Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa is the National Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). In this interview with STEPHEN GBADAMOSI, he speaks about the plans of the party to bestride the 2015 elections like a colossus, among other national issues. Excerpts:
YOU speak glowingly about the Alliance for Democracy (AD), while some people out there believe that the party is no longer in existence. What are the indices that you can cite to prove that it is still in existence?
I am surprised that this question is still being asked. AD is very much alive. Let me remind you that we contested the election in 2011, and we made a tremendous mark all over the country. We had governorship candidates, senatorial candidates, and so on. But at that time, the deceit was still very much on AD is the party that formed AC. But now that the truth is out, people are trooping out in large numbers to identify with their original party: the people’s party.
Don’t be surprised that all over the federation now, we are like the beautiful bride. You even saw in the papers and televisions when I went to open the Lagos State secretariat of the party. You see the large turnout of people. People all over the country have been reaching out to me now. I am going to field candidates all over the country and in all the constituencies we have.
What we are still considering is the issue of our presidential candidate. And that is being handled by a committee of selected leaders that I set up. Within the next few days, they will report back to me.
It is most likely you are not going to have primaries. How will your candidates emerge?
No, we are going to have primaries. Let me tell you the list of AD primaries programs: House of Assembly primaries will come up 10 December 2014; National Assembly, 8 December; presidential, 11 December. We are fielding candidates for all available positions. And this man here is one of the aspirants. He submitted his expression of intent form on October 30. And he has collected his nomination form. Everybody is making inquiries and they have been collecting their nomination forms.
What are the strategies you have put in place to chase out the big ones like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s elections?
It is unfortunate that people still say AD is dead. Newspapers publish AD’s events. That shows that the press recognizes that the party is alive. Apart from that, we have fliers, posters, and jingles all over the place. And the common man knows that his party is not dead. Don’t forget that the AD won six governorship seats in the West then. And those people that were deceived into the AC have now realized their mistake and are returning to the AD in their millions. So, I am not worried about membership at all; they are there.
And you said big parties like the APC and PDP; APC, to me, is not a big party. I refer to it as a mighty colossus on a foot of clay; or a huge wardrobe, very well ornamented, but heavily corroded; all you need to do is to give it a tap and it collapses; that is APC.
PDP itself is in a state of disarray. The only alternative now is the AD. Let me tell you; who knew David when he was just a boy shepherd in the bush? Darandaran? But when his brothers who had Ph.D., law, and other qualifications appeared before Samuel, God said no; it is none of these. And He said, is that all? They said it remains one, a shepherd. He is there in the bush. And He said go and bring him. As soon as He saw him. He said this is the man.
Today, we are like that David. Don’t also forget how that David floored Goliath. We are going to floor these people you call giants. You will be surprised we are going to shake this nation in the coming elections.
You made reference to the six states controlled by the AD in 1999. Immediately after that tenure, you lost those states. What happened at that time?
The reasons are simple. One, the governors of those states turned themselves to gods. They pocketed the party. The leaders of the party that made them were forgotten. They were treating them like slaves and servants. Don’t forget that all the governors got the tickets on the platform of Afenifere. No sooner had they become governors than they forgot Afenifere, particularly Bola Tinubu. Tinubu was not to be given the ticket in Lagos. The primary was won by the late Funsho Williams. It was the party’s leaders, particularly, the late Abraham Adesanya, who was highly respected then, that decided otherwise, for particular reasons. Chief Olaniwun Ajayi and Ayo Adebanjo gave the ticket to Tinubu. But Tinubu was to later ditch them. He disregarded them. He rarely attended Afenifere meetings. Even up till now, he doesn’t believe Ikenne is anything; he would not attend any meeting there. That is how we lost out. Those governors forgot those who helped them to get there.
Look at Osun State, for instance, it was lost because Bisi Akande unwisely dealt a blow to workers. He sacked some of them; he retired some of them. And the workers said okay, our time is coming. And when the time came, the PDP was able to make inroads. They used the workers to deal with the governor.
What about the widely reported pact with the then President Olusegun Obasanjo which backfired?
I am coming to that. I would tell you the governors did us in. They decided to support Obasanjo so that he would allow them to win their elections freely in their states. But no sooner had they supported the soldier than he ambushed them. That was one of the reasons they lost. It was only Tinubu that survived it because he had a lot of money; he could fight money for money with the PDP. These other governors had no money. And they had to move to where the money was. And where the money was Tinubu.
So, he was able to take them to his side. Tinubu had his own agenda; he wanted to be the leader of the Yoruba. And the leadership of Yoruba is not sellable. You don’t buy the leadership of the Yoruba.
Papa Obafemi Awolowo emerged because he was found fit to be a leader. Ditto Papa Ajasin and Adesanya. He thought he could buy the Yoruba, but a person like me cannot be bought. Those were the reasons the AD lost.
Recently, Chief Akande claimed that Senator Omisore borrowed from their campaign fund in 1999. As an insider, could you shed light on what happened?
Akande is a pathological liar. He is my personal friend. We were very close in government. To have said that, I think he is a disgrace to our generation.
I was the chairman of the party in Osun State. In the first place, I made Akande the governor. If I had insisted I wanted to be governor, we would have gone to primaries and he wouldn’t even contest, because he ran away as soon as he left prison. He said he wouldn’t play politics again. Then, I was bringing our people in Osun State together, first in my house in Ibadan. Then at a time, we had to move to Ayo Fasanmi’s house in Osogbo, because we said it would not be good for Osun State political affairs to be decided in Oyo State.
So, I brought all of them together in the days of Abacha. Then, the people said I should be the chairman. And I said no; Akande who had been the deputy governor and vice-chairman of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) should automatically be chairman in Osun State.
Then I led a team of three: Professor Kayode Adedeji and Sola Akinwumi, to meet Akande in Lagos to ask him to come back. He said he didn’t want to participate in politics again. After I had organized everything and the ban on politics was lifted, Akande now came; and I still gave him the chairmanship.
We called the meeting of state congress to Osogbo. And I remember that Akande had once told me that I would be the governor of Osun State. Let me not go into detail, because he ditched me; though I don’t mind because I never wanted to be governor. So, we called the meeting of the congress at Osogbo Presidential Hotel. Then, they said those of us who wanted to be governor should raise our hands. Because he had spurred me on earlier, I raised my hand. Omisore, Lere Adebayo raised their hands; nine of us. Then, Akande suddenly raised up his hand; the man that told me to go and be governor; I was surprised.
Then, they asked us to go into a room and come out with one name. When others had gone, I called Akande aside and said Bisi, do you want to be governor? He said Moji, mi o fe se, sugbon won ni kin se (I don’t want to do, but I was asked to do it). I said ok, do you want? He said yes and I said it was well because I have been praying to God to let me know if I should be governor. I said thank you, God, you don’t want me to be governor.
Then when we got into the room, we decided to pick one person and I told them that being the oldest and the one who started the political movement, I would explain the hierarchy. Papa Awo was the founder of Action Group (AG) and he became Premier. He was the founder of UPN and he became a presidential candidate. Bola Ige was chairman and he became governor. So, the man who automatically becomes our chairman takes the party’s ticket. But I, Akinfenwa, stepped down for Bisi Akande. Akande nearly collapsed. Then Omisore said aah, eyin agbaagba yi, e o dara o; ibi ti e gba yo si wa yi o dara o (you these elders have short-changed the younger ones). So, all others stepped down for Akande, except two: Salami and Biola Morakinyo.
Then I called Salami outside and begged him. I said when you wanted to be governor under zero party, I sponsored you. We have a system. Then, he said akuko nla o fe ki kekere ko (the mighty are subduing the vulnerable). Then he said he had stepped down. You know when I was senator, he was also a senator. I was the AD leader in the Senate. And we always held meetings in my office.
Morakinyo too, I begged him and prostrated for him; he insisted and said we had to go to Ibadan to settle it at Bola Ige’s home. Then, I wrote a communiqué; the decision of nine of us; we all signed it and that was how Akande became the candidate.
Now, in the first place, Akande joined us just in 1979. Before then, I had never seen him in my life. All he was saying in the newspaper shocked me. He said that Papa Awolowo called him and he engaged Papa Awolowo for two and a half hours, and then Papa Awolowo said they would form a party. Engage Papa Awolowo? What was his intellectual capability for him to be able to engage Papa Awolowo? That he sat Papa Awolowo down for two hours to know whether he would join him or not? I was surprised when he said he was not of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC). He was an NCNC member; he told me as a friend. Do you see that?
He said he had not been in politics and that it was only in 1978 that Papa Awolowo brought him into the thing. Then he is a neophyte; a newcomer.
So, Akande was not one of us at all. He became a religious quoter. When S. M. Afolabi left the government as deputy governor as a result of the crisis, he left for the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). So, we wanted a deputy. Ayo Ojewumi would have been the deputy. But someone suggested a Christian/Muslim ticket and we bought the idea. But where would we get a Muslim from the backyard of Afolabi? Then somebody said but they said Bisi Akande is Abdulkareem. And I said Bisi Akande, my closest friend? He had a room in my house in Ijesaland; I had a room in his house in Ila to show you how close we were. But I never knew for one day that he was a Muslim. He never prayed in the Muslim way for one day; he doesn’t even know how to do so. His wife and children were Christians. So, I didn’t know he was a Muslim.
But later I asked him: are you truly Abdulkareem? He said my people used to call me so.
But then, we were happy, because he was very loyal to Bola Ige as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). Then, we decided to make him the deputy governor. He couldn’t have been deputy governor above me. He couldn’t match me politically in life. But I subjected myself to him.
Is it true that at that time, Akande ran on the ticket Omisore paid for?
All these stories are in my book. I will explain to you. When he became our candidate, we needed money. But Akande had told me initially that he had no money. I said I knew. Then as the state party chairman, I called a few people to my house in Ilesa to raise some money. We raised about a million naira within 30 minutes. I first entered my room and donated N100, 000. And that was how it began; we raised a million within 30 minutes in my sitting room. Then I called Akande to tell him we had started raising money. He said Moji, so mo pe mo ti so fun e pe mi o lowo (I have told you I have no money). I said don’t worry. Then I sat down and wrote letters of appeal to prominent people to donate money, and we got over two million Naira and we needed three million Naira. And so we told Omisore who put down about N750,000. That was the first thing that impressed me about the young man.
Then, Afenifere said each candidate should pay N250,000. Omisore paid, but Akande had no money. Then, Omisore told the Afenifere that Akande should use his own money as he was no longer contesting. He used Omisore’s N250,000 as his nomination fee. So, I am surprised that he is saying that kind of thing now.
During the campaign, Omisore provided three air-conditioned vehicles in which we leaders were traveling for the campaign. Omisore fuelled all the vehicles. Throughout the period, Akande relied more on Omisore’s funding. That’s why I was surprised when he said he borrowed from his campaign fund. Which campaign fund? Akande had no kobo of his own for the election. The only money we could say he provided was from a friend who gave him a cheque of N50,000. And the cheque was turned to our financial secretary, Professor Yemi Kayode Adedeji. He is alive. That was the only thing Akande provided. He had no fund of his own. Many of the things he said make him a disgrace to our generation. Elderly people like us should not lie; we should say the truth always.
And what is more about Omisore? Let us be frank about that young man; we may not be in the same camp, but we must tell the truth. When we were founding AD in NICON NOGA Hotel, it was Omisore’s presidential suite that we used. Where did Akande come in? He just got all he did on a silver platter. He has now come to tell lies to frustrate people like me who raised funds for him. It is unfortunate.
He also said it might be that Omisore gave money to Bola Ige. You don’t tell such a lie about Bola Ige. How can you go to that length? It is sad.
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