•Says Mimiko’s sabbatical in PDP is over

MR Kayode Ajulo is the National Secretary of Labour Party, LP. In this interview, Ajulo among others issues, gives an appraisal of the just conducted general elections, he also declared that LP would be the next face of opposition in Nigeria. Excerpts:

By Dapo Akinrefon

What is your appraisal of the just concluded election?

There are some states where we were hoping to win like Oyo State and Delta State. Even in Ebonyi State, there was no election there. That of Ebonyi State they just declared their candidate the winner of the election. All these will be reviewed at the tribunal.

We are sure the tribunal will agree with us by the time we come with the avalanche of evidence and facts that we have.

In all, we can’t say we are not disappointed, we can’t say we are not happy and again as a lawyer I am a little bit restrained to discuss particularly when one is a party in the case. You need not to do anything that will prejudice the case at hand at the tribunal.

What I will say generally about the just concluded election is that I did not see it as an election.

Now that President Goodluck Jonathan has lost the election, if Governor Olusegun Mimiko decides to come back to Labour Party will he be welcomed back?

•Ajulo

When Mimiko was about to leave he made far reaching consultations with a lot of people and from my own interpretation, from what he told us that he was going for a purpose and that purpose has a time limit.

As far as I am concerned, all the time he left, he left on sabbatical, now he should come back, his sabbatical is over. So, he should come back. He must come back and when he is coming he should not come alone, he should come with people that left with him.

A lot of people felt that what happened to parties like the LP, All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA and other smaller parties was because they didn’t present a presidential candidate. Is this true?

One thing we have to know is that, this has to do with one’s honour. We tried as much as possible to get a presidential candidate but we have criteria for that candidate.

At the end of the day, Buhari is the president-elect and we have congratulated him, we wish him luck but if we must say the truth, between the two if you are to choose who is a pro-worker, it is Jonathan.

In his six year tenure as a president, not a single worker, covertly or overtly, has been retrenched in this country. President Jonathan really revived the pension act. But if tomorrow Gen. Buhari helps our interest, of course we will go for him but as it is now, we have no regrets.

Do you mean you have no regrets supporting President Jonathan?

Of course, there is no regret. Honestly.

How would you assess INEC’s performance during the election?

INEC’s performance gives me a lot concern because I believe that there are rules and regulations and when such rules and regulations are flouted or aided by the members of the commission then there is an issue. That shows you that what happened in the north was the issue of underage while what happened in the south was the issue of under table and it shouldn’t have been like that. INEC was not prepared for that election. The card reader failed woefully to the extent that on the day of election the number one citizen of this country spent 35minutes just to be accredited. So, these are the things we have to look at. The card reader failed us.

What hope do we have for a viral opposition?

Let us be sincere that in PDP I did not and yet I don’t think there will be anything like opposition in the DNA of PDP. They lack the capacity to be an opposition party. And when you look at most of the characters that make up the PDP, even 90 per cent of the characters in the party traditionally cannot be opposition.

Jettisoning the party

By the character of the PDP, by the way they were formed, it shows that there is no way they can stand up to be in the opposition.

But if there is no virile opposition, democracy is in danger; can Labour Party step into that shoe?

That is why we are talking in LP. We are already doing that. What we need to do is to look at the political speed of Nigeria, who is filling the opposition? I am being sincere about these things, sometimes we call APC the opposition when PDP was there; they are not even the opposition. The only thing they have been doing is to head the civil society, help the labour movement to be in opposition.

But in the real sense, the real opposition is  labour. There will be no choice for us and that is the reason we need to come together.