Buhari does not need APC candidate, Dapo Abiodun, to win Ogun —Akinlade, APM governorship candidate

The governorship candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in Ogun State, Honourable Adekunle Akinlade, during a conversation with select journalists, disclosed his marshal plan for the state and declared that he is the candidate to beat in the March 2 governorship election in the state. DAPO FALADE reports.

You contested the primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and controversially later went to your new party, the Allied People’s Movement (APM) under controversial circumstances. What really led to that decision?

Most people in politics must have seen what the challenges were prior to my leaving APC. Where I come from in Ogun, we had about 10 of us whom the party decided about three years ago that, because of the way the state is structured, Ogun Central and Ogun East have produced the governors of this state and that it would be fair for someone from Ogun West to be given the opportunity. 25 elders came together to work on that so that the zone would put one foot forward rather than allow the whole 10 of us to go into the primaries in APC. Only one person from Ogun East was then aspiring to be in the race. The Dapo Abiodun story had not even come to the picture. The Ogun leaders then sat down and it was within that period of six or seven months that I emerged as the consensus candidate of Ogun West.

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Prior to that time, I met the national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, in his private residence in Abuja. Having succeeded in ensuring a smooth transition in Edo State, I felt he was in a better position to speak to my boss, Governor Ibikunle Amosun. I did not just wake up and was imposed on the people; it was a process. So, I eventually emerged and was presented to the party and I think Oshiomhole started asking, ‘are you sure this boy can win?’ Amosun told him ‘if you want a yes person, do not choose Akinlade, but if you want somebody that has the capacity to do the job, this guy is the person’. Oshiomhole thereafter came out openly then to announce to the party that the Ogun West people had picked me and I was to run. Remo people kicked against it, saying they wanted a direct primary. We went for the primary and worked. Then, it was an APC affair and it was easy for us to go round. It reflected in the votes with which I got on October 2, 2018.

A day after that, they said it was the state executive that announced my victory and that they were not going to accept it. At a point in time, we realised that they were not going to shift their position and we decided to come back to our people. We realised that Dapo Abiodun does not have what it takes to deliver but what they told him was that Amosun has his mandate and that he cannot leave the party because of his relationship with the president. They also said that I cannot go out to campaign because nobody knows me. But that is where they got it wrong. I realised very early that Amosun has goodwill across the state. But what I pleaded with the governor then is that he should not campaign yet. I told him to give me two, three days to start first before he comes out to campaign. That, I think, was what did the magic. My opponent in APC did not start the campaign till after three weeks, but the people were already saying there is a new product, APM, in Ogun State. We are the party to beat in Ogun State.

How did you feel that two candidates from two different parties from the same state, you and Dapo Abiodun, were presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and don’t you think the election may tilt in favour of APC if the president wins a second term since his election comes first?

There would not be any confusion with regards to the election. I don’t see any problem with Mr Dapo Abiodun going to see Mr President with Chief Segun Osoba because he is a member of their party. For me, I do not recognise Abiodun as the APC candidate in Ogun State, considering the way he emerged. The confusion should be with them and not with us. APM believes in Mr President, his policies and programmes and we have absolute confidence in him as a leader. What I went to do [by going to Abuja] was to wish him a happy New Year and we assured Mr President that he does not need the APC candidate, Dapo Abiodun, to win his presidential election in Ogun State; we will deliver Ogun State to Mr President. There is no ambiguity in the readiness of our party to deliver Ogun State. Anywhere we go, we tell our people that the president does not need Dapo Abiodun because he cannot deliver; he will lose.

I am from Yewa and in even any culture, when you see an adult that needs a man to take him by the hand and walk in a market place, people will know that something is wrong. Jide Sanwo-Olu is there in Lagos as the APC candidate; Oyo APC also has its candidate; how many of them did old men of about 80 years take to the president to raise their hands before they can actually start campaigning? That will tell you that there is something terribly wrong with him and his so-called mandate. Even as we speak, it took the Number 2 citizen of the country to come to Ogun State to take him to the Awujale of Ijebuland and round the state.

For us, we are on ground and we have always been with the people and they know us. What we are just asking is for a peaceful election and we will win. We have told our people to remain calm. For us in Ogun State, we cannot be intimidated; we have told our people to remain resolute. We will vote in this election and our votes will count. We will not be involved in violence or encourage it. I reserve the right to meet the president. I must thank him for the railways that have come to Ogun State and for the windows of job opportunities he has created by so doing.

Do you have any plans to go back to the APC if you win the election?

Let me tell you: I never knew prior to this challenge how important the people are in politics. You see these people following us to around, I use to think that once you are able to mobilise them, you are okay. It was after my mandate was stolen and I saw how people stood with us, including market women, that I knew the importance of people in politics. When some people use what they call the federal might or political might, they will not return to Ogun people. This is their election. I do not have anything, but it is the people’s election. If you enjoy such goodwill, it is good to make them to understand that they have the power to decide what the future will be. I have realised that as a candidate, you have no powers when you actually realise how powerful the people are.

With how APC treated you as you claimed, is it not the best to distance yourself from the party rather than still go back to Mr President who is the leader of the party?

There is nothing wrong with APC as a party; I believe in the party. It is the leaders of that party that are the problems. If it were something that happened to Ogun State alone, I would have been concerned. More than 80 of our members went through the same experience in their various states. If not, I would have thought that it was a personal vendetta against me. APC has wonderful policies under the leadership of Mr President. It is the people who are running the party that I feel that have the problems.

It is being said that you are desperate to become the governor because you are a stooge of Governor Ibikunle Amosun…

For us here, and for me as a person, I don’t see myself as having a challenge or confusing mentorship with godfatherism or taking my loyalty to being a stooge. Those who know me very well will tell you. You can go to the House of Representatives: you can ask the Speaker or any other member that you know there in the 8th House of Representatives. They will tell you what I am made of. That even goes with when I served here in the state. When you talk about loyalty in politics, it is very vital; loyalty is very important/ loyalty does not necessarily define what you will do, but it will give you opportunity. That is what we must understand. It does not mean that because you are loyal to somebody, that then defines how you are going to run government.

Loyalty is the bridge. Being a man of strong faith does not define how many years you are going to be a pastor, but that is what you will need to be able to touch lives. Having a sincerity of purpose in business does not mean it is going to define or determine how rich you are going to be as a businessman, but it will sustain you in business. Because I am loyal to Amosun, he will not tell me to jump and I then jump, but my loyalty has given me the leverage to be above some others to get to where I want to get to. It does not necessarily define what I am going to do in government or how Ogun State government is going to run.

You spoke about real estate, urban renewal and development, what did you intend doing to address the issue of infrastructure to further develop the economy of the state?

Let me just put it this way: Every administration has its own focus. In 2011, the focus of this administration (and I was part of it) was to build road infrastructure; that ‘we are going to do something different in the state, in terms of road infrastructure’. Don’t forget that no matter how laudable your intentions are, everything still comes down to resource. Here is a government that met less than N700 million IGR when it came on board at a time when the PDP was in control at the national level, there was nothing to back it up at that level. But Amosun had to look inward and used all the financial re-engineering that he has, as an FCA himself and tried to see how he could get money to do all that he has done. In 2015 when he now had his own party in power at the federal level, the country went into recession. So, back-to-back, it was a minus for him and you could see that he was struggling to do the best he can do.

What we want to do differently is this: now that the base, which is the road infrastructure, has been laid, we want to sit down with the private sector because we are going to focus on industrial clusters and hubs. What we need to do is to talk to these companies that these estates are there and that we can work something out and there are lots of incentives and concessions that we can give to them. Now, it pays me better because then, I will get the kind of people that I want to come into the state. So, we have these things planned out and there is a lot we can do. The present government has already set the road infrastructure in motion. We will also further open the state.

I do tell the people that we already have an idea of what we want to do and how to run Ogun State. Ask our opponents, ‘what do they want to come and do differently in Ogun State? How will they get money to do it? Where will they get the money from?’ They don’t have any idea or anything to say because they are clueless. What we have is a 25-year blueprint. I was there when all these issues started.  That is where we are in Ogun State today and that is because of the infrastructure you can see around in places in the state. There is so much in the blueprint that we are going to do. We are going to partner with most of these industries and I am talking to them right now.

How did you intend to implement your One Naira Housing Scheme and what are you taking as collateral from would-be-beneficiaries?

The way it is done is this: you are less than 40 years old. That means you have an average of about 20 years more to work. The condition is that both partners (husband and wife) must be gainfully employed. This gives me 40 years, any way you look at it. You take out 10 years from the woman because she is going to break it; maternity and all that. We structured the repayment between 15 and 20 years, just like it happens in the UK where they ask you to pay 10 per cent. Even there, you don’t pay anything as the bank pays for you. This is because the house itself is an asset for the bank and the developers.

My main aim is to get young people to come and live in Ogun State in order to increase the population. Once young people move into the state, I get their PAYE into my tax net. In the area of the bank, the developer, for instance used N15 million to build a property and puts N3million to N4 million as a profit and sells the property at N18 million or N19 million. In mortgage, they subject the property to about N27 million; the longer the years, the more you pay and that same property, in 10 years, would worth N40 million. So the bank has not lost anything, if there is no earthquake. If you fail to pay at the end of the mortgage, the bank takes over the house from you and it your contribution that you have paid over a period of time that you would lose. In essence, for us as a government, we want to bring to the state this concept that has worked in some other parts of the world.

Our mortgage system has not got to that level because we are not youth-targeted. So you make it a criterion that both partners must be less than 40 years. If you are over 40 years, then you must be earning certain amount of money to pay more. Because nobody can give you a house for free, that is why we cannot say just move in. So, when we say One Naira, it is because there must be value. When I say pay One Naira and the house is worth N28 million over a period of 15 years. It is just to understand how the mortgage system works. Once you understand how it works, what is important for me is the need to attract young people into Ogun State from Lagos and other neighbouring states.

There is a chance of every young family you attract having two or three children. As the children grow, Lagos is already choked and the only place they can expand into the Atlantic Ocean. But the people I want to attract cannot live in the Atlantic City because of the high cost. So, it is only Ogun State that they can come to. If they are going to come to the state, if we don’t create such opportunities, everybody will cluster around Akute and then it becomes a slum. Everybody is moving into Akute and Berger areas now and they are becoming slums. What you need to do is to create new, smart cities for young families. Such a family needs to be gainfully employed and you need to be within a certain salary range to be able to qualify, but you must be less than 40-year-old. This is because I need, at least, 20 years of your working life in the state because that is where I am going to make my money from.

You appear set for victory but what happens if things turn the other way round?

I think that is where your faith comes in because at the end of the day, it boils down to you. In everything you do in life, you trust the almighty God that only Him determines man’s fate. My faith is very clear on that as a Muslim; that you seek and pray to God and He avails you that which you seek and in His infinite mercy, He does it for you. At times you seek and you want it but He does not give it to you. He gives it to you at His own time. Thirdly, you neither get it when you want it nor does He give you any other time, but He compensates you with something greater. At times, you might not really get what you want but He will compensate you with good health; compensate you with long life; compensate you with great children. There are times we think we have lost everything, but for those who are calm enough to be able to see beyond their nose, they will realise that ‘ah, this thing that God took away from me, this is the greater thing He has given back to me in return’. Once you have that understanding that those three things are basic in man’s life, then you don’t bother; you just do your very best and trust that everything is in God’s hand.