By Abdulwahab Abdulah
Chief Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja, a former Governor of Oyo State, cannot contemplate losing Tuesday’s election and declared that he won’t step down for anyone. He bears his minds on how he intends to win the election.
Excerpts:

There are reports that you are likely to step down for the governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in Tuesday governorship election. How true is this?

It is a rumour, nobody approach me for such a thing. However, it is worrisome, especially that such rumour is coming from one of the political parties contesting Tuesday’s Governorship election.

The rumour is coming in different formats. Sometimes they say, Ladoja is stepping down for Ajumobi; another time they will say the Accord Party and Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN are same, thereby asking our supporters to vote for ACN. I am telling you now nobody approached me for merger or any working arrangement or for me to step down for Ajimobi.

Ladoja

Was Governor, Rauf Aregbesola (of ACN) not  in your house as part of the negotiation for you to step down?
Truly he was here. But he said he only came to express his appreciation for the assistance I gave him during the time he was struggling for his mandate in Osun state. We did not discuss any issue related to working together or that I should step down for anybody. He did not mention anything relating to that at all.

Some elders of Ibadan, are also said to be pressurizing you to step down for Ajimobi?

If the Olubadan wants to talk to somebody on such an issue, I’m a high chief in the council. I am the Ekerin  Olubadan, Does he need anybody as middleman to talk to me? In any case, don’t I have my fundamental human right to contest?  What is the interest of the people over this issue? Actually, the interest of those carrying the rumour is because they are pushing their weight behind Ajimobi.

Why are they behind Ajimobi to the extent that the Ibadan Elders Council adopted him recently?

I do not know. What I heard is that some of them said Ladoja is stubborn. Yes, Ladoja has the right to be stubborn. This is because at my age, you cannot tell me not to do something, except you have to give me genuine reasons.

You must convince me. If I get to this level in my life and I am not stubborn, that means I do not know what I am doing or what I want for myself and my people. Everybody has his own opinion, which must be respected. There was a time they said I would go on revenge. Revenge for what offence? What have they done?

Why are they afraid? The only thing I know is that their policies are anti people. My solace is that each of them is not entitled to more than one vote during the election. So, if  I am in support of  ten poor people , to a one rich man, surely, I am a winner. That is the situation today. I am not the only Ibadan man contesting. Why are they after me?

Do you consider the fact that for both of you to be contesting for the same office may will affect the number of  votes coming from Ibadan, and this may swing in favour of the PDP?

I am not looking for Ibadan votes alone. I know they will vote for me in Ibadan. But I am not looking for Ibadan votes alone. What I know is that the people of Oyo State will vote for the candidate of their choice, no matter where he comes from. I want to assure you  that if the voters don’t have a preferable candidate to vote for, they will not come out that day to vote.

In 2007 the votes cast were more than 1 million, but now it is about 800,000. Between 2007 and now do you know how many votes they have lost? In the last election, for instance, people did not turn out as expected.

But now, they are ready to vote to elect their governor. In the last election voters made it known that their concern was the governorship election. I want to tell you that I am a candidate invited to contest by his people. I was invited to come and contest by the teachers, the traders, the school children and the artisans.

Surely, those are the people that are going to vote for me.  How can you tell me that the people who are less than 10 in numbers can dictate the fate of over 1 million people, because of the money they have or can they ask that Ladoja should not contest the poll? That will not be possible.

But your party’s candidate for the Senate in the last election in Oyo central, Hon Ilaka lost to ACN?

The true position is that the last National Assembly election has created more enemies for Ladoja, because they said, it was Ladoja’s candidate that did not allow Lam Adesina’s son to win election; it was same Ladoja that did not allow Kolapo Isola’s son and Akinjide’s daughter to win election. My question is: are the positions and offices hereditary?

The problem however is that during the National Assembly election, many people didn’t come out to vote. They said their main concern is the Governorship election. However, we have discovered that Bisi Ilaka was rigged out in Oyo.

We are going to challenge it at the tribunal. The truth is that we won the election. You will also discover thatless than a quarter of the eligible voters voted that day. This time, the voters are coming out en-mass. So, both PDP and ACN are going to lose the election. I am convince and certain that I am going to win.

Is the issue of merger or working together with another political party permanently closed?

There is nothing like merger again. They can come and join our party if they wish but we are not joining anybody. How can somebody take our victory from us by ordinary words? We are not going to accept any term from anybody at all. We are fully ready for the election.

Before you finally moved to Accord Party, you ventured into joining the ACN. Why did you leave the party again?

You know that I was one of the founders of the PDP. In 2005, nearly all of our members were de-registered by the people in power. When the late President Umar Yar’Adua came into power, he made moves to reconcile all of us.

Then, we believed in him. They set up a reconciliation committee. We attended their meetings and after the report was submitted, they brought up another committee which was in Ibadan for more than a month. After that, there came Ike Nwachukwu committee, who said it concluded its job of reconciliation as at December 5, 2009.

It recommended an implementation committee but nothing happened afterwards. From there we realized that the PDP was no more the PDP we knew but a party of ‘People Deceiving People’. My  party supporters were asking me to come and contest. So among the political parties considered was the ACN.  It was not that we moved into the party wholly, but holding meetings with the party leaders.

We also met with Brother Lam Adesina three times to discuss an alliance issue. But we realized that they were just using strategy to buy time. Now, it is too late, everybody has formed his own team. Now, the Accord Party has come to stay. By the grace of God, the party will continue to wax stronger in Oyo State. The party has a strong based in some other states.