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Chief Bode Mustapha is a former member of the House of Representatives and was a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from Ogun State where he was Chairman of the Transition and Reconciliation Committee of the party. He was also the former National Auditor of the PDP before crises rocked the party in the last election, breaking the party into two factions. BM, as he is fondly called, is now a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and also a supporter of the incumbent governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Come 2015, he is planning to contest the senatorial seat in Ogun state. In this interview with BUNMI MUSTAPHA, he opens up on his political ambition in 2015, why he left the PDP among other issues.
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Can you tell us about your senatorial ambition in 2015?
God willing, I will like to run for the senate in 2015, but to me it is not a do-or-die matter, because primarily, I want to run because I want to serve. I have been out of the national assembly for 11 years, and I’m not dead; I’m doing what I know how to do best, which is doing business and playing golf, but I believe that having being at the National Assembly, before and having gotten the experience, I have something to contribute and I have my own programmes. I’m not just running for the national assembly seat because I want to run, I want to run because, one, I have an unfinished business there, pertaining to a bill that I had and sponsored in 2011, and I knew the programmes I had for the members of my federal consistency when I was in the House of reps that had gone moribund because no one seems to care, or cater for them. Rather, I see that people have been expecting a constituent to come, cap-in-hand, whereas my programme was empowering them, teaching them how to fish, so that the day I don’t have enough catch, I will not need to give people fish. Secondly I want to go back to the national assembly to try and create a synergy between the activity of the national assembly vice versa the spending in the national assembly and state level to see what I can do to ensure that we can free some money, for the state government to spend on some other issue here in the state. once issues like that are captured in the federal budget. I’m running to contribute my quota to the development of our great nation, and Ogun state.
You were in the PDP for many years, why did you decide to join the APC?
It is very simple and clear, First of all the constitution of the party says you don’t take the party to court, unless you have exhausted all avenues, so one illiterate somewhere who knows exactly how to shop around for judgments and rulings that in a civilized society don’t mean nothing, and he gets the support of the judges who knows that as per the PDP constitution and that it has been tested in the supreme court, that court should not interfere in the affairs of a political party, and he was able to get away with it, and the party does not protect me at the highest level. The leaders of the party at the highest level cannot protect me from all these nonsense, and somebody who never vied for the office, who never filled nomination form for the office, and who was not voted is made to occupy my office. I will be wasting my time if I’m sitting in such a party.
Will your defection to the APC affect your relationship with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo?
OBJ is my Baba, and he knows at my age, (by March 12, I will be 65), if I cannot make my mind up at this age, as to where I should be, I must be a fool, and I don’t think I’m that stupid, but that does not affect my father-son relationship with him. He will always be my Baba and I pray that he lives long. My eldest son is 35; if he does not share my political philosophy that does not stop him from being my son.
You have tasted PDP and you are now in APC, how will you compare the two parties?
I will not like to make any comparison because if I do, I will be seen as being partial. The APC is a new party so I won’t be able to compare the two.
What is your take an the present situation in the House of Representatives where the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, defected to the opposition party, APC?
Well, my take is very simple: there is a Yoruba saying that “when you are digging a pit for your enemy, be careful how deep you dig it because if you dig it too deep, you may end up being the victim.” When people were defecting to the PDP from other parties, nothing happened. When Governor Mimiko defected to the PDP from Labour Party, nothing happened. It was jubilation in Aso Rock. Whatever is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. And we will also learn to begin to play politics of tolerance. When the USAID organized a seminar for us newly elected members of the National Assembly in 1999 which was coordinated by late Professor Mrs. Jadesola Akande, former VC of LASU, we were thought that when there are critical issues, you must go back to your constituents and whatever your constituents decide is what you should do irrespective of the position of your party because you are elected as a person by your constituents. Now, if the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, has consulted in his constituency and his constituents direct him to defect, he has to respect their wishes.
But is this not in violation of the constitution that guides the House which, according to the PDP, says that the majority party produces the Speaker?
No. They should tell us what section says that. I’m aware that in 1979, the Speaker of the House of Representatives was late Ume Ezeoke who was from the NPP. The party that came first was NPN, followed by the UPN and followed by the NPP. And he became Speaker because that was the working arrangement in the House. To remove the Speaker, you have to follow the rules. If the rules say two-thirds would make somebody a speaker, it goes without saying that it is two-thirds that would remove the person as speaker. I’m sure that we are going to see a lot of legal fireworks in days to come but I think that we don’t have to be intolerant of one another. They withdrew Tambuwal’s security aides. Why didn’t you withdraw the security aides of Governor Mimiko when he defected to the PDP from the Labour Party because it’s the same thing? That’s my take. The PDP should have tried to lobby more people to see that things are done above board. Let it be seen to have been done in a tidy way. What is happening now, to me, is a panic measure. A panic measure that may strengthen Aminu Tambuwal. Of course, you will have people who will say what he did was wrong, but by the same token, he will also have his own sympathizers.
In effect, are you saying the refusal of the Speaker to resign his position following the defection is justified?
Yes! Why should he resign his position? In the first instance, the PDP didn’t want him as Speaker but a majority of members wanted him as Speaker. The person the PDP wanted as speaker lost woefully to him and ever since then, he has managed the affairs of that House. How many months do we have left that we have to now heat up the polity?
What implication does Tambuwal’s defection has on the chances of your party, APC, in the 2015 elections?
I can’t comment on that. When we go to the elections and come back, we’ll know what implication it has whether positively or negatively.
You are one of the loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and lots of loyalists and associates of the former president seem to have defected to the APC leaving him in the PDP. Why is this so?
Why should I stay in a party that removed me from office? I was validly elected the National Auditor of the PDP. I went through a screening process, I collected the nomination form, I was voted for, I had 3,005 votes against my opponent’s 16 votes and one idiot whose stock in trade is shopping around for judgments and rulings says somebody is auditor because he was presented by the South West. Number one question; where is it stated in the PDP constitution that you have to be sponsored by the zone? Number two the person they are claiming is now national auditor, was he voted for at the convention in 2012? The answer is no. Did he obtain nomination form? The answer is no. And if you have a party that allowed itself to be used by an illiterate whose stock-in-trade is purchasing judgments all over the place and who has also made a mockery of the judiciary, especially at the federal high court level, what business do you have in such a party? I don’t have any business there. And by the time we go to the next elections, we shall see the victor and the vanquished.
What chances does your party have to retain the state and perhaps clinch the Presidency in next elections?
A party that had a Governor that was in power was beaten to third position in an election in this state. The elections are just about three months away; there is no need to brag. Let us wait and see who the electorate will vote for. If anybody thinks that they are going to be able to rig in Ogun State, they have something else waiting for them. I can assure you of that.
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