Barr. Kamorudeen Toyese Ajisafe is the National Vice Chairman, (South-West) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with BIYI ADEGOROYE, he speaks about developments in the party and reminisces on Nigeria’s growth in the last 65 years.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seems to have made some successes in calming down aggrieved members. How far has it gone with the reconciliation in the party?
Well, with due respect, I want to say with every dint of responsibility that we have gone far. At least, to show that we have the capacity to reconcile ourselves, and resolve the differences, we have been able to shift grounds on the issue of the National Secretaryship. I want to tell you that those that did not want the National Secretary to come back to office were in the majority, but in the spirit of reconciliation, we allowed him to return. And since then, we have been moving on fine, such that the National Chairman and the National Secretary have been able to sign all the necessary documents, and that is good for the advancement of our party.
Even differences among our critical stakeholders, we have all seen the reason why we should all come together to give a very viable opposition to the current government. Because that is the only way by which the present government can be on its toes, and be working to deliver the best of practice. This is because in this country we always have ways of circumventing the laws and doing things our own way. A classical example is the issue of Rivers State. That could have been an opportunity to test the law on the power of the President.
I was going to ask you to what extent this current government has adhered to the principle of rule of law, a component of good governance especially in handling the issue in Rivers State?
If you want me to score them, I will give them zero. And if you ask me why I will cite that of Rivers State and that of Osun State. The issue of seizure of Osun State local government funds is one that should not be discussed. They have seized the allocation to the Osun LGs since February 2025, and we are now in August. We are talking about eight months, and you know what that means? They have deprived the people of the grassroots their fair share of the federation funds. And it is trite, a known fact that it is only a court of competent institution that can go by way of ruling that there should be a pause in releasing funds to a particular federating unit for cogent reasons.
How can you seize local government allocation for that long and expect peace to reign in that state? But we thank God for the astuteness and prudency of the State Governor, Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke, in managing the state. They were expecting chaos and uproar to happen, but God is in control. And when you say God is in control, it has to be noticeable in your actions too. You have to be doing the right thing.
As soon as he started the journey, he made sure he plugged all the loopholes or leaking channels by which money gets out of government. At his own inconvenience, he refused to take security votes, though ordinarily his office is entitled to it as part of the way of running government in Nigeria. I can attest to that without diverging information. He doesn’t have such money at all.
And any evidence of adhering to rule of law in handling the Rivers State issue?
None, but my fear is that people should not fear that a particular government is not following the principles of rule of law. The issue is that there is no system to checkmate such actions, and that is when ordinarily people become more concerned.
By the system now, what do you mean?
What I will tell the judiciary is that in consonance with the Evidence Act, Section 84, there is provision of electronic evidence and, the lawmakers in Rivers State announced their defection not only before lots of people, but the whole world saw it. The video is there, but the court said they had not defected. That means if there is video evidence of somebody killing another person, what is the probable value of such video? Are you saying one can just say that it is just a video, and it is not real? Once there is electronic evidence obtained during normal operation, not gotten secretly, we have a way of laying it, but the Supreme Court said they had not resigned.
I think the most important thing is for Nigerians to strengthen our institutions, and I keep telling people. The only way we can start to enjoy the government is when the government is accountable, not only in financial accountability but in terms of moral, and social accountability. When we get to that point, we can now beat our chest to say we are practicing good governance.
Governor Fubara has just returned to office, but what do you make of the local government election conducted by the sole administrator?
Let me tell you a simple fact, ordinary, there should be enthusiasm about people approaching the courts, that how can you put something on nothing? You can’t give what you don’t have. Where is the mandate for the emergency ruler to conduct a democratic election in Rivers? You said there was chaos and breakdown of law and order, hence you declared a state of emergency, is it not puzzling that within that same period you conducted local government elections? One thing is clear, Nigerians know that they are deceiving us, and that we know, by way of their daily interaction with us, they know that we are weak; that there is a little we can agitate to say, we want this or that.
What do you think is ahead of Governor Fubara now – is he still in PDP, especially now that PDP has lost control of the South-South?
You see, I want to tell you one thing, but for compromises, there is no way we would have lost Akwa Ibom State. Akwa Ibom is PDP, PDP is Akwa Ibom. Even in Edo State, the whole world knew what they did. Even the question is how do they want to manage Rivers State now? I just wish Fubara the best, let him just focus on governance, because he is more or less handicapped. But I wish him all the best.
Now, to the PDP. Has stability been restored in the leadership of the PDP now?
You can now see that in the las two weeks or so, the outburst by those who think they can say anything and go with it has actually reduced. So, let’s pray that we keep to that, and we don’t have any option to do otherwise.
Already the PDP has zoned the various positions – the Presidency is going to the South, the chairmanship to the North, while others to the South-West, South-East and South-South. We have even done the micro-zoning, but I will refrain from details of the micro-zoning until the party comes up with the details.
What are your fears over the departure of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Senator David Mark and the likes to the ADC?
Let me tell you something, they are all coming back. If they are serious about forming the next government, they have to come back to the PDP. We all know their fear, and I’m assuring you that since PDP is getting it right, they will all come back. Including Turaki himself. They will come back?
What are their fears and how do you see the litigation against the leadership of the ADC and indeed all the other political parties?
Well, you see, I am just praying for INEC leadership. When we talk about the current government, they can only use institutions. If INEC can be fair and do justice, I can assure you that we will not have problems about the electoral process leading to the 2027 elections. It is only INEC that can afford to say we don’t want this and all that. Take for instance, the case of the PDP now. Do you expect just one person to come up to stop the election? They cannot come against the moving train that has already departed from all sections of the country? By our own calculation, we have arrived at Ibadan and ordinarily, we shouldn’t expect anybody to stop it, or that we cannot use Ibadan due to security.
How optimistic are you about the National Convention – I have seen the National Convention Committee and subcommittees and all?
You have seen the lists and calibre of people, and one would not but be enthusiastic that this is a done deal. Where you have former governors and sitting governors, sitting and former senators and federal lawmakers, retired Generals. We have PDP members in almost all houses in the country, no matter how small; we are the biggest political opposition in Africa. There are those who believe that PDP is a carcass, but a party that is a carcass cannot win an election. In the last byelection elections we came second.
Your Senator, representing Kogo Central, Natasha-Akpoti-Uduaghan, has gained access to her office. How do you see the issue?
Yes, she is back and we are happy about that. You know that she actually is the chairperson of one of our convention Subcommittees- entertainment Sub-Committee or so, and she was at the last NEC meeting. That is to tell you that she is PDP and PDP is Natasha. One thing I know about natural justice is that no matter the intimidation and harassment, you will still see some kind of positive development. Did you see the kind of crowd that followed Natasha? If not because of the rule of natural justice, you can’t see such a crowd following her religiously. And they were monitoring him, not because of money, but they are with her, and they are making the lady more popular.
As we speak, her popularity in her senatorial district is so high, such that I don’t know who wants to beat her in an election, even when you look at fear of manipulation. This is because if I tell you that I don’t have any fear, I might be deceiving myself. The situation in Osun as far as Governor Adeleke and all other governorship aspirants are concerned is ratio 1:5. All oppositions across all political parties, you can just give them 20 per cent while Adeleke will garner 80.
The more they try to victimize him, the more popular he becomes among the people, and I can tell you, any attempt to manipulate Osun State elections will outrightly expose the type of game the APC wants to play in this nation. I think they should allow the will of the people to take place in Osun election coming up next year, because if they manipulate the scores to be so close such that people become so agitated, there will be anxiety towards the 2027 elections, because people will come up with all sorts of threats to do this or that. This is because there is a Yoruba adage which says that if a lunatic killed your mother, you would be circumspect when you sight a mechanic.
Next week, Nigeria will be 65. How will you assess our development – industrially, economically, educationally, security wise and politically in conformity with the dreams of our founding father?
Can you imagine? There is even no excitement in the air about it. It is quite unfortunate, when you compare where we are now with the level of development in the 70s and all that. The videos and achievements are there. The buoyancy of our economy, you cannot but humble yourself; you cannot but be annoyed and be sorry for our dear country, that instead of us advancing in every sector of human endeavour, it is otherwise.
Our universities were some of the best around the world, such that they attracted hundreds of foreign students. Similarly, many foreigners used to flock into the country’s hospitals for medicare. Today the reverse is the case. You can see that medical tourism has been on the increase just as our youths do take loans or sell property to fly abroad for greener pastures, some of them even travel by land or sea. We are aware of some foreign direct investment now, but not a few of our industries have closed down, hence the high rate of youth unemployment. Of course, insecurity is another terrible issue despite the amount of money allocated to that sector every year.
Look at our population, it is supposed to be an asset. I was driving around and I saw the number of trailers on our roads. Can you imagine such a number of trailers, but we don’t have assembly plants, at the minimum, not to talk about trucks manufacturing plants? But worst-case scenario, we should have assembly plants, Dangote alone is importing 4,000 trucks.
If you go to South America, Brazil has the largest population, while in North America, the United States has the largest population and they are leading in terms of development. Go to Europe and you see the development in Germany. It is only in Africa where Nigeria is the largest in population but we are still struggling in the 5th position in terms of development. You can use population for anything.
One thing I do know is that things are not so easy, even if you are in government, you would know that; not so easy in the sense that things are not working right in Nigeria. For instance, the ease of doing business is rather low. It is zero.
But the government said it has reduced inflation rate and we can see that revenue from oil and non-oil sectors has sparked an increase in monthly FAAC allocation to all levels of government?
Let me just discuss the amount of money they share every month. I don’t have to be an economist to know what is called time value of money. If you were giving me N300 million before the present government came into power, but you are giving me N1 billion now, I want to disclose to you that the purchasing power of the N300 million will take about N1.5 billion now. So, inflation has affected everything. I don’t understand why they are talking about a high amount of money without looking at the inflation rate.
The people that are suffering are the majority of Nigerians, especially workers. For instance, the minimum wage before now was N30,000 before they moved to N70,000, an increase of about 133 per cent. Are you now telling me that that 133 per cent has not been eaten up by inflation since this government came into power? Inflation has increased exponentially. The Minimum wage in Nigeria should be N250,000 or N300,000. But let us keep hope alive.
