I’m Currently Studying Political Situation…What Saraki Should Do To Douse ‘Smoldering Fire’- Kwara Young Politician, Sesan Abegunde
Comrade Sesan Philip Abegunde , an indigene of Ekan Meje , Oke-Ero Local Government, Kwara state, is one of the popular young politicians in the State of Harmony.
In this interview with Team@orientactualmags.com, he emphasized the need for former Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki to take urgent steps to douse the smoldering fire in the Kwara state PDP.
He also noted that ‘bold thinking’ and ‘decisive actions’ are required to return the party and the Saraki political dynasty to a healthy state.
Read On:
You were a student unionist, and you are a young politician in Kwara state. You announced your decision to leave the PDP a few weeks ago, which party do you belong to now?
Good evening. I’ve been involved in politics for years now and it was from student unionism to politicking in the larger society, courtesy of our great leader, the former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who has been our mentor right from when we were students at the Kwara state Polytechnic, Iam talking about 2006, 2007 up till 2010 that we left Kwarapoly to participate in the NYSC programme and we can say boldly that we were the strong people that got the sixth governor of Kwara state, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed elected as governor in 2011 . We played active role in the election that brought him into office as governor of Kwara state and we did the same thing to ensure his re-election four years later .
Well, I left the PDP basically because I want to face my business, I want to reset myself as an individual. Party membership is not like that of a cult group, it’s not a do or die affair that you must die in a place, or you have entered into covenant with someone that you should not break. During those times when we were in Kwara Poly, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki tried his best for Kwara state, since 2003 when he came to join politics in Kwara state . As a governor , he was the person that first appointed young people as commissioners in the history of Kwara state. I’m someone who will never bite the hand that feeds me. I don’t do that. I’ve worked with great people in PDP. We were in PDP, we were in APC, we returned back to PDP and we are still there. We have been with Dr. Bukola Saraki for years now. Our loyalty has never been doubted but in recent times, we discovered that a lot of things were going on in the party and we thought there would be changes but there were no changes. In 2019, myself and some other young people were nominated as members of the youth council, a subcommittee of the presidential campaign council.
( Our reporter interrupts) You said you have left the PDP to face your business and reset yourself, and now you’re talking about other factors that made you leave the party. Were the reasons you gave earlier the major factors and the ones you’re about to mention are only anomalies that you have noticed in PDP?
Everything works together. If I have taken a decision to face my business, it could be as a result of the fact that I was not getting certain results from the party and I was not pleased with the way the party is being run in Kwara state. For us, we are young people, we are young people that are loyal. We don’t fake our loyalty. We have been with the leadership of this state right from the time we met Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and we have tried our best to be loyal to the dynasty, but the dynasty is never a cult group. The dynasty has never had any covenant with me , my other colleagues or other young people that are engaging in political activities . So, we can decide to stay away from the dynasty anytime any day so far, it’s not a cult group.
Is it the PDP that you have left or the Saraki dynasty?
For now, I have left both. Both the Saraki dynasty and the PDP. I left both because I felt certain things are not done the right way. Certain things are not attended to properly because when you look at our flaws in the 2019 general election, it was as a result of certain issues, certain misconduct from certain leaders of the party either at the national level or at the state level. If you look at 2023 again, we lost. We were loyal and never betrayed the trust of our leaders in the party. I believe so many people listened to me while appearing on radio for different programmes that the party sponsored for more than a year and we gave the party unwavering support even when some people were sending thugs after us. We still stood firm. We believed in the dynasty, and we believed in the party. So, for us now leaving the party and the dynasty basically because of certain things, we believe that the leadership of the party headed by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki should…
But he is not the state chairman?
He is not the chairman of the party but he is the leader of the party in the state. He should look inward and note certain things that are done wrongly, he should make amends instead of our leaders saying whoever wants to go should go.
Are you saying the members of exco who are officially in charge of the affairs of the party in the state are not actually in charge?
Well, from my experience, personally, in 2019, I was appointed as a youth council member, a subcommittee of the national campaign council of the PDP. Myself and a few other young people from Kwara state discovered a lot of anomalies which I’m not going to disclose in this interview because ‘omo awo o kin se bi ogberi’. So, I believe if the leader himself reads this interview online, he will understand what I’m talking about. Myself and a few other young people returned from Abuja and we met with Dr. Ali Ahmad and, as members of the youth council, we asked him ‘Is there anything for us? He told us there was nothing. And from Abuja, we learned that N6 billion was made available as campaign fund for the 2019 general election in Kwara state .
As members of the campaign council, nothing was given to us. Now, let me fast forward to 2023, in 2023 we were much older than 2019 and we were more involved in 2023 than 2019. We heard that N1.7b was released. We heard. I’m not accusing anybody, I’m not accusing the leader of the party, I’m not accusing the executives, neither am I accusing anyone. But from what we heard, we heard that N1.7b was released and our leader, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki single-handedly took a decision on how it was utilized, or let me say he single-handedly disbursed the money to the entire system in Kwara state and the executives are angry about this, and we all thought that should not be the case. Some of us laboured, some of us suffered. An individual can decide to nurture a party but when a fund is made available, the public fund should be properly utilized.
It has become a common thing almost everywhere that party officials would complain of being sidelined and having campaign activities usurped by the campaign councils, don’t you think that was also the case in Kwara state?
We may have seen that somewhere else but we are particular about what goes on in Kwara , for us, what goes on in Kwara is our major concern. We don’t want to really dwell into developments in other states. For me as a true youth ambassador , I am from the southern part of Kwara state, a lot of young people are looking up to us to be upright and be honest in whatever we do. We are not going to fight the leader of the party, we are not going to fight Dr. Bukola Saraki. All we need from him is to straighten some things and we will then continue our loyalty if certain things are put in place.
Are you saying the money was not spent for its intended purpose?
No. The report we are getting is not as if the money wasn’t spent for what it was meant for but it was not properly utilized. It was not properly utilized and for us as young people, we don’t take such a thing lightly. Away from that, I believe the leader of the party, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki will definitely do the needful, this is going to be a test for him because majority of the people in the party are leaving. For me I’m not yet in APC and I’m not saying I’m in APC. I’m not there.
We will come to that. I want to ask you this, people are according to you grumbling and possibly the rumbling of annoyance may have to do with the way the campaign fund was utilized. But it’s clear that the way money of such nature is spent is always difficult to be made public.
For example, a politician in Kwara state here had campaign fund kept with him and other party stakeholders had said ‘keep this till tomorrow, we will come for it so that it will be disbursed to polling units in our local government’. When they returned to his residence the following morning, half of the money was gone. He told them that he had to settle stakeholders including the witches. How would you explain such a thing? If people are saying the former senate president should come and give account of how the said money was utilized , how will he explain reaching out to prominent personalities including clerics , do you think it would be easy to give account of how the said campaign fund was utilized?
I wouldn’t go into that. I believe the party’s national Working committee and the state working committee would look into it and I believe the leader of the party, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki will definitely sit down with them and everything will be resolved. But for us, I mean the young people , I’ve sampled opinions of so many of our young people and what they want is clarity, uprightness and openness in whatever we are doing. I’m no longer a member of PDP, like I said. I resigned like a month and a half ago and I am happy. I’m very okay, I work to earn my money and not from politics. I work tirelessly to make my money. If I leave the party, I don’t think there should be any rancour or probably somebody saying he’s in Labour Party, he’s going to APC, he is going to SDP. I can decide to belong to any party tomorrow. I can decide to be in APC, I can decide to be in SDP, I can decide to be in Labour Party.
The APC leaders in your local government, have they ‘approached’ you?
Every day is Christmas for us in my local government and my senatorial district. There have been a lot of calls, people wooing me to come to APC, wooing me to come to other parties. For now, I’m not interested in joining any political party, I want to build a career. I want our young people to strategize towards the next general election, I have not joined any party.
If you’re strategizing ahead of the general election, that means you’re not totally out of politics.
No. No. I said I resigned from the PDP and I have left the dynasty. That doesn’t mean I’m out of politics. I’m still a typical politician. But for now, Iam just staying out of PDP and the dynasty because the dynasty is not giving me what I want and I’m out of there. Why I’m coming out to do this is that I want people to understand that everybody has the right to associate with whoever he wants when it comes to religion, politics and others.
You can decide to patronize whoever you want even in the business world; I can decide to buy fuel from Total or from AP or Oando. So, if presently I say I’m not patronizing the PDP and the dynasty, I don’t think there should be any brouhaha, arguments or complaints. For now, I’m no longer in the dynasty, I’m no longer in the PDP. I am on my own and I’m making consultations. I believe at the right time; I will declare where I am going to. I might decide to go back to the PDP that is if things are done properly.
You’re not ruling out the possibility of returning to the PDP?
I’m not ruling it out, if things are done properly the way we want it to be done. Definitely we can reconsider and go back.
Meaning that it is when the general election approaches that your structure will take a decision on the party you will join?
Yes. Presently we have a lot of consultations going on and I believe in no distant time, our consultations would be concluded and we are going to decide where we are moving to.
How many years have you spent in politics?
I started active politics in 2008.
Since then you’ve never left the dynasty?
I’ve been with the dynasty since then. This is my first time of saying I’m leaving.
What if members of your group who are looking up to you eventually say ‘we are not returning to PDP, we want APC’. What will you do?
Like I said, in politics, there’s no permanent enemy and there’s no permanent friend. Your best friend today in politics can be your most dangerous enemy in the next one hour. We have seen this in the last election and you can attest to this when you talk about the G-5 governors, the role they played in bringing the APC government into power. They played an active role and they were in PDP. When you look at it, it’s a call for concern that politically we need to be careful in waging war against one another because you don’t know what will happen in the next minute. If my people say we are not going to the PDP, that is what I said earlier it’s not a cult group . They can decide that this is where we want to go and I can decide that because majority of you say we should go to APC, then we are going to APC.
For now, you’re not a member of the PDP. Have you been getting information with regard to developments in the party? Do you think there’s fire on the mountain?
The most important thing is for the leaders of the party to call themselves to a roundtable most especially, the leader of the party, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki he should discuss with the state working committee members, let them see how they can salvage the party and address whatever they have as differences , the 2023 campaign fund should be well analyzed and let bygones be bygones. Let the sleeping dog lies. But for me, as we speak, I’m not a member of PDP and I’m no longer in the dynasty.
Do you still communicate and interact with your friends in the PDP?
I discovered something about the dynasty. The problem we have, or personally that I can say I have, majority of the young people that we see ourselves as the coming generation that will take over from the old generation are also behaving like the old folks that we are fighting, that we are saying they’ve not done well. Even some of our young people are worst than the elderly people in the dynasty. So, that is part of the discouragement that we get and some of us decided to excuse ourselves from the dynasty. Let’s see how it goes in a couple of years to come. Let’s see where the dynasty will be. Unless the leader of the party and the leader of the dynasty takes certain decisive decisions concerning certain behaviours in the dynasty, I doubt…
What are the kind of behaviours you’re talking about?
I’m not going to mention anything. I think people really understand.
People would like to know one or two of such behaviours.
When certain set of people see themselves as the Alpha and Omega of the dynasty, that without them you cannot see the leader, without them you cannot do anything, then there’s a problem. All we need to understand is that the dynasty should be open to everybody. It shouldn’t be for certain set of people. It shouldn’t be operated like a cult group. Let it be open to all..
But this seems to be the situation everywhere?
It’s not applicable everywhere. When you look at Lagos state for example, my friend ,who started active politics even after me, became SSA, Transport . In Kwara here, how many young people in our group have gotten to the top through the dynasty. When they see that you’re getting close to the leader, backbiting comes in, backstabbing comes in, gossiping comes in. Then the next thing, they want to pull you down. There’s pull down syndrome in the dynasty. For me, I just said to myself that enough is enough and I decided to call it quit. I don’t want to dwell much on that but I believe that the leadership of the dynasty understands pretty well what I have just analyzed in this interview.
Where do we see Sesan Abegunde in the next four years when it comes to politics?
I’m an activist who fights for the rights of the young people. I hate cheating and I want things done properly. For me, in the next four years, let’s see how it goes. I want to face my career. I have one or two programmes that I’m running. By the grace of God, by 2025/26, I should be able to say this is where I belong to.
Who is Comrade Sesan Abegunde?
He’s just a gentleman, a businessman and a man that believes that things should be done properly.
I attended Bishop Smith primary school, Bishop Smith secondary school all in Ilorin. From there, I proceeded to the Kwara state Polytechnic, Ilorin where I had my OND in Marketing and HND in Marketing. After that, I did a professional course in Project Management. I worked with Guinness for about 8 years as a sales executive before leaving to join a pharmaceutical company in Lagos. I have spent about two years with them now.
Before I joined the pharmaceutical company, I also attended Kwara state University where I had my BSc in Public Administration, through conversion programme. I’m presently with the pharmaceutical company in question and Iam the Business Development Manager in charge of 3 states; Kwara, Kogi and Osun.
Is your dad a politician?
My dad is a typical farmer. A cocoa farmer and a businessman. He was never a politician. Right from secondary school, I have been aspiring to be a great politician because in my secondary school days, I was the secretary of the press club in the whole state. Getting to Kwarapoly, I was the Welfare Director of the Business Studies department as an OND student, I was later the social secretary of the students’ union government 2010/11 academic session as HND student.
As a member of the PDP, I was appointed as member of the national youth campaign council, a subcommittee of the national campaign council in 2019. In 2023, I was appointed as member of the youth campaign council in Kwara state, I was also the publicity secretary of Kwara South media committee. There were a lot of things that we did for the party, and I believe that the party also knew that we did all that. The leadership also knows our role in the party. We are not saying the party has not tried but there should be reorganization of the system, there are lots of changes we have to make. So, that’s that about that-Team@orientactualmags.com
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