John Dara, a former presidential aspirant of the National Transformation Party (NTP) in the 2011 election, now contesting for the 2015 governorship election in Kwara State on the podium of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) believes the Saraki's political dynasty in the state cannot stop his ambition. He spoke with journalist recently. Seye Olumide reports.

RUNNING for Kwara governorship in 2015 under the PDP

In 2011 I contested for the presidential election on the podium of the National Transformation Party (NTP) with the aim to contribute to the quality of leadership in Nigeria. I felt that I needed to make a statement on behalf of my people in the Middle Belt, that we have many good and quality people who could be made president of Nigeria and lead well. I realised that many people in the Middle Belt tend to be self-evasive and humble, even shy of projecting themselves as being available.

I was setting a pace in showing them you didn't have to be a moneybag to make yourself available to serve; and that there is nothing ungodly about making oneself available for leadership.

That point was eloquently made and I can assure you that in the Middle Belt today, more people are confident and ready to assume leadership at the national level and in their respective states.

Given the circumstance of things in 2011 where even as an executive member of the Middle Belt Forum, we took a decision to back President Goodluck Jonathan, I was not expecting therefore to be elected president.

But we also took a collective decision that I should remain in the race for two reasons. One, to keep the record of haven been on the ballot; give myself the opportunity of being at the presidential debate where I could articulate an alternative approach to governance in Nigeria.

Also, in case anything happens to our preferred candidate, President Jonathan, I was to remain in the race to be able to step forward. I was a member of PDP until the time our group took a decision that I should go and run on the National Transformation Party (NTP). That was how we popularised the idea of national transformation.

My agenda for Kwara as a governor

Now, appraising the situation of things in the country, the Middle Belt has not formally announced their stance but the truth is that we have made up our minds to back President Jonathan for a second term.

As far as the Middle Belt is concerned, there is no vacancy for any candidate. This gives me opportunity to go back to a project, which I had rigorously pursued in 2002, which is to change the politics of Kwara State, change the face of Kwara State in terms of development, and provides a democratic and developmental oriented leadership for the people.

In 2002 I ran against Bukola Saraki; the rest is history as they say. On the eve of the primaries, I had three quarter of the delegates in my camp while he had one quarter, but, at the end of the day all our delegates were locked out and he was proclaimed the candidate. The law as at that time gave the party the power to use any method to choose their candidate, and so there's nothing we could have done. So the people of Kwara State who have had to live with eight years of Bukola's mis-governance, and now another four years, which is like Bukola's third term, are waiting to be rescued. So this is a call to duty. All the original members of PDP are resolute about my candidature.

The division in the Kwara PDP

I always caution that the impression sometimes created in the media is not an accurate reflection of reality. Hajia Shagaya is one of the leaders of the party; she does not have any faction at all. She's a friend of all aspirants and groups. She may like one group than the other but her primary focus is on how to ensure that PDP wins in Kwara State. As a matter of fact she doesn't see herself as a politician but wants to ensure PDP's win. So how can she have a faction? She doesn't.

Gbemi Saraki does not have a faction but supporters for her aspiration. Dele Belgore has supporters for his aspiration. Kwara state PDP is one solid block. I can authoritatively tell you that there are no factions. There are competitions and rivalry and that is what people like us love about democracy. So again, there are no camps in Kwara state PDP.

The truth about the Saraki's political dynasty in Kwara

Almost every Kwara politician that you ask would say what I am saying to you that the media has an exaggerated picture of the Saraki power in Kwara state; but then the media can be justified. One way or the other, throughout his career, the late Saraki had managed to be on the winning side. What many people do not know is that he was a very smart politician. He would always study the trend. When he saw that C.O Adebayo was likely to win in the second republic, he threw his weight behind him.

When he saw that Shaba Lafiaji was the most popular aspirant in his camp; in fact he did not like Shaba because he was the Managing Director of a sugar company and was having a lot of money, and was already very popular.

Saraki was smart enough to throw his weight behind the mo

Even his own son that he eventually installed because he felt previous people were not so loyal to him, his son did more damage to puncture the myth of Saraki than anybody else.

Bukola actually demystified his father at the end of the day. When we are talking about the Saraki structure, the question is that who actually inherited the structure?

Defection of Bukola to APC

Now, how much of the Saraki structure is staying back with Bukola in the APC because many people evacuated from the party the moment they saw Bukola who had become disreputable in Kwara State. They moved away because it was like APC had become diseased from the moment Bukola went in there. So the Saraki factor I don't think would be the determining factor in the next elections. What would be is PDP ensuring transparency, free and fair primary. Once that is done, the unity of the party would be preserved.

People are excited about PDP because they have never experienced the kind of democracy they are now witnessing. In the past the late Saraki sits in his house and decides who the candidate would be and those in the state party to which he belongs would fall in line. Now PDP without any Saraki influence conducted a state congress that was very fiercely contested and it was rancour-free. We must keep that in the gubernatorial primaries.

That is the first determining factor. The second is President Jonathan. He is the leading political force in Nigeria today and it's a fatal political mistake for Bukola to distance himself from that.

That is a sure end to his relevance in Kwara politics. I believe that it is predictable PDP would win Kwara in 2015 and very big if I am the flag bearer.

The challenges of zoning in Kwara

There is no zoning arrangement in Kwara State; whether in APC or PDP. But the conventional wisdom is that any of the party that does not pick his candidate from Kwara South would lose. Bukola was smart and was able to beat his father. In 2011 Kwara Central had produced Bukola for eight years, after Lawal's four years.

So Kwara Central had produced the governor for 12 consecutive years.

Before Central, it was the North that produced Shaba Lafiaji. So everyone in Kwara was of the opinion it was the turn of the South.

Bukola smartly rode on the back of that and picked a Kwara Southerner as governor. That is why he was able to beat his father who was presenting a Central man as candidate. Same thing applies now. The notion that the governorship has been zoned to the Kwara North has no logic.