CHAIRMAN, Odua Investment Company and leader of the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State Chief Isaac Akintade (JP) is a seasoned banker and successful business man. With a first degree and Masters in Economics, he has held or currently holds such  appointments as director, Ekinmogun Micro finance Bank and director Owena Oil & Gas Limited just to mention a few. A member of the American Institution of Banking, Washington DC, he presently  represents  Ondo State on the Board of Odua Investment Company Ltd. In this chat on his home turf, Chief Akintade examines the state of the politics in the state vis-à-vis the state of the opposition in the country at large with a long range view to 2015.

BY Morenike Taire

AS a successful businessman and an elite it is a surprise that you belong to Labour Party. Why?
I was a pure business man, but the late oba Adesanoye saw some quality in me and said I should go into politics so as to represent his interests. Then PDP was in vogue here in Ondo state. Oba Adesanoye was my mentor , I couldn’t refuse him. I was formerly in PDP.

Before he died (Oba Adesanoye) he invited  Dr. Segun Mimiko and myself into his palace and said the future of politics in Ondo state rests squarely on us, and he put his hand in  my palm and blessed us. When Mimiko was leaving PDP I had no choice other than to join hands with him in the Labour party

Do you agree that the appeal lodged by the PDP and ACN candidates against the re-election of Gov. Mimiko was a legless appeal?
They didn’t have any case simply because the incumbent governor won hands down. If you win in 13 local governments out of 18 what case would two other parties have? PDP only won maybe two and the other won three.

Enough money to waste
They are headed to the Supreme Court but they will come back with nothing. They have enough money to waste.
But the other parties are talking about voters’ registration and some names being inserted after the elections…
They are just cooking up stories. Did Ondo state compile the voters’ list? No, it was Jega, and it’s the register we got from Jega that we used. If they had accepted defeat right from inception, by now they would have no followership.

I don’t understand that
If they had accepted defeat at the end of the exercise all their members would have left them but now they still have hope. They are still bamboozling them. They know supreme court will not come so quickly but they still want to put together their members

They have the precedent of Osun state and also plenty of resources
No no no no. that case is different. This case is that Mimiko won hands down. In the case of Osun there were some malpractices detected and when the case was on there was talk on the telephone here and there; the judge trying to encourage some people to do what is not okay. Our case is straight forward. To win clearly you must win by simple majority, you must win two thirds of the state. We won by both

Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko

Why is Labour Party not part of the alliance that merged into the All Progressives Congress, APC?
APC comprises of strange bedfellows. They cannot last because most of them are power hungry people. It is when they are sharing positions, that is where you will see problem with them. If APC can hold on they will be a formidable opposition to PDP now that PDP is in disarray.

Is the PDP really in disarray?
They have set up a committee now to get everyone on board. If they are not in disarray why would they set up a committee?

Other than APC are there any plans of a merger/alliance?
We have our manifesto and our programs. We are not joining anybody. The most dynamic thing in life is politics, it’s not static. We in Labour Party are watching all the scenarios. It depends on the leadership of the party.We are in at least 25 states now. It’s just that we have produced only one governor but we are in the National Assembly.

Your National Chairman, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, has said that some aggrieved PDP governors would come over to Labour. Is that really true?
The party is large enough to accommodate everybody. This is where everybody can aspire to become whatever you want to become because nobody will impose anybody on anybody even starting from council chairmen. You go out and slug it out. Whoever wins will now contest and  become the chairman.

But is it not that they are just trying to ride on the already existing grounds gained in the state?

What is wrong with that? If the party is doing very well and somebody is riding on the existing success, is that bad? People make the party. If they are riding on their own success, how is that bad?

Labour lost Senator Borrofice to the ACN. What happened?
He never had any allegation. He said the governor did not carry him along. How can he be in Abuja and be carried along in Akure?

Very stiff opposition
That was an afterthought. He was never a politician. He was a scientist and he thought that politics was like molecule.  That is why he decamped. They just bamboozled him.

Is any of the pressure coming from your camp?
His contribution to the party was so negligible that we don’t even know if he’s existing or not. What he did is illegal but if we had wanted to recall him, we would have started the process but his contribution to the party was negligible and whether he’s there or not is none of our headache. When his term ends let him come and rerun, then he’ll face a very stiff opposition.

There have been allegations and counter allegations. How democratic is your party structure?
Most leaders want to impose their families, like in some states in Nigeria. That is not democracy…

What is so bad about that?
There are thousands and thousands of party members. All these posts should go round. Why impose on everybody else? It’s not bad if there is  election and you win.

Do you see your party as an opposition party to PDP at the federal level?
We are in power here in Ondo State and we will continue to be as long as we wish to be. It is PDP  that is in opposition to us in Ondo state.