Gov. MAKINDE Can’t Stop ATIKU From Winning OYO State

•OYO PDP Chieftain, Engr. FEMI BABALOLA, JOGOR

Engineer Femi Babalola, who is popularly called Jogor in Ibadan, has come out to insist that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate will win remarkable votes in Oyo State, which he calls a PDP state. “Oyo State is already a PDP state and we would not lose this state to any other party”, he told City People, via an interview last week.

City People was in Ibadan to ask him for his views on the ongoing crisis rocking Oyo PDP, with the party divided between the Governor of the state, Engineer Seyi Makinde, on one side of the divide and many party chieftains on the other side.

What is the situation like politically in Oyo State, we asked Engineer Femi Babalola. “It is a bit turbulent and that is expected to be so because elections are around the corner.

So, everybody is fighting to get the endorsement of the people and everybody is fighting to make sure that his candidate wins, and everybody is fighting to make sure that his party wins. That is why I said it’s turbulent. Now, everybody is criss-crossing the state, as it were”.

Talking about the PDP, which he belongs to, everything looks a bit unclear.

What is going on? we asked him. “It is not unclear really. It is just unfortunate that in this dispensation, we have a government that is being run outside the party structure.

The party owns the government. If a government comes into power, it must have come on the platform of the party. That means the party is supreme. When you have a situation where the governor feels he is so independent of the party and of the party members, it gets to a stage. And it really got to that stage in our case, where the party members that knew what they were doing, that knew what party supremacy stands for, decided to leave Government out of the party. So, the Government, which is being headed by the Governor and a PDP man is being run in isolation of the party inputs. That is the way I can put it”.

How come all of that was not resolved at the early stages, maybe months back?

“Yes. Troubles or problems do come up, usually, there is always a mechanisms to resolve them, even if not within the party, within the Yoruba nation, there is always a Yoruba mechanism to solve crisis particularly the administrative ones”.

Efforts were made but it takes 2 to tango. If one of the sides shows that this should be settled and the other side feels that no ooo, I have my reasons for doing what I am doing, it can’t be resolved. Atimes, people have pride. Some people have bench marks to it.

They feel that no matter what, they cannot go below it. If the other side feels you should go below this level and the other side says, “no, we can’t go below this level, we would rather leave the government for you”.

So, how many sides do we have now to the ongoing crisis? “There are no sides actually. What is happening is that the government is being run by the Governor, and he has some people he chose to call party members, but those are not the real party men. The real party man are running the party now. They are the owners of the party. Don’t forget that governors came to join us when it was about 18 months to the elections. And he was welcomed because he had before now been a member of the party, before he left. In life, you never know the intentions of men”.

There is a pseudo party arrangement being headed by a nominee of the governor, but we have the real party members on the other side, who are working. This is the soul of PDP. We have been together for long, we should not allow little things to tear us apart. We should not allow the fabric of the party to be torn apart”.

Who is the head of the group, who see themselves as real party members?

“We don’t have a head, we don’t have a group, all we know is that we are the PDP. When decisions are to be taken, we look at the best that will be good for us.”

Like the Atiku Campaign issue, we all came together. We don’t have anybody who we can say is the pointman. We just know that this should be done because it is in the interest of the party. And we have been doing that”.

How come your party is divided on the issue of PDP presidential campaign issue on who to support. Some are not supporting Atiku? “Why I can tell you that even the party members that feel that because of the positions they are holding, they can’t talk, I quite understand their plight. They don’t want to openly go against whatever the Governor wants.

But we know their views privately. I can tell you that 99% of PDP members are routing for the candidate of the PDP and that is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar”.

But the governor and his group are not for Atiku.

“I don’t actually know the feeling of the governor. What the Governor said is that he would not support him.

That is what he said”. How come the party couldn’t have use party machinery to resolve this issue between the Governor & Atiku. “You see, the party tried, but there is a fundamental problem with the structure of political parties in Nigeria.

There is a structure. But the structure comes from the national, which is wrong.

That is the problem. So, no matter how you feel about whatever that is happening in the party and you’re feeling that it is not right, the decision comes from the National. And I can assure you that it is usually the governor that will have the say by getting the support of the National.

But if politics is left to be local, which is the way it should be, everything about the party should be within the state, so that whatever decision you make you throw up. Those are the problems.

So, no matter what you say that is right or wrong, by the time the National comes in, the National will support the Governors. And that happened. There were so many committees that were set up to reconcile members here. There was a Saraki Committee, Gov. Wike himself came here, Olagunsoye Oyinlola was here. Nnamani was here.

So many people came here. So, if those people with all their wisdom and efforts could still not put things together, you can see what we are going through. They resolved all lingering problems at every time they came.

They did their best. But of course, the other group felt, “no we are no going along that direction.”

Like I said earlier on, some people feel like, in life, there is a benchmark I can’t go below. So, it is not likely that if I see obvious things that are wrong, that I will like to pretend to say it is not wrong. It is not likely”.

But with the elections just around the corner, will all these not affect the chances of the PDP? “I can assure you that it will not affect the fortunes of Atiku Abubakar in Oyo State.

That was displayed sometime last week. People came out enmasse, party members came out and they chanted Atiku!

Atiku! Atiku! And they said that is what they wanted. There is no problem with that. Atiku will win. The members know their own, no matter what”.

Is it true that Seyi Makinde is supporting another presidential candidate and not Atiku? “I actually don’t know his mind. I don’t know his thoughts. I have not had the opportunity to sit down with him to enable me know his thoughts or probe him on who he may want to support. But I know within myself that after some time he would know that he should go with Atiku.”