‘Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade must go on, but…’

A former member of the House of Representatives, Dr Muyiwa Oladimeji, a Russia-trained medical doctor, holds two Ph.Ds in Cancer Immunology (Wales) and Nuclear Medicine (London). He speaks with MOSES ALAO on the politics of Osun State ahead of 2018 and the clamour for a transparent National Assembly budget, among others.

AS a former member of the House of Representatives and later Special Adviser to the Senate President, you would have been following the clamour for the National Assembly to make its budget open and the accusation that lawmakers collect jumbo pay. What do you make of this call? 

Let me first tell you that when I was in the House of Representatives in 1992/1993 there was nothing like jumbo pay. I also went to the Constitutional Conference by election and there was also no jumbo pay. But right now, there have been a lot of talks about jumbo pay, which the legislature insists is incorrect. So, to this extent, I think it will be a good development if there is full disclosure. I must also say that I commend the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, for publishing his pay. It was a good start and the beauty of democracy lies in the fact that Governor Nasir el-Rufai can talk while Dogara can answer. By the time this goes on, people will be able to know the truth. I am happy with the development.

On May 29, the government of Muhammadu Buhari will be two years in office. Can you attempt to assess the government?

Under this government, Nigeria has been moving in a circle.

But APC believes it has improved on governance more than what the past PDP government, which was replete with corruption, left behind.

I appreciate the way you put it, that they believe they have made improvements more than our government which was riddled with corruption. Only that this government harbours more corruption, because about 60 per cent of PDP is now in APC. So if our government was corrupt and the APC contains up to 60 per cent of former PDP members, then I leave you to draw your conclusions.

Having said this, I believe the anti-corruption crusade, which is one of the most important pillars of President Buhari’s campaign should go on. But it must be a genuine and holistic anti-corruption crusade, because the drawback in what we currently have as anti-corruption crusade is that some of us view it as selective.

You said Nigeria has been in a circle; what do you think is the way forward?

Nigerians should be more vigilant and ensure that they hold elected people to their campaign promises. Four years in the life of a nation is not few and Nigerians will have another opportunity to look at individuals and what they are bringing. Either at the national or state level, we must look at individuals and not their parties. I make bold to tell you that the difference between the PDP and APC is like the difference between six and half-a-dozen and that is why it is not difficult for people to cross from APC to PDP. Now, you see someone leave party A to party B and he will pick a ticket and run, because all the parties have no ideologies.

One is quite sure that members of the APC, especially in Osun State, will not take lightly to your position that there is no difference between their party and the PDP, having continually insisted that the APC-led government of Governor Rauf Aregbesola has been able to transform the state in the last six years.

Well, let me tell you this and I will be sincere as a politician that is not desperate and as an objective person. Government is a continuum; Pa Bisi Akande in his time built the state secretariat. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola came as governor and built the six campuses of the Osun State University. Each of them did other things too. Now, Aregbesola has been concentrating on road construction in Osogbo. However, when Papa Akande was building the secretariat, part of the problems was that the workers felt short-changed; they were overworked and underpaid and that was the nemesis of his government. Oyinlola came and cleared all the debts owed workers and he was very concerned about their welfare. He also went ahead to build the six campuses of the university, each of which can be a university on its own in future if the economy and situations permit. He also did many other projects.

Now, let us come to Aregbesola, who has been calling himself a reformation governor. Maybe you have not heard. The workers and the people in Osun State have been impoverished. He has built schools, quite alright and he has done more roads in Osogbo than any of the previous governments. You can’t take that away from him. And of course, he is building flyovers, which has never happened in the state, whatever that means. But the price is that workers are not being paid. Of course, for his second term election, he learnt from the pitfalls of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and his campaign was directed at the artisans, market women and all that and they all came out and said ‘this is our Messiah.’ But now, they all know that they made a wrong decision, because Osun State is a civil servant state and not an industrial zone; if the workers are impoverished, the artisans and the market women will feel it. They can no longer sell goods to anyone and make money. What they do is sell on credit. And now everybody knows which government is better. That is why it is critical that in 2018, nobody in Osun should be fooled by party labels. We have to scrutinise personalities that put themselves forward for election. We have to ask what are their antecedents, their records, their level of experience and where they are coming from. Is he a Lagos import or an Osun in diaspora character, who doesn’t even know the terrain and is going to use the first three years jumping left, right and centre. For example, some local governments in Lagos, the amount of money that accrues to them is more than Osun State’s federal allocation. So if a governor comes to Osun with a set mind thinking it is like Lagos, he is going to run Osun State into debts and the state is presently in a lot of debts. So, 2018 governorship contest must be a rescue mission for the state. Anyone that will be coming in to govern the state must know that he is coming on a rescue mission.

You said that governorship contest in Osun State should be about individuals and not party. Is that not a way of saying you will not support the PDP in 2018, but can actually work for an opposition party with a candidate that meets the standard you are setting?

I am not going to blindly or sheepishly vote for anybody because the party tells me to do so. I will try to ensure that my party picks the rightest candidate but if my party is dumb enough not to pick the right candidate, I will not vote for that candidate. That is the concept of democracy that we all have to understand in this country. In the name of party discipline, you are asked that you must do this or you must not do that; no. Are you telling me that if you belong to a party and that picks a former armed robber or a numbskull, who has no track record, you will sheepishly vote for the person because the party says so? Haven’t we seen enough of the damage that has done to our system all over? We put people in places they have no business being in. We must learn to put round pegs in round holes; that is what I am saying.

It appears you already have this right candidate in mind.

I think it is till premature at this stage to say this one is the right candidate or otherwise. But what I can tell you is this: in deciding, I will like to know the track record of the candidate, the experience he/she has, how long he/she has been in the political terrain and how well he/she knows Osun State. I will also like to know the kind of personality he/she is; is he a decent person or a jau jau person? Is he a person you can sit down, discuss with and advise and he will listen to you or a person who thinks he knows it all. These are the factors that will come into my making a decision and the same will be applicable to many people like me.

I also want to say that the next governor must be someone who can rescue Osun; someone who is comfortable and does not need state’s money to survive. We need someone who is not a hungry person, who will start thinking that Osun State is another Lagos and that is why I said that for any rational person in Osun State, we cannot sheepishly say party, party, party. We must look at the individual, because there must be a rescue mission for the state.

You belong to the PDP, which has been enmeshed in crisis for quite some time. Are you sure the PDP will be alive by 2018?

I hope it will be alive. Anyway, all the parties are disabled. As of today, PDP is like a car with a disabled gear box. It is wobbling. Similarly, APC, as it is presently, is like a car with a burst radiator. It is overheating and therefore there is a lot of tension in it but it has not stopped working, so people believe things are still okay. Sooner or later, you will see the effect of that. So, the two main parties are in need of good automobile mechanics.

Which faction of PDP do you really belong to.

I am with the Senator Ahmed Makarfi group.