Former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, early this week fielded questions from the anchor of a popular radio programme in Osogbo and from members of the public. He spoke on his relationship with the incumbent Osun State governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke; his political trajectory, the administration of President Bola Tinubu, among other issues. Excerpts from the interview, conducted in Yoruba language, is here translated:
As the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national reconciliation committee, how much have you succeeded in restoring unity in the party?
First, I would like to congratulate all the people of Osun State on the festive season. May the new year bring forth good fortunes for us all. As regards the task of reconciliation that the PDP has placed before me, our fathers say if a child falls down, he looks to the front; if grown-up stumbles, he looks to the back – in a bid to determine where exactly he has tripped. The outcome of the last presidential election prompted us to reflect on why we did not realise our objective. We sought to know what was responsible for the failure and findings showed that it was division and disunity that impacted negatively on our performance in that election. Then the party set up the committee to put out the disunity and divisions wherever they may exist within the party across the country. We have finished our work in western Nigeria. Our committee will be heading next for the Maiduguri axis from 7 January, 2025, from where we will visit the other zones, after which we will report back to those who gave us this assignment.
Are you confident that you have achieved true reconciliation in places you have visited so far?
If a string of beads snaps, it is not likely that you will be able to recover all the beads, but by the grace of God, I can confidently say that we have achieved meaningful reconciliations in appropriate quarters.
Come 2027, will the PDP present a Yoruba candidate for the presidential election, because Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has vowed to keep contesting for as long as he lives?
I cannot say who our candidate will be because there are rules and procedures to follow in the party. However, Aaya ntiro, Ogungbe naa ntiro (when the monkey begins to tiptoe, the hunter will also start to stretch his neck); the step we will take will be based on the steps the other parties take, and we will outdo them.
Don’t you think the South West should complete eight years of presidency so that there will be balance between the North and the South?
With the present hardship in the country, there is nothing wrong in voting for another Yoruba from another party to continue the tenure so that we will not be short-changed.
Will the reconciliation efforts of your committee be extended to former PDP members like Rabiu Kwankwaso and Peter Obi?
Won nki, won nsa, o lohun o mo eni to’ku. Won ni abisuu ta l’oko boginni, o ni se tisa lo’ku. The PDP reconciliation I am piloting will reach Kwankwaso and Obi. My committee’s terms of reference include reaching out to all our members, including those that were aggrieved and left.
The general resolution around the country before the 2023 general election was that it was the turn of the Yoruba to produce the next president and the APC presented a Yoruba candidate. Why did the PDP opt for a non-Yoruba candidate?
It was the aspirant that triumphed in the primary election that we put forward as our candidate. You will recall that we deliberated on adopting the zoning arrangement. And when we voted on it, it was decided that the ticket should be thrown open to all the zones and Atiku emerged victorious in the primary election. The decision to establish the reconciliation committee stemmed from the lessons we learnt from our past activities and the need to see how best to begin to win elections again.
A viral picture of you and a former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Honourable Adejare Bello, sparked debates on social media recently. Also recently, the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) paid you a visit. These have left people wondering whether you are planning to leave the PDP. Are you planning to join the APC?
I implore you to listen patiently to the explanation I am about to give. The idea of people defecting from one party to another is not a new phenomenon. When the late Serubawon [former Governor Isiaka Adeleke], the incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke and I decided to join the APC, we did not shoot a picture before we left, and we left in broad daylight. Again, I have come so far in my political career that you can’t let loose a dog to hunt my elephant. Nobody in Osun State or Nigeria can lead me to a place where I donot wish to be.
I remember that the leader of the APC then who has become the president today was the one who led a delegation to my house. Their mission was to persuade me to join the APC. Oyegun, the then national chairman of the party, and [former] Governor Rauf [Aregbesola] were part of the delegation. It was a Sunday. I was not at home; I was in church. When Jagaban called my phone repeatedly, I answered and said, ‘Jagaban, what is the matter?’ He asked where I was and I said I was in church. I asked what the matter was, and he said he was in my house. ‘In my house?’ I wondered. ‘My house where?’I asked. I had come to worship in Osogbo that day. He said my house in Okuku. I said, ‘Okay, we would be rounding off service soon; I would be with you shortly’. I met them in my house in Okuku, all these who’s who in the APC. I asked them what they wanted and they said they wanted me to join them in the APC. And when I was to return to the PDP, the party pleaded with Baba Obasanjo: ‘Order your son to come back’. He sent the governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, to me in Okuku.
What I am saying is that I am more than a politician that would follow a lead blindly. Regarding the picture you mentioned, is it a crime to take a picture with someone with whom you are acquainted? If those making mischief about the picture in order to score cheap points with the governor must know, I attended the 80th birthday anniversary of Baba Ajao from Egbedore. I saw Adejare Bello, Kayode Oduoye and a host of others, who are former political associates and people with whom we were in government together in the past. The world does not stay still, but that does not mean that because I have taken a picture, I am all packed and ready to go.
When we had the primary election, I supported Dotun Babayemi. And when the election was over, we took steps to strengthen our unity because it happened to me too when I stood my first election. The late Serubawon and I slugged it out so hard then that the matter was finally settled in Abuja. But we reunited afterwards. Now, when Dotun Babayemi said he was leaving for the APC, I told him that in Osogbo, ‘Idi Osun ni won maa n ba baale de. T’oro ba ti di oro Ibadan, won o so fun pe Ogidan o sin o o, Laaro o sin o lo o’. That was why he is in the APC and I am where I stay. What weakened the PDP was my removal as the party’s secretary in 2013.
Given the injustice meted out to you by the PDP, would you say that it is your ori (head) that is punishing the PDP?
I wouldn’t want misfortune to befall any individual or group on account of any injustice done to me, because I have every cause to be grateful to God. I became an orphan at the age of nine. My mother died when I was eight and my father died when I was nine. With the way God has designed my path, I ought to be saying Alhamdulillah.
Prince, there are insinuations that the relationship between you and the Adelekes is frosty; that the relationship is at best a game of cat and mouse. What was responsible for the strife between you and the Adelekes? Was it because you did not support them in the 2022 governorship election or is it about the forthcoming 2026 election?
I am not a cleric, but by the grace of God and with the wonders He has performed in my life, I worship Him and follow the Holy Bible that says the sun must not set with anger still flourishing in the heart of a believer. I cannot bear to hold grudges against anyone, be it a governor or a councillor…
We heard that you are angry with the Adelekes, especially Governor Ademola Adeleke, at the moment.
Never. It is a mischief that is absolutely far from the truth. There is nothing like that.
You mean you are actually in good terms with them?
If I give them a call right now, they will answer me. I visit them at the government house. The Adelekes and I have been relating since their elder brother and I have been together, and they can testify to this. When unscrupulous elements want to score cheap political points, they fill the mind of the governor with mischief. It is the same reason they showed him the photograph that you talked about earlier.
Did Governor Adeleke call you after he was shown the photograph?
I was the one who went to him. I told him my character had not changed. Nothing will make me lie to anyone because God has blessed me beyond my imagination. I let him know that I was forced when I campaigned for him. It is true that I supported Babayemi, but everything was settled afterwards. The governor’s brother and I slugged it out three times. Our rivalry for the third time was resolved in Abuja. He visited me the day the matter was settled and said he had no idea I was this kind of person. He had taken the matter to court. We went to court together the next day and sat side by side inside the court. When they called his case, Adeleke stood up. The judge looked up and saw him. He then sat back down. ‘And Olgunsoye Oyinlola?’ I rose on my feet beside him as well and then returned to my seat. The presiding judge was Justice Egbo Egbo. He asked that the case between us be called again. He called Isiaka Adeleke’s name, he stood up and he told him to remain standing. He called my name, too. I stood up and he told me to also keep standing. Then he said ever since he became a judge, he had never seen a plaintiff and defendant sit side by side. He asked what was going on. It was then that Lawyer Alex Izinyon, SAN, announced that the matter between us had been settled; that we would no longer be proceeding with the case. The judge said, ‘You, politicians, should allow us to do our work. Do not disturb us again’. Serubawon and I became very close associates from that point onwards.
I recall that we were planning together to get him to contest the governorship election again. The day we were supposed to have a meeting in that respect at 8 pm in my house in Osogbo, I was travelling from Lagos. When I got to Ibadan, I received a phone call from Teslim, the current Secretary to the Osun State Government. He told me that tragedy had struck. He said, ‘The Gov’… I said, ‘What about the Gov?’ He said, ‘The Gov has died’. I said, ‘Did you smoke something this morning?’ He said he expected that I would respond like that, but he could confirm to me that ‘the Gov’ was dead; that his body was at Biket (a medical centre in Osogbo). I had Dr Adenle’s phone number and I called him immediately. He said, ‘Excellency, it is true’. The only thing he added was that the deceased was brought into the clinic dead. That was when I believed that it was the truth. We had fixed our meeting for 8pm in my house. So, there is no bad blood between me and the Adelekes.
As a political leader of note in Nigeria, what is the way forward for Nigerians in the face of the untold hardship that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has foisted on them?
When the APC was gunning for the presidency, they made all manner of promises to Nigerians; they said the mountain would be brought down; they said one dollar would exchange for one naira. If you examine all the promises they made, you will find out that none has been fulfilled. When this administration came on board, they said they would continue from where Buhari stopped. Won ni Ijebu o da, Ijesa o sunwon, iwo wa ni iwo ni Ijebu-Jesa; did Buhari perform well to make you now say you would continue in his path? Tell me which of their promises has been fulfilled. That is the reason why the mouse is not sounding like a mouse and the bird is not sounding like a bird. I don’t think things have ever been this bad in the history of governance in Nigeria.
What option do you think is left for Nigerians going forward?
They should look inwards so that they will realise that if Ila is no more habitable, one should head for Ilala.
Is that it?
That is it. Enough said.
You were reputed to be a right-hand man of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. People used to say, ‘Prince Olagunsoye Oyinloa, son of Baba Obasanjo’. But in the last presidential election, Chief Obasanjo threw his weight behind Peter Obi while you pitched your tent with Atiku Abubakar. Are things still good between you two?
Some people are of the belief that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo always wants his will to be done at all times, but that’s not true. On the contrary, he always likes to understand the reason why you want to go right or go left or maintain a balance. He and I had a sit-down, where I said to him, ‘Baba, first of all, you are no more a politician, having torn your membership card’. He said yes. I said, ‘My party has adopted Atiku as our presidential candidate’. He said yes. I said, ‘Since I am still a member of the party and as a result, I will go in the direction in which my party goes’. He said bye-bye. There is nothing he did that he did not invite me to. Our choices in that election did not in the slightest measure cause any rift between us.
You recently established an academic institution in your hometown, Okuku, which was named after your mother, Alolade Oyinlola College of Health Sciences and Information Technology. What was your motive behind the establishment of the institution?
About 14 years ago, it occurred to me that in about 100 years to come, except Okuku has ceased to exist, the name Moses Oyewole Oyinlola will remain in history; only if Osun and Lagos states have ceased to be will the name Olagunsoye Oyinlola be lost in history; but 100 years from now, who will know the mother that birthed Olagunsoye Oyinlola? That was the thought that came to my mind and I decided that if I ever established any academic institution, it would be named after her so that the world will know that Alola was the one who birthed Olagunsoye. The idea behind the establishment of the college was also to promote educational advancement in Osun State.
You said earlier that it was Tinubu and other APC chieftains that persuaded you to join the APC in the past. With the current hardship in the land, if President Tinubu invites you again to join his government in Abuja, will you honour his invitation?
If the president asks me to join his government, I will not accede to the request. Nobody will queue behind a party that is failing.
What is your relationship with Governor Adeleke like?
We are brothers and we are working fine together.
What is your stand on Governor Adeleke being returned for second term, because some elements have already ruled out eight years for the governor?
Why will he not do eight years? They say you don’t cast away a potent charm. The Adeleke charm is proving potent for us in Osun State, and we will not throw that away come next dispensation.
What is your advice for Nigerians?
Whichever religion we are practising, we should pray fervently to God, our Creator, too, in His infinite mercies, intervene in our affairs in Nigeria. We need Him to heal our country because what we are witnessing does not appear to be pleasing to anybody. And they say there is no happiness for one whose mother is sacrificed to Yemoja (water goddess). We need to go to Him in humility and seek His help.
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