A former Minister for Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, has claimed that Yorubas are arrogant and lack respect for leaders.
Explaining why the South West lost out in the chairmanship race of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the just concluded national convention, Ogunlewe said the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, owes no one apology in the role he played.
He said, “Nobody should shed tears for Southwest. PDP Southwest PDP leaders deserved what they got. They were the architects of their own downfall.
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What do you expect from a divided house? The Yoruba are too arrogant.
“We are too full of ourselves. We don’t have respect for leaders. Everybody believes that he is a leader in his own little corner, and it is this arrogance and attitude that cost the Yoruba the PDP national chairmanship position.
“In politics, you talk about interests. Politics is a serious business. It is not a tea party. Why should Southwest PDP leaders be blaming Wike or any other person for the fate that befell the Yoruba?
“The Yoruba themselves should be blamed. Imagine the Yoruba bringing up seven aspirants for the post of national chairman, while the other geo-political zone had two.
“Some of us made several appeals that Southwest aspirants were too many, and that we should hold a meeting to pick a consensus candidate, but nobody listened to us. In fact, one of the aspirants, Chief Olabode George called for a meeting of the PDP aspirants from the Southwest on several occasions, but he was snubbed. Other aspirants snubbed him.
“They didn’t honour his invitations.
All the aspirants believed and were insisting that each of them was qualified to lead the party and that they don’t buy the idea of consensus. What a sheer arrogance. Some of these aspirants know very well that they were going nowhere. They were just boasting and making noise. Empty barrels.
“But I strongly believe that some of these PDP national chairmanship aspirants from the Southwest were sponsored by some elements to jeopardize and work against the emergence of a Yoruba man as PDP national chairman.
“So, they were just there making noise, boasting and gallivanting all over the place when they actually knew that they were being used as spoilers.
“We should stop blaming others for Southwest woes, rather we should blame ourselves. Simply put, we didn’t put our house in order before the Abuja Convention.
“Wike and Secondus should not beg anybody in the South West – they owed nobody any apology. We were the cause of our own downfall at the convention.
“Secondus and Wike can make appeals and embark on reconciliation tours which should not be only limited to a particular geo-political zone, but they should visit all parts of the country especially in states where PDP is having one crisis or the other.
“While we were touring different parts of the country when I was on the team that campaigned for Bode George to emerge as the new national chairman of PDP, what they were telling us everywhere we visited all over the country that Yoruba aspirants were too many, and that we should go and put our house in order, and this was one of the reasons Bode George called several meetings but which were boycotted by the other aspirants.
“Rather than asking Wike to apologise to us in the Southwest over certain remarks credited to him, it is we in the Southwest that we should cover our faces in shame. Too much education is affecting us. We were not ready to listen to words and advice of elders, and we are now paying a price for it. What happened to the Southwest geo-political zone at that convention was a self-inflicted defeat.
“When the reality of their arrogance dawned on these aspirants, they now started withdrawing from the election on the day the poll was scheduled to take place, but then the damage had already been done.
“Look at the case of one of the PDP national chairmanship aspirants who hailed from Ekiti State – the post of PDP national treasurer had already been zoned to Ekiti State, and the state governor was backing that candidate.
“With this development, should anybody from Ekiti State have come out again as national chairmanship aspirant when it is not only Ekiti State that is there to be allocated all the positions?
“I’m talking of Professor Tunde Adeniran. He should have withdrawn from the race before the day of the convention having known that his state governor, Ayodele Fayose who also happen to be the chairman of PDP State Governors Forum was supporting and backing a particular candidate from Ekiti State for the post of PDP National Treasurer.
“Why did Gbenga Daniel, Rasheed Ladoja, Taoheed Adedoja and others step down on the day of the convention when all along they had stubbornly refused to listen to advice. It was only when they realized that failure was staring them in the face and knocking at their doorsteps that they beat a retreat. But it was already too late – their arrogance had already hurt Southwest political interests.”
