Can you give a post-mortem of your party’s primaries for the forthcoming local government election? It seems there is a lot of discontent among party members.
There is obvious discontent in the party with the way the whole local government primaries were conducted. The exercise was shrouded in secrecy, lack of transparency and total disregard for rules made by the caretaker committee and its organs. There seems to be a premeditated destination all along not known to participants who thought that these enablers who pretend to be democrats would change for the better.
Where does this crisis of nomination leave the party and its chances at the election proper?
It is unfortunate that we find ourselves in this avoidable conundrum. I honestly don’t know how the party will convince Lagosians to vote for us. I saw it coming and I have been shouting myself hoarse about it. Today, our party is very unpopular in Lagos. We are basking in a false sense of popularity simply because there is no serious opposition in Lagos. However, one thing is for sure: it is APC disenfranchised members that will defeat the party at the polls. The people whose voices were muzzled last Saturday will teach the party a very big lesson on how not to disregard the wish of majority, going by what I have seen since Sunday. Up to this moment (Wednesday), the party is yet to formally announce winners of the elections in the various local governments.
APC, until now, was seen as a solid entity in the state. Why the sudden conflagration or is it something that had been brewing all this while?
The solidity was only a perception. APC’s fortune has been dwindling since the 2015 general elections. The 2019 elections undid the myths that were built around the party. The numbers are there for everyone to see. Since the last charade called congresses in Lagos in 2018, the majority of party members have resorted to siddon look. The party is yet to find its bearings again. Unfolding events are gradually exposing the enablers and their cohorts who have held Lagos by its jugular. Lagos is being strangulated with a knee-hold on its wind pipe. The build-up to the local government elections next month will be a pointer to what await tyrants who pretend to be democrats.
Are you not worried that beyond party members, ordinary voters rarely show interest in grassroots politics which should ordinarily be the closest level of governance to them?
How many people constitute the political class? Party members do not constitute more than 10 per cent of all registered voters. This number is so infinitesimal that it counts to just a little vote. Unlike time past, I see a situation where the Soro Soke generation and so many voters will come out to register their displeasure with the APC. The majority of our local government administrators performed woefully. The people do not expect our party to field these failed chairmen for any reelection. Unfortunately, we do not care about the feelings of Lagosians.
Does the crisis trailing the conduct of the primaries not portend a revolt among the rank and file of the party in the state?
Of course, what is happening is a groundswell of opposition to our impunious ways. The party, as presently constituted, has lost all moral grounds to request for votes from the people. It is a payback season for the party with its flagrant disregards.
Is Asiwaju losing grip on the party in the state, considering that what some people seem the usual imposition of candidates met with some resistance this time?
Do we have a leader we can hold by his word in Lagos, when a foremost leader of the party, governor of Lagos State, as well as the Speaker stood in front of Nigerians – youths, young, old and their own party supporters – and proclaim there won’t be anointed candidates in the primaries and not more than a week after, they have reversed themselves and picked preferred candidates? Can such a person be trusted to lead people fairly and abide by any agreement with anybody?
Refusal to respect extant rules and regulations is in their DNA; like the leopard’s spots, it cannot be changed. Because they are not democrats and lead a life of impunity and dishonesty, you don’t expect any positive change from them. You know that in life, it is only God the Creator of heavens and earth that will not end, every other thing created by Him, that has a beginning will surely have an end. You must also realise that there is no champion forever, only champion for a season. Good days for Lagos are on the way again. Their days are numbered. If you observe closely, people are standing up against them today, because their political empire has started crumbling and will soon dissipate like an ice cube. The resistance has just started and be sure that like the race for the emancipation of African-Americans in the Unites States, we shall overcome.
Primaries were conducted in all local governments and local council development areas. Does it mean that all are now recognised by the electoral law?
You cannot put something on nothing. The Supreme Court’s decision on the creation of local governments in Lagos State adjudged the process to be inchoate. Therefore, there was substantially no contest in about ninety per cent of the local governments, hence there really was no election in all of those places. The exercise was a sham, so how can such a competition be in compliance with the Electoral Law in the 90 per cent of the places earmarked for the exercise?
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