Date: 2001-03-25

Alhaji L.A.K. Jimoh, a member of the newly constituted board of the Port Harcourt Refinery was an associate of Dr. Olusola Saraki until recently when he left All Peoples Party (APP) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with Sunday Vanguard's JIMOH BABATUNDE , he explains why APP is losing members in Kwara State. Can we talk on those factors that made you leave APP?

It appeared that there is a lot of deceit in the leadership of APP. Besides, the party was becoming too monetized to the extent that it was believed that politics in Kwara is a cash and carry affair. And after several efforts to get the leadership to appreciate the damage that kind of tag is causing the party, the leadership continued to see us as sheepish people who would do anything once cash is involved.

Don't you see this idea of monetizing politics as a general issue which cuts across all parties; because money issue has become a recurrent decimal in the country's politics.

Politics all over the world is an expensive game, that is why in the U.S. there are laws regulating funding of parties and what have you, it is one degree of monetization. But once it gets beyond that, it has gone beyond the tolerance level and becomes inimical to the over all interest of the state. Where, for instance, to become a candidate, whether you are good or not, all you need to have is money to give to the leadership and once that is done, you are through, that cannot be explained. That is not how it is in all parties anyway. So, that of Kwara is so glaring that the leadership will boast that if I put up a dog for elective post, Kwarans will vote for it; to me that is an insult, just believing that once it doles out money, that is it and once it says yes, nobody should say no. And the leadership believes if you want to say no, they will stuff your mouth with money and you shut up. Well, if even it is the general practice at a point in time, some people should start resenting it and try if it can be corrected. I don't think the degree is the same in other parties.

The idea of somebody saying if he puts up a dog for election, that the dog will win appears as something that has to do with lack of party structure in our politics, where there is no known discipline and structure. What do you think?

It is indeed worrisome. But, you see, no tree ever make a forest. I think the leadership of the party was cashing on the collective efforts of members, so to say, because there are many leaders in the party. Leaders at various levels and all these leaders, in their own rights, have electoral values and it is the collective value of these leadership that ultimately cumulates in victory. But, this individual claims the victory, that is why he can boast that if he puts up a dog, it will win because he knows that down stream, there are people who will deliver, that will make it win.

And because of absolute loyalty and commitment to the leadership, this kind of thing is tolerated at lower levels, but when it is beyond the tolerance level, people have to react.

As a political scientist, and a politician, how will you assess the nation in the last one and a half years, or so, vis-a-vis the parties structures. Are we truly democratic?

Yes, I think so, you see after decades of military dictatorship, you don't expect things to get to the level of perfection over night in terms of democratization. But by and large, the way we have been able to manage ourselves in the last one and a half years, shows that yes, we are really on track.

The crises here and there are all part of democracy. The APP had its own share of crises, it survived, the PDP had its share of crises, it survived and the AD is having its own share and it is surviving. Even, if the parties eventually break up, that is part of the gains of democracy. Like in Britain, the Liberal Party split into the Liberal and Labour parties at a point in time. The Labour Party itself at a point in time split again. So that is part of the democratization process.

I strongly believe we are really on course. There are thorns on the way but we will get there. We may have had some obstacles. We may have made some mistakes, but we learn and with time the mistakes we make today we will not repeat tomorrow, so we would have learnt from that and if any mistake comes up, we also learn from it until we get to the stage of perfection.

You just talked about the parties having problems and being able to manage them but is it not worrisome that PDP which is the government in power has not been able to manage its success?

Success you might want to know is far more difficult to manage than failure because everybody's eyes are on you, everybody envies you and everybody wants you to fall. So, the magnitude of success is what is creating the problem of management for PDP. And with time, the leadership, the managers will gain perfection learning from their mistakes. Maybe there are certain opponent's intrigues that they did not envisage, now they can see it. Maybe they took things for granted because since they have succeeded, there is no problem and now, they can see it that success is even more difficult to manage their failure. And now they will be more prepared for those attendant problems of success, which probably they did not foresee. I think there is nothing more to worry about really.

You were once in APP and today you are in PDP. What is the future of the PDP in Kwara State?

Well, like I said earlier on, a tree does not make a forest. Saraki, one has to concede, was and I believe, he could still be a political asset to Kwara State. And all of us rallied round him at a point because we had a vision and we saw him as a probably God-sent instrument of that vision. But with time, it had come to dawn on us that he probably is not well suited for that purpose. And quite a lot of his followers have left him. Not less than 80 percent of his active followers, the think-tank members, the go-getters, the progressive elements have all left and almost all of us are now in PDP.

I said earlier that it is the collective effort of all political leaders at the various levels that culminates in the ultimate victory we always have. Now that almost all of us are in PDP, you will know that there is going to be a change. And if you go to town and you try to see that trend, you will see that quite a lot of people are moving over to PDP and the APP is now panicking. The government itself is panicking, making desperate efforts to hold back members and may be checkmate the PDP or sabotage our efforts. Go to town and you begin to see PDP signboards everywhere as well as PDP offices. About a year ago, this was unthinkable in Ilorin to see PDP signboards.