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Recently there was a reconciliation between you and Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe. How did you achieve that?
It was not really any reconciliation. Like I have said to many people in the past, there was no quarrel. What was the quarrel about. We had disagreements and they headed out on their own. And a 3rd hand was manipulating them from outside the state and I was laughing. What’s the fight all about? I don’t know. Seye and I grew up in Lagos. I knew him when I was in primary school. He was in St Patricks and I was in St Johns School, Aroloya. We used to play the local 7 asides football. So what was the quarrel? There wasn’t any quarrel. I think they now found out that there was no basis for a quarrel.
You are a Lagosian, the fellow who was manipulating them from outside this state, from the South West, knew what he was manipulating them for. Now, we are almost 70, are we going to fight till we go to our graves, or disagree. If not for all these fighting, all the formidable movements would have been stronger if we had united. So he came on his own volition. I didn’t bribe anybody or beg anybody to come. I remember all kinds of unprintable names they called me and I was laughing. Thats all part of history. The important thing now is that we are back as one. There is no division now in Lagos and I pray to God that ambition, blighted ambition, uncoordinated ambition will not drive some people in another path. I hope ambition won’t get some of our people to derail or get on the bridge that leads to know where I am not the one contesting.
I don’t have any ambition again. My own thing is, that as a party, we have a mission and a goal and we should collectively decide who will get there. Whether we like it or not, somebody will be there. I am not contesting, so I can’t be. So some body will become the Governor. Our party is not like the APC where the winner takes all. Even the President doesn’t do that. He knows he needs all the hands on deck to pull the ship straight into the deep blue sea. So it wasn’t really a reconciliation. I think it was an introspection. Having done the analysis themselves. They decided that lets go back to where we all started from. So, everybody came here, and we took it up from there like we had never parted. I have even been to some of the others too, that they should come.
But some still didn’t listen. They have gone to APC and I wish them the best of luck. Those who were further manipulated from outside the state have headed in the wrong direction, at their age, they are still being pulled by your nose. That is sad, as if there is only cotton wool and water in the head. People should think. Going back to where you left. The Yorubas have this proverb that a dog does not go back to its vomit. Its true. A dog will not go back to its vomit. Its a shameless more, going back to where they drove you out like rags and rats, like nobody’s. You have no honour, you still went back there, you headed back in that direction. To do what? I am happy Seye is back on the beat. Seye is my brother and my friend. We are really back on the beat.
Many people are worried that Lagos PDP may soon go up again in crisis over the issue of governorship race. Don’t you think so?
No, I don’t think so. But I am only worried for some people, blighted people, with blighted ambition, dishonorable people, keep on lying all over the place. They also join this party from AD or AC and to lie to those who hear them, or to those who just don’t know about the politics of Lagos, that, yes, they are the powers and shakers, the movers of this party, PDP, in Lagos. That is a lie. They joined by walking into this my office is Ikoyi, saying they wanted to join the party. They didn’t come with anybody. The only most formidable man who joined the party and took the party to the roots with a lot of vibration was the late Funsho Williams.
None of these guys did anything. They walked in here with no followers. We accepted them. A river that overflows its bounds in your very presence, can never drown you. So, blighted ambitions people should just take it easy. They should just take a deep breathe. We have a collective mission, we have a corporate ambition, not any individualism. They have been spreading all kinds of rumours that Bode George has brought a candidate to be Governorship aspirant. I challenge any one of them to say it to my face and in my presence if they are bold enough. They can only say it behind me. Such character(s) would not have a say or stay in this new scheme we are doing.
Why?
Because people are tired of liars, and people who are so light weight but they blow their trumpets in all kinds of areas. What are we looking for in our governorship candidate? We all know. They know. I can recollect, and recount and recite the constitution of this party, that no individual has any right to impose anybody. That is the bastion. That is the strength of our party. PDP is not owned by any individual. Its a collective responsibility. Since the very 1st time we held primaries, gubernatorial, or House of Reps or whatever in this state, even before they came to join this party we have always held primaries and people will decide.
So, who is anybody to say oh they want to impose or that they are talking about consensus. The grassroot, they know the people, they know who their leaders are. They know who is marketable and those who are not marketable. They know those who can be trusted and those who cannot be trusted. And so this brigandage, this ruffian posture should be curtailed. Anybody, in Lagos PDP, who swims against the collective goal of the party, the corporate ambition of our party will be drowned. From now on, it is going to be zero-tolerance to irresponsible behaviour that will fall outside the confines of the constitution of our party.
We don’t have a Baba Bourdillon here, or Emperor at any Bourdillon. Here in PDP, we have Emperors because the people decide. That is why its called Peoples Democratic Party. We don’t impose people here in PDP. Another thing they are fond of doing is congregating themselves into groups, calling themselves one name or the other. Our party frowns at that. Its only one party. That is an AD concept, not PDP concept. Its not known in our party. What we do here is, you join this party and you remain in the party, no grouping and no Emperor, no individual. Yes, you have leaders, people who have been tested, people who have been proven to have worked so hard and recognised, not people who want to impose themselves, who having even come out from their mothers womb, like the Yoruba prover say, and they are getting ambitions no, sir. You have to go through the mill, when the time comes, we will ex-ray the aspirants and ask critical questions like: what is your background? Because you see Lagos requires a man who is respectable, and highly responsible, a proven academic person, a graduate, of substance who has even succeeded in their private calling. That is the man they can trust to be on the drivers seat.
And there are quite a few of those contesting that have those qualities. So, bring your wares to the field, come and sell yourself to the people. Tell us what you have seen, where you have been, what you have achieved in your life? Where have you worked before? Where have you been tested before?
This is no time for another 419 in Lagos, our party because the public is saying look, get us a good man. Get a good candidate for us we are ready for you PDP. Enough of all these 419ners who promise and don’t deliver or fulfil, fire and forget people, no.
So we will sit, put everybody on the x-ray, and ask questions like: can this man adequately represent this party, as it is, can we fall short of the level that Fashola is. Shall we? That will be an abomination. So, those who are just thriving and living on false life, falsehood and over promoting themselves will have no room for that. Because you will be put on the pedestal, people will ask you questions – which school did you attend? What grades do you have? Where have you worked in your life? Can you convince us? Because what is politics? Politics is about the people trusting you to manage their resources on their behalf, not on your behalf. They would test them. They will question them. They want to know. For you to manage the heavy corporate people who are living here in Lagos, its a lot of work. We need somebody that they will trust, and the person that the downtrodden will trust, that yes this man will work for us, not for himself.
So anybody whistling in the dark should just shut up and go onto the field and start campaigning to the people because they are ready to ask questions. A large number of Igbo people came to see me earlier and they said the same thing: Please organise yourself. Get us somebody we can trust. What else do you want? Its not me saying that. Its the people that we want to hire. Let our people go back and read the Constitution rather than lying to the public and deceiving themselves that they can do what they can’t do, when you can’t even pull a small rat, you say can fight an elephant. They are bloody jokers. I may sound harsh. But I am being frank on this because you have given me an opportunity to react to all these rubbish they have been writing and saying.
You are not even sure if these people are genuine members or they are not real genuine politicians here. They are politicians coming to just grab and grab and grab. Grab what. Let me tell you a secret. There are millions and thousands of highly competent, qualified people in this party, who can be utilised by the government. And if we go into the battle as we are planning to, we need our first 11. And we will give out opponents our first 11.
About Unknown
Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.
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