Kassim Afegbua, former campaign spokesman for ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, tells ENIOLA AKINKUOTU about 2023 presidency, his relationship with top politicians and other issues

You were accused of working against the re-election of Governor Godwin Obaseki? Why did you think he was not the right person for the job?

From hindsight, he has proven to be a dictator kind of governor, always wanting his whims and caprices to suffice. He’s not a team player and I felt that an ingrate, no matter the status, must be reminded at all times who he is. All the lies told to whip up sentiments have expiry date. They (lies) have started manifesting once the governor got into the PDP and purportedly suspended those who helped him to campaign across the 192 wards of the state. Once he did that, people now started saying “oh, so Adams Oshiomhole was actually not the problem”. I am sure you have heard one nebulous theory of harmonisation as propounded by the governor, wanting executives of the party, who contested and won their positions, to vacate their positions for those tenants who came with him from the APC. Those who insulted me, castigated me and called me all sorts of names have come to realise that I was right in my judgment of not supporting the governor. Those who campaigned vigorously for him have since been shown the other side of life. They are all agonising now, and I am in my little corner smiling at the unfolding drama.

You are a member of the PDP, why were you campaigning for the candidate of the APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu?

You see, in politics, you don’t have to be blinded by partisan loyalty to the point that you won’t be able to respond to that inner being of your personality or emanations. Fact is, as a party, you cannot impose someone on me, and you expect me to keep quiet. I am not wired that way. I expected the party hierarchy in Abuja to sit some of us down to tell us their intention at the time Governor Obaseki was conscripted to join the party. When you sit down, you can then negotiate power sharing formula and come to a definitive conclusion about the distribution of power. They didn’t do that. They just woke up one morning, postponed the party primaries and before you say jack, they hurriedly imposed Obaseki and Philip Shuaibu to take over. Now, having won, the governor returned all his APC followers to all positions and left the old members of the PDP who had laboured to keep the party afloat. For me, my action from the start became justifiable. At this stage of my life, I cannot swallow hook, line and sinker what anybody is dishing out. I have to process it and see if it fits into my convictions and conscience. I am not an employee of the PDP. I am just an ordinary member.

Did you defect to the APC from the PDP when you worked with the former governor of your state, Adams Oshiomhole?

I left the PDP in 2001 to join others to form the National Democratic Party,  and rose to become its Acting National Chairman in 2006. Owing to the crisis in the party because I refused to allow some of the executive members to dip their hands in the till, we had to split into factions. At the end of the day, INEC deregistered the party and we found our exit door. In 2009, Comrade Oshiomhole prevailed on me to serve as a Chief Press Secretary to him. I accepted the position after much pressure and resigned my appointment after four months. I couldn’t understand the process of the government at that time. Again, in his second term campaigns, he pleaded with me to join him as Director of Publicity of his campaign, which I accepted, and after the victory, he again prevailed on me to serve as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, then later as Information Commissioner. I was part of the APC campaigns in 2015 before I left in 2017 when I discovered that the Muhammadu Buhari presidency wasn’t doing what they promised and captured in the party manifesto. I left in protest and joined the opposition PDP to afford me the opportunity to be criticising the APC and their visionless approach to governance.

So, what happened?

Nothing happened, other than the fact that I left them to team up with the PDP to fight the APC. The APC has been behaving worse that the PDP which they de-marketed in the 2015 election. I saw no reason why the kettle would be calling the pot black. All the front roll chieftains of the APC were once chieftains of the PDP.

Did you reach out to him (Oshiomhole) when he was having issues in the running of the APC?

I have a robust relationship with Adams Oshiomhole as a friend who always speaks the truth to power, no matter how bitter. Oshiomhole also appreciates me for being outspoken on issues I feel bad about. Even as his appointee, I spoke out my mind always. When he was the APC chairman, we had one or two occasions that we compared notes. The fact is, people in the APC were just afraid of the stance of Oshiomhole on many party issues and so, they teamed up to remove him from the party as the national chairman. Politics in Nigeria is very interesting and awfully so because people feed on lies and lies all the time. Any honest man in politics is a lonely man, just like I am. When you speak truth in politics, you will get insulted and castigated for daring to speak the truth. I don’t give a damn anyway. I speak my mind always and get a lot of reprieve or call it rest of mind if you like. I still maintain good and cordial relationship with Comrade Oshiomhole till date. I served in his government in Edo and shared in the positive and negative sides of that government. I cannot disown him by any standard.

Who were the people that moved against him and what do you think was or were their motives?

The fact of Oshiomhole’s problems was a function of the President’s inability to play politics of inclusion. Oshiomhole could not have unilaterally taken decisions about the role of the party without the President being briefed. When it became necessary for the President to protect him, he looked the other way. The whole stalemate was a function of Obaseki’s politics of qualification or no qualification. The governors ganged up against Oshiomhole to undo him in preference of their colleague. At the end of the day, they deployed those conspiracies to return Governor Obaseki at the 2020 election. We knew what transpired and those who played certain roles are already regretting their selfish and conspiratorial actions. Nemesis, as you know, will always catch up with you if your hands are soiled in any political undertaking

You were one of the spokespersons for former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in 2019 during the election. What was the experience like in marketing him?

Following President Buhari’s underperformance and spineless leadership, coupled with the sufferings and unemployment in the land, it would have been easier to dislodge him from power. As spokesmen, we worked hard to present to Nigerians a candidate who we thought had the capacity to manage the country better. Despite all the leadership shortcomings of Atiku Abubakar, he would have been better than Buhari in terms of understanding the issues, reaching out to every part of the country, and also being able to engage and dialogue on a number of issues. So, we put our all to it and at the end of the day, we lost. The painful aspect of that experience was the fact that Atiku abandoned us on the field and ran away to Dubai to recalibrate, while we were still here battling the APC power oligarchs, at the risk of our lives. It was later I heard he held a meeting with the president then, where he was promised to be compensated. Whether true or false, anything can happen in politics. The fact that we didn’t see him throughout the tribunal was something that diminished his profile in my own estimation. And it is the reason why I feel he doesn’t deserve to be looked upon as a candidate this time round. He has had his time, it is about time he called it quit in politics.