The 2023 Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Jide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, announced his exit from the party on Monday, March 3, 2025. In this interview with WALE AKINSELURE, the Lagos State PDP Secretary, Soji Orioye, discusses the implications of Adediran’s resignation, the party’s performance, and the leadership of Chief Bode George and others
Jide Adediran, popularly called Jandor, announced his exit from the party. How much of a loss is his exit? Is the Lagos PDP unbothered?
Well, I don’t think it’s much of a loss. But, the truth of the matter is that you, as a father, will not be happy if you lose any of your children. However, individuals are entitled to their own opinions. Sometimes you might decide to go blue and your father or your mother might decide to do green and yellow. So he is entitled to his own opinion. Even when your party is the ruling party, people might still decide to quit. He has his reasons. But I believe the PDP has not done bad to him. So it’s now up to him to decide his own opinion.
You said the PDP did not do anything bad to him, but he mentioned that divisions and crises in the party made him leave.
That is politics; you win some, you draw some, you lose some. If he’s saying there’s a crisis in the party, he came into the party barely six months before the last election and he got the party ticket. He met stakeholders, people who have been in the party since its inception, yet he got the ticket. He should have it in mind that people he met at the time also had ambitions. You claimed you had what it takes to win the election, and you did not win. What do you think will be in people’s minds? What do you think will be people’s thoughts? Six people bought the party’s nomination and expression of interest forms, the likes of Deji Doherty, Ade Dosumu, Jimi Karmal, David Kolawole, and Rhodes Gbadebo. You met all these people in the party, but directly or indirectly, with your ways of permutation, and calculation, you got the party ticket, and they all thought you should win, and it went the way it went. You even gave us the worst result ever expected in the history of the party. Look at how Jide Adediran left the party. This is the party that has been built since 1998, barely 26 years. Somebody came into the party in the last election, barely six months into the election, and he destroyed it and left it for people who have been in the party for over 25 years. If it happens to you, how would you feel? As a father, you have a 25-year-old son and he left you in isolation. How would you feel? He left you on top of Third Mainland Bridge, at 2 am, when the shock absorbers of your vehicle were condemned, and the car was punctured. And he left you, the father. How would you feel? He came; he saw; he made money; he enjoyed the party. Why can’t he wait and suffer with us and let us build the party together? Whether it’s going to be a merger, realignment, or solving issues due to tendencies, why don’t you wait and suffer with us? He has now left us. All these calculations are less than two years old. He came barely six months before the election. Do your permutations. He left those who have been in the party for the past 25 years. Let us fear God.
Are you saying he is ungrateful for leaving the party, despite giving him the governorship ticket six months after joining the party?
Well, he is entitled to his opinion.
But, victory at elections is a combination of both the candidate’s ability and the party’s structure. Why do you blame Jandor’s candidature for the party’s dismal performance in the last election?
This is a structure that has been put in place since 1998 and somebody barely came to the party and the ticket was given to him to run. He was given three ad hoc delegates across the 245 wards in Lagos State. Some of our leaders in Lagos State went to connive with some leaders at the national and gave him the three ad hoc delegates. So, he had stakes in the candidates for the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senatorial and the governorship. You then go to the poll and lose the election. Who do you blame? The party has done its best, so nobody should blame the party.
Jandor, while announcing his exit from the party, said his decision stemmed from the action taken by some of the party’s leaders, including former deputy national chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George. What is the party doing to address the crisis at the state level?
Chief Olabode George is a father, a leader, and a mentor. But when you lose, people will castigate a lot. The party at the national level and Jandor have a way of their own. Whichever way it goes, we shouldn’t insult elders. Nobody should insult elders because of politics. Politics is all about what you get and how you are, and he who gets what and how. So you shouldn’t insult elders because of ambition. You will leave the office someday. Look at Akinwunmi Ambode. He became governor of Lagos State. He was insulted while he was a sitting governor, he couldn’t do the second term, let alone somebody who has not even become a governor. So we should learn and go by the way of tradition and culture. So Chief Bode George, Deji Doherty, Abimbola Ogunkelu, Aduke Maina and others are leaders of the Lagos PDP. We should learn to respect leaders.
Looking back, do you regret the party’s decision to hand Jandor the governorship ticket?
That is why I said party politics has its own way of operating. If the party grants him the ticket, he might secure it through unpopular means, such as inducement or bribery. I’m not saying this particular person accepted money from anyone, but he might come with hype, and the party may feel he deserves to get this and that.
You mean Jandor came in with a lot of money and the party surrendered the party ticket to him?
Leave money matters. After getting the ticket, he claimed that he was going to get a deputy governor who has over six million followers, that is Funke Akindele. Let’s say Funke Akindele even has one million followers, he would have become the governor. Who is deceiving who? He claimed to have 800,000 followers that came with him from Lagos4Lagos, from the All Progressives Congress. Some of the party leaders tried to manage the crisis in the Lagos PDP but he still went all alone to choose his deputy in person of Funke Akindele, claiming she had six million followers. In the end, we got 62,000 votes in the governorship election. Yet somebody apportions blame!
Going forward, how is the party planning for the local government election on the one hand, and the 2027 general election, on the other hand?
For the local government election, PDP will participate. The 2027 election is general and even APC does not know what tomorrow will be. It is only God that knows how tomorrow will be. Tomorrow will come naturally, and when it comes, the game and the permutation will unravel. There will be a lot of tendencies.
When you say a lot of tendencies, do you mean mergers to oust the APC?
That is the permutation of politics. If there is no merger, there won’t be a winner. Do you think it is only people in APC who won the election for President Bola Tinubu? Didn’t Nyesom Wike and co form G-5? Are there no other extracts from the north and the south? What about sociocultural, religious, and traditional groups? All these are tendencies. It is all about reaching out.
The South-West zonal congress of the PDP is approaching and certain positions have been zoned to the Lagos PDP. Has the party resolved its candidates for the congress?
There is shuffling between Lagos and Ogun states. Ekiti goes with Ondo; while Oyo goes with Osun. Lagos is to produce the national ex-officio, legal adviser, treasurer and zonal ex-officio.
Is that sorted already, in terms of the individuals you are putting forward?
Well, this is politics. It is about who gets what, when and how. Nobody knows how tomorrow will be, just like in the case of Aminu Tambuwal and others when they stepped down at the national convention. Only God knows tomorrow. Sometimes you propose that there is a way, God does His design. Nobody knows tomorrow.
Source:
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