Architect Lola Ashiru was one of the first to embrace the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State. He speaks on the changes on the political configuration in Kwara and how the PDP would fare in 2015. Excerpts:

Kwara State is presently in a turmoil following defections of certain personalities from the PDP, what does this mean to you?

There is no turmoil in Kwara, with all honesty, the issue really is that a group of people decided for reasons known to them to join camp with the All Progressives Congress (APC), but that does not mean the PDP as a party will not remain as it was and, from my own study, I can tell you there are two set of people that own a party, the sympathizers and the registered members. As far as the sympathisers are concerned, they are solidly behind PDP as ever and they are the largest majority. When you talk of the politicians, I am still sure based on statistics that most people who are politicians and who decided long before to be in the camp of the PDP are still there. You saw our rally in Ilorin, it was earth shaking. It was not a rally done with inducement, but more than 95 percent of the people at the rally were registered members of the party. Beyond that, what we were expressing is that Kwara State will always prefer to go to the centre, rather than stay on the fringe.

But Bukola Saraki was also accorded a similar welcome by the people when he returned to Ilorin, how would you rate the strength of the APC in the state?

I know most of the people that attended the PDP rally in Ilorin love the President and the PDP and they want to belong to the center. They expressed it to the president that in spite of what has happened in kwara State, they are not moving out of the PDP. I don't know about the visit of Bukola Saraki to the state, he was a two term governor of the state and at present, a senator, I will not say he is not a popular person, but when you talk of politics you are talking of number, you are talking of a balance, left and right; which angle is better and I can tell you from my own perception, people in PDP today weigh far bigger than people in APC.

Look at it on local government basis; if you go north of kwara State, they don't even talk of the APC, they don't even know the broom. I was among the few ones that introduced APC to Kwara North, I know when we were campaigning and held the broom; they were looking at us as old people with broom in the market place as people that have problems. I am talking of the north. When you look at Ilorin historically, they are always pro-PDP and they have been very faithful to Saraki family. I am talking of Saraki family as a whole. I am very bold to say people will never forget the contribution of Baba Saraki to the development of kwara State, it is a small state in terms of population, but we had one single man, who came up at a time and was able to muzzle all other politicians North and South of Nigeria. He carved a niche for himself. He was able to use this scenario to negotiate for the people of kwara State at federal, state and local government levels and through his work he was able to recreate big politicians- including Bukola, Gbemisola and other big names in politics of kwara State. The advent of Baba Saraki was a phenomenon for Kwara State.

There are reports that some PDP members are kicking against Gbemisola Saraki's nomination as a minister, what is your take?

You will always see lots of tricks and disequilibrium in every organization, you will always see a lot of what I will describe as entropy, you know when a group is coming together, there will be a lot of struggle and people who will like to take undue advantage of the new situation to create an empire for themselves, an empire that they don't understand and don't even know how to sustain, an empire that they don't know the history behind. APC has very delicate but desperate people, there is nothing they cannot do to hold on to power. The APC saw the advantage of having somebody of Gbemi's caliber, I mean somebody who is so experienced in politics, somebody well educated and experienced and loved by the people. When they see somebody like that seeking to take a vantage position in a party like PDP, they know the type of destruction Gbemi can cause if she is empowered and the advantage to the party; the other side of it is that, like a new dynamic, something new is rearing its head and people are trying to take advantage of the situation that they don't have the capacity to hold. But I can assure you that the PDP led federal government is sensible enough, they can read between the lines, they know what is good for them. For me what Gbemi as a minister will add to PDP, three or four ministers of unknown quantity will not be able to do.

Do you think there is fairness against the background that Gbemi Saraki has been nominated as member of the national conference, tipped as a minister and at the same time eyeing the PDP governorship ticket? 

Honestly I don't know where the unfairness comes from in this equation. The ministerial thing coincidentally is coming after the national conference. I don't think there is anything that excludes a minister from becoming a national conference member. I don't think there is anything that excludes her, but if there is the issue of having sufficient time to concentrate on the work of a minister, and having sufficient time to concentrate on the issue of the confab, I am very sure if she is eventually nominated, she will drop one. I don't know about governor, I don't want to discuss governorship, because it is still far, but I am very sure Gbemi has not come out to tell anybody she wants to contest for the governorship of kwara State, but when the time comes and she decides, people will judge. There is a machinery of the party about elective positions. You are expected to go through primaries, convention...and if it is the wish of people that she will do it, she will do it and if it is not the wish of the people, there is nothing anybody can do about it. But I can assure you for me today, Gbemi has not told anybody that she wants to contest for governor, it is just a matter of speculation. And people are using it to disrupt us from building a formidable party in Kwara state.