At last, some hours from now, delegates will converge in Osogbo, Osun State capital to elect the South West zonal officers of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The twice scheduled/postponed zonal congress is coming on the heels of an acrimonious albeit utterly needless and, I daresay, avoidable disagreement on who is best placed to provide leadership and direction for repositioning and leading the party to electoral victory in upcoming elections and the 2023 general elections.
The bile, intolerance, arrogance and obduracy by which one of the two major parties, namely Mr. Ayodele Fayose, tried to frustrate the resolution of the crisis, stalling all peace and reconciliation moves and insisting on imposing its will in contemptuous disregard of the democratic tenets and practices which emphasized the need for compromise, consensus and recognition of the sensibilities and rights of others, even up till the last moment, have needlessly protracted the crisis and worsened disaffection that is bound to affect our bond of unity, our only strength as a political family and thus cause a serious setback not only for us but also the strategic efforts by the national body, of which I am part, to turn the party into a formidable electoral winning machinery, based on lessons learnt from our failure in the 2019 polls.
This congress offers us a great opportunity to say a DECISIVE NO to STANDSTILL or even RETROGRESSION! But to say a BIG YES to PROGRESS and SUCCESS by basing our decision on rational and objective considerations of the issues and factors that will move the party forward.
I do not pretend to be non-partisan in this matter. I merely urge that, like I did, you too take a firm position based on conviction after careful review and consideration of the following facts and factors, whatever your previous view and the camp you might have had sympathy for, in the interest of our great party!
I urge support and solidarity for Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde who is the current symbol of leadership and face of the PDP in the South West region and all his tendencies and interests at this congress. As the only PDP governor in the geo-political zone, he is not only equipped with the muscle to lead the party’s rebound to power, he has through sterling performance and delivery of dividends of democracy been poster boy for and evidence of PDP’s good governance over the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose five governors’ achievements in the zone cannot match his.
The governor has demonstrated in so many ways and instances that he means well for the party and wants to see it strong and winning.
Mr. Fayose’s opposition and attempt to stir ill-will against Governor Makinde who has led the party so far with all humility and inclusive smack of a refusal to accept the need for and centrality of dynamism as bedrock of collective human progress and betray the conceit and selfish desire of a power-drunk leader to be perpetually seen and to lord it over others even when the times call for yielding the stage to play the statesman’s role in the background.
It will be recalled that when he was in Makinde’s shoes as former governor of Ekiti State and the only PDP governor in the entire South West, he exercised the right he now tries to deny the youthful but charismatic Makinde without let or hinderance from other party leaders and faithful. Everybody rallied round and deferred to his leadership, which, however, unfortunately, did not save the party from defeat and loss even in his own state!
In Makinde we have a rising political leader and strategist to whom the PDP owe the honour and saving grace of winning Oyo, the only state the party secured and truly has a firm foothold in the region, but also a governor assiduously working to rebuild and uplift it through his mass appeal and dexterous grassroots mobilization driven by the combination of good governance and deft political networking and strategies.
Of course, one cannot discount what Fayose can contribute in the PDP, but the worth of this will be enhanced and more appreciated if deployed in advisory role as other leaders and elders in the zone currently do, not in stirring discord by engaging in undue rivalry. Let’s affirm this with our votes!
Related to this, is the candidacy of Chief Eddy Olafeso and Ambassador Taofeek Oladejo Arapaja nominated by the Fayose and Makinde’s camps respectively for Vice President (South West).
I believe the choices before us is between risking retrogression and progress, between party builders and those who would rather polarize and destroy it.
Before you cast your vote, please ask what achievement the erstwhile party zonal leadership headed by Chief Olafeso who is trying to make a comeback can point at for the period they held the reins to justify returning the former VP to his job.
Is it his deserting the party to pursue his personal political ambition or the disaster of losing five of six states including his home base, Ondo which governorship he contested and calamitously lost?
Or perhaps keeping the company of power mongers who have shown they have nothing to offer but keep polarizing the hierarchy of the party from the zone to the national levels. How under their watch did the party which once controlled six states lost five and struggled to win one? Won’t handing over the party structure to a man who could barely win his ward for the party amount to a suicide mission?
There is no gainsaying that, entrusting the PDP in the South West to such individual or his group again will sound the knell (death) of the party in the region and by extension the country.
As against such failed politicians and characters is His Excellency, Ambassador Arapaja, who is not only eminently qualified for the VP position having distinguished himself as an astute grassroots political figure and administrator as a two-term Chairman of the Ibadan South East (Mapo) Local Government, former Deputy Governor of Oyo State and until recently Nigeria’s Ambassador to Jordan and Iraq In the Middle East.
Although disenchanted by acts of impunity and lack of internal democracy in the party, the renowned diplomat had erstwhile kept his distance, he soon returned to the fold and is on record as having been instrumental to PDP’s Governor Makinde’s emergence as Governor of Oyo State in the 2019.
The PDP certainly needs a committed and charismatic leader, one who combines requisite brilliance and experience with a calm deportment such as Ambassador Arapaja for the VP job. Let’s support him.
To our leaders, elders, public functionaries and party officials at both the zonal and national levels, let me reiterate that Governor Makinde and his tendency deserve no less than your total support if we truly wish to salvage and move the party forward. Anyone who may be abetting the people responsible for the current crisis and attempt at humiliating the easy-going and self-effacing governor should realize that the same ilk will do same to them should the table turn. Better to condemn the current shenanigans as “an injury to one is an injury to all” an affront and surreptitious sabotage of the agenda to rebuild and return the party into power by 2023.
Governor Makinde represents not just a hope, but an already fulfilled promise merely in waiting. Your vote is the linchpin, cast it wisely.
God bless you!
Hon. Ademola K. Omotoso
Former chairman
Ibadan North Local Government.
