Ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, a chieftain of the party, Bola Ilori, in this interview with SEYE OLUMIDE, hinges the success of the primary on free and fair process, though with a caveat that the incumbent is the candidate to beat.The court is part of the democratic process and that would not be a problem. It is part of exercising the rights of the people. I will not count that as a serious threat but APC, as a party, has a mechanism of resolving issues at the end of the day. The possibility of litigation is not a problem at all. What could be a problem is if there is violence or crisis and these are what can create problems in a democratic arrangement.So far, there is no threat of violence on the part of any of the contestants, but this is politics, and you cannot rule out the possibility of anything in the process. But this would depend on how the national secretariat of the party handled the primary. To me, APC has not done badly in the previous primaries that were conducted. If they handle the Saturday exercise fairly, there would be no basis for violence. However, a free and fair primary will reduce the chances of post-primary litigation.What has happened before the demise of former Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has been overtaken by events. And if you look at it, the same House of Assembly members that served Aiyedatiwa notice of impeachment in the past, more than two-third of the same Assembly have endorsed him to continue now.
What happened at that time was the interest of those who felt that they would benefit from their assumed closeness to the late Akeredolu.The only endorsement done and made publicly was when Akeredolu told everybody that he would be reducing and Aiyedatiwa would be increasing. Any other endorsement till today remains a beer parlour talk. Let anybody provide evidence of his endorsement by the late governor. Everybody keeps saying that the late governor endorsed him.That impression is not holding any water in Ondo State, I can tell you that. Aiyedatiwa rode to governance on the crest of popular support. You remember the fact he couldn’t be impeached because people were against that plot, which shows the goodwill of the people towards him. That impression is given by some set of noisemakers. There was no evidence that Akeredolu ever stood against the governor.What Mr President wanted to ask me was who I was supporting among the aspirants, and you know I’ve had a long political relationship with President Tinubu. He spoke to me wanting to know what was happening at the party in Ondo. And I replied him. The President must be the father of all, but I deduce what he wanted from our conversation, so please permit me not to say anything beyond that on the question. Our conversation also guided me to understand his mind readings.Go and check the records and see the achievements of the party in Ondo. The state also gave Tinubu the highest votes in the West. The highest margin of victory for Tinubu came from Ondo State. And if you want to measure the barometer of acceptability of even the national government in Ondo State, you will want to look at it in the form that even when the President visited Ondo, how was he received? He was welcomed massively.Former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, once said that there are efforts ongoing to resolve whatever issues therein between the President and Ogeni Aregbesola, so I have no reason to doubt what Baba Akande said.Tinubu is a deft politician, and he is in charge. You are dealing with a seasoned politician and an active one and not a layback politician. He is in control of whatever he is doing. The tide is working for him and if he could have navigated through when things were so bad, I can tell you he has passed the worst, which was when the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) planned to declare a strike over hardship, but today things are gradually coming down.
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