Hon. Tola Alabere is the Chairman of the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party. In this interview by Hakeem Gbadamosi, he speaks on the party’s preparation for the November governorship election among other issues.

A year after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assured office, what’s your assessment of his administration?

Is there anything to assess? There is nothing to assess but I can only congratulate Nigerians for 25 years of unbroken and uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria. As for the President, there’s nothing to celebrate as far as I am concerned, nothing to celebrate, nothing to assess.  Is it in the area of education, security or economy? This government is nothing to write home  about. They’ve taken us from hundred percent to zero level, because nothing is working in Nigeria as of today. Look at the exchange rate, when Buhari left, it was a few naira over N400 against a dollar but today it is now N1500 to a dollar. So, he has taken us from grace to grass and there is nothing, nothing at all to celebrate.

But some people are saying it is too early to assess him. They say some of his policies might take some time to produce results.

They said the same thing during Buhari’s regime, telling us to be patient with Buhari  that as time went on dividends of these policies would be manifesting but before Buhari left, there was nothing to show for his eight years and as a matter of fact, Tinubu has even made hero out of Buhari. So there’s nothing to wait for again, to wait for two or three more years of hunger, or wait for more years of insecurity and killings. This is just an excuse and what I think is that this man (Tinubu) is not prepared for governance,  he just felt that since people were taking a shot at the Presidency, let me also try, maybe luck will smile on me.

Do you think your flag bearer in the last year election, (Atiku) would have made some difference?

Yes, he would have done better because he’s prepared.  Atiku is an experienced person and there’s no way we can compare Tinubu with Atiku and those who are making these comparison are making a lot of mistakes. Tinubu was only in charge of Lagos State and Atiku was in charge of Nigeria, we are talking of Nigeria here and not a state under Nigeria.  Atiku has the experience for eight years and knows where the shoe pinches. He’s virtually in charge of the economy during their days in Aso Rock, so you can’t compare Atiku with Tinubu in terms of experience in governance .  But people acted out of emotion that our man is a Yoruba person and should not vote for Fulani man again because Fulanis are killing us, they acted out of emotion.  We should have looked beyond tribal sentiments and we won’t be where we are today because Atiku would have won the election and bring his experience to bear, especially in the area of economy.

No doubt there’s hunger in the land and people are angry, what would you tell or advise the president if you had the opportunity to see him?

Does he listen to advice?  The root of all these problemes is the subsidy removal. Immediately he removed the subsidy, everything went bad and life became unbearable for the common man but the rumour as of this moment is that subsidy is still being paid, and the Presidency will come to tell us that subsidy has been removed. In advanced countries, everything is being subsidized for their citizens, everything. Let President Tinubu return the subsidy and see how things will turn around for good but the man will not listen to advice.  Again, his economic team lacks requisite experience while his appointments is populated with Yoruba, he brings that sentiment into government.  The sentiment that brought him into office was what he brought to government, so I don’t see anything working if he did not bring back fuel subsidy.

In Ondo state, do you see any positive impact being made by the current governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa after the demise of Akeredolu.

I have not seen anything he has done in the last six months and there is no clear cut difference between him and his late boss. It is still the continuation of what Akeredolu did. Where are the industries, where is the Caring Heart projects, the shuttle buses?  Everything is gone,  upside down, so there’s no difference between him and his boss.

Do you see your party, PDP taking over from APC considering some unresolved  crisis in Ondo PDP, while the election is less than six months away?

There’s no crisis in the PDP, and nobody can tell me that we still have some aggrieved members within the party. When we were in government, our promise to the people was that we were going to run a transparent government and that we did. During our congreeses we promised the people that the  congress would not only be fair but it would be seen to be fair and that we achieved. Before our primaries, we held several meetings and met with the aspirants who told us that in as much as the primary was free, transparent and fair, there would be no problem. They stated that the only thing that could bring problem is that if the Working Committee was seen to tilt towards a particular aspirant. And we promised that it would not happen. The primary that was organised by the party on the 25th of April has been described by the PDP National office as the first of its kind in the history of the party in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, other states are now following our template. So, I don’t know about any member being aggrieved, and if there are, for what reason? I wonder where those that are aggrieved are coming from, because there’s no reason for anybody to be aggrieved.

Are you saying all the aspirants are on the same page with the candidate as we noticed one or two of the party’s aspirants are heading to another party?

There’s nothing anybody can do about ambition. If I am ambitious, there is nothing the party can do to stop me,  and I think this is what that is driving them and it’s not as if something went wrong between them and the party. The candidate on his part is trying his best,  because immediately after the primary, he went round to see these aspirants, bringing encouraging reports from his visits. But it was after then that one of the aspirants joined the SDP and I think these aspirants heading to another parties are in the best position to explain what was responsible for their annoyance. We were also fair to everybody in the selection of the deputy governorship candidate. Yes, I’ve heard people raise some dust and they feel that the slot should come to them. But the party and the candidates are at the center of this whole thing. The candidate knows who can work with him. So, we don’t want the situation where we choose somebody for him and from day one in office, they will start having problems. I don’t see any reason why anybody should say that they are aggrieved.

You’re facing the incumbent who also has the  center to give him support, do you see PDP having an easy ride in the election?

We know it won’t be easy and it is not going to be easy to defeat an incumbent but we have the people on our side. It is the people that will decide this election and that is why we are pleading with INEC to be fair and organise a free and fair election. They are supposed to be an unbiased umpire.  In a free and fair contest, I can assure you that we will beat them. We will not only beat them but we will beat them silly.

Are you considering vote buying which has become the order of the day in the nation’s election?

On our part, this is a strategy we will always discourage and that’s why I said INEC should be fair because vote buying starts from INEC.

How? But INEC is never involved in vote buying.

They need to work on the officials they send to the field. They bribe them, politicians bribe polling officers before coming to voters . This is to pave way for vote buying but if INEC is alive to its responsibility,  there won’t be room for vote buying, and we are going to resist that. We have never been involved and we will not be involved.

How involved are the two South West governors in ensuring the party’s victory in the election?

They are solidly with us but I won’t disclose to you. What I can tell you is that on the 6th of May, there was a meeting in Ibadan. We held a meeting in Ibadan at the Government House in Ibadan where the two governors and some other leaders from the region promised us that they will support us before and during the elections. They gave us that promise and I believe we are safe. The state chapter is safe with them and they have promised to support the party and the candidate.

Your message to the people of Ondo States ahead of the November election.

My message to the people of Ondo State is very clear. They should vote PDP in the coming election. They should vote PDP. We have tried PDP before,  we are trying APC now and every reasonable person, every reasonable Ondo indigent knows the difference now. So, let us revert back to PDP and see what we make out of it.