Chief Alani Bankole, father of a
former Speaker of House of Representatives has accused the ex-President, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo of spoiling the efforts to stop individuals from being too powerful in
the Peoples Democratic Party.
Bankole, who was a Chieftain of
the PDP before his recent emergence as Chairman Board of Trustee of the Action
Democratic Party, ADP, said while he was in the PDP he and some leaders made
frantic efforts to cut the power of individuals, especially President,
governors and others so as to salvage the party but were prevented by Obasanjo.
Bankole told newsmen on Sunday in
Abeokuta during an interview that he had warned the party that the act of the
former President would end up killing the party.
His words, “We have to remove the possibility of individuals being too strong for their people because there must be checks and balances.
“We did it in NPN and it was very successful, we tried to do it in PDP when we started, but Obasanjo scuttled it by taking over the structure of the party and the government and further encouraged the governors in the states to become leaders of the party in their states and as a result, nobody can question governors and no one can as well ask questions from the President at the federal level too except under the late Yar’dua.
”When Obasanjo started it, I warned them on OGTV on the 21st of November 2005 in Abeokuta here that, PDP was going to die because of the way Obasanjo was handling it and the way he was encouraging the governors in the States.
“Whenever there is no check and balance , the end is chaos and after that it is destruction.”
When asked concerning the 2019
gubernatorial race in Ogun state, Bankole stressed that the Yewa/Aworis has no
moral justification to stop anyone from the other sections of the state from
contesting with them saying that they have always been contesting against
others too.
He said “When last did we contest in Ogun state and somebody from Yewa did not contest against others?Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
“If they have been contesting against others, what moral justification do they have to stop others from contesting against them in 2019.
“I am more of Yewa, but are the Yewas ready?
“You can’t stop anybody from contesting, all you can do is to produce somebody from Yewa that will be acceptable to everybody in Ogun state. He must be efficient and capable because nobody gives to anyone in the world, everybody fight for it.
“We have people in Yewa that can be good governors, present one.”
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Sir, you sound like a very good leader. You have spoken well. I am not out to blame anyone but let the right thing be done. The past is gone but let us start doing the right thing. This is the kind of leaders we should be supporting. People that support merit (Meritocracy) and not people that bring division, prejudice, godfatherism and stomach infrastructure. It is very unusual to find this kind of objective stance in our current crop of leaders.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds more like deliberate falsehood, mischief, selective amnesia, ignorance or even all combined. If not, why and how would an old man open his mouth like this? You said in 2005, and ever since you went to sleep and waited till 10+ years after? Even when the Obasanjo left the party for you, what did you do or when your son was the number four citizen in the land, what efforts did you make to turn the party around? It is always convenient to look for who too blame. Meanwhile you yourself dumped the PDP o!
ReplyDelete