Engineer Afolabi Yunus was the Commissioner for Works in Kwara state between 2003 and 2007. He is one of the core followers of the Strongman of Kwara Politics, the late Senator Olusola Saraki. In this interview with CHIBUZO UKAIBE he insists that the original members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are not part of the insurgency led by Senator Bukola Saraki and Alhaji Kawu Baraje.

You once served as principal secretary to the former Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje who is today leading the splinter group, nPDP. How justified do you see the current agitation by championed by Senator Bukola Saraki and Kawu Baraje?

I’m not one of the people supporting Baraje and Bukola Saraki in this their venture to divide PDP with their self-styled nPDP which has no place in Kwara State politics and Nigeria in general. As a result of that, I am not with him at all. We are not even happy that he can go to that length because we believe very well that having been given the opportunity to serve as National Secretary by Baba Saraki (may his gentle soul rest in peace), he had the opportunity of becoming the Acting National Chairman, he should remain loyal to the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan.

But with all these, Kawu Baraje still went ahead to sabotage the government, considering that he was also given the position of the Chairmanship of the Board of Nigerian Railway Corporation. I believe that it is in Baraje’s character to betray the hands the feed him. Available records show that Bukola Saraki was even against Baraje taking that position. But he went ahead and took that appointment and at the same time, he is now working against the same government that gave him that opportunity to serve.

Not only that. Back home, I know Kawu Baraje very well. I am his senior when we talk politics because I had the opportunity of being a member of the defunct Constitutional Conference in 1994 and I even served under Senator Bukola’s administration in the first tenure. I was Commissioner for Works and Transport between 2003 and 2007, while Kawu Baraje was made Permanent Secretary under Saraki’s government and this appointment was given to him by Baba Saraki because all forces were against Kawu Baraje as a Civil Servant then becoming Permanent Secretary. But Baba Saraki insisted that Kawu Baraje should be considered for that post.

Having been given that post, he served as Permanent Secretary all through and thereafter, Baba Saraki still considered this same Kawu Baraje for the last Constitutional Conference in 2005. It was immediately after that that Baba still nominated this same Kawu Baraje to be considered for the position of the National Secretary, and it was when he got there that he started nursing the ambition of working against Baba Saraki’s interest when he teamed up with Bukola to supplant Baba in Kwara politics. 

I want to say that Baba Saraki dusted Kawu Baraje from the mud so that life could be kind to him but having gotten all these opportunities, he decided to work against Baba. The general public will agree with me that the step Baraje took against Baba Saraki was an unfortunate step because having had the opportunities from Baba, people expected him to advise Senator Bukola Saraki against taking steps against Baba Saraki.

But people would say whether the issue should be about his character or the principle he stands for. Don’t you see any element of truth in what he is fighting now?

There is no truth in what he is fighting. He is only being selfish and arrogant. In fact, I want to say he is just being parochial. He is narrow minded and that is why they are now just pursuing their own self-styled PDP.

But the new PDP is in control of the government and the structure in Kwara. They produced the Governor, they produced the former Governor and they produced Kawu Baraje?

The original PDP is still on ground in Kwara State and PDP in Kwara State has no problem with anybody. People are still interested in PDP. It is only the way Senator Bukola and his team are managing the affairs of the PDP, that is why some people want to criticize PDP. But really, the original PDP is on ground in Kwara State and people are prepared to go with PDP. Those that call themselves the new PDP in Kwara State, we don’t know how they will define it. We don’t know what they will tell us, whether they are a faction of PDP and that they want to have a say in the PDP. No. Majority of the people in Kwara State today are tired of the leadership of Bukola.

Baraje even has no place politically. So, I want to say that the problem people have with the PDP in Kwara is that they see Bukola, who had served as Governor and presently as Senator, is the person in charge and that is just the reason why people are tired of the PDP. But they are still ready to work with PDP, provided these people are not allowed to come and introduce their self-styled PDP to the people. People are not ready to follow them at all.

You are supposed to know the National leader of nPDP, Kawu Baraje inside out, do you see him as somebody who fights for principles because what the new PDP is telling us is that they are fighting on the principle of liberating the party from being hijacked by a few persons?

Very far from that. They are the people that want to introduce a kind of selfishness into the PDP. They are not objective at all. When Baraje was even the National Secretary, the attributes of a good politician were never seen in him at all and efforts to advise him on that did not succeed. He would rather try to play his own parochial interest and have his way and when people come to see Baraje as the National Secretary, he would rather ask them to go and see the Special Assistant or the Principal Assistant. He was literally avoiding people and as a politician, you need not avoid people.

You are supposed to listen to people and table solutions to whatever deplorable condition that is before you. But instead of that, Baraje would be avoiding people and as such, I don’t see him as a serious politician. He is not fighting for the interests of the people and he is not fighting for the grassroots. Instead, he is pursuing his own selfish end and that’s why I’m now saying that he’s not fit to be in politics because if you are a politician, you must listen to the masses and table solutions to deplorable conditions before you.