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Why convention must hold
Why
convention must hold —Hon. Adeyeye
ABIODUN ADELAJA, Abuja
HON.
(Prof) Sola Adeyeye, the only Alliance for Democracy (AD) member from Osun State
in the House of Representatives says the party’s national convention billed
for Wednesday was necessitated by the directive of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to AD. Hon. Adeyeye, who spoke to ABIODUN ADELAJA in
Abuja believe AD will emerge stronger from the convention
Your party Alliance for Democracy
(AD) has been enmeshed in crisis for some time now. What is the current state of
affairs in the party?
Well, the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) has given us an ultimatum to either resolve our
leadership crisis and submit a list of names for national offices that is
acceptable to all or that we must hold a convention not later than October 31,
2004.
So far, it has not been possible
to get the contending factions to make the necessary compromise and therefore we
have scheduled to have a convention on Wednesday.
Could you please expatiate on
your reference to "we" expatiate of the convention. Who exactly are
the "we" you just referred to?
I am saying that the National
Convention Committee which is neutral, which is neither from the Akinfenwa
faction nor from the Bisi Akande faction. They have scheduled this convention.
You have to remember the fact
that INEC recognized the election of officers that took place at the ward level,
at the local government level and at the state level. INEC has no problems with
us at these tiers to have mentioned. The problem arose at the national level and
there is already a provision in the constitution of he AD as to how you compose
the membership of delegates to the national convention. So that is what is
taking place.
Does this therefore imply that
this convention enjoys the support of majority of AD members from the two
factions?
I want to believes so
Now in what capacity are you
attending the convention? Do you have an aspiration to run for any of the
national offices?
Every member of the National
Assembly is an automatic delegate to the national convention. But in addition to
that, I have offered myself to run for the office of the nation chairman of the
AD.
In seeking this office have you
reached out to the two factional leaders? One only hopes that you are not going
to emerge the third factioinal leader. Have you consulted widely?
I will not emerge a third
factional leader. Whoever emerges as chairman at that convention will be
recognized by INEC because that convention is being organized in total
conformity with the stipulations of INEC. If I emerge I will be the only
standing chairman for the Alliance for Democracy. If I do not emerge, whoever
emerges will be the chairman of Alliance for Democracy (AD). Of course I do pray
that I emerge.
What will be the impast of this
convention on the crisis in AD? Will the conduct of the convention translate to
an end to the crisis in the party?
It will not bring an over night
healing to the hurt we have in the party. But I believe it will begin the
process, because in essence, we have a fait accomplies. You have no choice. Once
INEC says it recognises the officers that emerge from that convention, then you
either have to come back to the party or you go and seek your fortunes
elsewhere.
How did the AD find itself in the
crisis in the first place?
I think there’s always the
question of personal ambition, there is the possibility that infact some of what
we are seeing in the party is being fulled by the ruling party that does not
ready want any effective opposition. I believe that.
AD is enmeshed in crisis and the
same goes for the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). Both are major opposition
parties. Are you not worried about this seeming crumblins of the opposition and
tendency towards a one party state?
I am very concerned, but not
worried. I am concerned only because many many years ago the current president
had given an indication of his believe in a one party system. He called it
consensus. Infact there was a pretreated debate on the issue between himself and
chief Arthur Nwankwo who was the chancellor of the Eastern Mandate Union (EMU),
and a look has been published to that effect.
And so one is not surprised that
since a leopard does not change its colour that the Obasanjo regime is playing
this kind of parks on the nation. But of course at the very longest, President
Obasanjo has two and half year more. Nigeria will outcast him, democracy will
evolve and we will have a truly representative and liberal system in which ideas
would have a platform to contained in the public domain.
Now let us look at the
relationship between Afenifere, and the AD. Do you think Afenifere is playing
the kind of role it is expected to play in its relationship with the party?
You will not get me criticism Afenifere.
First, it is not because I don’t disagree with some of the positions of Afenifere.
I do. I think you have to separate a cultural organisation belonging to one
ethnic nationality from a national political party. Having said that, the truth
of the matter is that Afenifere was part and parcel of the founding of he
AD and historically it ought to have some roles but in the process of time, the
role of Afenifere should diminish so that the Alliance for Democracy can
have its proper structure and that structure should be allowed to function as
political parties do all over the world.
So having said that, let me tell
you that the members of Afenifere are human. They sometimes make mistakes
but you wont get me to discuss that on the pages of newspaper.
Your party’s performance in the
2003 general elections was poor as it were, because you lost five governorship
seats to the PDP. In your opinion, what really went wrong with the AD in that
election?
Some of the (governors) were
rabbit that went to play in the lions den and ended up in the stomach of the
lion. Some of them, for too long, against our explicit warning, made unnecessary
compromises with Mr. President. They believed him on promises that were never in
writing. And I remember that a week to the elections I was talking to one
particular governor and I said to him what if as a military tacticians, Obasanjo
had been deceiving you all along, but he wouldn’t hear. But of course, I have
turned out to be right. I don’t believe that Alliance for Democracy lost five
gubernatorial slots. Maybe one or two of them deserved to have lost but I will
not tell you the ones. But I also know without a shadow of doubt that the
elections were not free.
In some of the states there were more votes than
the registered voters. I know that in many parts of the South West there were
many untoward practices.
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