Defection: Why I rejected Saraki and his father – Ex-PDP Chairman, Suleiman

Defection: Why I rejected Saraki and his father – Ex-PDP Chairman, Suleiman

The founding chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Kwara State, Pa Kunle Suleiman, has revealed that he once told Olusola Saraki, father of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki that they will never be in the same political party.

The politician, who left the party recently following the defection of Saraki to the PDP, told Punch that he did so because he could not be in the same political party with Saraki because of their own political ideology.

According to him, Saraki merely stepped into his father’s shoes and inherited the existing structure but does not know how to manage it, saying light and darkness cannot exist together.

He said, “I am not only a founding father of the PDP in Kwara State, I am one of the founding fathers of the PDP at the national level, having started from G-18 to G-36 until it transformed to the PDP.

“Therefore in Kwara State, I nurtured the PDP from the scratch. It is painful that I had to leave the house I laboured hard to build.

“I really need to do so with pains because I cannot stay in the same political party with Bukola Saraki. At the beginning, when we had three parties including the PDP, and the Alliance for Democracy.

“I deliberately went to the PDP in order to avoid being in the same party with that dynasty when late Baba Olusola Saraki was alive.

“We (Olusola and I) had a very good working relationship, we talked and so on but I told him (Olusola Saraki) that we cannot be in the same party because their own politics is not ideology-based, and it is not geared towards the improvement of the lives of the masses, therefore we cannot co-habit in the same party; that is why I went to the PDP.

“After the old man died, his son stepped into his shoes. Because he was not a politician, he merely stepped into the shoes of his late father and inherited the existing structure but he does not know how to manage it.

“He reduces everybody to the level of a servant. Politics is not a master-servant relationship. Those of us who have something to offer can never play that type of politics.

“So basically, we are just different politically. Our thoughts are not the same; our ideas are not the same. We think of the masses, Bukola thinks of what he will acquire.

“Bukola does not think of the people, he thinks about himself; all others are mere instruments for him to achieve his objectives, expand his political empire and political image.

“If you look at what is happening, why did he leave the PDP for the APC in 2014? It was not because former President Goodluck Jonathan was not performing; it was because he felt that he had not had enough recognition.

“Under President Muhammadu Buhari, his defection is not based on differences of ideology, and it is not that the masses are suffering and the government should have initiated and implemented better policies; it is about him. That’s why we cannot be together.

“He described the PDP as the worst party that existed and he left, moved everybody including the structures to the APC, later he formed New Peoples Democratic Party.

“Now he has formed the Reformed-APC and he has gone back to the PDP. Light and darkness can never dwell together. We are light and that is why we left the PDP.”