On Saturday June 28, Lagos was under the arrest of a massive influx of crowd comprising power brokers and political giants of the PDP family from Kwara State, North Central Nigeria. It was a massive crowd of power brokers not just from Kwara alone but from the capital city of Abuja all congregating at a spot in Lekki area of Lagos for one of their own, Senator Simon Sule Ajibola a 4 term senator of the Federal Republic from Kwara South. It was the wedding bash of one of the senator’s scions, Architect Olawale Ibiyinka Ajibola to the beautiful daughter of oil baron, Princess Roseline Omolara Osipitan, Princess Oyenike Olawuyi. The event which had class and panache as trademark and equally loaded with a conglomerate of oil marketers and fabric merchants from Lagos and other cities of the federation was a very classy one in all ramifications.

To start with Senator Ajibola from Isapa area of Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State is today the last man Standing as a result of the political Tsunami which swept Kwara political landscape last year where majority of the political structure dumped the ruling PDP for the major political opposition party, APC. Among the three Senators, Ajibola was the only one that stayed with PDP. He equally got his local government chairman to stay put under the umbrella party with just two members out of the twenty six state house of assembly members staying with him; since this political  victory by him, all eyes have been on him as calls kept sounding at every corner of the state that he should file out for the 2015 election and against the backdrop that generality of Kwara people feels that it is high time Kwara South produces the next governor of the state that will take the state out of the wood after Kwara Central, Ilorin particularly has dominated power at the center for years and since the beginning of the fourth republic. The fact that Ajibola is equally a federal minister with the Revenue Mobilization, allocation and fiscal commission is a giant soul and a standing PDP loyalist since 1998, there is a belief that he could win the election and salvage the state from political woods.  He is counted among the leaders who significantly contributed to the establishment and sustenance of PDP in kwara state since inception in 1998.

 The distinguished senator also has several honorary traditional titles to show for the love of the people of Kwara State for him: he is the Jagunmolu of Kwara State Ekiti land, the Bobaseye of Obbo-ile, the Ajunloye of Ajase-Ipo land, the Bobaseye of Etan land, The Banimo of Odo-Owa land, the Maiyegun of Oke-Opin land, the Sobalaje of Eruku land, the Bashorun of Ilofa land, the Otunba Madegun of Odo-Ekun land, the Babagunwa of oreke-land, the Bashorun of Idofin-Odo-Ashe, the Ajiroba of Okeya-Ipo land and the Otunba of Otun-Ekiti State all in Kwara State.  GBENGA DAN ASABE spent two hours with Senator S.S. Ajibola inside his Ajah Lagos hotel room on the eve of his son’s wedding to Princess Rose Osipitan’s daughter. He told us everything about his life, why he is the last man standing in a party that is dead at the central in Kwara state and why fortune might favor him in 2015 to rule Kwara. Enjoy the excerpts.

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What is the secret of your staying power in Kwara politics, you have been consistently voted in four times as a senator for Kwara South Senatorial district; people kept wondering how you have been able to achieve this meritorious level of success among your people?

Well, I think this question will be best put to the electorate, to be honest with you they are the best to answer you because I may not know why they keep voting me back. But the little I can say is maybe because I am relatively close to the grass root, I relate with them at their lowest rung and even i give from my little resources. For the mere fact that you relate with them, you respect them, there are chances that they will also reciprocate your gesture by voting. To God be the glory, five times I have contested, four out of which are for senate and I won. So, that is what I can say and I thank God for that.

You are also said to have spent so much on indigent scholarship and sundry philanthropist gesture; where do you get all the nerve to be so generous especially to the ordinary people 

I think my strength lies in the ability to take care and pay salaries of temporary teachers which is bigger than giving scholarships to selected ones. If you give scholarships, it can only go to selected ones but if you decide to take over the payment of some of the teachers’ emoluments, then you can give a lot to the people through them, you duplicate the opportunity for education which is bigger than anything else. To God be the glory I have also assisted in the area of provision of class rooms; building of few laboratories. These are the areas I have been able to touch our people; you can see that whatever one is doing is generalized so that all of them can benefit from it.  That is the way I do my things, I identify with the needs of the people and I don’t believe in doing things in a way that you bring the world to see it and the next thing is you go to the pages of newspapers to show all you are doing. It is a contract between me, my people and my God and I enjoy doing it that way.

Your people have asked you to come out and run and deliver Kwara in 2015, being the only surviving PDP Senator in that state, how are you planning to make history as the first Governor from Kwara South in a very long time and with leadership presently in the hand of the opposition?

Well, the aspiration is on to fly the party’s flag in 2015 as PDP flag bearer. The consultations has been made and very soon, there is going to be a public declaration and let’s see what comes out of it at the primary level; then if I succeed in picking the party’s ticket then the next stage will be to face the other political parties at the general election whereby the Kwara electorate as a whole will determine which of the party’s flag bearers would be voted in. I wish to give my people the best of leadership. I wish to make a difference in the lives of the people of Kwara especially people in rural Kwara, our government will solve their problem no matter what.

What prompted you to go into politics as we learnt you were a very comfortable quantity surveyor?

I am a certified quality surveyor, I have been in the industry for decades either as a consultant quality surveyor and I also played big in the construction aspect of building industry. That is my primary calling. But my adventure into politics started in 1994 when I was elected into the constitutional conference of General Abacha’s constitutional program, that is exactly twenty years ago. That was my first election; in 1994 I attended that conference as an elected delegate against some that were nominated. Then, after the confab, the Abacha transition program continued of which I pitched my tenth with CNPP, and with CNPP I was able to win the senate seat of 1998 but unfortunately that electoral reign was truncated. So, by the time Abdulsalam (Abubakar) started his own transition program too in 1999 I joined PDP right from the onset and that time I didn’t contest for the senate but at the end of the day PDP formed the government at the center and I was given the opportunity of being a federal commissioner in revenue mobilization, allocation and fiscal commission. Then, by 2003 I resigned from the commission even though it was a 5 years tenure office but after I think two years or so, I resigned and contested for senate seat in 2003 which I won, I was winning the senate seat for the second time at that time, then I contested 2007 I won and in 2011, I won. And that is why till date I am grateful to God and the people of my zone who have found a worthy ambassador in me.

What are those things you will like to change in Kwara if you become Governor in 2015?

Physically, honestly, I wish I could turn around the situation in rural areas so that it can be somehow near the situation in the urban areas. So that it will make the rural areas good enough for the people to be willing to settle down there and explore the potentials of the area by way of farming and possibly exploring the solid mineral deposited in those areas. My passion is to really give rural Kwara a facelift and make it the new home for all, that is one of my cardinal projection and I think the time is ripe.

The perception in Kwara is that the Saraki family and the Bukola Saraki political machine is still the one in control. How would your candidacy break this jinx, considering the fact that you are the last man standing in the state political equation coupled with the belief that it is only Ilorin people that have the domineering power to win governorship elections at any time and which has been the political culture in a very long time?

My own personal background is such that we believe in the efficacy of change and the God factor. Although I have been operating all along my political line which is majorly based in Kwara South; all the elections I have ever run and won are based in Kwara South. But right from day one, I was never part of Saraki’s political structure. Like in 1994 when I contested for the constitutional conference, with his influence, with his power I contested that position against his candidate and I defeated him.

Who was his candidate then?

He is our present PDP Chairman, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo. He was the person I defeated in 1994 constitutional conference election. In 1998, I was in UNCP, Baba Saraki was in CNP, so with that UNCP which I single handedly funded I was able to control 2 local government of Ekiti extraction of Kwara State, Oke Ero Local Government and Ekiti Local Government, to God be the glory, UNCP under my efforts and humble stride was able to win the two councils back-to-back; and with that which as it is, I was able to also defeat CNP candidate at the senate seat, I won against Baba’s candidate, that time he supported one Alhaji Nurudeen from Oke Ode in Ifelodun Local Government. Now, when that transition program was truncated, we had to start all over again. While Baba joined APP, I joined PDP from day one. So, that was the situation until 2003 when Baba had a problem with Lawal (late Governor Mohammed Lawal); so Baba had no party at that time on which to contest; so, we made the membership of the party open for him. With the support of the PDP party leadership at the national level, they allowed Baba to come into PDP and that was when he fielded Bukola Saraki and that was the time too I also won my senate seat and we had a good working relationship.

 (Cuts in)You mean with Baba Saraki?

Yes, with Baba. But after the death of Baba, I seem not to really, honestly have the liberty to agree with the leadership style of Bukola where he himself assumes the leadership of PDP not by anything good but by proclamation. Bukola Saraki proclaims himself to be the leader of the party and that was the position until when they defected to APC, I didn’t go. And the defection was such that out of the 3 senators, 2 of them defected to APC. Out of the 6 houses of representative members at the federal level, the whole six defected; then the governor with his deputy, at the state house of assembly, out of twenty four, twenty two defected. The sixteen local government council chairmen all defected together with the party structures at the local government level. The only local government council chairman that did not defected was the chairman of my local government, he is the only PDP local government council chairman in Kwara State, his name is Chief S. A. Ogunrinde of Ekiti Local Government Area,that is my local government in Kwara State.

So you are the last man standing?

We have turned out to be the highest political office holder with the PDP structure in Kwara State now (Laughter) at least at the national assembly level, I am the only one. We have 2 at the state House of Assembly level; one Councillors, who is the Councillor for my ward and one local government PDP Party chairman. So, together with the efforts and struggles of other party stakeholders who did not defect, we were able to build the party to what it is today in Kwara State which we believe we will be able to move from here to win the power at the center in 2015.