Date: 2014-08-03

Prof. Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem is a community leader in Ilorin Emirate. He is also the chairman, Federal Character Commission (FEC). In this interview with BISI ADEDAYO, the erstwhile Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin, spoke on various state and national issues. Excerpts:

Recently, your party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the gubernatorial polls in Ekiti State. Do you expect same in next year’s governorship election in Kwara?

The subsisting conditions in Ekiti and Kwara States are very much alike. So, the condition that was obtained in Ekiti is 99.99 per cent ready to happen in Kwara State. You will find that even in Ekiti State, there is firmer ground for somebody to lay claim that they will not be movable. First, the government in Ekiti was not a defecting government; it has been a government in power for four solid years. If it has failed to deliver on this occasion, they must know that they have gone bankrupt of ideas and a new idea must take over. Therefore, the same thing will take place in Kwara next year.

But how do you achieve that in view of the alleged division in Kwara PDP?

The advertorials that there was division in Kwara PDP were by faceless people, who claimed they were stakeholders in PDP. They dare not put their names on the advertorial. If they do, then, we will be able to face them for a debate. But because they are cowardly faceless people, we don’t reckon with them. As far as we are concerned, there is no division in the party. There has been evidence of unity. Those of us in the leadership have been consulting all the time and we are also building consensus. During the past few days, I have met with Senator Gbemisola Saraki, Hajia Bola Shagaya and Hon. Bio Ibrahim in my office and Mr. Dele Belgore as well as Senator Simon Ajibola in my house. All of these meetings have been geared towards consolidating the PDP as a party that is formidable in winning elections in 2015. We are in touch with all members of PDP family in the State. The idea of disunity is the handiwork and concussion of the brain of the detractors.

So, what is the state of affairs of Kwara PDP now, especially after the recent party congresses?

The party congresses are normal fundamental rituals when you are putting together the structure of a party in the State. The party congresses took place in April and since then, what we have been doing has been to mop up activities to consolidate, to get the structure to be firm, strong and ready as an instrument and platform upon which we can contest and win elections. So, we have a structure now. There is a lot more understanding of the implication of having a structure than the challenges before the structure has been in the last one month. So, with the structure we have now, one is feeling more confident, that it is becoming stronger and clearer headed. Our party is more than ever before strong and determined to become viable instrument to wrestle power from the temporary government we have in place now.

But the All Progressive Congress (APC) has been in the saddle in the state for long. Do you think the PDP can be able to dislodge it in Kwara?

Anybody can say anything. 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 recognized the people are armed sufficiently, ideologically and temperamentally to push them out. They know each and every one of us in the PDP now that without us, they couldn’t have become what they are today. If we have a reason for remaining in PDP and they have a 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 as a party and government Kwara State.

It would be recalled that you aspired to the position of governorship in 2011 before you stepped down for the incumbent. What should people expect from you towards 2015?

I was an aspirant in 2011 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 event. So, I was an active participant in 2011. This time around, I am also a very active participant in the on-going political dispensation.

Who are the others in the same boat with you as it relates to gubernatorial contest for 2015?

There is going to be governorship primary but nobody is going to say anything about that now. This is because declaring ambition now will go against the regulations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Therefore, if you are going to ask that question, come back again next month when INEC would have blown the whistle and then you will know those who are running and those who are not running. But there is a lot of body movement. It is the legitimate right of every interested person to struggle and aspire.

How much of support did your party get from the youth that will enable PDP to win the next general election in Kwara?

It is a question which answer you already know. If there is anybody in PDP who has promoted and he is still promoting the cause of the younger population of Kwara State, it is those of us in the PDP. We have a ready-made pool of youth vanguard whose life is being transformed and changed for the better.

The youth population in Kwara knows those who are after their welfare, they know those who want their progress from those who want to use them as cannon fodders. 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 Prof. Oba Abdulraheem, you will know that most of the people around me are young people. And I do with them is to promote them.

You were so optimistic about winning the next general elections. So, what are your party’s preparations for 2015 polls?

We have quiet sophisticated machineries. First, is the investment in the welfare of the people and a concern with the people about their determination to be free from this political compromise which we have been subjected to in the past years? Our machinery is ready and we are oiling it for success.