Oyebisi Ilaka an aspirants for the Oyo central Senatorial zone and a chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) In Oyo state , has remarked that the departure of Senator Ladoja from the PDP, will not affect his electoral chances or that of the PDP negatively in Oyo state., He said this is so because the few that left the party for the African Democratic Congress can be replaced, as there are plethora of capable hands across the state, to fill the vacuum that their exit has created.
it will be recalled that Former governor of the state , Senator Rashidi Ladoja led some of his followers out of PDP, to form an alliance with Unity forum a breakaway faction from the ruling All Progressive Congress in the Africa Democratic Congress ADC.
But the Ladilu of Oyo who is aspiring to represents oyo central Senatorial district at the upper chamber of the National Assembly while reacting to this in an interactive session with journalists in Ibadan consider their actions as a function of little mindedness in politics, saying what they claim is not enough to puncture the ball in the middle of the game.
He said further that a lot has been invested in PDP, to just allow all that Efforts to go waste over a misunderstanding that could have been easily resolved. He likened what has happened to a traveller going to Oyo from Ibadan, and few kilometres to Oyo his car develops a fault, he asked wouldn’t it be better to fix the car and continue the journey rather than go back to Ibadan to get another Vehicle?
According to him “There is no perfection anywhere, imperfections pervades the whole atmosphere but we ought to deal with what we got we’ve gone a long way with this PDP exercise, we’ve spent a lot of money a lot and time, we have tried, do we just abandon it midway no, What are we fighting about, the position of the state secretary, the position of an organizing secretary and other few things , is that enough reason to puncture the ball, I don’t think so.”
He argued further that most of what the defectors claims are mere speculation. “ There is a lot of politics of envy, politics of little mindedness, and if I am going to surrounded by little minded people I will rather not be with them because the longer you spend with them you too you start thinking like them, one of my prayers first thing every morning is for me not to think like oyo state politicians because most of them are intellectually deficient, morally bankrupt and I’d rather not be like them.’?
Reacting to the clamour by a section of the state to produce the next governor the Ladilu of Oyo said that if they are able to present a good candidate with the right message, the people of Oyo state will vote for such a person, he however said it’s not fair to be seeking advantage before the game starts.
He also confirm that the party chairman, Chief Kunmi Mustapha and many of the party executives including the Accord chairmen that moved to the party with Senator Ladoja to PDP remain in the party, “so we have a formidable team that can win elections for the party.” he said
While expressing optimism that PDP will spring surprises in the next election, the tax and financial experts said that though the image of the party had been stained and battered especially with corruption allegations but if we allow internal democracy in the party and present fresh and stainless candidates for elections, we will win many seats
“If there is proper participatory democracy in the party, and we have transparent primaries, we put our best forward then we stand a good chance but if we put candidate that even members of the party themselves have rejected how do you expect to sell them, but if we know that we have a tussle and somebody wins by one vote, its lucky for the winner and we will do that but if internal democracy is by any means sabotage then we will have a problem”.
“PDP didn’t do well last time because it had poor candidates hopeless candidate and people totally rejected them, if they had better quality than this the electorate will applauds and endorse them so that is my take on it.”
He promised effective representation at the upper chamber of the National Assembly if elected in 2019 and also pledged not to be an absentee senator.
