A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State, Mr Afolabi Yunus, has declared that former governor of the state, Senator Bukola Saraki, who is a member of the Kawu Baraje-led faction of the party, took arms against the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan without the backing of the party members in the state.

Yunus, who stated this in an interview with Sunday Tribune, noted that “I’m not one of the people supporting Baraje and Bukola Saraki in this their venture to divide the PDP with their self-styled New PDP which has no place in Kwara State politics and Nigeria in general.

“I am not with him at all. We are not even happy that he can go to that length because we believe very well that having been given the opportunity to serve as national secretary by Baba (Olusola) Saraki who had the opportunity of becoming the acting national chairman, he should remain loyal to the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Right now, Bukola has come up with the idea of New PDP faction in Kwara State. But majority of the old PDP and many of us that later joined the PDP are not in support of the self-styled PDP that Bukola is bringing. We are prepared to go with the original PDP in Kwara State and that’s what is giving us hope now; that when election comes, we believe strongly that it is those of us in the original PDP that are going to defeat the self-styled factional structure that he has introduced,” he said.

Mr Afolabi Yunus, a former Commissioner for Works in Kwara State, is one of the core followers of the late Senator Olusola Saraki. He speaks with Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA, on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and why Senator Bukola Saraki and Alhaji Kawu Baraje are on their own in the battle against the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan. Excerpts:

YOU once served as principal secretary to the former acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Kawu Baraje, who is today leading the splinter group, New PDP. How justified do you see the current agitation championed by Senator Bukola Saraki and Baraje?
I’m not one of the people supporting Baraje and Bukola Saraki in this their venture to divide the PDP with their self-styled New PDP which has no place in Kwara State politics and Nigeria in general. I am not with him at all. We are not even happy that he can go to that length because we believe very well that having been given the opportunity to serve as national secretary by Baba Saraki (may his gentle soul rest in peace), and he had the opportunity of becoming the acting national chairman, he should remain loyal to the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan. But with all these, Baraje still went ahead to sabotage the government, considering that he was also given the position of the chairmanship of the board of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. I believe that it is in Baraje’s character to bite the hands the feed him. Available records show that Bukola Saraki was even against Baraje taking that position. But he went ahead and took that appointment and at the same time, he is now working against the same government that gave him that opportunity to serve.

Not only that. Back home, I know Baraje very well. I am his senior when we talk politics because I had the opportunity of being a member of the defunct Constitutional Conference in 1994 and I even served under Senator Bukola’s administration in the first tenure. I was Commissioner for Works and Transport between 2003 and 2007, while Baraje was made permanent secretary under Saraki’s government and this appointment was given to him by Baba Saraki because all forces were against Baraje, as a civil servant then, becoming permanent secretary. But Baba Saraki insisted that Baraje should be considered for that post.

Having been given that post, he served as permanent secretary all through and thereafter, Baba Saraki still considered this same Baraje for the last Constitutional Conference in 2005. It was immediately after that that Baba still nominated him to be considered for the position of national secretary. And it was when he got there that he started nursing the ambition of working against Baba Saraki’s interest when he teamed up with Bukola to supplant Baba in Kwara politics.

I want to say that Baba Saraki dusted Baraje from the mud so that life could be kind to him, but having gotten all these opportunities, he decided to work against Baba. The general public will agree with me that the step Baraje took against Baba Saraki was an unfortunate step because having had the opportunities from Baba, people expected him to advise Senator Saraki against taking steps against Baba Saraki. But he went ahead and gave Senator Bukola the support and ensured that they worked against Baba.

So, as a result of this, I am seeing Baraje as a betrayer when you consider the fact that he betrayed his political mentor in Kwara State and now he has betrayed the president at the national level. Even while he was in office, he had the opportunity of becoming the chairman of the Nigeria Airspace Management Authority (NAMA). All these are enough for him to have advised Bukola against the unfortunate step he took against Baba Saraki.

But people would ask whether the issue should be about his character or the principle he stands for. Don’t you see any element of truth in what he is fighting now?
There is no truth in what he is fighting. He is only being selfish and arrogant. In fact, I want to say he is just being parochial. He is narrow-minded and that is why they are now just pursuing their own self-styled PDP. It is surprising to many people to hear Baraje calling himself the chairman of the New PDP. What sort of New PDP? The original PDP is the only future for Nigeria.

We don’t recognise any New PDP or the self-styled version of PDP that they want to bring into place. There is no place for New PDP in Kwara and I know that it has no place in Nigeria. So, for that reason, any reasonable person will not join them because we know they are just buying time.

I want to even say that I know they have made up their mind about where they are going. Maybe they have another party in mind and they are just buying time with what they are doing. That is just my observation.

But the New PDP is in control of the government and the structure in Kwara. They produced the governor; they produced the former governor and they produced Baraje. Is that not so?
The original PDP is still on ground in Kwara State and PDP in Kwara State has no problem with anybody. People are still interested in PDP. It is only the way Senator Bukola and his team are managing the affairs of the PDP; that is why some people want to criticise the PDP.

But really, the original PDP is on ground in Kwara State and people are prepared to go with PDP. Those that call themselves the New PDP in Kwara State, we don’t know how they will define it. We don’t know what they will tell us, whether they are a faction of PDP and that they want to have a say in the PDP. No. A majority of the people in Kwara State today are tired of the leadership of Bukola. Baraje even has no place politically. So, I want to say that the problem people have with the PDP in Kwara is that they see Bukola, who had served as governor and currently a senator, as the person in charge and that is just the reason people are tired of the PDP. But they are still ready to work with PDP, provided these people are not allowed to come and introduce their self-styled PDP to the people. People are not ready to follow them at all.

Are you saying that the loyalists of the mainstream PDP are still in Kwara now, despite the firm control by Bukola and the governor?
They are still intact. We are very many and people are just waiting for time to come when this self-styled PDP will move to where they belong because we believe strongly that they are not fit to be in PDP.

The belief is that the followers of original PDP or Baba Saraki have moved to the ACPN, which Baba endorsed before he died. Is that not so?
I want to say that before now, Baba Saraki directed everybody in Kwara State to remain in the PDP. So, the issue of ACPN in Kwara State is not happening now. Even long before now, while Baba was alive, he directed that nobody should go to any other party. He said they should all remain in PDP. We believe that the leadership of PDP was given to Baba Saraki and Baba Saraki brought PDP to Kwara. It was the coming of Senator Bukola Saraki that led to the crisis that led to the formation of ACPN. But I want to tell you that everybody returned to the PDP while Baba was still alive. As far as I’m concerned, Baba never asked us to go to any other party and that is why we remain within PDP.

What about Senator Gbemi Saraki who contested on the ticket of ACPN as governorship candidate?
I want to tell you that as of that time, it was just a kind of arrangement that came up. We started everything. I was in the PDP too with Baba, but it got to a level that Bukola just said he wanted to hold on to PDP and let other people go wherever they liked. So, that led to the introduction of ACPN, which was short-lived. But immediately after that election, everybody dropped whatever allegiance they had with ACPN. I’ve not even seen anything ACPN in Kwara State for long at all. It happened within the election period and immediately after the election, we dropped the idea of anything ACPN. Baba Saraki instructed us to be in PDP and that’s why all along, we have been in PDP. We are still card-carrying members of the PDP.

Are you saying that all loyalists of Baba Saraki are now back in the PDP?
All loyalists of Baba Saraki are in the PDP. As I’m talking to you, I’m a card-carrying member of the PDP and I have my membership card with me. So, we are still card-carrying members of PDP.

You are supposed to know the national leader of New PDP, Baraje, inside out. Do you believe New PDP leaders are fighting on the principle of liberating the party from being hijacked by a few persons as they claimed?
Very far from that; they are the people that want to introduce a kind of selfishness into the PDP. They are not objective at all. When Baraje was even the national secretary, the attributes of a good politician were never seen in him and efforts to advise him on that did not succeed. He would rather try to play his own parochial interest and have his way and when people come to see Baraje as the national secretary, he would ask them to go and see the special assistant or the principal assistant. He was literally avoiding people and as a politician, you need not avoid people. You are supposed to listen to people and table solutions to whatever deplorable condition that is before you. I don’t see him as a serious politician. He is not fighting for the interest of the people and he is not fighting for the grassroots. Instead, he is pursuing his own selfish end and that’s why I’m now saying that he’s not fit to be in politics because if you are a politician, you must listen to the masses and table solutions to deplorable conditions before you.

What about Senator Bukola Saraki? You have worked with him; do you see him fighting for principles?
I have worked with Senator Bukola and I want to say that he too has not been working for principle of the common man. Rather, Bukola will bring people from nowhere so that at the end of the day, they will be responsible only to him. Bukola will not carry the indigenes of Kwara along. Many of us were just pushed aside by Bukola and he would go to Lagos, Kaduna and Kano to bring in those that had nowhere to point to as their base.

To my greatest surprise, one of the commissioners said it publicly that he was in a bank in Lagos and he just came across the governor and greeted him. The governor asked him where he came from and he said he was from Kwara State and just from there, he asked him to come down to Kwara State and he was appointed as commissioner at the expense of other people who had worked for him. How can this person now turn around to say he is working for the cause of the people?

Another thing I noticed in Bukola is that he always looks down on people. He has no respect for anybody. A politician ought not to do like that. If you are arrogant, you are not supposed to go into politics. A politician is supposed to calm down, carry people along, listen to people and mix with people. But Bukola will not do that. Instead, he will see himself as on top of everybody and I’m sure that is the reason he is going towards the direction he is going today in the country.

How would you compare Bukola and your late leader, Baba Saraki?
I want to say that their attributes are not even comparable. You cannot compare the good attributes that Baba had with that of Bukola. Baba Saraki has the magnanimity and milk of human kindness in him is so much that everybody benefited from Baba Saraki. I want to cite myself as an example; Baba Saraki gave me the name I answer today because I had the opportunity right from 1994 as I earlier said. I was a member of the Constitutional Conference. He did not stop there. He made me council chairman thereafter and I had other opportunities from him.

Baba Saraki even did more to others than what I’m saying.

So, Baba Saraki was a man of the people and he was ready to help everybody. But in the other case, Bukola is not like that. I’ve not seen Bukola like that at all. In fact, many people that happened to work with Bukola who must have assessed him will easily conclude that they will not even want to work with him any longer because as a politician, he operates a one-man show. Recently, they are talking about local government election and Bukola would tell the public that he had no candidate. But when the time came, he would just handpick people against what the masses wanted. He would end up picking his own personal candidates, which is against the interest of the masses.

How do you see the fate of PDP in Kwara now? The governor and his predecessor are championing the New PDP, yet they control the structures in the state. How can you, the core PDP members, rescue the PDP or do you see yourself forming a new party?
We have PDP that has been there long before some of us joined and the party is still there intact. Many of us that were working with Bukola were not comfortable, because of this one-man-show attitude that he has been showing all along. But I want to tell you that when you consider the list of PDP executives in Kwara State today, Bukola has been so selfish that he ended up picking the state chairman, the state woman leader, the state youth leader all from one ward. Why is this? Not even only that. From Kwara Central, you discover that majority of these executive posts were just picked from Kwara Central. He gave only the position of secretary to Kwara South. I am from Kwara North and we are being marginalised even more than the South because he gave South the state secretary and he ended up picking all other ones from Kwara Central.

You can see how he has continued to marginalise people and at the end of the day, that is one of the reasons people are not comfortable.

We wrote petition to the national body to register our displeasure against this and we believe that the national secretariat will do something about this. The national secretariat invited Abdufattah (Ahmed) and they told him that you are the party leader in Kwara State and this is the complaint that is coming from Kwara. You better go and do something about it. So, you can see that the governor too is just there, but Bukola is the alpha and omega and the PDP members in Kwara today are not happy.

When it comes to any other election, people want the national secretariat of the party to look into that issue and table solution. People are interested in PDP, it is the managers of PDP, Bukola Saraki especially, that people are not happy with. People are not happy about the way he is handling things. We still want to be in PDP and that is why many of us have not changed to another party and that is why we petitioned the national secretariat. We have the strong belief that the national secretariat will do something about it before long so that Bukola will not continue to dominate and marginalise the people of Kwara.

Are you saying that when election comes, the PDP members in Kwara will not follow the party Bukola Saraki is leading?
Right now, Bukola has come up with the idea of New PDP faction in Kwara State. But the majority of the old PDP and many of us that later joined the PDP, we are not in support of the self-styled PDP that Bukola is bringing. We are prepared to go with the original PDP in Kwara State and that’s what is giving us hope now; that when election comes, we believe strongly that it is we in the original PDP that are going to defeat the self-styled factional structure that he has introduced.

What if Bukola and Baraje change their minds and realign with you?
If they can change their mind and realign, it would be better. But I want to tell you that there is no going back in the agenda of these people. There is great awareness now on the side of the people and that is why they will be ashamed to come back because it is not in them. The arrogance and one-man-show attitude that is so much in them will not even allow them to come back. I want to say that they are prepared to go to another party which they are yet to announce and they must have been discussing it with some of their followers. They are just buying time by telling people that they are still in PDP. They are really not in PDP. Take it from me that all these G7 governors that are leading the rebellion right now, their minds are already in another party. They are just wasting time by telling people they are still in PDP.

So, I want the national secretariat of the PDP to take note and make sure that the right thing is done at the right time.