Before the build-up to the electioneering ahead of the 2019 general election, you were virtually unheard of but you seem to have wormed yourself into the political consciousness of the people regarding your governorship ambition. How did you begin the journey?
When, after consultations, I came to the conclusion that I should run for office, I knew that what would bring that name recognition out is consulting with the elders of the party, with the traditional rulers, with the party apparatchik, so to speak, and, to an extent, Governor Abiola Ajimobi himself.
I believe in building on the foundation the governor has laid. And to be truthful, he has done wonderfully well and that is the only reason you find that, of all that are jostling to become the governor, you have almost more than half in the APC.
It is because of what our leader, Senator Ajimobi, has been able to do in the past several years. By May next year, he would have laid a very solid foundation for whoever it is that is going to come after him – to be the governor.
So, this is the kind of message we have been sending to the people. One, we are selling the fact that the legacy of Governor Ajimobi would be deepened and it would be continued.
Apart from that, we have our own people from time, and since I have been a progressive, even before now, it is easier for me to dig into that reserve and activate the whole political structure that my people belong to.
And that is why our name right now, my name particularly, is spreading like wildfire. This is coupled with my personality. Whoever knew me in the past would know that I am God-fearing, I am truthful.
And the usual refrain right now, apart from not-too-young-to-run, is that we want someone who is relatively new to politics, someone that is not coming with any baggage, and, you know, my cognomen is ‘Stainless’, apart from ‘Eruobodo’. It is because of that that people are warming up to us.
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Are you not intimidated by the statures of those you are up against in this race, some of whom have even been around for a very long time?
I have said on many occasions that the array of all jostling to be governor in Oyo State, especially from the APC family, are all qualified and we have all attained the zenith of our professions differently. But in all of this, there is something they call ‘primus inter pares’, that is, first among equals.
I know I have not held any political office before and I think that is a plus, as a matter of fact. Because then you would realise that I do not have experience in looting; I don’t have experience in stealing public fund.
I was a lecturer at the University of Lagos and after that, I went into the civil service, or public service, as you would want to call it, at the Federal Housing Authority, after which I started my own business.
There is quite a number of people that have never really been able to go to the bank and say, ‘lend me N10 million so that I can turn it into N20 million.’ We have taken risks. As of now, we are taking risk to buy an electricity distribution company. We are taking risk to invest in farming.
We have taken risk to invest in real estate. There are some of the contestants that perhaps the best they had done in the past is to be consultants and it is quite easy.
I can tell you for free: if you put two consultants together and give them a task, you can be very sure that the difference between what they will give to you will just be in the semantics, not the substance.
All you need to do these days is to just go to the Internet and pull out whatever it is that you need. Or if what you have done thus far is to have worked for other people and taken advantage of that to set up one or two things, in a normal clime, that would not be, because we can calculate how much you had taken as your salary since the day you started work until the day you resigned.
And if you put it side by side with what you are claiming to have now, you would know that something is wrong somewhere. That is why I am saying that I am not coming with any baggage.
From all indications, Oyo State today cannot boast the same magnitude of resources as Lagos and Ogun states. What do you think are the potentials that could be harnessed to make the state rank among the best in the country?
First, the human capital. Once you develop the human capacity to visualise, anything can happen; things would begin to fall in place. Oyo is the fifth largest state in terms of population.
Now, if you look at the human capital, as of 2009, we were told that we were (about) six million but I know we are now about nine million in Oyo State.
That is huge. Apart from that, when you look at the mineral resources within the Savannah Belt, if you go out of your way to exploit those mineral resources, definitely, you would increase your [Internally Generated Revenue] IGR.
The most important element that I want to emphasise here is the agricultural aspect of it. Oke-Ogun is actually being touted as the food basket of Oyo State but agriculture goes beyond food. If a man is able to eat, at least his poverty is reduced by half.
That is what they say, but it should go beyond subsistence farming. If your industrialisation is based on agriculture, you can’t get it wrong, and that is what we hope to do.
There are many rivers that traverse the whole of Oyo State. The banks of the rivers can produce, 24/7, 365 days, more vegetables than we can export. And regarding herdsmen/farmers crisis, fortunately, in the last five years – and I am not saying this because I want to curry favour – the security system in Oyo State has been excellent.
We have not had any major incident in the last five years and that is because of what Governor Ajimobi has put in place.
So, to come back to that question, Lagos, in the first instance, is benefitting from the fact that it is a former [federal] capital. Two, the ports – airport, seaport – are in Lagos. You have an amalgamation of people coming into Lagos every day.
That is not happening right now in Oyo State. Well, I believe that with the largest soya milk manufacturing that is being done in Ibadan now, things would begin to change. You mentioned Ogun State. Ogun State is just benefitting from Lagos.
It is not because they have anything special. But because Lagos is now getting choked up, people are moving to Ogun State and that is why their IGR is coming up.
The same thing will happen to Ibadan and the rest of Oyo State because we would provide enabling environment and people would find that they can come here to do their business. And we have a more peaceful ambience in Oyo State than even Lagos.
So, what we need to do is to find ways of increasing our IGR. But before you can do that, you must increase the earning power of the people so that they would have the capacity to pay tax.
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In view of current political realities in relation to the recent gale of defections from the APC to the PDP and a few other parties, what do you think would be the fate of the APC in the next general election?
I would want to align with the national chairman of the APC that the political players that are leaving us are majorly those that were never with us in the first instance. A true progressive would not abandon ship any which way.
I do not think that a General would abandon a battle when he knows that it’s just the battle that he has lost and he can still win the war, and that is why I am amused. In Oyo State, yes, there were skirmishes, and that is what I would refer to them as, but they are not that tsunamic, if you like.
It is not something that could affect the fortune of our party, even at the national level. I am yet to see how [President Muhammadu] Buhari would lose Sokoto; the same thing with Kano, Benue and Kwara perhaps.
You will recall that when we were still in opposition, Buhari had a constant score of 12 million votes from the North, added to what we are doing in the South West.
And with our friends that are now coming into the fold from other regions, I don’t think there would be such a problem that the APC would lose at the national level or even at the state level, especially Oyo.
We are not saying that everything is perfect but we know that we can do better and we will definitely do better.
How about the reconciliation moves within the party?
The party leadership is still consulting on a daily basis. The thing is, when someone’s mind is made up, there is no amount of pacifying that you can do that will change that mind.
So, you may decide to just cut your losses and say, ‘if you want to go, go. It doesn’t stop us from being friends. It is just that we have just found ourselves in different political parties.’
Like they say, it is only permanent interest that you have in politics, not permanent enemies. So, nobody is going to burn any bridge. There is that reconciliation process still going on.
The constitution of your party, APC, allows for either direct or indirect primary in any case where you have more than one aspirant jostling to clinch the ticket for any election. This direct primary system was not tested until recently in Osun State and everybody saw how it went, would you suggest that for Oyo State for the 2019 elections?
The national leadership has seen the way indirect primary worked in Ekiti. They have seen the way direct primary worked in Osun. I would not believe that the direct primary we had in Osun was bad.
I actually want to believe that it gives every card-carrying member of the party the opportunity to participate in electing who carries the flag of the party.
If there are hitches, if there are imperfections, which are normal in any human endeavour, we can look at them. As long as it is free, as long as it is fair and a level playing ground is provided, I don’t think that we would have any problem.
You have created an air of affinity with Chief Obafemi Awolowo and all that he stood for, especially as seen in a conspicuous poster located in Ibadan. To what extent do you really share the ideals of the sage?
Some of the books that I have read were those authored by Chief Awolowo. And you will agree with me that in all the books that he authored, he never left the idea of progressivism, welfare of the people; care for those that are not well endowed in the society.
Those are the fundamentals of progressivism. That is why I have identified with the family for a long time. When I was going to embark on this journey, I went to the present matriarch [of the Awolowo family], Reverend (Mrs) Omotola Oyediran, and I was lucky that she blessed the journey and we have been talking about it.
The family is quite familiar and so I can never do anything that would negate what Chief Awolowo stood for. The legacies that he left as the Premier of Western Region are still standing today.
How realistic do you think the Ibarapa project is as far as the governance of Oyo State in 2019 is concerned?
You see, the good thing is this: years back, it was always Ibadan/Ibarapa. During the period of Chief Awolowo, it was called Ibadan Province. Ibadan Province was Ibadan and Ibarapa. Then it became Ibadan Division; again, Ibadan/Ibarapa. Besides, my intention is not to govern Ibarapa alone.
That is why I have been carrying my message everywhere and God has been kind; we have been able to convince our people from other places that we can do it. We started this journey by going to the party secretariat here in Ibadan.
We went to the Olubadan. We went to the Alaafin. We went to the Soun. We have been to the Aseyin. We have been everywhere. Before we started, we were in Ibarapa, of course, to get the blessings of our people there – the political leaders, women leaders.
It is not where you come from now; any human phenomenon that would develop has no particular origin as long as God has designed it to be of benefit to humanity.
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