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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Daily
Independent Online. * I�m not Obasanjo�s friend, says Babatope As Director of Organisation of the Unity Party of In this interview with Senior
Correspondent, Tolu Olarewaju, Babatope speaks on his membership
of Awoist movement, Afenifere and PDP but declines to comment on� Omisore�
functioning as a senator of the Excerpts: During the 2003 general elections,
the PDP overran the South West. That was the first time the ruling party at the
centre will also be in power in the South West, thus as they say, bringing the
South West into the mainstream of Nigerian politics. Has this affected the
political fortunes of the geo-political zone? I will never in my lifetime
subscribe to this bogus idea of people saying the victory of the PDP has
brought the people of the South West into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.
I have never. And I have always quarrelled with those of my friends in the PDP who
always bring this kind of argument. There is no time the people of the South
West, the Yoruba, have not been in the mainstream of Nigerian politics because
of education. Education liberates the man. An educated man is a liberated man.
Because of the free education programme pursued by Awolowo, almost 85 per cent
of the people of the South West are educated. We have always been in the
mainstream of Nigerian politics. What happened in the South West last
year was showing to the world the high level of educational development of the
people of the region. They will never agree that any politician or ruler takes
them for granted. People should forget the question of
mainstream. What they are trying to say is that in the days of AG and UPN when
people were voting for Pa Awolowo, the Yoruba were not in the mainstream. But
the Yoruba people had ministers in the centre at that time. Chief Richard
Akinjide was a federal minister in the Frankly speaking, do you think PDP
deserved its electoral victories in the South West? Why did the AD lose those elections?
I want people to be very objective about these matters. The AD lost because,
one, their governors went imperial. They ruled as if the people did not exist.
They were sacking workers. They were sacking teachers. They were sacking
journalists in their radio stations. And they were expecting that these people
would not get members of their families to vote against them. Secondly, they
were insulting traditional rulers. They forgot that they have influence in the
society. Traditional rulers have a very strong influence in Yorubaland. There
is respect for maturity, age and experience in Yorubaland. Thirdly, they were fighting against
themselves. And I will give you instances. In Are you going to crucify us for
collecting those votes? Another major factor was that they
went into an electoral war without a general. I as an organisational man
laughed when they said they were not going to have a presidential candidate. I
said the field has been laid open for those of us in the PDP to go the field
with our field marshal. Our field marshal for the 2003 general elections was
Obasanjo. Of course we went to town to tell them that Obasanjo is their son.
And the people rose in support of their son. Attempts had been made to impeach
him by those who don�t like him simply because he is Yoruba. So, the people
rose in support of their son. Do you think the PDP can sustain the
2003 electoral victory in the South West? � I�ve always said it. And I�m saying
it again, if the PDP governors go imperial, and repeated the same things that
the AD governors did, they would crash out like a pack of cards. They would be
swept away by the Yoruba people. You are from the same senatorial
district as Chief Iyiola Omisore now in detention in connection with the
assassination of the late Chief Bola Ige. He is alleged to be functioning as a
senator of the �(Cuts in) Anything about Omisore is
subjudiced. I, as a lawyer, will not discuss anything in connection with a case
already in court. If that senatorial seat s eventually
declared vacant, will you show interest in contesting? As a lawyer, I will not discuss
anything in connection with a case already in court. What do you think the Federal
Government means when it talks of security breach? Is it an aborted or a
phantom coup? I too don�t know what Obasanjo means
by that. I think the Nigerian people deserve to be informed the detail of what
is called security breach. I don�t know what it means. It is a military
language. Give us the details.� What is
very clear is that some people are being questioned for abnormal happenings in
government. One of the explanations given about
security breach by Balarabe Musa, chairman of the Conference of Nigerian
Political Parties, was that in 1983, Alhaji Shehu Shagari was privy to the coup
that ousted him. They just wanted people to talk about coups to deter others
from planning one, but it eventually boomeranged. Is this security breach of a
thing the same thing, just to put the nation at alert? I don�t know where Balarabe Musa got
his information. I don�t know why he has come to that type of conclusion.
Balarabe Musa is free to express his opinions as a political leader in this
country just as he is free to canvass for votes under the constitution. But I
want to say this;� What is your personal assessment of
the Obasanjo Administration? Well, you see, my own viewpoints
about the Obasanjo administration will be tainted by the fact that I am a PDP
member. I have all avenues to reach him. It may therefore be unfair for me now
to start criticising him. But having said that, I think we must not fall into
the propaganda of the Let me say this clearly, and I have
said this several times over, Obasanjo and myself are not friends. Even though
we belong to the same political party, we are not friends. He wrote a book: Not
My Will. I wrote a book against him: Not His Will. We fought ourselves to a
standstill in 1978/79 when he was military head of state. I was one of those
who accused his government that the government was not fair about the 1979 elections.
So whatever I say about Obasanjo, I want to appeal to the Nigerian people to
believe me. There are certain aspects of Obasanjo that I wouldn�t want to
touch. Those aspects are his problems. But when you talk in terms of democracy
and cementation of democratic principles in Our nation has been virtually
destroyed by the various military coups that we have heard in this country. All
these military coups have brought different problems that we are still
contending with today. At a particular time, You are an Awoist and Afenifere, yet
you feel comfortable being in Obasanjo�s PDP----- (Cut�s in) Well, Obasanjo has never
done anything since he got to power that will convince me that he is
anti-Awolowo because if he does so, he knows I will reply. I will reply with
facts that I know. I was with Papa Awolowo as director of organisation of the
defunct Unity Party of Nigeria for over five years. But he has not done any
single thing that will undermine the reputation and good name Awolowo built.
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