AD Lost S/west to Internal Wrangling -Olaitan
By Bayo Adeleke
Former House of Representative members under the Platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Chief Akinola Olaitan has said the AD lost in the South-west as a result of rancour between the party's founding fathers and non-performance of the governors.
"Frankly speaking, the founding fathers are not honest with themselves.
The two principal partners are late Bola Ige and Ayo Adebanjo who are strange bed fellows and from the foundation it was a house built on sand.
"Governors also did not perform. They were engulfed by the quarrels and because there was no recognised leader, everybody saw himself as potential Yoruba leader, building structure around themselves and not the party," he said.
Olaitan, who disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Lagos said the desire of the governors for second term killed the party as they were not bothered whether they had members at the National Assembly.
"Based on that and having lost his home base during 1999 election, President Olusegun Obasanjo capitalised on that and viewed it as pay back time and oiled it," he said.
The former lawmaker, who is billed to contest for the 2007 governorship race in Osun State under the National Democratic Party (NDP) remarked that AD, no matter the reconciliatory process by the party, would remain castrated until 2007.
He said the same fever that gripped AD in the South-west also affected Peoples Democratic Party in wrestling power from AD in Lagos as there was no consensus among Lagos PDP on who should be the party's governorship candidate.
"PDP Lagos was like AD. There was fighting among them, no governorship candidates because majority did not like Funsho Williams," he said.
On the performance of the present National Assembly, Olaitan said though they tried their best but " it will be difficult to compare our time with theirs because we're coming back to politics after a very long military interregnum."
"They are better prepared than when we were there. Again, the system was new and nobody is aware of the rules. We had a heated system and Nigerians know better now as we're learners then even President Obasanjo, as well, admitted that he was learning," he added.
Commenting, on former President Ibrahim Babangida's intention to run in 2007, Olaitan harped on IBB's track record and the issue of money in Nigeria politics, saying he was convinced that Babangida would be sworn-in as the next president
To be relevant in Nigeria politics, Olaitan enjoined Yoruba to maintain the position they were known for in the nation's politics.
Corroborating President Obasanjo's recent pronouncement that he has put Yoruba back into the country's political mainstream, the lawyer cum politicians said Obasanjo has done what late Samuel Akintola wished to do during his life time, to the more enlightened Yoruba.
"Yoruba want to be in Nigeria that is just, equitable and same with the Igbo and Hausa," he added.
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