Oguntuwase: Tinubu’s Bogus Cabinet Makes No Economic Management Sense

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Former Chairman of People’s Democratic Party in Ekiti state, Gboyega Oguntuwase, in this interview with Gbenga Sodeinde, speaks on salient national issues including the recent verdict of the Election Petition Tribunal that affirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu, composition of the Federal Executive Council and the crisis rocking the PDP in the state.

You are a leader of the PDP…

 (Cuts in) I am a member of the PDP..(smiles)

By virtue of your position, you are qualified to comment about the current position of your party chieftain and former governor of Rivers state NyesomWike who worked for APC and now has been appointed Minister

I want to be very careful the way I talk about Wike. When a thing is beyond definition, you have to be a little bit reserved in the way you comment. The membership of Wike is beyond easy definition. He claims he is PDP but equally claimed he worked for APC and he has taken up an appointment with the APC without the permission of the party or even the courtesy of informing the party.

In terms of definition where he belongs, with my little understanding, I find it difficult to know whether Wike is still a PDP person. I would rather say his association and effective participation in the campaign against PDP Presidential candidate makes more of APC than PDP.

He has a complicated identity and when somebody has a complicated identity, I find it difficult to comment about such a person. Somebody claims he is a PDP person and the same person claims he worked for APC. There is no APC member who will openly say that he worked for PDP. Decency and party discipline will not allow them to do that.

There is no agent of darkness that would openly evangelise for God’s kingdom.

As far as we are concerned, I’m a little bit confused about the identity whichWike wants to give himself but serious minded PDP leaders and followers believe what he said that he didn’t work for PDP and he worked for APC.

My opinion is that we have to be radical about all these. We ought to have taken decision earlier than now but the leadership will review the entire thing and will take appropriate decision at the right time.

If he is still a PDP person, let the leadership say it clear and loud. The possibility of determining the identity of Wike is not mine but that of the leadership of the party and majority of followers are waiting anxiously for the leadership of the party to take a stand.

Your party is currently enmeshed in leadership crisis, who should we recognize as the leader of PDP in Ekiti now?

We have collegiate leadership in Ekiti for now. The leaders of PDP in Ekiti include all former Senators in Ekiti, including Awoyelu, s Kila,  Olujumi, Faseyi and those who have been Senators in the PDP and who have not taken any stand against the position of the party at the National convention.

I consider them as part of the leaders, and I equally want to say that former members of the House of Representatives, all former state chairmen. All former national officers and present national officers, zonal officers. Former speakers of the House of Assembly, former  House of Assembly officers, former Deputy Governors, former respectable and uncontroversial  Governors, and Segun Oni belongs to this group.

What about Governor Ayo Fayose, is he still your leader?

He was a former Governor of Ekiti state, I worked under him faithfuly as a commissioner and I equally served as state chairman of  our party within and beyond his regime. He has openely declared that he worked for APC, so I find it impossible to associate with his position, because I will not want my membership of the party to be jeopardized.

I have my respect for Fayose, I love his zeal and agility. He is good looking and sociable but I dissociate with his stand against the party. There is no genuine member of PDP no matter his grouse with the party who should openly, unrepentantly and consistently claim that he worked against his own party. That is sure anti-party. I don’t believe in that.

Fayose said openly on television that he supported and worked for Tinubu, because Tinubu is a notable and respectable Yoruba man. Fayose should remember that he was one of the plotters against Chief Bode George when he wanted to become the National chairman of the party. Is Bode George a less notable or respectable Yoruba man than Tinubu?

It is obvious that his decision was informed by other things outside Yoruba nationalism.

For in politics, the constitution only recognizes the party as fielding the candidate and a campaign against the candidate of the party is a stand against the party.

And a campaign for the candidate of another party is an admittance of loyalty to that other political party. So Fayose logically did not campaign for Tinubu, he only campaigned for APC.

Talking further on the leadership of the party in the state, we have a caretaker committee. Obedient, lawful and loyal members of the party must support the caretaker committee as set up by the National Working Committee of the Party.

I don’t agree there are factions. We only have differences.

Your party, the PDP in Ekiti state is obviously dead, what is your take on this?

Lukewarmness and being dead are different. You cannot blame the seaming passivity in PDP in Ekiti State on members. We have just coming out of series of betrayers and disappointments, so we shall definitely pick up, it is true that we lost to APC at the state level because some leaders undermined us and our predicament at the presidential election is caused by a combination of betrayers and outright fraud. Definitely that has dampened the interest of many people in the state but the song among genuine PDP members is: rebuilding the PDP is a task that must be done.

We must equally not forget that the advantage that APC has for now is transcient. Those who are bread and butter politicians would move to APC, while those of us who believe in the unfailing word of God that He shall supply our need according to His riches in glory, we shall stay in PDP and survive this period.

And to make PDP formidable, the zonal and the state leadership have been working round the clock to get former Governor, Segun Oni and other leaders back to PDP.

However, I wish to say that It is nightmarish, illogical, absolutely unreasonable for a people that were under the enormous yoke of Buhari to have supported an election that will bring another APC person to the presidency, it means we have learnt nothing and that we have agreed with the oppression.

How would you rate the governor of Ekiti State, BiodunOyebanji whom many of your party members have been praising and commending his performance?

The governor of Ekiti State is a very handsome and neat man. He rarely laughs but appears lovable and he equally wears well tailored dresses. He believes in the praises of palace jesters and would have missed his ways several kilometers before discovering himself.

Governor Oyebanji should carefully listen to me as a brother, it it too early to start taking the praise worshippers seriously, he should tell me whether in his town, local government, or any part of Ekiti state whether poverty has improved, has he not heard the loud voice of poverty in the land?

Does he not know that his membership of APC makes him as guilty as Buhari and those that have just withdrawn our oil subsidy that workers and every salary earner to know that the value of their salary has diminished seriously?

What the APC government of KayodeFayemi did in Ekiti state, how Fayemi wrecked Ekiti, we are victims of Fayemi’srecklessness  and lack of commitment to duty.

Oyebanji has a lot of work to do. So, I personally congratulate him for joining hands with others to rescue APC chairman from kidnappers recently, and that is to let him know that he has a lot of work to do on security. I congratulate him also on his choice of commissioners but suspending one of them within two weeks shows that his capacity to appoint round peg in round hole is in question and makes his tolerance level questionable.

What is your take on appointment of Tinubu’s Ministers?

The number of Ministers appointed by Tinubu is too large for the economic reality of the country. If you are withdrawing fuel subsidy because of lack of money, and at the same time putting together the largest Ministers, Special Advisers, and personal aides since 1999 is in conflict with sound economic management.

Furthermore, having some members of his cabinet still having some cases to answer with the EFCC is a danger sign to integrity and probity. And whoever may be advising the President to plunge this country into war with Niger Republic at this time of hardship is a deservice to the masses of this country and this war will put the lives of the people in the states that share border with Niger republic in danger.

Members of your party are not coming out for local government election that is around the corner in the state, are you people afraid or what?

Whoever knows history of local government elections will not blame PDP for not showing enthusiasm. If at the federal level we are saying they have rigged the election, if at the state level we say you have won because you collaborated with rebels of PDP, we can safely say that we are not too sure of fair play, and that there is no need for participation.

Already a few of us are praying to regain the state in the next election and we have two or three years to prepare for that election, and that is our focus, not embarking on a preditermined local government elections in the state.

What is your reaction to the Election Tribunal’s verdict that affirmed President BolaTinubu’s election?

I am adopting in its entirety the position of my party and the position so clearly stated by our Presidential candidate in the last election, AlhajiAtikuAbubakar. There is no way that judgement can pass judiciary and logical test. Aside orchestrated jubilation nobody could say he has noticed any genue happiness on the streets of Nigeria over the judicial pronouncement made by the presidential election tribunal.

It is advisable for all of us in Nigeria to believe that the judiciary is making itself flawless and having capacity to be described as the last hope of the common man.

The judiciary, more than any arm of government, has the duty to strengthen our democracy with legitimacy.