By DAYO JOHNSON

Amid the raging controversy over who played what role in the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan in Ondo State in the April 16 presidential election, the state Education Commissioner, Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi, says PDP has no proof to lay claim to the feat. Osunyikanmi, also a leader of Labour Party (LP) in Ondo, tells the story of how PDP practically abandoned the president in the state during the election. He accuses the PDP  leaders who vilify the Defence Minister, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, for not deploying  soldiers to help the party  win the other polls outside the presidential election in the state of bad politics. The commissioner also speaks on the government of national unity proposed by Jonathan.

During the presidential election, your party voted for President Goodluck Jonathan and people are asking why and what will be the gain of the state voting for Jonathan?

You have said it all; the party voted for Jonathan. President Goodluck Jonathan is our focus. We are all students of history.  If we take a deep reflection about our recent past, no presidential aspirant ever had the type of credentials that President Goodluck Jonathan parades.

He went through the mills; remember he moved from a very humble beginning to the position he is today. In terms of tutelage, in this century, it might be very difficult for someone in a life to amass such credentials. Even before becoming a deputy governor, he went through tutelage under a governor only for him to become acting governor of that state, became the vice- president, then,  the acting president and eventually the president.

Considering the kind of peace and tranquillity that he has been able to bring about in Nigeria within the short period of his presidency, people of my generation cannot but be proud of  him. Now, we see the rule of law at work.  This was demonstrated during the last election; it’s no more rule of impunity. Though everybody  still talks about the need to  improve power generation, there is no doubt about the fact that there is some level of improvement. In terms of the fight against corruption and giving hope to the blighted generation, he is at the fore front. He is not your  run-of-the-mill politician rabble-rousing. He focused on delivery and, of course, we could see his maturity in dishing out  dividends  of democracy. 

He is also a man that has been able to rise above sectional sentiment.  He does not talk as an Ijaw man, he speaks like a Nigerian.  He also gives the vision that enlivens hope.

I want to tell you even if the election is repeated  today, the result cannot dwindle; it will improve because of the way he handled the post- election violence. It is the height of maturity the way he responded to the agony of parents, family members of youth corps members whose lives were shamefully terminated.  It shows a president with compassion.  That is the reason NEC of LP took the decision to support him and the decision is without any expectation than to provide good governance.

So, there is nothing in it for the state?
The most important thing is to continue to build on the existing peace and to continue to see the dividends  of democracy, and for us to know and be proud to know we are indeed Nigerians. I do not want to be seen as a Yoruba man. I want to be seen, first and foremost, as a Nigerian, that hope will be provided by the president.
Since the presidential election, there have been brickbats between LP and PDP on who should claim the glory of the victory in the state. LP alleged that PDP abandoned the president after its woeful performance in the  National Assembly elections.

I think you are referring to the remnants of PDP in Ondo State. Who are the politicians  left in PDP in this state today?  If there are, they are only political jobbers who are waiting for opportunities to be made the chairmen of boards or parastatals, or waiting for the quota to be allocated to PDP in Ondo State. The ‘who’s who’ in PDP in the state are now in LP?

The vast majority of people who formed LP came from PDP. Remember that the deputy governor, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, was the state PDP chairman and the senator-elect from the southern senatorial district. Hon. Boluwaji Kunlere was the party secretary.

Remember too that Governor Olusegun Mimiko was a federal minister on the PDP platform. If we begin to look at it across local government areas, which of the commissioners that was a notable politician during the Agagu-led administration that is not in LP today? And which of the party chairmen that was in PDP then that is not in LP today? So, how on earth could they have won any election for PDP in Ondo State?

We all know who was instrumental to the result that came out in Ondo State in the last election. And, in any case, if they were so politically viable to be able to produce that result for President Goodluck Jonathan, why were could they not  provide similar results in the following (House of Assembly) election?  They performed so dismally in the following election, that is a clear indication that now the PDP in Ondo is dead.

The second term  poster of Governor   Mimiko now litters the state.  Is it not too early?
I do not know the source of the posters but it will not be out of place to use this to gauge the feeling of the people of the state against the backdrop of the impressive performance of Governor Olusegun Mimiko in the last two years.

 The average person in Ondo State will say he has never had it so good and the people are enjoying their peace unlike in the past when anyone could be harassed on the street or assaulted by infrastructural decay because the environment was filthy or an average Akure person was ashamed to call Akure his state capital. The situation has been reversed, and we did that in just two years. And nothing better demonstrated the appreciation of the generality of the people of Ondo State than how they trooped out in the National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections where they voted for Labour Party-led government candidates massively.

Each time you got to the polling units during the polls and you tried to find out why the aged are all out and who they probably tend to vote for and why, the response was they wanted  to vote for Iroko not even the candidates. Some of them could not have seen him before except on the billboards and, of course, we have very few of these billboards because we are not government of billboards but some of the people he has met through provision of infrastructure, through making life better for them through the micro-credit loan, through our CARING HEART market initiatives. So the people are impressed and they want him to continue.
The PDP is alleging that soldiers were used in winning the election for the LP and they even accused the minister of defence of conniving with the LP to deny PDP victory in the April elections.

The truth is that the gentleman, the SAN, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, is somebody in the mould of the character of President Goodluck Jonathan in terms of respect for the rule of law. 

If the remnants of the PDP in Ondo State have any iota of shame, should they even be able to say it out that the minister of defence failed to provide soldiers to assist them? And that assistance simply connotes rigging. That the lesser minds out of the debris of the state PDP are criticizing him for not assisting them to rig  gives you a window into the quality of the minds of those who initially populated the PDP in Ondo State and those left.

We all know that the minister is in PDP, he is not a member of LP.  So, how could he have connived with the LP to win any election? I would only want to urge the honourable minister to consider coming to a more civilized party.

The ACN is said to be  getting prepared for the  governorship election in the state.  How are you preparing for the election since Ondo is the only state in the region not controlled by the ACN? 

When we get to the bridge, we will cross it. ACN existed before the election in the South-west and  we know  the total votes  of the ACN in the last election in the state.  We are the heart of the polity in this state; ACN is just trying to be there. It’s a party we can trash on the field and still pamper.

President Jonathan has decided to operate  a government of national unity but some parties are saying they should be counted out of it.  The LP has not come out to say if the party will be part of it or not. 

The party has a structure of responding to such enquiries. Yes, I  am an LP member, but  I am just an ordinary commissioner for education. I am more of a technocrat in government. The party would, at the appropriate time,  respond to the issue. I have said clearly that I do not speak for the party and will not pretend to speak in respect of the party. I am sure if you direct this to the party, they will respond.

The elections have come and gone but some candidates of the PDP in the state, such as former Governor Olusegun Agagu are challenging the election results. Is your party not moved?

Whoever is challenging the results of an election  is either genuinely hoping to retrieve his  mandate or he  wants to go to the tribunal and use it as an instrument to be politically relevant; at least,  if you are able to do that, you will be able to keep yourself busy and you may be remembered and be compensated. We know that there is no way the boss of my boss, Dr. Agagu, could have won election in the southern senatorial district.

Even while he was the sitting governor, he did not win election in his own polling booth; so, two years after, how would he have won?  Notable leaders in Okitipupa before the last general elections, precisely six months preceding last general elections, had moved en masse to LP.  While these people were still with him, the results, as declared by the Nabaruma tribunal, affirmed that he did not win the governorship election. Infact, how could he have won in my own local government? 

The most prominent PDP member in my LGA, Engineer Boye Adegbemisoye, the powerful commissioner in the Agagu  regime, moved to LP, the House of Assembly candidate, Hon. Akinsuroju, moved from PDP to LP and even, while they were in PDP in the last election that eventually brought Dr. Mimiko to power, we know that they could not  muster enough votes to defeat us in that LGA. So, his going to court is very welcome.  I know it is a good opportunity to make him relevant, maybe he is trying to negotiate for an ambassadorial appointment.