Obasanjo’s overbearing influence not beneficial to PDP — Ladoja

Obasanjo

Former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja has attributed the present dilemma of the Peoples Democratic Party to the overbearing influence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He alleged that Obasanjo killed the dreams of the founding fathers of the party as a result of his personal agenda.

Ladoja spoke with journalists at his Bodija residence in Ibadan, during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.

He said the time was not ripe for him to return to the PDP despite pressures being exerted on him to return to the party.

He explained that except the anomalies in the party were addressed, he might not consider the option of returning. Certain actions taken in the past, he said, affected political success in the state and, as well, engendered perceived hatred by people.

Ladoja left the PDP for Accord Party in the wake of differences.

He contested the April governorship election but lost to the Action Congress of Nigeria.

His relatively unknown party in the state won four seats in the Federal Constituencies in the state and seven seats in the 32-member state House of Assembly.

According to Ladoja, the denial of Chief Sunday Awoniyi as the party’s National Chairman way back in 1999 paved the way for Obasanjo to ride on the members of the party.

He said the development partly accounted for the premature removal of successive national chairmen of the party.

Ladoja said, “They (PDP) have sent emissaries and I am still receiving emissaries from them. They want me back in the party but this would give me the opportunity of reviewing the relationship between PDP and Oyo State during the time PDP was in power. What triggered that was the fact that today in the South-West, PDP has got only six members in the National Assembly. All of them came from Oyo State.”

Ladoja, who expressed his displeasure especially with federal appointments following the victory of PDP at the poll, regretted that Oyo State was losing out in the scheme of things.

He said, “What do you expect? You would expect that to whom much is given much is expected. You would expect that of the seven ministers in the South-West, Oyo should be given a substantive minister and not minister of state. But, instead of that, we got only the Minister of State for Capital Territory.

“The Minister of FCT, is like a mini deputy governor because as far as I am concerned, it means that all other states have three senators each.”

“It is only Abuja that has one Senator in the National Assembly, meaning that the FCT is considered as one-third of a state.

“This is not acceptable to me especially when the biggest ministries went to Ogun State. Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture are two of the biggest ministries. Could it have been coincidental or could it have been intentional? Some may even be tempted to ask whether the former president is still in power. Anything that you want to get he is the one in charge.”

“What I told them is to convince me on why I should come to PDP because to me, the party does not appear to like Oyo State. I am still waiting for that conviction. We have not started talking. It (PDP) was my house before I was forced out by a flood but if you are now saying the flood has subsided then you must convince me on why I have to come back.”

wp_posts