Hon Dayo Ogungbenro was last week Monday at the Oyo State congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reelected the state chairman of the party, in this interview with YINKA OLADOYINBO, he speaks about his agenda for the party in the next four years, the challenges facing the major opposition party and its chances come 2027. Excerpts:
What is your agenda as you assume office for the second term as the chairman of the PDP in Oyo State?
First and foremost, I have to give glory to God for making it possible for me to return to office for another term, this is another koseleri in Oyo State politics for the chairman of PDP to serve two terms, I also have to thank the governor of the state, Engineer Seyi Makinde for the opportunity to serve and like he charged which I also associate myself with the greatest challenging this party is to deliver governorship in 2027 and there is no compromise about that, and that is to serve as a note of warning to other opposition parties in the state that there is no vacancy in Agodi Government House
Now that you have said the PDP will rule Oyo state beyond 2027, how do you think that is achievable with the situation the party found itself in the country?
Yes, it is noted that we don’t have any issue in the party in the state, there might be challenges at the federal level and there is no political party without its own issue and politics is essentially about continuous engagements and compromise, so soonest the party will still find her foot. Just like I said, ni issue in Oyo state PDP, if anybody has any issue in party politics in Oyo state it will be in APC, the major opposition party, so I don’t see anything coming our way in 2027 by the special grace of God.
At the state Congress of the party, there were some notable leaders that were not at the venue, doesn’t that portend internal wranglings in the party?
I don’t see it in that perspective.
To many people, Seyi Makinde is the only factor making PDP strong in Oyo State, how are you going to sustain the relevance of the party after the expiration of his tenure in 2027?
Yes, I have heard people saying it that Seyi Makinde is PDP and PDP is Seyi Makinde, I also said it when the former vice president Atiku Abubakar was here to campaign in 2023 at Mapo, I told the dignitaries that were present that that is the situation in Oyo State. Having said that and having known that the governor will soon finish his constitutional two terms, this kind of question is very germane, but remember when Seyi Makinde was coming, many people didn’t give him chance as far as performance in party politics is concerned. Many people argued that he is from the corporate world, he is a corporate man, he doesn’t know anything about politics. Our late leader, Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of blessed memory even said he has not been a councilor, he hasn’t been this and that, but to the glory of God Seyi Makinde performed beyond expectations of an average doubting Thomas. Since we have agreed that politics is dynamic, that dynamism will be brought into play to ensure that the PDP maintain its lead, in Oyo State come 2027. If you say the governor has a superlative performance, voters in the state are aware of this. In fact, the question people are asking me now is that whenever Seyi leaves how do you think you will sustain the performance of your party? All they are asking for is we should tell the governor that whoever is coming as a successor should be someone that can perform up to that level or even beyond. Once upon a time in this state we have instances where salaries were not paid for more than eight months, Seyi Makinde came and promised that salary will be paid as and when due and up till today it has not changed. Ask the civil servants, the teachers, pensioners, even artisans, students, market women, they are all yearning for Seyi Makinde. However, he won’t be on the governorship ballot come 2027 and that is not my major headache now. I will now have to go and tell these people that the governor won’t be on the ballot, so we have to buckle up so as to maintain the level of the performance of Seyi Makinde come 2027 or more than that, we won almost all the local government during the last election and we are going to repeat that. All we are praying for is that God will be magnanimous to our leader to make the right choice and I can assure you that the right choice will be made.
With many aspirants that want to succeed the governor, how are you going to ensure that an acceptable candidate emerge in a rancour free situation?
All is politics and we have witnessed this type of thing for years, we know how to do our things, look at the last congresses from wards to the local governments and to the state level, no quarell, no skirmishes, no cutlass, the PDP in Oyo State has come of age irrespective of our different political ambitions, we will disagree to agree because the greatest disservice we can do to Seyi Makinde is not to win in 2027 and we are winning by the grace of God. In due course I will be all over the state spreading the gospel according to Seyi Makinde, so that an average person in the state will not rely on him alone, but will rely on him and PDP together.
As a state chairman of the PDP, are you not worried about the crisis rocking the party at the national level?
I am not, politics is about choices and about I want this, I want that and when your choices are not being met definitely you move to other platforms to ventilate it. Former president Muhammadu Buhari contested three times and at the third attempt he wept openly before they formed another alliance and they succeeded in pushing the PDP out of power. Be that as it may, people are free to make choices as far as politics or any association is concerned , as they go other people are coming , that is politics for you, as a matter of fact, a lot of them that have gone are already coming back, so let us wait and see, this is just 2025 and we are going to 2027, a lot water will still pass under the bridge before that time.
Are you saying despite the present situation, the party is still in a good position to win election at the national level come 2027?
Definitely, if we are talking of opposition parties in Nigeria today can we rate anyone over PDP? Even if ADC is coming up. Honestly, we flop our chances in 2023 and we have to blame ourselves because some people believe they can move on without this and that. During our campaign at Mapo with all the dignitaries sitting, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide was there, Halleluyah (Senator Hosea Agboola) was also there, I told them frankly, on no ambiguous term that don’t be deceived that Seyi Makinde is a factor in PDP. The greatest error PDP made in 2023 was that Atiku could not muster enough will to unite the party and that was what caused him the presidency. I told them publicly as a political scientist , how can you jettison five sitting governors, they were not former governors, they were sitting governors and I told them the truth, I even arranged a meeting between Alhaji Atiku and my principal, but eventually some people were pushing Baba Atiku and we saw how it all ended, that would have been the greatest opportunity for this party to come back to power.
As someone that has been involved in elections over the years, what are the areas of our electoral system that you think need to be reformed or amended for us to have near perfect elections?
First and foremost, the way we appoint the INEC chairman should be changed for the good of the generality of the country. They said there is no historian without his or her biases, once you know you are the appointing authority you can do anything and pretend to be otherwise. It is wrong for the president to continue to be the sole appointing authority of INEC chairman and the commissioners, we should evolve a system through which they would be appointed that would be devoid of the biases of the president. If we want to be nationalistic in our approach we should change certain things and that is why some people said even after 65 years of independence Nigeria still remains an ordinary geographical expression because of the primordial interest, we should chart course for nationalism so that we can move forward. Some people will argue that it took America over 200 years before they got to where they are today, does that means we have to also spend 200 years.
Looking at the Federal Government being run by the APC, what is your stake on its performance, particularly in the last two years?
My assessment is that the good people of Nigeria should excuse President Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027 because his performance is abysmal, and I want to say that the PDP, which is the major opposition party in the country is representing a better alternative and knows how to run the country better. We knew how much a bag of rice was when President Goodluck Jonathan was in power, we also knew how much it was during Buhari regime, we know the price now, not to talk of price of fuel and other things. During the president’s independence speech, he said there will be light at the end of the tunnel, what else do you expect him to say? He would not say there wouldn’t be light at the end of the tunnel, you can only expect such things from a better clime, not the one like ours where you just believe that whether you are performing or not performing you must be in office by all means. But the beauty of democracy is that you challenge the performance of the person you put on board every four years in case of federal and state levels and every three years in case of local government level, you are free either to vote somebody in after a tenure if you are satisfied with his or her performances or you vote him or her out, that is the beauty of the game, when they said Jonathan did not perform up to expectations he was voted out, why were they not liberal like Jonathan, he congratulated Buhari even before the results of the elections were announced. But what are they doing after Jonathan? But I know that one day we will get to where we are supposed to be.