DEAR ‘ACTORS’, YOU GRAVELY MISSED THE POINT!

By Oyejide Sunkanmi
Ogun PDP Publicity Secretary

Moments after I finished reading Mr. Segun Seriki’s response (yes, Seriki’s response, even though it has Raphael Olaosebikan’s name) to my rejoinder on the piece “Why We Acted”, I felt it was necessary to respond and situate the issues.

While I do not understand what he meant by not being “media war protagonist” among other gaffes (perhaps he meant to write “media war propagandist”), I make haste to say that no matter how hard he tries, Prince Ajibola Oluyede will not condescend to their low level. Prince Oluyede knows too well like George Bernard Shaw counselled that we should “Never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it”. My advice to you, “the actors”, if you feel very strongly and are sure that Prince Oluyede has been involved in any professional misconduct, you should report him to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as the authentic Ogun State PDP Working Committee is set to do in respect of Mrs. Bimbo Lanre-Balogun’s multiple and contradicting affidavits.

Now, to the issues. It is obvious to discerning minds that you, so-called actors, are the ones chasing shadows and leaving the real issues which are:
1) Assuming without conceding that Prince Oluyede gave a wrong advice to the former State Chairman, Samson Bamgbose and others, in respect of the Police invitation on a Friday, didn’t the then State Working Committee (SWC) hire another lawyer to represent it at the State Police Headquarters on the said date? If the Police had not been compromised from Abuja, why didn’t they wait till the following Monday? Besides, what has your “messiah” done to recover the party secretariat? How come he is no longer pre-occupied with that? Rather, he is busy scouting for people to sign fraudulent affidavits after ripping off the Adebutus!

2) Was that also why one of you, “the actors”, Mrs Bimbo Lanre-Balogun went to court to depose to an affidavit that the then Adebayo Dayo-led State Executive Committee never held congresses in Ogun State before the expiration of its tenure? So, which congress produced you, Raphael Olaosebikan, now that you are addressing yourself as “Acting State Secretary”?

3) If you are not working in cahoots with the Ladi Adebutu-Sikirulai Ogundele gang, how come you have not taken steps to rein in or reprimand Bimbo Lanre-Balogun? Why haven’t you deposed to an affidavit to counter Lanre-Balogun’s averments that congresses never held in Ogun State? Is it not a less-than-clever way to clear the way for the illegal contraption from which Ognudele emerged in July, 2020?

4) How can Mr. Seriki, who is not a member of the PDP, seek to “liberate” the party? Is it not an incontrovertible fact that he has been expelled from the PDP since July 2018? Shall we take your dogging this issue as an admission of the fact? Clearly, it is!

5) On the issue of the suspension of traitors and black legs, I make bold to say we did exactly what our late boss and icon, Senator Buruji Kashamu would have done. He never condoned indiscipline, deceit and lies, which are the stock-in-trade of these fictional “actors”. Asking if that was a sustenance of our late boss’ legacy beggars the issue because in your first article, you had questioned the rationale behind the decision to preserve Senator Kashamu’s legacies. And having “acted” in accordance with your ill-conceived conviction, you cannot rightly question the decision of those who reacted to your ignoble acts.

6) It is interesting that you have now changed from your assertion that Prince Oluyede demanded money from Pa Adebutu’s emissary (Aare Oyefeso) to say it was “allegation”. As at the last time I checked, our jurisprudence has not changed: it places the onus of proof of an allegation on he who alleges. So, Messrs Seriki and Raphael, the burden of proof of your “allegation” rests on you.

7) Without mincing words, it is clear even to the blind that we do not belong to the same State Working Committee or State Executive Committee. You, Raphael and other “actors” are now hobnobbing with the Ogundele-led gang after selling your conscience. You flock together. You strategise together, fly to Abuja together, stay in the same hotels together and attend court sessions together on the Adebutus’ bill – all in a bid to collapse the structure of your benefactor whom you claim to love so much and derisively said would love to be a life member of any social club named after him.

On the so-called fortunes that you lost during the last election, the question is: who was responsible? The man who fought gallantly and got you on the ballot and even funded you or the one who defected to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and worked against you and other candidates of the PDP? Is it not the same person that openly worked against you and other PDP candidates that all of you, the self-styled “progressives” are now running to cap-in-hand? By the way, a little bird told me that a major factor that worked against you, Raphael, is your state of origin. Is it true you are from Kwara State?

9) Without much ado, it is obvious to reasonable members of the party and the general public that you are the dissidents. You have sold out. And that is why you claimed that you and the other “actors” are purportedly being led to an imaginary “negotiation table” by someone who has ceased to be a member of the PDP and Senator Kashamu’s political family. Pray, how can a non-PDP member lead supposed members of the PDP to “negotiate” (or more appropriately sell) the structure to another non-member whose three-year contract with APM is still valid, subsisting and running?

10) Your claim that some “media war protagonist” are benefitting from a crisis is of no moment. Ordinarily, there should not be any crisis, if there is any modicum of dignity, honour and responsibility in you, “the actors”. The one you, “the actors” are groveling at his table has not repudiated his contract with APM. So, in effect, he is still in APM. One can only pity you and your ilk now that you have decided to trade away your political future because of a meal ticket. For your information, it is on record that your new principal has done everything to cajole me and other dogged and principled members of the Kashamu political family to join you, “the actors” in your inglorious act of selling out and we have REFUSED! NO MATTER THE AMOUNT OF DOLLARS, WE CANNOT BE BOUGHT OVER BY ANYONE! ON KASHAMU’S MANDATE, WE SHALL STAND. NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER! WE SHALL OVERCOME! God bless the soul of Senator Buruji Kashamu! God bless Ogun State PDP!! God bless our dear Ogun State!!!

OGUN STATE PDP
WHY IT IS PRUDENT TO RECONCILE.

In accounting, reconciliation is the process of ensuring that two sets of records are in agreement. Reconciliation is used to ensure that the money leaving an account matches the actual money spent.
This is done to ensure that the balances match at the end of a particular accounting period.

After the Era of our Leader, Buruji Kasamu of Blessed memory. It is my personal belief, as a stakeholder in the PDP family, that reconciliation is the only way out of where we find ourselves.

I have long realised that Ogun State "PDP account's" is not balance, What has been our gains as compared to our losses, you will agree with me that our losses has been greater than our gains or profits.

There has never been gains in division, a house divided against itself, they say will never stand. In the last three elections withing Ogun state, perhaps out of fear, division or favour we did not field our best candidates to lead us to victory, sentiments was used in our selections and we followed blindly without questions. Often I wondered if we are Educatetd, I purzeled why we are not using our God given talents to question and develop the leadership structure, so we can be lead aright.

Our late leader Buruji, led us in the best possible way he knew, we won all our Opponents in the court of law till the end of his life. He was on war front and he fought gallantly, Buruji was a Winner till the end of his time.

However this is a new beginning for us, we are to use all the good things Buruji built and to do away with the *"not good enough thing"* he did, as he was also human, it will be foolhardy for anyone to expect him to be perfect.

One can not fault his followers for believing in him, the fighting spirit in him is something to admire. Righly or wrongly, he fought against what he believed was injustices. He fought against OGD, Baba Obasanjo, and at the End Ladi Adebutu. Against all odds he retained the Party Structure in Ogun State, *" The power"* he left for his followers. And now everyone else his jostling jostling for.

Even with the above *"Power"* or structure , what had this brought to us as loyal members of the PDP and Buruji group?

We did not Win Governorship, we never controled the majority in the state house, we never control the majority to win decisively in our various constituencies. We can't then lay claim to winning the arguments, but loosing all our customers.

The group won all the cases to be in control of the party structure, but could not win Elections. More like winning the battle but loosing the war.

To me something is wrong with that system, as an Academician in Politics, I believed we must change our orientations. We should not continue in the part of self distraction, a path that spells death to our dear party.

In my opinion it is time to make the move to compromise, a time to reconcile with other groups. And that is the path the Buruji Progressive wing lead by PSS is following, and this is where I stand.

To compromise is to make a deal between different PDP groups, where each party gives up part of their demands. ... Margalit calls these *"rotten compromises,"* In democratic politics. However great challenges of contemporary democracy has become more difficult in the era of OGD, BURUJI and Now Ladi Adebutu, the permanent campaign of division for over a decade, must change.
This is what we need to do in my own opinion, not for personal gains, but for us all, so we can be the winning Party again.

Dr. Babalola Adesanya-Shine.