Dr. Oluwadare Bada was the director-general of the Olusola Oke campaign organisation, a platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last governorship election in Ondo State. Shortly after the election, some members of the party at the state level said they would seek for a legal redress as against the warning of the National Secretariat of the party. In this interview with a select journalists, Bada reflects the position of the party as regards the outcome of the election. He also states why he decided to align with the position of the National Secretariat of the PDP among other issues. ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMI was there.
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Who is Dr. Oluwadare Bada?
I am a medical doctor, a politician, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Director General of the Olusola Oke/Saka Lawal Campaign Organisation during the last October 20 governorship election in Ondo State.
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Sir, many thought that your party, PDP would return back to power in the last governorship election but the reverse was the case. What can you attribute the loss of the party to?
The last gubernatorial election has come and gone. Our party was expected to stage a comeback to governance. Many of our party members had that hope because of the reconciliation efforts that took place earlier. There was hope and aspiration by members of our great party that we would return to power but there were lots of problems with the management of the campaign organization. For example, the candidate of the PDP, Chief Olusola Oke, was chosen based on some considerations which later came out to be false. The leader of the party, Dr. Olusegun Agagu made some proposals that we had to go back to the Southern Senatorial District which had already produced the last three gubernatorial candidates of the party between 1999 and 2007, and the reason he gave was that he would be picking on Chief Olusola Oke because he believed he had a deep purse having just finished his tour as the National Legal Adviser. Agagu also lied to us that he was the choice of the presidency and many of us did not intend to divert from what Mr. President wanted as said by Agagu, so that was why he came in as the party’s candidate. Agagu also fooled us that Olusola Oke did not have to spend any money to secure the party’s ticket unlike those of us that had come earlier.?
The position of Dr. Agagu was further reinforced by one of our party leaders who is perceived to be close to the presidency but when we started the campaigns, we found out that the bird could not fly. Chief Oke was not forthcoming with financial resources as pledged. In fact, it was so bad that he had to sell one of his petrol stations for about N35 million whereas we had been informed that he had N500 million cash at hand and was prepared to for about 1 billion naira that would have been enough for us to run the campaigns before external help could come in October. The campaign was poorly funded. The campaign committee and its office received zero funding. No vehicles, posters had to be printed by party leaders. Lots of party people contributed a lot of money and it became clear that Chief Oke was not a very serious candidate because he was not financially committed to the campaigns. It also became clear that both Oke and Agagu were having other plans instead of pursuing the governorship race seriously. Let me explain this further. As a politician, when your party is doing well, you will be motivated to continue with the job.
After the campaigns, we discovered that a lot of money came to him which he did not spend or declared to us. For instance, about eight or nine governors who were earlier against his candidature for one reason or the other later gave him helps after some men of goodwill interceded on his behalf. The governors were not disposed to him because of what he did to them when he was the National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party. He did not declare or spend the money and this made him profited at the end of the day. Even the funds that we received from the national body of the party, he gave a large percentage of that money to himself and this made it become clearer that he had other motives.
It is sad each time I remember what Dr. Olusegun Mimiko did say during the debates that Olusola Oke was not prepared for governance. We all thought that it was a political statement but we later realised that the governor was saying the truth. He must have got some information which we were not privileged to have at that time. So at the end of the day, Oke just used us, put our lives in danger. He was always asking for sacrifice every time. To say the actual fact, Oke did not commit more than his own N30 million to the campaigns. Chief Oke made a lot of gains, considering the lump sum he kept for himself from the funds gotten from governors and the national body of the party. He sold his petrol station in Akure for N35 million and went and bought another one in Abuja for 100 million naira. How can someone steal his own money? So, we lost as a result of under-funding, no posters, no vests, no vehicles and so on.
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Can you tell us the exact figure that your party spent on the election?
I will say that before election day, the total expenditure was under 200 million naira and the contribution of the candidate was under 30 million naira.
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As the Director General of the Olusola Oke campaign organisation, how will you assess the election?
I think if one is to be truthful, this has been the best election in the history of Ondo state. It was bloodless, no rigging, no violence, no ballot box snatching, no multiple voting. The agents of the three major parties were well trained and very vigilant. So the election represents the true position of the people of Ondo state.
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It was alleged that the funds released for the campaign did not get to the grassroots, it was further alleged that you and the PDP’s candidate mismanaged the funds. How will you react to this?
I have said it earlier that we didn’t have the funds to campaign. The total expenditure was about 200 million naira and that meant that we did not have sufficient money to run the campaigns. Chief Oke is not known outside his Okitipupa division where he had operated since joined politics and he had to go round the whole wards. He had to also go round the local governments in the state. He as well had to go round the three Senatorial Districts in the state. We could not finance the senatorial rallies. No money was given out for the local government campaigns so house to house campaign didn’t start until about a day to the election. Out of the 200 million we spent on the election, party leaders in Ondo state contributed significantly more than 2/3, and then some external contributors who are party members. And again, Chief Oke kept the money that the national secretariat of the party released to us. He did not release the money until 11 am on Friday and the balance did not even come until 4pm of the same day which was a day to the election.
We did not get the funds to run party expenses in good time. No money to pay the party agents, no money for mobilization until 11am on Friday. Imagine, someone going to Akoko North West taking money around 4pm. This made the money not to get down and it was because Chief Oke didn’t release the money in good time. If he had released the money on Thursday, the money would have gotten to the grassroots. That is for the election day expenses. But before the election day, he was lamenting all the time that he had no money. He was asking and begging for sacrifice. There was a time we needed to give out the total sum of 31 million naira to our Units. This was about 10,000. 00 naira per unit and that was the least any party gave. Chief Oke could not bring it out, this money was contributed by about 5 party leaders and his contribution there was only 10 million naira. What happened was that Oke just kept a significant proportion of the money released for the campaign to himself. He did not also declared the money that came in from other governors and external donors. We lost Akoko because we could lay our hands on the required funds. I did not handle money, no money was allocated to my office so there was no way I could have mismanaged any funds. All the funds came directly to Chief Oke and he kept them.
Shortly after the election, there was an advertisement in some newspapers purportedly signed by you. This advert was castigating Mr. President and PDP for the role they played during the election.
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Sir, did that advertisement reflect your true opinion?
I did not know about that advertorial. It was one of our leaders here in Ondo state? that called my attention to it. It was a very bitter advertorial and my name was put there as the Director General but I want to say it for record purpose that I didn’t know about it. I didn’t sign or see it. As a matter of fact, I wanted to make a statement to disclaim it but some leaders of the party asked me not to do so. They said there was no need for it since I had made my position known to those that should know about it in Abuja and Ondo State. The only statement I made was the one we published a day after the election and that was even when we had not got the full results. We made that so that our followers would not be scared. I withdrew from issuing further statements and fallen in line with the position of the national body of my party immediately after Chief Olisa Mentu had congratulated Governor Mimiko.
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Before the election, there was a division within the PDP which made some leaders like Olu Agbi and others worked for the ruling party in the state. Considering the result of the election, will you say that the actions of such PDP leaders are justified?
The thing is that the party exists in two factions and all our former Senators, seven of the members of the House of Representatives, majority of the former House of Assembly members and a lot of our credible leaders are in that group. They are not only quarrelling with Oke’s candidature, they were quarrelling with Dr. Agagu and his type of leadership because as it is now, it was him that manipulated the emergence of Oke as the party’s flag bearer. Some of us understood the pains they were going through, some of them had been humiliated and insulted by Agagu so there was no way they could go and file up behind him and his candidate. But after the election, we realised that those factional leaders were seeing what we could not see an action that made them worked for the Labour Party during the election. I think there position is justified now.
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You seem to be blaming Agagu for the party’s problem, is he the only one to be blamed?
Yes, we have to blame Agagu because of the type of leadership that he provides in the party. Under Agagu, a party that was once big after the demise of the Alliance for Democracy, started to depreciate. He has scattered the party. For example, Dr. Mimiko was a member of the party as a State government’s Secretary and as a Minister. The first chairman of the party, Colonel Awodeyi left and joined the Labour Party. The chairman of the party that organised the election that saw Agagu becoming the governor in 2003, Alhaji Ali Olanusi resigned and joined the Labour Party. The two Ministers we had before are at loggerheads with Agagu and left the party. All his close allies, Commissioners, eighty percent of them have left. Seventy percent of the Local government chairmen have left. There has been a lot of reconciliatory efforts and anytime we have one, he would go ahead and spoil things because of his bad personality. He is arrogant, miserly and to him, he is the only powerful person in the party. He thinks that he is the owner of PDP. Before any small thing, he will say that Ondo state PDPD is his baby. He will say that he was at Muson center where the PDP was formed. Do babies not grow to become adult? I think he is doing this to keep everybody under. For example, he has never wished that the party will have another governor because he knows that such governor will become the leader of the party. He is busy sending members of the party away when other parties are busy begging people to come and join them. For example, when there were rumours that Governor Mimiko would join the party, he openly resisted it because he does not want the party to win. That showed in the way he manipulated the candidature of Oke. PDP leaders are not fools to make them continue to support only the Ilaje axis to be governor in Ondo state that has almost five divisions. Are they the owner of the party? I can boldly say that Agagu is the albatross of the PDP in Ondo state because he doesn’t want anybody to rise, he ruined the fortune of the party as a result of his arrogant and selfish leadership.
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There are insinuations that you are romancing with the government of Labour Party in the state. Some are even saying that the Governor has given you some money. How true is this sir?
That has always been the blackmail to get people who are bold enough to voice their position to Agagu’s attitudes. They always blackmail that such people have been settled. Immediately aftet the election, the President, as the leader of Nigeria congratulated Governor Mimiko. The national secretariat of the party as well congratulated him and accepted defeat. The President of the Denate also congratulated him and warned us not to go to Tribunal. The Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives as well congratulated him and warned us against going to Tribunal. Did Dr. Mimiko settled all of them? If he was able to settle me as the DG of the Olusola Oke campaign organisation, the President of the Senate, the Speaker, House of Representatives and the National leaders of the party, then he must be a super man and he should romanced with. Simply put, those saying that I have been bought by the Labour Party must be ignorant. The governor and I have been close friends for almost forty years. We were in school together, we were classmates, we have been in politics together. It is party loyalty that made me to support PDP. If we want to think of other interest, I should not ordinarily support the PDP. If you listen to the presidential media chat, you will know that it has become necessary that we have one single house and we must work together and move our state forward except those who have hidden agenda. For instance, Dr. Agagu is nursing bitterness against Dr. Mimiko but must I blindly follow him and be nursing bitterness? In the case of Romney and Obama, it was clear when Romney said that in the interest of America, he will co-operate with President Obama and he didn’t leave his party. So in the interest of Ondo state, i have aligned myself completely with the position of the national body of the PDP. Come to think of it, it is indiscipline for a National Secretariat that presented the candidate for the election to say that we should not go to court and co-operated with the government in the state, and some few people are insisting on legal redress. Mark it, this is Oke’s war against Mimiko. It is not the party. The majority of the party is not in support of the Tribunal thing. We were neither consulted nor informed of any legal redress as regards the election. I want to make it clear that this is a case instituted in Oke’s Chambers against Governor Mimiko. The party is not in support of this.
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Sir, there is a rumour that there was an understanding between the PDP and ACN before the election. How true was this?
There was contact or understanding between the PDP and the ACN before the elections because both parties are parallel lines. As far as I know, there was none. After the election, we heard that some PDP leaders were discussing with the ACN for a joint effort at the tribunal. I understand that Agagu has been deceiving Oke that he will be made the running mate to Sule Lamido during the 2015 presidential election. I think they know that they have no case at the Tribunal. They are just pursuing case to remain relevant in order for Abuja to persuade them to drop the case so that they can be given appointments. That cannot work because they are not the only party at the Tribunal.
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