The chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Oyo state, Hon Michael Okunlade, in this interview with YINKA OLADOYINBO, speaks about the efforts at repositioning the party, governance in the state and election management in the country among other issues, excerpts:
The belief is that SDP is going into obscurity, particularly in Oyo State, why is this so?
I will not really agree to that because the symbol of the party is well known by everyone and it is one of the oldest parties in Nigeria, but we have some challenges, call them Nigerian factor, which is the most common one. Many people have been so indoctrinated that if you don’t belong to PDP or APC you cannot prosper politically and that indoctrination had been embedded into every Nigerian system, so if you say you are in SDP people will look at you as a joker, so this has affected the growth of the party. Many people have forgotten that political party is a creation of human beings. It is not the party that created the human being. They have been so caged in their minds that for you be well known you must belong to either of the two parties. The other aspect that I also called the Nigerian factor has to do with finances. Let us come to the very immediate one, the Ondo election, despite the hunger, despite the disillusion of the masses, people still voted for money and I think it is deliberate on the part of the government to render us the way we are today. Even for people to come to meetings it has been so monetarised, the zeal of service is no longer there and every Nigerian is guilty of it even in our party we are supposed to be holding quarterly meetings but because we are not buoyant enough, we decided to be holding it twice in a year.
How will you react to the allegation that Oyo State SDP is an appendage of Governor Seyi Makinde or the PDP?
That is an erroneous impression. Of course, I was in PDP too, but one or two things led to my joining the SDP because of the governor’s nature but unfortunately many Oyo State indigenes do not understand who the governor is. We were together before the 2019 election but immediately he became governor the rest is history. You understand what he did to many people that stood for him. I am in SDP and we are no longer together, so whatever he is doing is just to de-market the SDP and it boils down to money, you know he has access to information, he has access to money he has access to a lot of things, so governor Seyi Makinde can never say he is a member of SDP or that I, Michael Okunlade is an appendage of the governor and I want to make it clear that SDP is independent of the governor as he has nothing to do with the SDP, they are just using it to cajole people. There was a time they reduced themselves to the extent of opening an office at Yemetu in the name of SDP, but we are addressing that as we have informed the police and they have been invited.
But do you think the SDP is strong enough to contest and win election with the factionalisation?
Let me first clear something, there is no faction of SDP in Oyo state, people are just manipulating things, they are afraid of us and the only way they can go is to create faceless factions, if you go to INEC or anywhere nobody can say he is SDP. On winning election, I want to say categorically that ‘ajise bi Oyo laari’, Oyo is different from any other state, with the passage of time, SDP is going to win election in the state, we are working on that we are re-strategising day in day out, we have a functional and physical office in Oyo State and with God on our side, we will make the difference
Your party participated in the last local government election in Oyo State, what is your assessment?
Was there any local government election? It was a pure selection, initially we didn’t want to participate because we all know how local government election is being conducted throughout the country. But we did that on the honour of the chairman of OSIEC, Barrister Olagunju. He told us severally that he has spoken with the governor and the governor has promised to conduct a credible election and we now unanimously decided that on his honour we will participate and asked him that if anything happens will be ready to be held responsible and he said yes. He swore by the Quran and everything that the election will be free and fair. After the election, I called for his resignation, I challenged him that he has betrayed the confidence we had in him, he apologised and explained that all the electoral officials appointed for the election were not picking his calls on the day of election.
Looking at the government of Oyo State in the last five and half years, what is your impression
I don’t want to discuss that because if I say anything and because of the way people reason, they will think it is because we have issues or disagreement, but the truth of the matter is that everyone is blaming the government at the national level, everyone is blaming president Bola Tinubu but the damage being doing by the governors is massive. The Oyo State residents are poorer than they were before because the governor has caged the local governments and it is like there is no local government in the state, no local government can perform independently as they ought to. All other governors have given them free hand to award contracts, I am from Oorelope local government, the council has not done a single project since the inception of the present administration. If the governor had decentralized power the poverty rate would have been reduced, many people would have been able to get something done in their local governments. You know the way local government operate, it is purely for local people. Before now nobody, cares to know what is happening at the state secretariat, most people go to their councils for small contracts. Another problem we are having is capital flight, most of jobs being done are given to faceless people, we don’t know the contractors, are they indigenes? and we should remember that one of the cardinal points of his campaign is that if he becomes governor, there would not be capital flight again. But this is the worst experience we have about capital flight, the problem is not Tinubu, the governor should face his responsibilities.
As a major stakeholder in the country, what are those things you expected the governors to have done differently?
The governors should allow the local government to function, particularly in Oyo State, give life to the local government, if you visit the secretariats of the local governments, nothing is happening there. Everything has been mopped up, if they allow the local government to perform their duties, the poverty rate in the country would reduce.
On election management in the country, what do you think can be done to make our elections better?
It is only the government that can do it if they are really serious; they are taking advantage of the weakness in the electoral process. There is a lot of advancement in technology that can make our election credible, but they won’t do it because the present arrangement is working for them. If one survives any election in Nigeria, it is by chance. What “killed” Jonathan was because he appointed an INEC chairman he didn’t know. The people know what to do, if they want credible election, it has to start with the people in authority. It is so simple, even these days you can vote in your room,you don’t need to go and queue, we have some countries that run their elections like that but our leaders won’t do it.
Agitations towards 2027 have started; do you think SDP stands any chance of winning election and do you think you can do this standing alone or are you planning any merger?
We are working day-in-day-out, we are strategising to strengthen our party across the 33 local government areas. If you have good structure you can win election but the unfortunate thing as I said is finance. There is the trust issue across the divides, you as the chairman, if you ask them to go and do something, they will think you have collected something, you have to talk, you have to sensitize them, you have to advice them that the best way we can achieve this is to put all effort so that our party to grow and thank God it is yielding results gradually and I am sure before 2027 whether we are going to merge or stay alone time will tell.
READ ALSO: 2027: El-Rufai is threat to some persons — SDP chairman
