Chief (Mrs) Oluremi Adiukwu-Bakare was in 2007 the governorship candidate of the Progressive People Alliance (PPA) in Lagos State. Prior to that, she served as a commissioner during the administration of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Now as a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), she was a prominent figure in the campaign for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan. In this interview with CHIOMA IGBOKWE, she vowed that the PDP will come back a stronger and better party ahead of the 2019 elections following its dismal performance in the just concluded general elections. Excerpts:
How would you assess the just-concluded general elections?
I will assess it as elections well contested by the two major parties, and the conduct of the voters was extremely good and INEC, I leave them to their conscience.
Why?
It is simple. I look at where underaged voters voted and people said it was free and fair. I look at where some of the card readers were not properly used and eventually saying they could use cards without card readers and people still said the election was free and fair. So, what else can anybody say other than to leave those who organised the elections, free and fair elections in quote, to their conscience.
Do you see PDP surviving the crisis of the loss?
This loss is strange to the party. The party never had a shock like this, so naturally when something strange happens to you, there would be different reactions as we see today in the party. So, I don’t see it as something new and I see PDP coming out stronger than they were. I believe that PDP will definitely bounce back.
For a party that never lost in 16 years, are you confident the right conflict-resolution mechanism would be applied?
After the shock, after the various reactions, the next thing is for us to see how we can manage our loss and see how to build the party and bring life back into it. I believe that would be the next step. Naturally, what is happening, must happen. This is something we never experienced, never expected, though some of us saw it coming. It has now happened and nature doesn’t allow you to take shock as if there was no shock. PDP is feeling the shock which explains the blame-game and buck-passing. When we finally settle down, we will start looking at how to bring the party back.
You are the only PDP leader in Lagos that delivered her constituency in all the elections. How did you survive the APC’s onslaught?
I made bold to say I worked hard, day and night. I incorporated all the stakeholders, especially the youths. I did all that were needed to be done. I also told all that worked with me that they should not plan to rig but work hard and win and that is what we did. I am happy that the result came out the way it did because if you worked hard and you must expect the reward of hard work and that is what I got. My two House of Representatives members won their seats, my two House of Assembly members won their seats. Actually in Isolo, we contested against the son of APC chairman, Chief Ajomale and we won the election. We thank God for that. I believe that other leaders would have worked hard like we did and not just work hard, on the collation day, you must be everywhere, you must be part of the collation, you must wait until your result is announced. Most of our leaders went back to their houses to sleep. I didn’t sleep. I was at the collation centre till 5am. I cooked and took to the collation centre for all those who were there to eat. I bought drinks for them and encouraged all our supporters to sit with me there. If we lost the election, we would lose joyously, believing that we have worked hard but be there and let’s us be part of the collation so that they don’t steal your number or change your figures and that was why they were not able to rig anything in my own local government.
Were there attempts to…?
Of course, several attempts, especially in about four polling booths in Oshodi. We were very vigilant. We didn’t allow it to happen. We stayed with the INEC officials. We stayed with our candidates and our ballot boxes and we were watching. When they brought in already-filled ballot boxes, we didn’t allow them to be counted.
By APC?
By whoever. Of course, it has to be them. Who else would want to? But we didn’t allow the stuffed boxes to be counted.
What is the story behind the branded phones for Jonathan with your name on them which were given freely and the alleged contract saga around the project?
No. It was not a contract. If it was a contract, my name won’t be on it. I did that to support Mr. President. I also printed some T-shirts, some posters, flyers among others, just to support him. Most people, including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, know that when I support you, it is with everything. When Tinubu was contesting in 2003, I supported him with everything I could. So same goes for Mr. President. As the presidential candidate of our party and I as a leader of the party in Lagos, I did some many thing to support him from my pocket.
Was the election, particularly the governorship election, won fair and square in Lagos?
No. It wasn’t and that is why we are at the tribunal. Yes, there were lapses from our leaders who didn’t take things seriously. I don’t know why we would have big names paraded in this party and they would not win their local governments and polling booths. It is not good enough.
But your candidate congratulated the governor-elect?
Yes, but it does no really matter because that is the norm of the game now; congratulate him, then come back and check how it happens.
Were you shocked when President Jonathan lost his re-election bid?
I was not particularly shocked. I was watching on TV and saw underaged children voting and we had complained about this in the past and we expected that INEC would do something about it. I am talking about states in the North. We complained that underaged were allowed to register but nothing was done about it. I know as a member of Mr. President’s campaign organisation, we complained about many things but nothing was done and at that point, I knew Jega’s INEC had something up their sleeves but whatever it is, we are all Nigerians. Togolese are the not the ones to rule us from May 29, they are Nigerians and our own people. We will wait to see.
You have been prominent in Lagos politics for decades and your commitment to rebuilding PDP in the state and at national level is obvious. What exactly do we expect from you?
Yes, I am committed to rebuilding PDP. Very much so. Now, I want to sit with fellow PDP members and put strategies in place that could breathe life into our party. It is not something I can do alone. I have to work with other leaders to try and rebuild the party from the scratch. This idea of when we want to put our party officials in place, we just sit down and put this name there and put that name there, must and should stop. I want to advocate that. If you want to be a part officer, go and contest. We has killed our party is simple. They call it harmonization where all leaders will sit down and adjust the party officers’ list by putting names to be submitted by party leaders. We should stop the allocation of positions to leaders to be filled with their cronies. First and foremost, if you want to be a ward chairman, go to your ward and contest. If you want to be state chairman, go and contest and be state chairman, then you will be proud to be state chairman that would be respected. It should not be, let Remi bring the state chairman, let Obanikoro bring the state secretary and like that. No, they can’t work together. If you go out there, contest and win, that office belongs to you and not to me. They should stop the idea of harmonizing the list. What list? These are the things I am going to propose in my state and take to the federal as well.
By 2019, it would be 20 years of Tinubu’s dominance despite PDP having all the big names on its side. Will he ever be defeated in Lagos?
This 2015, we actually wrested power from him, the only thing is that many of our leaders were not vigilant enough and if you are not vigilant enough, your freedom is at stake. So, we have to be at the tribunal now but if we had been vigilant enough, we would be the winner today. Let’s even say what has happened has happened but we have never recorded this kind of success in Lagos State, that is to have eight members of the House of Assembly, to have House of Representatives members, it has never happened before. But we worked as one family this time and by 2019, it would be different though I pray that the tribunal would look at the evidence we provided and give the judgment.
You don’t appear to be aspiring for any office again?
We want to build the party first, then other things can come later. It is four years, nobody knows what would happen along the line. Maybe something could take my fancy, I don’t know but let’s first of all, build the party because you can’t have an ambition on nothing. Once we have a solid party in place, we take it from there.
As a national leader of the party, beyond the brickbats, are there concrete steps being taken to rebuild the party?
The election was just about one month ago. So, there are still very raw wounds. Let us heal the wounds first, then we start rebuilding the party. But Mr. President called the NWC members and spoke to them two nights ago, asking everyone to sheathe their swords.
Did you suspect a conspiracy against Mr. President in the North?
Sure, it is obvious. It goes without saying.
A BOT member, Chief Ebenezer Babatope said recently that in 2019, PDP would field a Northern candidate, something similar to APC’s combination?
Well, that may be his wish but let’s wait till then. I keep saying that it is too early in the day to start talking about what would happen in 2019. Who knows who would be alive or not, then, though I pray all of us would be alive then. But let’s just first build the party, we need to build our party, we need to give ourselves a new orientation, we need to look at where we lost and did we lose and what manner of structure are we putting up. We can’t just start talking about it now. We have to look at what happened yesterday because yesterday is part of today and tomorrow. Let us first look at what happened, which we have not done yet and we are just about doing that.
Some feel PDP is too smeared in the public and a new party should evolve from it?
I remember we had newPDP which joined APC. Whether PDP had been smeared in the public or not, it is the same human beings that would go and form another party, so, why waste your time and energy. Today, we have APC formed by three different bodies and we are already seeing those three fingers working differently because of ambition. We are going to start seeing soon that APC is not a body. They are three different bodies, trying to work as one which would not work. So, the PDP would come together and be one family again and breathe life into itself. Again, if you talk about being smeared, who smeared them? I remember one publication that said Buhari went to Jonathan for a meeting to put in place transition committee and Jonathan brought a bill of N3 billion whereas Buhari said he would use volunteers. There was no such thing. Where did the story emanate from? From the APC. They planned the smearing of PDP from 2011 and executed the smearing agenda up till 2015 on the internet, on the social media and others. What never happened at all, they talked about it. They said a prominent female politician in Lagos State got a contract to do telephone, she supplied a little, she didn’t supply, the rest. Which female politician? I am the only one that actually did telephone for Mr. President and it was my husband who gave me the money to do it. When the story came out that a collected contract for it, I was in South Africa and I laughed. That is what you mean by smearing. They come out and tell lies on daily basis and my prayer is that they would not use the lies to destroy Nigeria.
Many felt running on PDP platform denied Agbaje victory?
I don’t think so. People loved Agbaje and voted for him but as I told you, there was rigging in some quarters.
Are you satisfied with the deal women got under Jonathan?
Well in Jonathan’s dispensation, he has tried a lot. We had our 35 per cent share of offices with many women also at the National Assembly. We are waiting for the new government to see what they would do after May 29.
While your politics is still prominent in Lagos, your very successful business empire is a bit quiet in the state. Why?
After we lost the 2007 elections, it was a bit bitter between some of us and Asiwaju Tinubu especially those of us who left his government. I looked around and I could see that I would be uncomfortable doing my business in Lagos, so I moved to Abuja and started to build my business back again. To God be the glory today, I am a successful importer of fabrics, and if I may say so with all sense of modesty, one of the biggest in Abuja today, I am into real estate business, I am also into downstream oil and just of recent, we started looking into the education sector because first and foremost, I am an educationist. I am now into things that could serve as my legacies. My business is even now bigger that what it was in Lagos and socially, I have always been a political person, not a partying type.. Of course, when I go to parties, I dance but I have never been the type that goes to all parties. I choose my outings. I will be back in Lagos soon. I am also doing some things in the east for my children in their village. So, in Lagos I have not been prominent in social circles but politically I am very prominent in the state.
The gap is closing gradually between Tinubu’s political family as represented by APC and the opposition PDP in the South-West. Is he losing influence in the zone or losing too many erstwhile associates like you?
Well, he is a lucky man. By the time some of us who were his commissioners left his government, he was lucky to have some of them go back to him, the likes of Afikuyomi, Dr. Kasali and a few others went back to him. A few of us refused to go back to him, like myself, Gbajabiamila Hakeem, Rahman Owokoniran and so many others, because we believed that he would never stop the imposition of candidates. He does not seem to like politicians but he uses us. He would use you to mobilize people into the party and when it is time to pick a candidate, he would go for a candidate that is not a politician and you can see it in Fashola, in Ambode. So, I don’t know why as a politician I would want to stay in such a party where I cannot have an ambition because as a politician, I have followers and he doesn’t feel comfortable with anybody that has a following. I was even not part of him from 1999, I was PDP, I left PDP to join him because a few things happened between my husband and the former president (Olusegun Obasanjo) and when the president left the office, I came back to my party. I also believe that the gap will continue to get closer and closer until we take over from him finally.
Did you ever contemplate quitting politics particularly due to unpleasant events like the Funsho Williams’ saga?
It is like a hobby to me. I can’t stop it. I always want to be part of making government, building the society, building the future of our children if there is anything like that now in this country. So, I can’t stop. Nothing can deter me from being a politician. I want to be a politician till I grow old. I started very early at 23 and if you add that to my age, it has been a long time. That is why people think I should be very old like 80 years because I started very early and my name has been out there for a long time and by God’s grace, it will continue to my old age.
Do you want to predict where PDP would be in 2019?
I foresee a stronger PDP. It will be like a bull that knocks its opponent and pushes back, it will come back stronger. The party will come back stronger and this time, we would have learnt a few things from our past mistakes. Stronger and better. By then, APC would have become half-card and weak because it is a house built on falsehood, it is not likely to last.
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