Engr. Femi Babalola aka Jogor is very optimistic that former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala will rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Babalola, who aspired to govern Oyo State in 2015 under the platform of PDP, said it is important former governors Rashidi Ladoja and Alao-Akala work together as 2019 draws near.
He said former Senate leader, Oloye Teslim Folarin has not left the party as he ”is just giving us the impression; he has not officially told anybody that he has left PDP, but we read it on the social media and on the pages of the newspapers that he has left. I hope that, one day, if he tells us, we will be able to tell him or ask him some questions.”
Alao-Akala, insideoyo.com had reported, has decided to remain with the All Progressives Congress, APC.
But according to Babalola, he said “I was with former Governor Alao-Akala last week and I know that he is not happy and he has said it several times that he is not happy that he is not in PDP. This is because he became a governor on the platform of PDP. He said that much: that he was pushed out of the party for one reason or the other. So, we kept appealing to him.
“And last week, I am aware that he met with the party national leader, Senator Ahmed Makarfi because when Makarfi came to Oyo State, he couldn’t meet with him because he was outside the country on his vacation. When he met with Senator Makarfi, I am aware that they had some discussions and I know that the implementation will start coming from soon. I know he is coming back to PDP: his heart is in the party. Alao-Akala is 99.9 per cent PDP; his blood his flowing with PDP and that is the truth. So, if he is not back now, it is probably because he is trying to cross the “Is” and dot the “Ts”.
“And like I said, Alao-Akala is someone with conscience too; he is someone I am very close to. He is bothered that some people worked for his emergence as the governor and so he has to work for some other people too. People cannot work for you and you walk away and you are not bothered about the other people coming behind you.”
Babalola also revealed that “We have tried and we have done very well in the area of reconciliation. We have tried, in the past couple of months, to speak among ourselves and speak the truth to ourselves because we are all members of the same political party and we should all be together. We have asked everybody to forgive themselves; whoever that felt he was wronged have been asked to forgive whoever that wronged him and we have succeeded, to a large extent, in doing that. We are already bringing back some of our members to the party; not even aggrieved within the party. We are talking of the people who had left. You must have heard the issue of our members in the Accord, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Labour Party and the other parties. They have started coming back to the party.”
He said the party is committed to resolving some issues that led them to their present predicament, adding that “I agree with you. You know I said this exercise has been on for the past months, if not one year. What we have been doing was, one, to identify the grievances, the cause and those behind the grievances. To a large extent, God has helped us, we have reconciled them and we have been asking for complete forgiveness and that has happened. A lot of people have been cheated; a lot of people felt cheated; a lot of people had repercussions of what happened in the past. Like the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would say, nemesis has eyes; a lot had punishment for what they benefitted from in the past. So, to me, it is a case of nemesis; what benefitted you in the past now benefitted some other persons, to your own detriment…
”In politics, it keeps happening, but as human beings, we Nigerians tend to forget that it didn’t happen. There are people that won their seats by virtue of then fact that they were given preferences by the party hierarchy, by the party leadership and now, the same hierarchy, leadership and mechanism that favoured them but now favoured another people and they did not like it. So, we kept on reminding them that in so and so year, this same favouritism was used for you. We are not saying it was right, but it was used for you. So, let it just go; see it as nemesis that you gained from a system and somebody else is now taking the advantage of that same system.
We made it clear to everybody and laid it bare on the table that we see it that way. We thank God that, to a large extent, people has started reasoning along that line. You know, it is something that happens in all the political parties; what we called lack of internal democracy. But, with time, in a democracy, things like this will become a thing of the past because a lot of people lost their seats through the judiciary and they are now seeing it that it does not worth it because, at the end of the day, they may lose the seat. In essence, as democracy gains ground, progressives will begin to realise that internal democracy must be entrenched and have its feet firmly established in all political parties. This is because people are already seeing it that, what is the essence if I am given the opportunity and the preferential treatment, but, at the end of the day, the aggrieved person goes to court and he gets the seat back? Gradually, we are getting there.”
Speaking on how they have been able to reconcile some major individuals who were once in the party, he added: “I will answer that with a story: I have a friend that one day came to my office and he told me a story and he said he was worried. I asked him why? He said something just crossed his mind while climbing the stairs to my office. He said his father willed two houses to him and he is the only boy of his father. He said it just occurred to him that in his own case, he has three boys and that whether he likes it or not, it is either he better what his father did, or he must equal what his father did. And I asked him, what is the implication of what he just said? and he replied, ‘Femi, I must have not less than six houses because somebody worked for me, I must also work for some other people’.
“So, what I am trying to say in essence that in the case of the three persons you mentioned, this are people that benefitted from the system and who the party had favoured. Whether they like it or not, at one time or the other, they are benefitted from the platform of PDP, so, they have a responsibility and moral burden on them. And what is the responsibility and moral burden? Even some people lost their lives for the sake of this three people to make sure that they emerged within the party. So, whether is fair or unfair to you, you must think of the people that lost their lives, people that made all the efforts to ensure that you emerge as candidates for this party and made sure that you won the election. So, you have to work for other people; it is a burden on them. Why do we send our children to school?
“At times, we feel that ‘oh, my father, despite the fact that he was poor, he still laboured to send me to school. If I want to say I am better than my father financially, why can’t I send my own children to school?’ it is a moral burden. They all have a moral burden on them that they have to deal with: some people risked their lives for them, so they too have to come back to the party and work for some other people and make sure that some other people ride on their back too to prominence. That is the truth.
But all that said and done, we have spoken with former Governor Ladoja and former Governor Alao-Akala, senator Folarin is just giving us the impression; he has not officially told anybody that he has left PDP, but we read it on the social media and on the pages of the newspapers that he has left. I hope that, one day, if he tells us, we will be able to tell him or ask him some questions. But in the case of the other two people who had left the party at one time or the other, we had met them: the party leadership and machinery had met them and we are still appealing to them that they should all come back to the house that we all built together and hold it because we have to hand over this party to the next generation.”
Outside of the major ex-members of the party who they are trying to reconcile, he said ”my vision is for the party to be a very virile and strong political party that it once be, with a large membership, large followers and large lovers and producing the next governor and many governors to come in the state; producing many elective offices, both at the federal and state levels and for many years to come. And we, as a party that has learnt from our mistakes, we are starting from and on a new ground. We are moving on and we want to avoid all these pitfalls; what we didn’t do, we want to do them now and we want to place the party in the heart of the people.”
He noted that people are waiting for the government of PDP in the state, recalling that “If you look at the results of the series of the last elections in the state, 2011 and 2015, you will discover that Oyo is a PDP state and you will discover that it was PDP against PDP. In 2011, former Governors Ladoja and Alao-Akala shared the votes that should be one block for PDP and win the election. In 2015, the two of them, along with Seyi Makinde and Senator Folarin, shared the PDP votes again that should have been one block.
“So, we know that the issue we have is for us to reconcile and we thank God, the people out there are comparing the performances of the two political parties in government. APC had done 12 years now, by the end of the tenure of Governor Abiola ajimobi’s eight years, added to the late Governor Lam Adesina’s four-year tenure. PDP, with Ladoja and Alao-Akala had done four year each, making eight years. People can be able to compare 12 years with eight years and see who has achieved more and who has impacted more positively on the lives of the people, particularly economically and their well-being. I know what the people are saying out there; we all feel the economy, we know what is happening all over the state. I can assure you that the people are waiting for PDP.”
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