Senator Gbenga Aluko, who was adopted recently as a consensus candidate
by some aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governorship aspirants in
Ekiti State, tells FEMI MAKINDE that President Goodluck Jonathan
encouraged the PDP in the
state to pick a concensus candidate:
Do you think the PDP can win the governorship election in Ekiti State,
if the party presents former Gov. Ayo Fayose as its candidate?
Any Ekiti person who has followed the politics of the state since 2003,
when Fayose was governor, would know that there is no chance of Fayose
winning any legitimate contest in the state. We are hoping the contest
we are about to go for will be legitimate; if it is legitimate, there is
no chance for him. We are hoping we won’t go back to the era of
illegitimate contests. You will recall that in 1983, the old Ondo State,
which included Ekiti, collapsed the entire democratic process when the
government of the day tried
to use all forms of illegitimate means to
install a governor.
We are hoping this election will be free and
fair and the contest will be proper and legitimate. With Fayose’s
candidature, taking into consideration all what happened when he was
governor, there is no way he will win. That is why some of us are very
vehement about not letting one man
compromise the integrity of some of
us who are members of the party.
The leadership of the PDP in Ekiti State is divided over the emergence of Fayose. What caused this?
There are some elements within the PDP in Ekiti, who have gangster
mentality. Those elements with gangster mentality within the exco are
always comfortable with Ayo Fayose’s candidacy.
Unfortunately, we
are not a group of criminals; we are a decent, educated and responsible
people who have a culture and integrity to protect, and a vast majority
of us don’t believe in Fayose’s candidature.
Don’t you think the
defection of Dayo Adeyeye from the group clamouring for consensus
candidacy to Fayose’s camp has scuttled the Ekiti South Senatorial
District agenda?
Dayo Adeyeye was present and he voted in the
election, which accepted me as the consensus candidate of the party. He
was present and he voted. He scored no vote at all out of the 12 of us
who were there and contested. Not one out of the 12 aspirants had faith
in his ability to be a rallying figure. There are those who are
vehemently opposed to him because he doesn’t have the wherewithal and
what it takes to be the consensus candidate; he got no vote.
Did he not vote for himself?
He voted for himself. But the process was that you vote for yourself
and vote for another aspirant. But the vote you give to yourself is
discounted because everybody voted themselves.We all started with one
vote so we discounted that one vote and counted the others. It is an
internationally acceptable method when you are doing consensus. He said
if it was a consensus,you had to get 12 votes but that was where he got
it wrong.
We all agreed with the method of voting for yourself
and voting for one other person and anybody who scored the highest vote
would become the consensus candidate. He was the first person to
congratulate me and others congratulated me also.
We agreed that
if the result was not acceptable, we would put it to further test. So
when we finished the voting and I won with five votes, he had the
opportunity to say he didn’t accept but nobody said. Everybody spoke and
said they agreed. We had agreed that whoever emerged the consensus
candidate would look after the interest of other persons. We said it
would not be statesmanlike to begin to share positions among the 12 of
us because we are representing the people of the state. He could still
have got a ministerial appointment or any other appointment within the
group of the 13 aspirants,even though Bisi Omoyeni was not present.
Adeyeye criticised Fayose and the primary which produced him but has now accepted to work with him. How do you see this?
He did not only criticise it, he went to court over it. It is so
upsetting when you see somebody with this kind of behavioural pattern
and the person wants to occupy the highest position of authority in the
land. It shows some people don’t have character.
Why was Adeyeye’s nomination as a minister rejected?
I really don’t know why he was stopped on two occasions. There are
several reasons why he was stopped but I don’t want to speculate because
I don’t have the documentary evidence. But it is a common knowledge
that he was nominated as a
minister before and petitions were written against him and he was stopped.
Why was your group of 13 afraid of primary election?
No, I am not afraid and I don’t believe others are afraid. President
Goodluck Jonathan called us last year and told us he would superintend
over a process that would come up with a consensus candidate for Ekiti
State. He said this when he met with the leadership the party in the
South-West. He said he would rather have Osun and Ekiti come up with
consensus candidates. He said we should come up with the consensus
candidate by the end of January or latest, the first week in February.
That was the instruction and the admonition of the President at the last
meeting we had with him. That was why everybody proceeded with the
consensus arrangement.
There are speculations that you are fronting for Gov. Kayode Fayemi. How true is this?
I am too civilised and I am too exposed to take politics as a do-or-die
thing. Kayode Fayemi was my wife’s classmate in high school. As for
Niyi Adebayo: the relationship between the Aluko family and the Adebayo
family started a long time ago. Niyi Adebayo and I were in the United
Nigeria Congress Party at some point. Later he went to the Alliance for
Democarcy and I went to PDP but we are still friends till today.Are they
saying because Kayode Fayemi is the governor and I want to be governor,
I must abuse him every day? This shows the level of exposure of those
who are saying that. I have had opportunities of going to the AD,Action
Congress and Action Congress of Nigeria, if I wanted. I have never been a
member of their party but I have friends in every party and I have no
apologies for that.
Don’t you think this will lead to PDP failing at the poll?
We are at a crossroads in Ekiti now. We have two
candidates now. The constitution stipulates that the party chairman
shall be at the primary. But he was not there and some other members of
the exco were also not there. The legal adviser of the party has
resigned. It is so upsetting when illegalities are carried out with
impunity. The so-called primary was a gross violation of our own
constitution. We are talking about the governor of a state; the
responsibility of the governor of a state is far-reaching, too deep for
somebody of Ayo’s character. I would rather have a Fayemi as the
governor than have a Fayose as Ekiti State governor and I will say this
any time.It is not a matter of party; we are talking about the
responsibility of a governor.
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