PDP. We have a ready-made pool of youth vanguards whose life is being transformed and changed for the better. The youth population in Kwara State know those who are after their welfare, they know those who want their progress from those who want to use them as cannon folder. So the PDP today in Kwara is youth-friendly, it is a promoter of youth progress and if you are in doubt, ask any young man if he knows anybody called Professor Oba Abdulraheem. You would know that most of the people around me are young and I promote them.

In recent weeks, there have been all sorts of advertorials suggesting that there is division among stakeholders of PDP in Kwara State. How true is this seeming lack of division in the party?

As you know they are faceless people who claim they are stakeholders in the PDP. They have dared not to put their names against it. If they do, then we would be able to face them at a debate. But because they are cowardly faceless people, we don’t reckon with them.

So are you saying there is no division in the party?

As far as we are concerned, there is no division in our party. There is what we call Unity. And let me show you evidence of unity, the whole of this past week, those of us who are in leadership have been consulting and meeting all the time. During the past few days, I have met with Senator Gbemisola Saraki in my office, I have met with Hajia Bola Shagaya, Bio Ibrahim, Dele Belgore and with Senator Ajibola in my house, all of these have been geared towards consolidating the PDP as a party that is formidable, that can win election. I also communicated with Yekinni Alabi. He has not been around for some time. So we are in touch with all the members of the family of PDP. So the idea of disunity is the handiwork and concoction of detractors as far as we are concerned.

So what are the machineries being put in place to ensure the victory of the party in next election?

We have quite sophisticated machineries. First is investment in the welfare of the people. We are concerned with the concern of the people about their determination to be free from this political enslavement, political compromise to which we have been subjected in the past 10 years by one person, one clique. For 10 years, it is been the same song and has not changed. People have now said they are ready and determined to be free of them. So there is of course, the machinery, the platform is ready and we are oiling the machinery for successes. Details of that would not be put in the newspaper but those who are concerned are aware that there is a formidable force ready to push the pretender out of office.