Dr Bamidele Gold, Oyo State coordinator of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Professional Council, which is one of the support groups for the ruling party in the country, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the set objectives of the group and the vital roles it played during the last election.
What role does this professional council play for the ruling party?
We play a very vital role because the way we handle and address issues is a lot different from the way those in the ruling party do because they are politicians. But we are professionals and technocrats. Unlike those you find in the main ruling party, most of which are oftentimes not professionals, every member of our group has his or her own profession. So, we do put heads together to ensure that things work professionally for the ruling party. Just like what the president has done in putting the right peg in the right hole, our group draws people across the different fields to strategise and come up with good and viable policies that can assist our political arm, which is the ruling party and some of its political office holders in the government. That is why I said we play a very vital role. This does not mean that our party does not make meaningful contributions in terms of policy generation and programme formulation, but our group helps in areas they (the party) may not cover, just to meet the generality of Nigerians. And then, there are some people who are professionals but do not want to be involved in politics. But once they see that we are a group of professionals like them, they easily come on board and make their contributions.
Meanwhile, being a professional body, we run a very organised system. For instance, as a state coordinator, I have some coordinators at the local government level, who are directly under my jurisdiction. We have them across the 33 local governments in Oyo State. And again from each of the local governments, we also have coordinators at the ward level. For each ward, we have our executives who work directly with the local government coordinator, who then link up with me, the coordinator at the state level. This established structure has made it easy and very possible for us to relate with Nigerians at the grassroots level to know their pains, cogent needs, and expectations from the government, both at the local, state, and federal levels. And it is the aggregate of these views collected from the people that form the basis of the policies and programme we put forward for the government.
Beyond this, we also help the government in the area of providing adequate and well-tailored public enlightenment and political education. For instance, during the electioneering period for the last election, we moved from house to house to create more awareness and let the people know the key programmes our government at all levels is poised to initiate for the overall good and betterment of the country. Then, we held the sensitisation from one village to the other in the best possible ways and manner the rural dwellers would understand. We also held the same programmes across the urban cities and 36 state capitals in the country. And in the end, we thank God for where we are today as those outreaches obviously made the right impression and impact. This is because, prior to the election, many Nigerians had complained about the last administration. But we were able to convince them to still trust our party even if we had to talk more and clearly communicate the major rescue programmes our present administration was bringing on board.
But what are your other programmes?
Aside from this, we also offer educational scholarships to students across the 36 states of the federation. It is one of our major programmes for making direct impacts on Nigerians. The scholarship is mainly for the student’s tuition in over 30 different tertiary institutions in the country, including the Universities and Colleges of Health Sciences. One notable thing about the scholarship is that the funds are being sourced from us, the professionals. In order words, it is not the party that gives us the money. But the impacts have been great. For instance, in Oyo State, over 700 students have benefitted across the 33 local governments in the state. And I must say that it is some of these programmes that made the people support our party’s candidates during the last election.
In addition to this, at the Oyo State level, we do also organise training on skill acquisition for Nigerians. The last edition we did was held at the Mauve Plantation in Ibadan. It was a four-day programme well attended by over 5000 residents of the state. The programme empowered the attendees in key trades and professions like fishery, animal husbandry, solar energy, and several others. At the end of the training, the participants were given certificates. We held the programme in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. One notable thing about the programme was that we drew participants across all Nigerian political parties as we didn’t limit it to just our party alone. But we also sourced the financial support for the programme within ourselves. And as usual, our Director-General also supported us. And the Oyo State APC chairman, Honourable Isaac Omodewu, being our patron, has also been supportive.
But aside from the financial constraint, what are the other challenges limiting your group from achieving its set objectives?
Well, in terms of challenges, we have faced some. Initially, some people were looking at the APC Professional Council project as something that is not possible. Many people said we could not do it because we said we were to complement the main party. Some people even thought we were coming to rival the main party and hijack its structure. But we said no, ours is just to assist and complement the ruling party. But we thank God today that we have the national spread for the professional council. I remember so well that before the last election, our professional group was involved in the formulation of the blueprints that our candidate, Bola Tinubu, who is now the president, used during his campaigns. I am talking about our national body now. All I will just ask Nigerians to do is to be more patient with the current administration because Rome is not built in a day. We believe that the president is a man of vision. He knows what he is doing and sooner or later, all the present challenges will be addressed. Let’s be a little more patient.
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