Stephen Adewale
Gbenga Daniel, a former Ogun State Governor and presidential campaign chief strategist for Atiku Abubakar, has resigned from active and partisan politics. In a letter to the party’s chairman, Uche Secondus, Mr Daniel, a long-time leader of the People’s Democratic Party, said he had abandoned politics after realising he had reached the peak of his career.
The 62-year-old said he would now spend the rest of his retirement running his charity and political foundation. Gbenga Daniel, a career engineer with a renowned background in elevator installation and maintenance, joined the PDP in 2001 to run in Ogun State for governor.
In the 2003 general election, he defeated incumbent Olusegun Osoba and continued to serve two terms until 2011. Gbenga Daniel lamented that a crisis that engulfed the PDP in Ogun State shortly before he left office lingers ten years on.
Shortly after he left office as the governor, he was arraigned for alleged corruption and disappeared into political oblivion as he struggled to get rid of the multi-billion-naira charges of misappropriating public funds. However, the federal court had not reached a verdict on his case several years after his arraignment.
In 2017, Mr. Daniel regained political prominence when he ran as PDP National Chairman. Although he ran one of the sturdiest campaigns at the time, he ultimately lost to Uche Secondus at the national convention of the party in December 2017.
Although Gbenga Daniel shared the sentiments of other Yoruba politicians who alleged widespread injustice and conspiracy in the outcome of the convention, he soon re-emerged in early 2018 as the main man of the presidential exploratory panel of Atiku Abubakar.
In May 2018, Atiku Abubakar confirmed widespread expectations by appointing Gbenga Daniel as director of his campaign. But after the victory of Atiku Abubakar at the presidential primaries in October 2018, Gbenga Daniel was dropped as Chief Executive Officer, and replaced by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki. But Atiku Abubakar maintained Gbenga Daniel as a key strategist with somewhat undefined but sweeping roles in the structure of the campaign.
Read below a full transcript of the letter from Gbenga Daniel to Uche Secondus made available to newsmen by a party source on Saturday afternoon:
14th March, 2019
The National Chairman,
Peoples Democratic Party,
Wadata Plaza, Michael Okpara Street
Wuse Zone II, Abuja
Attention: Prince Uche Secondus
Mr. Chairman,
Resignation from Partisan Politics
This is to inform you of my intention to resign from active and partisan politics with effect from today, the 14th day of March, 2019.
My decision in this regard is entirely personal to me and having served in various capacities, including as Governor of Ogun State, I have resolved to immerse myself in some other vocations and take on some new challenges.
Preamble
My Political Journey so far
1. I joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State on Sunday, the 9th of September, 2001 at an event which was described as one of the most ceremonial political rallies in our recent political history in the South Western part of Nigeria. We rose from that rally to create a highly robust and effective political campaign machinery which resulted in an electoral victory for the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun State in 2003; this movement and vibration affected the politics of the region positively with a victory in five (5) states of the South West.
2. I served as Governor of Ogun State for eight (8) years and our administration till today remains a point of reference in terms of physical, social, economic, educational and human capital development since the State was created in 1976.
3. Notwithstanding these widely acclaimed achievements however, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party ran into trouble waters towards the end of our administration (about the year 2009) which led to the sad loss in the election of 2011, and regrettably ten (10) years after the party has been unable to resolve those internal disputes and challenges.
4. Meanwhile, the PDP in Ogun State was confronted with a very difficult situation in matter of choice. Whereas the national leadership of our party, recognized one candidate for the 2019 election, by court pronouncements another candidate, and in compliance with those court orders, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognized
was on the INEC list. The candidates recognized by INEC were not acceptable to the national leadership of the party. Our situation was then compounded because the candidate which the court and INEC recognized and accepted as valid has also been expelled by the party. This was the dilemma we found ourselves as we approached the March 9, 2019 Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
5. Going forward, we have responded to the yearnings of our people and joined others in emplacing an administration that we believe will better serve the interests of our people than what currently exists. The rest they say is now history.
6. I must say that looking back, I do not have any regrets over that patriotic choice and decision, especially as several of our citizens, leaders and stakeholders in the state and outside have commended that singular action. Many stakeholders within and outside Ogun State feel fulfilled, excited and grateful about our decision to join others in putting a stop to a regime that was believed to be against the collective and general welfare of our people.
7. Let me also add, that in the last few months, I have had one of the rare privileges of traveling round the entire length and breadth of our great country on at least two occasions; the first being during my campaigns to become the National Chairman of our great party, and later as the Director General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organization (APCO).
8. I must sincerely admit that in the course of all these travels, I have built a network of contacts, of friends and associates in a mutually rewarding relationships which I cherished most and greatly too. I am therefore persuaded that I have fewer points to make and prove in my Political journeys in partisan politics.
9. My decision to quit partisan politics notwithstanding, I have decided to rejuvenate my charity based organization, the Gateway Front Foundation (GFF) which will literally continue to dispense succor to our people in need, address and assist in the areas of some of their health challenges; I also plan on resuscitation of the non-partisan Political Leadership Academy (POLA) which I established some years ago as a platform of political education to our citizens.
10. Without doubt, I will miss the company of my friends and associates and all those relationships I built in the course of the years all over the country.
While I crave for your kind understanding, accept assurances of my highest regards.
Yours faithfully,
Otunba (Engr.) Gbenga Daniel, FNSE, FNAEng
Governor of Ogun State (2003-2011).
Cc:
Excellency, Atiku Abubakar GCON
Chairman, Board of Trustees (PDP)
