 The former Governor of Akiti State Chief Shagwon Ni has joined the Social Democratic Party SDP to contest the June 18th governorship election in the state. Oni was governor between 2007 and 2010 in the state, but he was defeated in the January 26th People's Democratic Party governorship primaries by former chairman of the party B.C. Kolaoli, but subsequently dumped the party over alleged electoral malpractice and irregularities during the exercise. This new development put to rest the rumour making the rounds in the state that he had defected to the all-progressive Grand Alliance, AAPKAN. While joining us to discuss this is Larry Ogonsuyi, he is the media director of Shagwon Ni campaign organization. Mr Ogonsuyi, it's good to have you join us. It's good to be here. Great. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So walk us through what made Mr Ogonsuyi need to take this decision to move to the Social Democratic Party. What's his real reason? Because some days ago all of us were assuming that he was going to move to AAPKAN because that was a rumour that was flying around, but now we know that he's with the Social Democratic Party. What informed that move? Yeah. Good evening listeners at home once again. It's good to have you interview me on this. It was rumoured to be going to AAPKAN because the people in AAPKAN wanted him to be in AAPKAN, so they flew the kite. More than five parties wanted him to join them to be their gubanteira candidate. And I won't be surprised in the next few days where you see a rainbow collation of parties coming together to back his candidature, but I can tell you it's going to contest in the SDP. SDP is the ticket, that's why we're going to contest the elections. I'm still yet to understand why he left the People's Democratic Party. Being that... He left the People's Democratic Party because the People's Democratic Party has lost its democratic credentials. How so? The party... Yes. In the equities states, in your introduction now, you said the former Kerman, who's tenor as Kerman has not aspired, has also been promoted to the gubanteira candidate. Even the shaman ship is a matter of contention in courts. So when you have a situation where a party is being run on the good will and courts worship of the former governor of the state, the Cecilency Ayofayoshi, you will see that people believe in democracy, have no home in PDP as it's presently being run in the state. Could there not have been better ways to deal with the issue? Could this matter have not been brought to the attention of the national? I'm not in any way trying to make a case for the People's Democratic Party, but I'm trying to understand are there no internal party mechanisms that could address issues such as this other than people or members being allowed to dump the party or jump ship? The National Working Committee itself is seen to be working hands in glove with Cecilency Shifaya Ayofayoshi. Let me tell you why we think that is the position. The man who presided over the Bush three-man Ahub Committee, there was supposed to be a three-man Ahub committee, Ahub delegates to contest the re-relection on the 22nd of January. The same person, and that was cancelled because it was mad by with irregularities, the same person, Governor Woodham, who presided over that, that had to be cancelled, was the same person who presided four days later over the primaries. I remember interviewing one of the Governorship candidates, I'm talking about Alecca, who mentioned that Governor Udo Bimanual himself was not there on the day, the first time that the primaries held, the one that was cancelled initially, that he sent someone to represent him. I'm guessing that that's why he had to be returned this time in person to do the job. Again, I am not a member of the People's Democratic Party, but I'm just giving you a reported statement. What I'm saying is that if somebody had dictated their responsibility without any cogent reason four days ago, and that had to be cancelled, don't forget that it dampened the spirits of the members because they were on the field, nothing happened, and the results were taken to Abuja and presented as authentic results from an election. That in itself is an indictment that, you know, somebody sat down, so five people sat down and said, this is the result of the three-man, alcohol-delegate, election-enacted state. But because the evidences to show that it never took place were overwhelming, it had to be cancelled, and then such a man is given such a delicate responsibility. And look at the way he did it. It was on, it was live, it was streamed live. You have a situation where a presiding officer is telling a former governor of the state that I will get you arrested shouting everybody down and saying, I'm holding a list which had been doctored from Abuja and saying, if I can't find your name, in fact, there were people, let me tell you what happened. Two whose names were on the list were not allowed to enter the voting center because of flimsy excuses. But one major issue that we are forgetting to look at is that the drafters of the Constitution said that disabled people should be participants in that election, and they were supposed to have been elected along with three-man, alcohol-delegates for this election. They were not there. So you're saying, you're alleging that disabled people, people who have physical challenges were not allowed into the exercise because of their physical disabilities? Their names were not even on the delegates list because the three-man, alcohol-delegate and alcohol-delegate selection had been cancelled. And they are not thinking about, they just want to gloss over it and produce a gubernatorial candidate. That's one of the high irregularities. There were people who were not even physically challenged, who were excluded from the process. And all the physically challenged people in the state were excluded such that their chairmen, because they have an association, protested that what does the future hold for them if the drafters of the Constitution says that they must be represented in the choice, in the process of choosing a gubernatorial candidate so they can have a voice in government and they were excluded from the process. That's one. It was supposed to be a secret battle. But it is, the video has gone viral where people voted and went to show the circumstances that look at, I voted for you. The system was bastardized. And where you will say, well, police enforcement was there. No peacekeeping, because there was a lot of, I will get you arrested, I will get you locked up, not that. Then, apart from that, the intimidation, then people started showing how they voted, which in itself has matched the concept of secret ballots. Okay. So you're saying that all of these anomalies had made your principle decide that he was moving to the SDP. He wasn't the one that decided. It was we, the followers, because actually immediately after the election, chief police, a gentleman, he was interviewed and he congratulated the woman. He actually said he perceived the system to be free and fair. But when people were excluded, told him that we were there, we were excluded, we were prevented from coming in. One, two, he saw the video clips of how the process was bastardized by voters showing somebody that I have voted for your candidate. You know, rubbish in the concept of secret balloting. And they just want to gloss over all these and then put a candidate there in a situation where we are trying to claim the system. We must not, we, the followers, first, that we must not bow to negativity. Okay. Politicians has to be cleaned up. This country cannot be allowed to be thrown to the dumps. Okay. And that is why we said, look, we are going to go to another platform because people of the state themselves are protested. The questioners, the questioners said, we're going to go on hunger strike if we are not going to contest. Interesting. So you moved, so you moved from the PDP to the, to the SDP. I'm just going to ask an innocent question. So the SDP, I do not know the strength of the SDP in equity state, but I'm wondering, is this the best platform for Mr. Shagwon to run on? And what, what, what is, what exactly is the strength of the SDP in the state? Is it able to win the elections for him? Because I'm hoping that this is what he wants to get from moving from the PDP to the SDP because he wants to win that presidential, that, that gubernatorial seat. How strong is the SDP and what is the structure in the state that can guarantee Mr. Oni this particular position that he seeks? Oh, thank you very much. The SDP, as it is before we moved into SDP, has structures, but no strength. But Tifoni is a brand, is, is, is a brand. And everybody knows that on whatever platform he contests is going to win. Based on his antecedents in office, you know, he's been governor before. And you can talk to anyone in the states, people feel that issue come back. In fact, statements have been made in public domain that why are people contesting with this kind of man? Because of what he has done in the state, not because anybody, he has no money. He has no money. He's not a man given to primitive, acquisitive tendencies. That is number one. Number two is that we must not give him to negativity. In the media, I'm a journalist myself, we have to clean up this country. We cannot say because we are afraid to lose an election. We will collaborate with, I mean, with bastardizers of the process. We will compromise with those people whose duty is to compromise the system. Get into power, as in quotes, and without any sense of responsibilities. Look at the number of people who are blind. We have to take it, take it, take their interest into consideration. You can't prevent, you can't prevent people with people with disabilities are already challenged. When you're now psychologically traumatized them by preventing them from the process. We have to stand up for them. You have to stand up for them. Mr. Goosey, unfortunately, time is no longer on our side, but I want to say thank you. Larry Goosey is the media director of Shagwonee campaign organization. We wish you and your principal the best of luck. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. Well, thank you all for being part of the conversation tonight. But before we go, we'll bring you a recap of all of the conversations we've had the week long. And of course, plus politics will be back next week, every single weeknight. I am Mary Anna Cohn. Have a great weekend. The call by the Southeast or the entire South as it were is not misplaced. But if you are to compute the number of years that the North has held power from 1999 to this period that we are 2022, you will discover that the South has held power even more. Much as we are not looking at things from that perspective. A lot of us in general, I told you in the beginning, had eight years from 1999 to 2007. He was succeeded by President Yaradwa, who was short-lived. After about two years to three years, we lost President Yaradwa. And good luck, Jonathan, another Southerner. Continued until about 2015. Now, if you put this together, you will discover that the South has held on to power for an 11 or more years in the 15 years of the PDP. What we have in this country is a companion of the Sikhs. People say what you cannot do. You can't give what you don't have. My dear, you can't give what you don't have. In the first place, let me say this to you. As the campaign comes up, all of us are going to have different slogans. I will give money, I will take this, I will, I will, I will. Now, how would I trust them? And how would I trust them? They would just track their cards. What should we do in the past? One thing that we must be grateful for is that under Dr. Gholath's hierarchy, the 8th Senate stood up to the failures of the 19th and of the executive. We must be grateful for that. I'll give another example. Never before done, when every time they came, the executive came to the 8th Senate to say, give us an approval for a loan. He always said, the 8th Senate always said, show us how that money is going to be sent. Show us documents relating to that loan. Evidence for the application of back funding. Show us how we're going to be paid and show us documents. Show us a plan from taking the debt to repaying the debt. Show us a plan. And on 11 occasions, the executive refused to do so. If you lose hope, you're gone. There are a lot of things to be hopeless about. But I will know our daughters. If there's no life that matters, what the courage that you bring into it. So this country, like he said, when somebody is blind, whether you like Boa Maria or you don't like him, the truth is that when you're taking over now, we're seeing an improved NGLA. It was like the late Mrs. Nafda Kuman. When she took over, so when she's to start, there is a flash in the plan. But after she's gone, we didn't hear Nafda again like that. So there are still good people. And before even this clear, it is fair. Bursting this crime, bursting that crime. Although anybody with any fear sense of introspection wonder if there's something wrong with this crime. Too publicity. It would go and do an operation. It would put it on paper. Put it on social media. It would take pictures. And we'd be wondering, what kind of cop is this? But the truth of the matter is this. You can't afford to drown in hopelessness. In fact, for people like us, you just have to fight and regain and reclaim your country. The law should and must apply to all and not some. I mean, our leaders can't keep picking and choosing the laws that they want to obey and the ones that they want to discard. I look forward to a time when accountability will be the watchword of Nigeria's leaders. Maybe then, just maybe then, Nigeria can truly work.