Engineer Oluseyi Makinde is not a new name in Oyo politics, he is a philantropist of note in the state , Though he has has not been lucky to achieve his dream politically having contested for Senate in 2007 and 2011 and Governorship position in 2015 and loss. In this Interview with Select journalists in Ibadan he spoke on his how he persuaded Senate Ladoja not to leave PDP and others and express optimism about 2019.
There is this believe that you tactically drove out Senator Rashidi Ladoja out of PDP
I will say that I was disappointed that Baba left because you probably would have seen that I made a lot of effort to reach out to Baba, there is no way a son can drive his father out of his aboard, we ‘ve put the disappointment behind us and we are forging ahead, if you look at the party structure, over 80 percent of the local government party chairmen are still with the party, and in numbers at least 30 out of the 36 are still with the party, the others also I believe they are on their way back. For the state executives the same thing close to 90 percent of them are still with the party . Yes we had minor disagreement during the state congress but everybody including the national leadership of the party came in here to appeal to Baba, they chattered a flight to come and meet him, they appeal to him ,I believe everyone tried their best but you can take a horse to the river, you cannot force the horse to drink from the river, I think we’ve tried our best and we would continue to reach out to Baba, if there is still opportunity to have a rethink, he is my father politically, he is also a high chief of Ibadanland so we cannot disrespect him or say how is his own in the politics of this state and this is an ex governor so, we will continue to do our best and reach out to him but having said that we have to do what we have to do politically and that is what we are.
They also accused you of throwing money around to have your way.
- People said I always thrown money around to have my way, I didn’t have my way in 2017, I contested for the senate and I lost , in 2011 I didn’t have my way, I tried to contest the primary I lost I wasn’t the candidate of the party, in 2015, the same thing happened ,l didn’t have my way I contested the general election so I don’t understand their thought of me having my way with money I think, its just way to call a dog to give it a bad name so that they can hang it, there is no fact in it at all yes I believe I have to give back to the society, I believe I have to help the needy, I believe that, each needy child that is taken off the street is less one 419er, Arm robber in the future and this child that you turn around for the better is an addition to the economic power of this state so irrespective of what people want to say I believe it’s the right thing to do for me and we will continue to do that .
There is this belief that you inherited an empty party since the exit of Senator Rashidi Ladoja and some of his political associate from PDP.
Its not an empty party because, the executives at ward, local government and state level are more or less intact and if you look at 2015 general election result, you will notice that Governor Ladoja, who was also a candidate in the election also lost, 2011, he lost also so a tree doesn’t make a forest, I will say apapo ope o ma npa ota, regular people can come together and they beat the man that masters the game this is what I have noticed as trend politically right now a lot of ordinary folks are coming together to synergies, they being motivated by the promise of the structure of leadership, good leadership for the party and for the state eventually so more and more people are making a turnaround and coming back into the party. The door is opened for a lot of people to come back and realize their ambition within the structure of the party so if anyone is saying it an empty party, they are far from the truth. You can do a check by yourself , I don’t want to mention names but you can fact check
Ex governor Akala said he has rejected the PDP ticket being offered to him, as a stakeholder in the party is their anytime that Governor Akala is being offered the party governorship ticket
Well, what I had in the news was that I visited him to convince him to come back top the party, because he because he became a governor under the banner of PDP so PDP assume it his is natural habitat and this is also the type of visit that you see on a daily basis within the political environment . We visit ourselves other parties visited me, but I didn’t go to the press to say they offered me anything , you just keep pushing on because at the end of the day what is all this about its about service to the people and I will rather address issues that has to do with how do we want to serve the people, how do we want to turn things around, how do we make a good model out of our state. Yes I visited him, we had discussions and what was reported in the press was far from the truth
During the PDP crisis, did you personally visited Baba Ladoja in his residence
I visited him personally and I prostrated with my chest torching the ground for him and I’ve had from other people who visited him that he shows them where I prostrated, I should prostrate for my father not the other way round so there is nothing wrong in that
Are you confident about the coming election?
Yes, everywhere you only had two parties in Nigeria right now it is either APC or PDP, we are confident about our chances in the coming election, if you look at the result of 2015 governirship election and move back like 2 months before the actual election like December 2014, certain individuals were in PDP at that time, I was in PDP Governor Akala was in PDP Senator Folarin was in PDP up until 2 months to the general election and I left for SDP, Governor Akala for Labour party, if you go back and put what PDP as senator Folarin had, what labour party had and what SDP had , had the three together, we were 10,000 vote short of votes of the APC, if you put that together it will give you exactly 317,000 votes , that is minus accord and there are a lot of people who on the eve of election voted for Accord, they were PDP members but some of the PDP leaders had preference for governor Ladoja so if we just come together, I mean all of us in Dec 2014 to come together that is enough to win election, now you joined some of the Accord people, that are here now and I think we are the party to beat and besides also what I have been hearing from people is that they want a new lease of life, they want something new and fresh
The leadership of the PDP recently resolved that there would be consensus arrangement in picking candidates that will fly the party’s flag in 2019 election, do you think that will not cause disharmony again in them party.
We have the constitutions of the party and that says all position must be contested for at a properly organized primaries that is the constitution of the party however you have other arrangement where people can come together and say we may have consensus candidate for some constituencies but in all of this the constitution of the party reign supreme, one of you just said that in town Seyi Makinde is being assume to be the candidate of PDP but we are not assuming that, we are reaching out to the people , we are reaching out to our party members and we’ll try and put ourselves at a position of advantage, we want to take the game beyond whoever want to contest with us within the party.
