National Publicity Secretary of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Alhaji Bari Salau, in this interview with ROTIMI IGE, speaks on the crisis rocking his party vis-a-vis its preparations for the 2015 general election. Excerpts:How is the party getting ready for the 2015 elections'The UPN has an antecedent. Somebody once told me that Chief Obafemi Awolowo had done 45 per cent of the job that we are supposed to do. When I say Chief Awolowo, I mean, Chief Awolowo and other people like Bola Ige, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Bisi Onabanjo, Ambrose Alli, Adekunle Ajasin and Cornelius Adebayo. They did remarkable things and so, when people hear of UPN, they remember what the UPN did in the Second Republic and they say, 'oh! This is Awolowo's party.' This makes it easy for us to penetrate the minds of the people and that helps us a lot. Many people have pretended as Awoists. We have heard of the AD (Alliance for Democracy), AC (Action Congress), ACN (Action Congress of Nigeria), and now they have APC (All Progressives Congress). Unity Party of Nigeria is very unique.In how many states will your party field candidates in the coming elections'We will be fielding candidates in all the states of the federation. Nobody is in command of the polity of this country today. The PDP has been ruling this country for 15 years. What have they done' The APC, one way or the other, has been ruling in Lagos State for the past 15 years. Lagos is their best example. Go and look at Lagos. They use the media to propagate what they have been doing. They don't have free education. You cannot go anywhere you want in Lagos. Lagos is being taken over by what they call 'go slow.' Is it not the job of the government to solve that kind of problem'Will you also be fielding a presidential candidate'Yes, we will have a candidate for the presidency and you will be surprised.Who is your candidate'We don't know yet. And in a situation where nothing is certain, anything could happen. That is the story. There is so much competition in this country that you cannot write anything off. Anything could happen and we hope that whatever happens will be to the benefit of the UPN.What about the allegation of collecting money from Atiku Abubakar'Atiku did not give us money. Initially, we were introduced to a group of young men who presumably were Atiku's political associates because they were mooting the idea of transforming the PDM (Peoples Democratic Movement) into a political party. Historically, members of the PDM had a long association with the UPN through the Committee of Concerned Citizens of the North who worked with UPN for the 1983 election. I was sent by Chief Ebenezer Babatope who was UPN Director of Organisation to co-ordinate their association with the UPN. On our part, we tried to convince them that it would be better to resuscitate the UPN because of the good image of the party.Dr (Fredrick) Fasehun was in the know of this. One of the young men agreed to pay the rent of the house we intended to use as secretariat. It was N10 million for the rent, including the agency fee. This was about one and a half years ago, when we were planning to seek registration of the UPN and were looking for political associates all over the place. That had nothing to do with Fasehun's problem with the party. Fasehun is only behaving like a drowning man looking for something to hang on to.When we reported to Dr Fasehun about the man's gesture, he expressed concern about allowing an associate of Atiku to fund our secretariat on the basis that the presidency would not be happy about this. Then, Dr Tunji Olateju and I, who brought the idea of the UPN to Fasehun, challenged him on his concern for the presidency. About three days later, Dr Fasehun, who claimed not to have any money to pay for the secretariat, told us he had paid for another secretariat in Abuja, courtesy of his frequent visits to his friends in the presidency and Chief Edwin Clark. Up till now, Dr Fasehun has not revealed his sources of fund but his body language and his constant defence of the right of the president to contest vis-a-vis his recent suit against the INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) on the proposed additional 30,000 polling units in the name of the party is instructive about his principals. The secretariat we paid for almost two years is lying fallow in Abuja and its rent will lapse very soon as we agreed to use that of Dr Fasehun to allow peace reign.Dr Fasehun is a very close friend of Al-Mustapha, against his public image of fighting General Sani Abacha. Al-Mustapha remains loyal to his boss and I wonder how and when Dr Fasehun became his friend. That is food for thought.Dr Fasehun has been deceiving the public, especially the Yoruba community, about his altruism. Chief Gani Adams exposed him and we did not listen, but we have learnt our lesson. This lesson led to his suspension from the UPN. The OPC has learnt its lesson by removing him as their president. We cannot all be wrong. Can you imagine a party chairman sending thugs to disrupt party meetings' Can you imagine a party leader suing INEC in the name of the UPN and denying the action in a speech he delivered while presiding over the NEC meeting' Dr Fasehun is a contrast to Awo and he has no place in the UPN. I have been in public service in the local government as chairman in Somolu and Special Assistant to Chief Ebenezer Babatope, who refused million dollars bribe as a minister.I am an Awoist and would not do anything to tarnish my image. I had been in public life before Dr Fasehun and he is not an Awoist in any way. He only claims to be an admirer of Chief Awolowo. Dr Fasehun is a distraction and I will stop commenting about him because our goal is to immortalise Awolowo's political thought and deeds.I want to say categorically that I have not collected any money on behalf of the UPN from anybody. Dr Fasehun is always looking for a scapegoat for his own misdeeds. At first, it was a mole planted in the UPN that was his problem. Now, it is someone else.Dr Fasehun says he is in possession of the certificate of registration of the party, but is his name on the certificate' If he reads the constitution of the party well, he would know that he has no business keeping the certificate of registration of the party. That function belongs to the secretary. The problem with Dr Fasehun is that he does not believe in the constitution. If he could humble himself to find his way back into the party, he should be prepared to test his popularity in the national convention of the party to be held soon.What about insinuations that those of you in the UPN had no right to resuscitate the party'Anybody who admires the UPN can resuscitate the UPN. Do they think that those who benefited from the UPN cannot resuscitate the party' Some of us came from the Awoist political family. My father, Alhaji Salau Aiyelabowo, brought the Action Group to Okun-Owa from Lagos in 1952. I was part of formation of UPN. I was working closely with Alhaji Lateef Jakande during the days of the committee of friends that transformed into UPN. I was not too young then. That was after I graduated from the University of Minnesota in the United States.I officiated in the first UPN conference at the Mainland Hotel in 1978 accrediting delegates. I served in UPN nomination committees in three states and I announced the nomination of Chief Bola Ige at the Liberty Stadium as a returning officer in 1982. I later became National Director of Research of the party.Before we resuscitated the UPN, I went to Alhaji Jakande and he asked me three times, 'Bari, do you think UPN could be registered'' And I answered in the affirmative. After the registration, we paid him a visit and he welcomed us. That is what is expected of an elder; to encourage people coming behind. We also consulted Chief Ebenezer Babatope and he has not antagonised us.
Click here to read full news..
