How APC can emerge stronger from congresses — Adedoyin

Former Women Affairs Minister, Princess Funke Adedoyin, in this interview wants the All Progressive Congress, APC, to integrate all legacy parties within its fold to have successful party congresses. Excerpts: By DEMOLA AKINYEMI You have been involved in the politics of Kwara State since the era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, how has the journey been? It has been years of challenges, wonderful opportunities. To go back a little bit, as you know, when we were thrown out of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2005/2006, we all formed the Action Congress, which became the Action Congress of Nigeria. And I remained in the ACN until the last general election. Funke-APCWe, in the South of Kwara, had been agitating for power shift for many years because we had Governor Mohammed Lawal, who was from Kwara Central, who did a term from 1999 to 2003; and we then had Governor Bukola Saraki, also from Kwara Central, he did two terms. Even before Senator Saraki became the governor, we had been agitating, but the idea was that the central zone should be allowed to complete its two terms. And don’t forget that at that time, we were in the PDP anyway, so we were following the trend at the national level, which was that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was going to do a second term. And since Governor Lawal was not in our party and the PDP merged with the Saraki faction of the then All Peoples Party, Dr. Bukola Saraki emerged as the gubernatorial candidate, from the Central, that was what led to the Bukola-Funke ticket in 2002, before I was elevated to the federal level and an alternative deputy governor was found after we had concluded the primaries. As I said, when we were de-registered in 2006, we helped form the ACN. I would consider myself at that time the first among equals in the leadership of the ACN in Kwara State. We fielded candidates in the 2007 elections, but we were too young as a party to win statewide elections, although we won a few seats in the state House of Assembly from the Kwara South zone. That went the way it did but we still stayed in the ACN. We continued to build the party. However, the challenge we had in 2010/2011 was, again, the agitation for power shift to the South. Unfortunately, in 2010, the ACN picked a gubernatorial candidate from Kwara Central. This totally devastated the South, which was the power base of the party. So we entered into negotiations with the PDP for a gubernatorial candidate from the South and a brilliant candidate from the South emerged in the PDP in the person of Abdulfatah Ahmed, who won the election. Does it mean you are yet to pitch your tent with any political party? Let me say emphatically that we have moved our entire structure, our supporters in both the PDP and the ACN to the APC. APC is, of course, the more progressive party. And in terms of my own personal ideology, I’m more of a social democrat and the policy positions that lift people out of poverty and ensured the greatest good for the greatest numbers, that places the greatest resource of this nation are being championed by the APC. You must be under immense pressure from both the PDP and the APC as both will see you as a factor in Kwara State politics. How are you coping with that? We did talk to both sides at the highest levels. I have never been of the school of thought where the opposition is the enemy! Of course I feel they are wrong, but I also believe they can be educated and that process of education is continuous! But now a decision has been taken. We belong to the APC and that is where we stay. The decision is collective. There are so many structures that we put together. From Kwara South Initiative to The Kwara Project, the Kwara South Professionals, the the Princess Olufunke Trust that is focused on the resource enhancement of women, and the many youth groups and so on. We are not newspaper politicians, as I keep saying, who will say they are this and they are that and will not get more than 200 votes in a general election. Our people were in both parties. We will consolidate our people into the APC and take it from there. We will work with all our people across the state for the APC to win the elections at all levels. We are doing a lot of fence mending. I have just returned from a long stay in Kwara. I will return again as soon as I come back from this trip. For me, it is important that we take all our people with us so that we will remain one. Our strength is in the numbers. We don’t want a situation where by taking precipitate action, we lose our people. We need to integrate all legacy parties within the APC in a manner that builds the party, not tear it apart with infighting so that we can go to party congresses in a united manner.