Alhaji Fatai Akinbade, a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman in Osun State and former Secretary to the State Government, in this interview with Adeolu Adeyemo, speaks on the chances of PDP against the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2015 and other issues. Excerpts:

What do you think about the state of the nation?
Nigeria has not failed. The general perception is that the whole world is facing critical times. We live in times of challenges, brought about by frustration and emotional disturbances. We cannot pretend that all is well, but we need to be patient with President Goodluck Jonathan. The president needs to study the situation and that is what he is doing. I believe the president is not folding his arms.

He is not happy about the security situation, but I know he is working round the clock to put things right. We need to pray  so that the country will have good stories to tell.

What would you say about the Boko Haram issue?
No government derives joy from bloodshed. It is an anomaly of developmental governance. The president is having sleepless nights on this and I believe that security chiefs are working to stay on top of the situation. These Boko Haram people are not elusive. The president should engage them in a dialogue. In the United Kingdom (UK), some years back, a sect came up, but in the end, the government engaged the members in a dialogue and the whole thing is now history. My submission on Boko Haram is that the members should be invited to a roundtable conference and from there, we will move forward.

What is being done to unite the factions within the Osun PDP?
We have realised there are no factions, but we only have ideological differences. But after identifying each group’s points, we have been able to reconcile our differences and PDP has actually bounced back.

What is your assessment of the current administration in the state so far?
As someone who has been in and out of government, I want to submit that as far as transparency is concerned, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s regime stood tall. The present government makes the loudest noise. Instead of building on the legacies, the governor is destroying them. He destroyed Salvation Army Primary School, Okefia, Osogbo, in the name of renovation. What a big waste of public fund! We need action, not noise. Teachers were better dealt with when Oyinlola was in government. He saw teachers as those who should enjoy the fruits of their labour, but now they are crying silently.

What are the chances of PDP in the state in 2015?
We are strategising. We are on course. Unfortunately for the ACN, there has been no noticeable achievements in terms of service delivery and good governance. They came to power by a judicial fiat. My governor then, Prince Oyinlola, was robbed through a judicial process, but we have left that behind us. Fortunately for us, the electorate and the masses have seen the differences. The civil servants are lamenting. The traders are crying. The state is stagnant; no economic and political development. When Chief  Bisi Akande was the governor, we showed him the way out. Votes belong to the masses. If you try and rig and the masses vote massively and wisely, rigging becomes useless. We can wrest power from the ACN because its administration has not done a quarter of what Oyinlola did. We have done it before and we will do it again. When Chief Akande was at the helms of affairs, PDP defeated the Alliance for Democracy (AD) then. We did this successfully because of our acceptability by the electorate. Our strategies  and structures are still intact and we remain in the minds of the electorate and lovers of true democracy.

What is responsible for the corruption among political office holders?
Many people who found themselves in power today lack experience. Some of them have never seen big money before and that is why they are messing up. But the truth is that anybody who steals public money will pay for it eventually. The problem also borders on lack of fear of God. However, people are wiser now and I believe in 2015, Nigerians will elect genuine leaders.