With a New Face of Leadership, Nigerians’ll Trust PDP Again
A former Minister of Education under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Professor Tunde Adeniran is one with name recognition in the academia. A student of Political Science and product of the University of Ibadan, he is also an alumnus of the Columbia
Your interest in the PDP national chairmanship has not declined. But a lot of people see you from your academia background. Do you think you stand a chance on this murky turf?
My chances are very bright. Yes, my interest has not declined simply because the circumstances that prompted my interest ab initio have not changed. We saw a party that we laboured so much to found being directed away from the mission and vision for which it was set up and the party is not being run in an ideal way and we felt that in fairness to the polity; in fairness in particular to the members of the party, we need to come in to do the needful – take over the leadership and redirect the party in such a way that it will be able to do what it was supposed to do. We have to take power back to the people by ensuring that certain things are done.
The motivation for the founding of the party was to ensure that we broaden the base of political participation in a manner that at the end of the day, many people will find in it a vehicle to actualise their potential and ultimately an instrument with which to serve the Nigerian people but the party has run into seriously turbulence simply, because so many things went wrong. The party became characterised by impunity, imposition, little regard for due process, the rule of law and we felt that things must change. That was what prompted our interest and of course, with what the party went through, one will see justification in actually coming out to want to help in redirecting the party.
There is no debating your standing within the political class, having served in different capacities, but you are also up against some very heavy forces in the race to PDP chairmanship. Do you think they carry more clout than yourself when it comes to political contest?
You said earlier that because I was coming from the academic background it might delimit my capacity to really achieve dominance within the political class. I believe that because of the experience that I have gained over the years and the fact that I came into politics initially as a participating observer and later on as a resource person, before I even became very active, the network that I have established over the years speaks for itself. I am not going to mention some specific names but none of those aspiring to the same office has acquired practical experiences as mine. I can say that in the last two republics, I have been involved while it is in this present republic that these people have been involved and of course, my involvement has not been on the peripheral; it has been deep.
Many people do not know that when you talk about the past, I have played very prominent roles. When you mention the Unity Party of Nigeria for example, when the late Dr. Tai Solarin was chairman of the electoral team that went to old