Utweets
The 2025 Appropriation Bill signed into law by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has continued to generate controversies, particularly the N11.5 billion security vote for the office of Finance Commissioner and N250 million sitting allowance for the same commissioner. In this interview with BOLU-OLU ESHO, the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, speaks on the opposition’s stance on the discrepancies and people’s reactions, as well as PDP’s chances in the 2027 general elections. Excerpt.
What is PDP planning to do about the alleged discrepancies discovered in the Ondo State 2025 Budget?
The PDP has been in the forefront of the 2025 budget that the Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa-led Government called Budget of Recovery, for which we have tagged, ‘Budget of Looting’. There are so many sub-heads that cannot be explained to the people. And in the last two weeks, when these matters have been dragged up and down; as I speak to you, the government has not come out with any official position, the true position of the budget. They have not told us that the budget is not valid. They have not explained to us how the Commissioner for Finance intends to spend N11.5 billion on security vote. They have not explained to us. They have not explained to us how the Commissioner for Finance intends to spend N250 million on honorarium and sitting allowances for which persons we don’t know. She has not explained to us how she intends to spend N230 million of public funds for Prado Jeep SUV for herself. So, all of these are in the front burner. We have engaged the people of Ondo State. Also, the media houses, radio, television have been engaged. So, they know, those in government know that we have not left them alone. We are asking them to account for Ondo State’s money that they are in charge of at the moment.
What is PDP expecting from the state House of Assembly? Is the Assembly not culpable in this matter because they were the people who actually passed the budget?
Well, I do not like to pass the buck in this case because, you know, when they sit in the plenary, they tell you they don’t represent any party. And then, if you consider the fact that the PDP is the minority in the House, it is quite possible and easy for the majority to bully them or to use the term I recently used in the media; to Ningi them. You know, when Abu Ningi in the Senate said the monies that were taken from the treasury was too much, what they quickly did was to suspend him and waived all his allowances until Ningi fought back. So, Ningi was able to do that because of who he is. He has been in the National Assembly since 1999. He is a thoroughly grounded member of the National Assembly. He was able to fight his way back and they quickly called him back. So, if you have an Assembly member who does not have that kind of weight, political weight and leverage, and he tries to screen some of the things that they are doing, they could bring him out, they could simply suspend him or do anything to frustrate him. I am not holding brief for that, but I guess that is what would have happened on the one hand. And on the other hand, they might have also been compromised in a way, like ‘take this one and shut up’. That leaves us, the people, to bear the brunt of what they are about to do. Some people have also said that we are crying wolf where there is none, and that this is just a budget. That, it is a proposal of expenditure. They don’t know what they are saying because, yes, it is a budget, but is it not approved? So, it means that every money that is allocated there can be drawn. Are you waiting for it to be drawn down before you start complaining to the people? This is the time to shout. What we are doing is, ‘Look, don’t take this money. It is going to be stolen’. And the people who are involved in all of this, as I speak to you, have not responded.
I could recall that at a point you issued a statement telling the EFCC to look into the budget; are you planning to make it official?
Yes, I can tell you that what the PDP is planning is two-pronged. One, we are going to take Aiyedatiwa and the Ondo State Government to court. We are going to stop them from implementing this budget that they cannot explain to the people. I mean, there is going to be litigation. We are going to take court action. And if that one does not give us the result we expect, we are going to physically occupy the Ondo State Governor’s Office and Government House. The Governor’s Office will be occupied by Ondo State people. And look, we didn’t put you there to steal our money. We put you there so that you can spend this money for the benefit of the people. So, we are considering multiple actions and I am not joking about this.
So, how is PDP preparing for the general election which is still far away? How are you putting your house in order?
If you follow the last few days, starting from the emergency Board of Trustees’ meeting, which was preceded by PDP governor’s meeting and then all the series of meetings, the consolidation meeting held in Bauchi and so on and so forth, we have been on ground. You will see that the pressure on the PDP is enormous because Nigerians are now looking up to us for salvation. The ordinary man in this country witnessed the Obasanjo-Yar’dua-Goodluck Jonatan administrations and they know what life was then, in terms of the economy, in terms of security, in terms of education, in terms of well-being. So, there is frustration in the land, and it’s so much, so palpable, so touchable, that people are now crying out for help. And the only political party that can help the people is the Peoples Democratic Party because we have structures across the country. There is no home; there is not one single home in this country where you cannot find a PDP member. That is how extended the PDP is in this country. And I have also come to find out that, generally speaking, election is about structures. Some people say it is money; yes, but everything is not about money. Even if you have money, if you don’t have the people to give it to, how does the money give you the result you are looking for? So, the PDP is the Messiah’s party, the salvation party, the party that everybody is looking up to. And if you look at it critically, the APC is beginning to crack from the inside. A fortnight ago, Dr. Kayode Fayemi said the APC should apologise to Nigerians and to former President Goodluck Jonathan, that all the things they did were done in bad faith and that they regret it. Kayode Fayemi is not an ordinary Nigerian. He is well read, he has a PhD in War Studies, so he knows what he is talking about. Is it El-Rufai that was governor two times, was minister, who believes that the APC is no longer what it used to be? So, if you look at it critically, the Rotimi Amaechi and co, who are foundation members of the APC, who have seen it all, they saw the PDP, they have seen the APC, they now know where to go for salvation. So, I can tell you that, before the middle of this year, before June 2025, they will know that the APC is a scammer party; they don’t have anything to offer. The people are suffering, the people are committing suicide. Students are writing suicide notes as they can no longer cope. It’s not abstract, it’s physical. You see somebody well-dressed, walks up to you and says, look, I’m not asking for money, if you have anything, you have to give me, so I can eat. It’s as bad as that. So, it has become an embarrassment for a country like Nigeria, that with all the natural resources, human resources, for us to be going through what we are going through now, it’s abominable.
Some people are coming up with the opinion that if the other political parties could come together, they will actually unseat the APC come 2027. What is your take on this?
Yes, that one is empirical. There is data to support that. In 2023, if you add the votes of Peter Obi and that of Atiku Abubakar, it would already be in the realm of 12 million.
Now we’re almost four million higher than what the APC government had. And if you also look at the fact that Atiku Abubakar’s vice presidential candidate in 2019 was Peter Obi, which means that somehow the PDP decided to divide itself, and that’s what gave advantage to the APC. If we did a differentiation before, we must now integrate. The PDP must reintegrate itself by bringing all those people back to the fold. Kwankwaso was a member of the PDP. He was a minister under the PDP, he was a governor under the PDP. He went to NNPP now. So, if you like, call it a coalition. But I like to call it reintegration. All the people who benefited from the PDP, who felt they were looking for greener pastures, like Amaechi, like El-rufai, all of them must be reintegrated, the only exception is Kayode Fayemi. But they have also come to realise that those so-called greener pastures they were looking for were not there. So they have to return home. All of them have to come back home and join forces with those of us that are still there so that we can now, if you like, call it rebrand. Reintegrate, rebrand and then the PDP is good to go because the PDP has a track record. We have something that we can parade. We can tell you that in the six years of Jonathan, for example, Nigeria was the leading economy in Africa. Naira was stable. Prices were stable. In education, he established universities, secondary schools in Nigeria. There are so many things. Are we talking of the eight years of General Obasanjo? Then EFCC, ICPC were fighting institutional formations, fighting corruption, and the rest of it. But what can the APC parade? In ten years, eight years of Buhari and almost two years of Tinubu, what are their legacies? What are the things they have given to Nigerians other than hunger and poverty? And Nigeria has become the world capital of poverty. That’s the only thing they have brought to us. But the PDP is known. You cannot start from the unknown to the known. That would not be correct. So we move from the known to the unknown. The PDP is known. And don’t forget, people talk about the excesses of Wike; Wike is a human being. He looked at himself as the creation of the PDP, from local government chairman to chief of staff to governor, to minister. Remember the minister that he is now under the APC, he has served as minister before this particular government. So it has not added anything to his profile. Being a minister under the APC has not added anything to his profile. If it’s by rank, you see the same rank. So the processes of reintegration should be widened dispassionately because the reason we have politics is to get power and use it to better the lives of the people and also better our own lives. If you are making palm oil, your hands will not be dry. That’s the important part of it. That’s particularly me. That’s my own attitude to public office. We serve as a channel to bless people, to bless the community. But in the process of blessing others, you also get blessed. That is the irony of it. But once you don’t have that opportunity, you are going to go into extinction. You see people who should not be in public office occupy public office. They think it’s about themselves, about bettering their personal pocket. But the moment they leave office, you ask them where is the money, they cannot find it. That’s to show you that actually the funds belong to the people. They are just kept there as a caretaker. You know, when they make a caretaker for a house, he can exercise all the powers of the landlord, but he is not the landlord; he is just a caretaker. That’s why public officeholders are caretakers. Public money is being given in trust for the people. So as long as they are not using it for the people, they are going to account for it. And one way or the other, you find yourself receiving the shorter end of the stick. So I believe the PDP has everything to bring back to power and to be miraculous.
So what is your message to Nigerians?
Well, Nigerians are a little bit laid back. They say, oh, PDP is not doing anything. It’s like they themselves don’t want to do anything. They want the PDP to do everything. It doesn’t work like that. In the midst of the monies that are being wasted and the suffering, people should exercise their own right of expression. There are no two names to something that is bad. Something that is bad is bad. Let us, across party lines, come out to condemn this government. We must, in unison, condemn what the APC government is doing and also prepare to oust them. Nobody should think it’s another person’s job. It’s a job for all of us. That is the message I want to get across to Nigerians. Getting the APC government out of Nigeria is a task that can be done by everybody. It’s a collective task now because if there is a particular situation, we are either part of the problem or we are part of the solution. So let all of us be part of the solution so that we can get these people to the dustbin of history because they have not brought anything good to Nigerians...CONTINUE THE FULL READING HERE:
