A two-time Ogun governorship candidate, Paseda has vowed to make sure that Gov. Abiodun does not come back come 2023 and he has started work on that project. Over the last few days, he has been meeting with various groups across the 20 Local Governments of the state.
To
enable him do that effectively he has resigned from Ogun APC.
Until
he resigned from Ogun State APC, a few days back, he was a valued
member of the party. He was one of those who contributed to the victory of Prince
Dapo Abiodun, the Governor of Ogun State.
But Paseda
shock everyone recently when he resigned from the party after years of
complaints that Gov. Abiodun did not fulfil all his promises to
his group after helping him win. He said he complaint to party leaders
repeatedly and to the governor himself, but nothing was done about.
Right
now, Paseda is bitter about it and he says he is going to work against
the victory of Gov. Abiodun in Ogun State.
What
are the issues, City People asked him a few days back and he
opened up on why he is so angry and bitter with the Ogun State Governor. What
led to his recent exit from Ogun APC we asked him.
“If you
believe strongly in the process of a political party, and you are 100%
committed like I am, when you get frustrated and there is no repair to damages
done, you have a choice. It worries you. You sit down and do nothing, and just
pretend as if nothing is going on, and behave like an outsider from inside. Or
you step out and try and correct it. I chose to get out, so that I will not be
seen as doing something that can be termed as anti-party.
My
singular reason for resigning from APC is so I can actively work
against Dapo Abiodun, because I believe his imagined 2nd term
is erroneous. He should not have been give that 2nd term ticket
for so many reasons from moral reasons, for the image of the party that is seen
as progressive, we say we are progressive. We say we give everybody open door,
to be whoever you want to be, in the party. So, when we see things seriously
going wrong, and the Apex of the party is not really doing what
we think, or what they should be doing, to protect the interest of the
grassroot, as well as the stakeholders, (which I am one of them), then it
leaves me with no other choice than to step out. So, I am out. And I am not a
member of any political parties, at the moment. I am not. I love my party, the APC.
But I have to leave for now to enable me fight Dapo Abiodun. How
can I make a change? Or do what I think is right. Or try and correct the
errors. Let me tell you the truth. As you speak to me now, there are too many
people who are aggrieved in the party.
But I
don’t want to continue to stay on and complain. Let me step out and battle Gov.
Abiodun. Now, that I have stepped out, I am free. I am a free agent. I
can now talk about the negative side of my beautiful party. What they have done
wrong, specifically in Ogun State.
So, my
party has not really done anything bad, outward or wrong in my eyes, at the
national level. Our national leader as far as I am concerned is our national
leader. He is an impeccable man. He is the one we want. But in our state, Ogun
State, it is a different thing. It is a different ball game”.
How
easy was it coming to that decision to quit APC we asked him? “It
was very difficult. But onece I took the decision, I had to go. I am in a
party. I have reunited that party before. I have financed a whole political
party nationwide. So, I know the mechanism. And I know the rules of operating
within a framework. But it was difficult to pull out of APC. It
took me months, weeks, before the primaries, during the primaries, after the
primaries. I actually spoke to 4 of the aspirants for
governorship, in the same party, that were aggrieved. I didn’t contest, because
at that point I made up my minds, not contest against Gov. Abiodun
because I stepped down for him in 2019. We had a meeting. We had
a conversation. I felt he was going to do what I would have done, given the
opportunity. I thought we were on the same page. And I thought oh yes, this is
a good man, why not step down for him. And I did not step down by asking for
anything from him. I didn’t negotiate anything with Dapo Abiodun, except,
okay, we are all going to work to make it happen. Once it happens, once you
win, you should take care of A and take of B. And I
am referring to the people who actually didi the work for him, the grassroots,
the members, the people who worked for him, members of the PASEDA
Movement, personally, there is a very little slot that the governor can
give me, because we are contested against each other. Maybe one or two slots,
but really anything else is below me. So, it was not a decision that was made
to step down for him based on personal gains, or based on the need for my
supporters, my followers to be involved. When we had this discussion, I told
him, I was doing it not for any other reasons, not for financial reasons,
because I did not take a dime from him, as a matter of fact, quote me, during
the struggle for the primaries, I actually made available almost 6,000
OPC boys that registered in APC to support him. Before
that time, they never did. These are followers I inherited from Fasheun,
that I re-engineered from the old traditional OPC to a reformed OPC,
headed by educated graduates. It is not about Hooliganism or carrying
guns. Nooo!
It is
about security work. So, they were instrumental to his emergence. They came
into party. This is 6,000 votes we are talking about. They have
never done it before.
They
have never been part of any political party. I got them to be part of it.
That is my main reason why I left the
party. I would have still stayed within the party, if they had picked another
candidate to run the 2nd term. But they didn’t. I respect the
party’s decision. There is nothing I can do about it. But I can do something
about me being in the party.
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