The People Democratic Party, PDP chieftain, Alhaji Adebisi Olopoeyan in an interview with journalist about the conflicts in the party has expressed his views about governor Seyi Makinde’s alleged way of forfeiting the good plans of the party, stating that only the government belongs to the governor, and not the party.
Olopoeeyan, who described parallel congress as a normal thing in politics, said Governor Seyi Makinde was picked same way to become the governor.
When asked about the parallel congress, he said, “Parallel Congress is part of politics and it’s a failure to speak with one voice that usually leads to parallel congress and once the people that own the party see that they are unable to settle the bases of disagreement and sold out form for the two people involved, there will be parallel and even without that, there can still be parallel.”
“And once there is parallel, conflict between members will be resolved but if it’s not settled through that, it could lead to the problem that will deprive the party of winning election.”
When asked if the party that could not maintain internal democracy would be able to give electorate dividend of democracy, he said “the ball is in the court of electorate because disagreement happens everywhere, in the family between husband and wife and they settle it before escalating but this is a political party, people seem to see it unlike that of the family.”
Responding about people losing interest in popular political parties in the country thereby calling for formation of another party which they call the third force, Olopoeyan responded that even if the party is formed, it is still same people like him that would be found there and what caused disagreement in the old party could still happen in the third force too, adding that the difference could just be that the people coming into the party would have the same goals and objectives which would make it easy for them to share posts.
“It’s the party that will pick you if you’re people’s choice but if the people don’t want you, why should you force it by carrying weapons? You can’t force it to serve people if they don’t want you.
“Anybody can win or lose in an election but I’m yet see a situation whereby the party does not stand in one accord and still win election. It had never happened before, when Lam Adeshina and others left too the party didn’t win.
And even with Baba Ladoja and Adedibu, they didn’t win.
“The members from the Governor’s side are the aggrieved ones because they are the angry ones to the extent that they came to attack us where we were having our congress. This is so because it’s those who are angry that fight.
“We did our congress at Jogor Center and they did theirs at Adamasingba stadium, still they came to disrupt ours. That’s a sign that they aggrieved, if not they would have allowed us do it and never try to disrupt our congress.”
“When they did one in Abuja, they went with vehicles loaded with thugs to prevent people who are not on their side from doing theirs, if they are not aggrieved they should have considered us as nothing and even laugh at us if we go close to government house.”
“Those people in Abuja own the party, take for instance in APC, Teslim Folarin went to Liberty Stadium for congress and some people said he didn’t but the owners of the party called them to Abuja, telling them to go and harmonise and they did. Abuja own the party, not the governor, government is just for governor.”
When asked about who he will prefer to run the race of presidential ambition for Yoruba, he said, “it is the party that will choose presidential candidate not a Yoruba race. We in PDP want the president to come from the North and that’s because they are not capable, they don’t have people that can run the race for them, but checking from APC although it has not been confirmed by Asiwaju Tinubu but people keep mentioning him, that means they have people they can use from their side and they are yet to do their convention.”
“If president comes from Yoruba race, he is closer to me than anyone coming from the north so I will want it to come from Yoruba race. Had someone shown interest from PDP, I would have supported him but nobody has shown interest other than Atiku who is from the north.”
When asked if it’s possible for Yoruba PDP members to support Yoruba presidential candidate from the APC, Olopoeeyan expressed possibility saying: “yes, it’s possible we support him to become president, it’s only a mad person that will not want it. If Asiwaju becomes the president, it’s a thing of joy for Yoruba people because there will be an easy access for us than anyone from north.”