No faction in Osun PDP — Lawmaker Adeyemi declares

…Pleads with FG to end ASUU strike

The lawmaker representing Obokun State Constituency at the Osun State House of Assembly, Adewumi Adeyemi in this interview with Azeez Ismail and Abimbola Abatta, declared that there is no faction in the state chapter of the PDP as he maintained that the party is one. He urged every government at all levels to make education a priority while also proposing solutions to the security challenges in Nigeria.

Kindly introduce yourself for the benefit of our readers.

My name is Adewumi Adeyemi, a lawmaker representing Obokun state constituency in the Osun State House of Assembly.

As Osun PDP prepares to take over governance in November after 12 years of APC administration in the state, what transformation is the party bringing? What should the populace expect?

The people should expect development, and I can assure the people of the state to expect policies that will further the development of Osun state because that is what the People Democratic Party (PDP) stands for. They should also expect an inclusive government, a government whereby they will have an input and a say. That’s the kind of development they should expect, and these developments will definitely affect education, agriculture, infrastructure and the economy. So these are things the indigenes and dwellers in the state should expect.

Recently, CSOs raised brows on late-night voting in Ede North and Ede South during the governorship election. What does the law say about this? 

The electoral act is exclusive on that because there is a particular time voting should end, which is 2 pm. But it also states that if there are more people on the line to vote, they can continue to vote because you cannot stop people from exercising their civic duty. For instance, in Obokun, about 25,000 people came out to vote in some Local Governments. They are more than that, and as long as they’re still in line and they still want to vote, the law allows them to vote. I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that other than to begin to tell our people to come out when the voting starts, and of course the INEC can also work on the electoral law. The National Assembly can work on the electoral law so that more people can vote at the same time. There is improvement this time around. Before, they will first spend hours on accreditation before proper voting, but this time around, the accreditation and voting are now together. That’s an improvement. This can be further improved, whereby more people will be able to vote in a short time. As it is today, we can not stop people from voting when there are many people on the line who want to vote.

Still on the Osun governorship election, the APC has approached the Election Tribunal to challenge the victory of the candidate of your party, Senator Ademola Adeleke. What do you think will be the outcome of the process?

It is an effort in futility. The electoral law has taken care of a lot of issues that will be taken to the tribunal. This is why we must give it to President Muhammadu Buhari at least for signing the electoral law because the electoral law has addressed most of the things that will be brought to the Tribunal. Some people have speculated, and the reason the APC is going to court is for them to be able to keep their members intact as it gives them a kind of hope within the party because we are seeing many of them coming to the People’s Democratic Party. Some people say that they find that method to keep some of their members because you cannot think of any reason why such a free and fair election should still be contested at the Tribunal. For instance, my unit is one of the units they want to contest at the Tribunal. I was there. We all counted the vote, and it is an record the way we counted the votes. So I don’t know what they are contesting at the Tribunal. Do they want to stop people from their franchise? As I said, it is an effort in futility.

On the factional crisis in the party, Babayemi who contested the party ticket alongside Senator Adeleke at the primary elections has insisted on pursuing the matter to the Apex court. There are insinuations that his faction might have been infiltrated by the APC. How does your party intend to nip the situation in the bud?

Let me first say this,there is no faction in the PDP. The PDP is one. We have a Caretaker Chairman, and everybody is submissive to the leadership of the Chairman Caretaker.

Besides that, we have a governor-elect who, by his grace, is the leader of the party or will be leader of the party immediately he is sworn-in on the 27th of November. So there is no faction in the party, and we thank God for that. And very soon, we will be conducting our elections to have Chairman of the party. Be that as it may, Prince Babayemi is a member of our party, and he is a very good man. And efforts are on the way to discuss with him because he also has his reasons.

Our party is a big party. It is a democratic party, whereby everyone is given ths opportunity to exercise their franchise and perform their civic responsibility. This is what Prince Dotun Babayemi is also doing. There is no grievance that will not be addressed for the sake of the party, and most importantly the state, and we are hoping all case will be withdrawn from the court very soon.

As efforts are geared towards the 2023 general elections, do you think PDP has a chance of taking over from President Buhari?

PDP has the brightest chance to taking over from President Buhari. Why do they form government? What is the essence of the government? The essence of the government is to protect lives and properties, but has that been achieved? No! When you protect lives and properties, citizens will need to live and survive. And what they need to live on is the economy. What do we have now? We all know the cost of a dollar some seven years ago, and we know the cost today. Bakers are planning to increase the price of bread. Every day, things are increasing. In terms of security, they are a failure, total failure. People are dying every day; lives and properties are not protected. You are not safe on the road. You’re not safe again. The higher and the lower classes are being kidnapped, they are being killed. What is the essence of the government? Why would people want to keep that government in place? The economy is zero, and almost six months now, ASUU has being on strike. Do you think people want to keep that government in place? The main reason that the people brought in this government into place in 2015 has failed. The chances of the PDP is very high. People are also clamouring for PDP. You could see in Osun the way people massively voted for PDP, and I can tell you this will replicate by February/March.

There has been a rise in the rate of kidnapping, murder, terrorism, and other insecurity issues in the country. How do you think these security challenges can be fixed?

First of all, leadership is key. I believe the PDP has the leadership to restore normalcy in our security system, and I also believe that we need to restructure our nation. This is part of the manifesto of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who is the flag bearer of the PDP. There should be a measure of the security architecture that will be handled by the State Governors because they understand the terrain very well. How much does the IG knows from a space of power in Abuja? But when you allow the Governor to handle the security of their state, it will definitely improve the economy because they will be able to transfer the security power to the Local Government, and the Local Government is the closest to the people. When you allow the Governors to manage the security, I think this will be better, and this is part of the manifesto of the PDP.

The lingering ASUU strike requires urgent intervention. What is your take on the proposal to regulate foreign education among children of politicians? And what do you think can be done to address the issue once and for all?

The state of the education in our nation is very unfortunate. It’s not only the children of the politicians that are seeking foreign education, even people that are not politicians. I still spoke with someone today (Monday) that just took his family outside Nigeria, and he does not hold any political office. So many people are doing that and this is very unfortunate.

We will only plead with the government and President Buhari, on behalf of the millions of students in Nigeria, to heed the call of the ASUU. For the sake of our future, the government should end this strike. It is about six months now that we have been on strike. And I also want to encourage every government at all levels, from Federal to local, to make education a priority.

I strongly believe education is the way forward for Nigeria. When people are educated, they will be able to appeal to the society because knowledge is  key. Knowledge is power.