IS there no clash of interest in your being the National Secretary of the AD and your ambition to run for the governorship of Ekiti State in the election? How are you combining the two?
The Electoral Act says a month preceding the governorship election, I should resign my position. So, I can still continue to double in that position until when the election is one month away. So, there are no issues with me being the National Secretary now and a governorship aspirant.
How many of you are aspiring to govern Ekiti on the platform of the AD?
As we speak, I know myself. However, there are two other people coming behind me in the race to grab the party’s ticket. So, I can say I’m about the only aspirant.
How would you rate the strength of the AD going into the election?
The strength of the AD is as of old. I can say that there many people in Ekiti State who have sympathy for the Alliance for Democracy; people who are 40 years and above are still in love with the AD. What we used to have in those days is still what the AD has today; and that is not recycling the same people. We are majoring our attention on those who know the nitty-gritty of the AD and who are people of integrity that will not tell Ekiti people lies and do window-dressing of issues.
How successful has your party’s drive been in the buildup to the election?
We have been moving. We have been meeting people on the fields and even chieftains of other political parties we meet on the field give us kudos for the kind of job we are doing. Some tell us that it was gratifying that we haven’t allowed the Alliance for Democracy to die, and that they are ready to work with the party to achieve success. This has been our strength. Another delightful thing they point at is the fact that I am the first Ekiti indigene to be elected as the National Secretary of any registered political party in Nigeria.
The political field is getting more and more interesting as the governorship election inches closer. Some parties have very many aspirants while some are not sure of what to do with their aspirants and there are worries. How does the AD intend to benefit from the crowded field?
Many times, I don’t worry about the crowd. I’m a pastor like I said, and I know that one with God is a majority. I know that there are some things that would happen among these people that call themselves political juggernauts that would make them fall in line and say let us work for Akin Fashogbon in the Alliance for Democracy, because this one stood by the truth and is still standing by the truth. Since 1999, I have never left the party and I’m still there. So, it’s a question of people looking for integrity and they already have it in AD and Fashogbon. Besides, we have our own strategy to win the election, which we don’t want to disclose now so that others won’t steal our idea. But I can assure you that it is the strategy of David against Goliath.
Many interested people throw money around, and this no doubt sways the electorate. The AD has always been coming third in Ekiti election. Does your strategy include how to counter the money politics and lift the position of AD beyond the traditional third this time round?
The gospel we want to preach is not the gospel of monetary politics and I want to tell you that this time round, money will fail. A lot of people would go to borrow money in large sums and when they have used it to buy power, they throw us into problem. That’s the major problem Ekiti is battling with over the years. For us to get out of the trouble, we don’t need money bags again. The “d’ìbò ko se’bè” “vote and get money to cook soup” syndrome is what has kept us in bondage and we are ready to break it. Nigerians should know that one soup cannot take us for 365 days multiplied by four years. If we are saying we should continue to take money, and fail to correct the notion, we will remain stuck.
We need development that would have positive impact on the citizenry. We need infrastructural development to lay a solid foundation for our dear state and country. But when one politician goes and borrows N1billion to run an election, then he would want to recoup it two or three fold at the expense of the suffering masses. This is not good at all.
So, how does the AD now intend to improve on its result from previous election results?
By the special grace of God, we are set. We are set to tell the people what they stand to gain by what we want to do for them. They already know AD as a peaceful party and a progressive party. Whenever the party says it wants to do something, it would do it. For example, I don’t know why our school children cannot be going to school in free buses to cushion the economic effect on their parents.
The healthcare system is bad, why have we abandoned our core duties and callings? That is why we have been telling the people to give AD the chance again. They know our antecedent and we will not disappoint. PDP has failed us. APC has failed us. Let us now come back home, primarily, starting from Ekiti then the rest of the South West region.
What stands AD out among the other political parties?
What stands us out is good governance; governance like the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in which you didn’t need to ask before he gave. You don’t need to come and ask for roads before the government would do it. Primarily, we want to focus on agriculture. Ekiti is an agrarian state but we have left it undone. Instead of refraining that “youth is our future,” we should rather engage them because the future is now. We should do away with elderly people who are 70 and so on, who say 40-year-olds are the future. When will, they now start that future? So, the AD is trying to package our state in such a way that everybody will enjoy the dividend of democracy. Infrastructure and other developments will not be window-dressing. We shall go into the rural areas to bring even development. That’s how Chief Awolowo did it, to stem rural-urban migration. Ikere is one of the districts as Ikole, Ijero and Ado Ekiti are the other districts, Afenifere means life more abundant for the people and the development of these districts would mean less influx of people to the state capital. If what obtains in one district is found in another, there would be no need to move, but there would be the urge to develop where you are. That’s what we intend to bring to Ekiti State, so that government would be all-encompassing. Women would also be in the frontline of cause of their tact and quality. We have all these mapped out and we will implement as soon as we assume power.
and then