BY EMMA AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR
Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, a veterinary doctor turned politician was between 2003 and 2006 commissioner for Health in Ogun State and has been the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health since 2007. She is the rallying force behind the opposition to Governor Gbenga Daniel’s political hegemony in the Gateway State.

Last Saturday she spoke to Vanguard on her position pertaining to the crisis that has pitched two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state against one another. It was a rare exposition for the former first daughter as she aired her opinion on the alleged worship of OGD,  her achievements in office and why she desires a second term. Excerpts:

What is the origin of your conflict with Governor Gbenga Daniel?

We had a congress in 2008 during which the names were essentially written. I was a sitting Senator and I had no input whatsoever and likewise so many others who had no inputs. There were protests, there were letters written…

The first fallout was that there was an issue with the senatorial chairman in my constituency, Olusolake. Daniel removed him and that created a crisis. Then we got to a point when the national party decided to intervene based on the documents we showed them and this was during Chairman Ogbulafor’s time. We had series of meetings with him and after that a panel was set up to look at all the states where there were problems in PDP. That was the Senator Ike Nwachukwu panel.

Ogun State was one of them. They met with us about two or three times, both factions and this was a long drawn out process. It was not something that started yesterday. After that, during Nwodo’s period they looked at Ike Nwachukwu’s panel report and that report said that the exco set up under Fadairo should be dissolved and that we should harmonise.

We had our own exco based on the fact that he (Daniel) didn’t hold congresses but we went ahead and held our own congresses and so we chose our own exco. So, they said both sides ‘dissolve your excos and harmonise’ and they gave us the formula.

The chairman came from our side and was to be chosen by the National Working Committee. The secretary came from his side and based on that, we got three letters to that effect, one from the chairman, one from the national secretary and one from the Southwest vice_chairman.

So, they said both sides should dissolve and harmonise but the Governor refused and insisted that he would go on with his own executive. At this point we went to court and based on the formula that was set up by the PDP the people in those slots that were handed over to him and the people from our own side were harmonized and the court said given all these letters and the evidences that there were no congresses this is the exco for Ogun State.

Who is the chairman of this new exco?

Dayo Shoremi was the chairman of the new exco. He was not our own chairman, he was a new chairman chosen through the National Working Committee. Gbenga Daniel still refused and the court said given all these evidences that the Fadiro exco has been dissolved and that Dayo Shoremi is the chairman. This went on until it came to the time for the primaries and we were still meeting with the national committee and we met with the President at least twice on this same Ogun State issue, long before the primaries and there was an injunction that Fadiro should not carry himself as the chairman but he kept on doing so and the party kept on recognizing him although it was illegal.

What the man would do is that sometimes he would run away and would not call himself chairman and after sometimes he would write letters and when we find out, we will warn him and he would withdraw and then the primaries came.

Did you suspect some collaboration between the national secretariat and the Daniel faction?

Essentially, there must have been a collusion at some point. Initially, there wasn’t because they did the right thing but at some point there was collusion. But the collusion even went further it went all the way to the primaries.

The national headquarters sent a team for screening. The team belongs to the party, we are bona fide members of the party, we have our own party office. We all met in our party office and we said look, we can ask these people to come to our own party office but the panel screening the gubernatorial candidate screened them at the presidential lodge in Abeokuta, a PDP panel can meet anywhere. So we said that if the location is a hall within their own headquarters we will still go there because we have respect for the party and the people that came. So, we went there and we were screened as PDP members and on.

We made it clear to them that we were there because we wanted to be screened and we could have demanded that they come to our secretariat that was the right secretariat, but we felt that there was really no need because they met the gubernatorial candidates in the presidential lodge anyway. So, we met them in the hall and we were screened by a panel set up by PDP just as anybody else. I got my screening certificate and I left.

We went and did our delegate conference and I was in my ward for the delegate congress. We had our own delegate congress all over the State, I don’t know what happened on their side.

Was the PDP national panel present during your own primaries?

Let me tell you how the congresses hold. The congresses were in all the wards and my state has about 223 wards, the panel cannot go to each ward, they move around and then they leave.

Did they move around your own ward congresses?

I didn’t go to all of them but in some of our own congresses we had INEC officials who came around and saw what we were doing, they signed where they were, we had the Police and everything. The party people went to the other congress that was the illegal one and we complained but they did not listen. So, the national party was doing the illegal thing and because the party was doing the illegal thing does not mean that any court in the land should recognize their illegality.

If you were able to go for the screening at the venue what was your problem in going for the primaries at the same venue?

I went for the screening because it was PDP screening. I was not going to go for an illegal primary with a chairman that I don’t recognize. A building is a building. Because I was screened in a building does not mean that I recognize the chairman. Do I have any problem going to their own congress? Do they have any problem coming to our congress?

Why must we go to their congress when it had been declared illegal? Why is our own party exco inferior to theirs? We have our own party offices so why should we go to their own office or recognize their own primary? I can be screened anywhere, we could have gone to Abuja to be screened. I am a PDP member and I can be screened anywhere by my party.

Considering that you worked under Gbenga Daniel as a commissioner did you try to explore an opportunity of mediating between him and his opponents?

Everybody has tried and I can tell you we have been to Abuja at least 20 times just on the factional issues in Ogun PDP carrying leaders from both sides. I have done my best and democracy is not a dictatorship. Even on this issue of the primaries after we had our primaries and both sides had their primaries I know that people intervened and said that we should sit down and find a way to divide things between both groups that everybody can live with, but the other side refused.

So, you are ready to compromise?

We were, but they refused totally. Let me tell you we felt we were on the right but we felt that life is give and take and it was like ok, the party did the wrong thing but we were willing to give.

Don’t you now fear that opposition parties could exploit the crisis to take over the State?

No, I don’t think so. In Ogun State I have full confidence in our people, I have absolute confidence in our ability to win. Many of us have created a track record in what we have done….

Including the Governor?

Not the Governor! I mean many of those on our side have created positive track records and made impacts on peoples lives that you can see on the ground and you can hear people talk about. So, we have no fear going into an election.

People in the opposition are in my senatorial district, some of my supporters meet them in clubs, I go to functions and they are there and we sit down together and talk. So we know each other’s strengths on the ground. So, I don’t think this issue itself is what would give room to the opposition. I still believe that PDP would win overwhelmingly with the right people as their candidates.

But if PDP presents the “wrong” people what would be the outcome?

It would be tough, it would be very, very tough.

Some people are very surprised that after working for three years in Gbenga Daniel’s cabinet that the two of you would be seriously divided on an election issue as you are now?

No, no. It is not an election issue. Basically we have issues with the Governor’s style from the time I was a commissioner. I tried to indicate these to him but he never listened to anybody and I moved on and ran for the Senate and won. My feeling was that I will deal with him with respect as Governor but I cannot worship any human being. When I was in his cabinet I did not worship him and I did my job to the best of my ability and the people of the State saw it.

If you think it is a problem with me, Senator Lekan Mustapha was in the House of Representatives, he fought with him even the Speaker (Dimeji Bankole) that went and begged him he fought with the Speaker for a long time. So, if it is me that worked with him, most of the people that worked with him including Wale Adedayo that wrote a book about his experiences worked for him, so many people that have worked for Gbenga Daniel are not in agreement with him.

It is his style, you cannot control the world, people cannot worship you.

Were you expected to worship him?

He expected absolute control of people and I think in the second term it got worse. Even in the first term it was bad enough, I could barely tolerate it but I felt that I had taken on a responsibility and that I should fulfill it and fulfill it well. On a few occasions I got fed up to the point of resigning but I got counsel from people who said that it was a temporary sojourn and that it was an experience, just take it. I believe that I served my people diligently and as an experience in service, I actually think it was a good experience.

If you were to meet Mrs. Lola Abiola-Edewor, your rival for the PDP senatorial ticket what would you tell her over this issue?

I don’t know if I have anything to say to her. But what I can say is what I feel. As you know, my father was in jail for three years and during that time her father was in jail. My family suffered a lot during those three years and I do believe her family suffered a lot during those years. We didn’t know if my father was going to end up as president out of jail.

It is a shame that she is using that very harrowing period in Nigeria’s history and her father’s experience and trivalising it like this and letting herself be used to trivalise a very serious issue because as far as I am concerned it is just fate and God that knew who came out of that experience. For you to now compare a solely political situation with a situation in which many people lost lives during the Abacha regime, I think is trivalising the situation.

That is how I feel. That this was a great man (MKO, Abiola) that suffered along with a lot of people that were jailed. I know people that nobody even says their names now that were jailed during that period and that suffered and are still suffering some of the consequences of what happened to them. There were people that lost children, there were people that lost husbands and wives.