Guardian

As the nation celebrates yet another year of unbroken civil rule, former governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, said the fact that the nation is still forging ahead after 14 years of democratic rule is not due to the effort of the politicians, but that of the average Nigerian, who has been very tolerant.

Fourteen years into the current democratic dispensation has the political class met with the expectations of the electorate?

WE are actually starting on a wrong premise, talking about this so-called May 29. May 29 to many of us is a terrible day. This is so because on May 29 2013, it will be exactly ten years since former President Olusegun Obasanjo bastardised democracy in this country, when he brazenly rigged 2003 elections.

Mind you, this is not only because it got some of us out office, but because it was a time Obasanjo turned electioneering into a great fraud in this country. For example, the present Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alhaji Sarki Tafida, after the 2003 election, had phoned some eminent Nigerians in Lagos that he had lost his senatorial election bid in Kaduna State, only for him, on the following day, to hear his name on the radio as the winner of that election.

Professor Jubril Aminu, had actually conceded defeat in Adamawa, but the following day he was announced the winner.

Therefore, May 29, to me, is a date that takes me back to the sad memories of the days of the NNDP of 1965, when the demo altered all the election figures in the then Western Region of Nigeria, an action, which eventually led to chains of events culminating in the coup of 1966.

Despite these problems, there must have been some kind of progress or changes over the years. What are the areas you think the country has generally done well?

I will praise the ordinary Nigerian for his or her tenacity and ability to bear all kinds and manners of tribulations. I think the glory should go to Nigerians; that for the past 14 years they have been able to sustain democratic system in the country –– that to me is the greatest gain; that we have been able to keep current democratic dispensation together for 14 years.  Therefore, we can say with a little bit of pride, that we have been able fend off the incursion of the military into the political arena. That is the greatest progress I can say we have made; and that goes to the ordinary Nigerians, who are ready to tolerate ill-brazen actions, including the unpopular third term agenda.

In spite of this, culture of impunity seems to remain prevalent among politicians, without due recourse to the citizens. Don’t you think there might be peoples’ revolt eventually in Nigeria if things continue in this manner?

General election year, 2015, will determine what will be the next state of action.  We are already in the kind of Arab spring situation.  The demonstration against the removal of subsidy on petroleum product, that was beyond demonstration against subsidy, it was a foundation for the kind of Arab spring in the country. How the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boss, Dr. Attairu Jega, handles 2015 elections will go a long way in determining the future of this country. If anyone dares to tamper with 2015, there will be a massive revolt. I only hope that common sense will influence the leaders and make sure we manage the 2015 election very well and transparent as best as possible.

Accusing fingers are being pointed at some of you in the opposition political parties that you are not so united and at the same time not tolerant of opposing views. While you and your friends are doing your thing with the All Progressives Congress (APC) others like Chief Olu Falae-led Mega Summit Party and Dr. Frederick Fasehun-led Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) appear to be doing theirs separately. Why this apparent disunity?

I am not against any group of individuals coming together. Like you said that we are being accused of not showing tolerance. This is the time we need to show people making such insinuations that they are wrong. It is the right of anyone to associate and also to even be opposed to us, which must test our ability to be able to tolerate opposition as we hope to gain power in this country.

The only one that is quite disturbing to me is that of the so-called UPN. It is causing me serious pain in my vein –– this so-called resuscitation of Unity Party of Nigeria. I do not like the way they want to bring in the name of Papa Obafemi Awolowo, who was perhaps the most astute politician in Nigeria, a great Nigerian and founder of one of the greatest political parties Yorubas have produced.

Dr. Fasheun, who is trying to resuscitate the Unity Party of Nigeria, is also a great Nigerian. A man who is respected and a man who has spent the better part of his life fighting for the ordinary people and democratic institutions that we have now; even after we got into the civilian governance. He suffered detention under the military and even under Obasanjo, a civilian president, to the point that he had to be moved to America for major treatment.

In the history of the Yoruba, his space is already written in gold, being a founder of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), an organisation that does community policing in the most honest and responsible manner. A man who has done that much does not need what he is now doing at the age of near 80.

Since he was so successful with OPC, don’t you think that should be one of the reasons for people like you to support him in his latest attempt to resuscitate the UPN?

The OPC is a non-political organisation and that is why we are all concerned about him. We Yorubas all embraced OPC, either you are PDP or ACN or whatever political party you belong to in the country; OPC is apolitical. I believe he should continue to nurture that body.

Fasheun is not a politician and he can never be a politician. He should also not bring Awolowo’s name into it because he was not one of the known apostles of Awolowo or his followers. This is why I quarrel with him.  He has the right to support whoever he wants to support as a person. He has the right to campaign as an individual for President Goodluck Jonathan anywhere and anytime he wants to. That, I concede to him. All I am saying is that he is a great son of Yoruba, but now trying to unfairly drag in the name of another great Yoruba man and wanting to use his (Fasehun) success as a leader of the OPC. The two do not go together; one will rubbish the other. This is what I am saying.

You think Fasehun is being sponsored by other interests?

No, I wouldn’t go that far on Fasehun. It is just that he may be a non-suspecting person. He is not that kind of person who is easily given to being used. I will concede that to him –– he’s a strong character. And that’s why this UPN thing is still a puzzle to me. I still want to see him; to argue this thing out with him face-to-face.

Would that mean that no effort has been made to reach out to some of you who are political leaders the zone and were in the defunct UPN of the Second Republic?

I don’t think Dr, Fasehun has reached out to anybody of any serious political influence in the zone –– at all. And surely, he cannot do it alone. That is why I am saying Dr. Fasehun does not need this action that he’s taking. The OPC will not follow him into this. The organisation is peopled by very responsible, respectable and decent people in the community. Many of them are professional people, who are not interested in politics.

Are you envisaging the kind of identity that bedeviled the Afenifere?

No, no, no. Dr. Fasehun in this matter will be a lone ranger. I don’t see him carrying the OPC into any political party neither do I see him gaining any serious political foothold.

But speaking of the Afenifere. There is a fresh attempt at uniting members. Where do you belong in this regard?

I am totally opposed to the Chief Reuben Fasonranti group.

Why this?

The reason being that our elders were supposed to settle discords between us back then in the Alliance for Democracy (AD), especially between the Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa group and Chief Bisi Akande group. Suddenly, they went to Akure and endorsed Akinfenwa, without due regard to the other group.  That was the day I decided to break ranks totally with them. Elders, who are supposed to find solutions to the problem, now became part of the problem.

Yet, these are same old reasons. Is there really no way of letting bygone be bygones?

What kind of bygone can be bygone, when you bring all manner of characters into the fold? Bringing in people who do not know any thing about Afenifere and people who have done as much as they could do, tried to destroy Afenifere. You are now bringing in such people. If anything, you are even destroying it the more. And you can see the reaction of some of their friends, like Chief Ayo Adebanjo – I feel sorry for him.

What expectations do you have for the APC in 2015?

Nigerians will never forgive us if we don’t come together in bring some decency to governance in this country.   We are not desperate for power. But in any decent democracy, there must always be an alternative – a strong alternative.

The PDP has been roughshodding on this country for 14 years – 14 bad years. As we are talking now, there has not been regular power supply to the whole of Ikoyi for the past one month. There is serious sense of insecurity. Infrastructure has gone into total decay.

After 14 years in office, the PDP is tired; they too must admit this. In any decent society, there is usually a necessity for change. Even God, in His infinite mercy, created different kinds of seasons; winter, summer, harmattan of raining periods. There are always differences in climatic conditions.  So, why shouldn’t now be a change after 14 years? We are coming together to show that Nigeria is greater than any individual. Many of us are no longer interested in any office.

In this task, is there no way of bringing in other coalitions like that of Falae-led group?

Yes, Falae is also a very strong member of the progressive family.  He was also close to the Awolowo family, having been a classmate of Segun Awolowo. But I had had cause to tell him to his face that, ‘we are the Southwest’. That was the day General Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar and himself, came to talk to us  in the then Action Congress, and he (Falae) said the group was not coming to see the whole Southwest because some of them are not in the AC.

I reminded him of the philosophy of Awolowo when there are two or more contending groups within the group – Falae could not reply. Awolowo believed that when there is a disagreement within the rank, the contenders should go into the field and whichever group is able to carry the majority of the grassroots along should prevail and be the superior group.

We, in the ACN, were the superior group in Yorubaland and our appeal to Falae and our elders is to recognise that factor. They should face up to the fact that our group has gone into the field, we have contested elections and we have results to show for it. They are the ones that should now embrace the philosophy of Awolowo, which I believe they subscribe to. Whenever there is a political disagreement, you go back to the grassroots and whoever is able to carry the grassroots is the superior group.