I don’t regret working with Tambuwal —Olorunfemi

Chief James Olorunfemi is the President General of Yoruba community in Sokoto State and also a Special Assistant to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal. In this interview with OLAKUNLE MARUF, he speaks of his experience as the first political aide of Yoruba origin in the state and other issues.

You are the first Yoruba man to be appointed into Sokoto state executive council, how would you describe your appointment and experience?

My appointment as a Special Assistant to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal is a wonderful experience and I will say that it is the reward of my political and communal antecedents, which predates my emergence as the President General of Yoruba community in Sokoto state. Previous administrations have been appointing Igbo as special assistant and I discovered that it was because Yoruba people in Sokoto have been apolitical. I met with some stakeholders and let them understand that the Yorubas deserve to be accommodated in the government.  Fortunately for us, when the time come for the state governor to appoints his cabinet, he requested, through the head of Yoruba to give him someone who can represent the Yoruba for nomination as a special assistant. They never wasted time or find it difficult to present my name to the state government.

The little time I have worked as a special assistant, I have never had cause to regret.  I have access to state government activities and maximise it to issues that bothered on the communities. It has also helped me to work directly with the governor in both governance and political activities of the country.

Are you referring to the Yoruba community or the Yoruba Traditional Council in the state?

The Yoruba Traditional Council was involved in this and they never found it difficult to call for me. This is because of the little time I have used to manage the Yoruba community as the President General; they were very pleased with my performance. That was how the issue of my appointment as a special assistant came to reality

Recently, you hosted the 19 President General of Yoruba communities in Northern states, what was the purpose?

The Yoruba communities in the northern states normally hold their meeting every year and this year, it was slated for Sokoto, where we discussed a lot of issues concerning the Yoruba communities in the 19 northern states. Fortunately, when they came to Sokoto, we had to change the settings. Though, I was not up to a year as President General of Yoruba before the particular programme took place, I nevertheless, gathered a lot of experience from that. What we did was to add colour to the event by making it a conference, we called people around to discuss issues concerning Yoruba people. There were presentations anchored by personalities and academicians on fostering unity among ethnic groups in Nigeria. We didn’t focus it on Yoruba issues alone. After the meeting, we then paid a visit to the Sultan and later to the state governor. It was a wonderful experience. After the events, most of the other states in the northern axis started copying what we did in Sokoto. We discovered that it is not only about meeting but about interaction as well, you need to know about the state you visited.

One of the objectives of this particular meeting was to see how we can harmonise the constitution of the Yoruba communities in the 19 northern states. The vice president has been there for around 14 years and naturally, it is not supposed to be like that, it is not a monarchy thing. One of the resolutions was to set up committees that will look into our constitution and do the needful where there is/are necessary. These are some of the reasons the president general of the 19 northern states came together to appraise issues on how we can live with our hosts in our various states comfortably.

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You are President General of Yoruba community in Sokoto and a Special Adviser to the governor, where do you think it is leading you?

That is the question people have been asking me. I am being inundated with calls from Kogi, my home state, urging me to return home and contribute my quota in the aspect of leadership. In as much as I will love to go back home one day, by the grace of God, to heed their calls, I believe the experience I am gathering in Sokoto state will be enough to let me  make a positive impact by the time I get back to my state. I am still gathering the experience; I am not tired of Sokoto, even though, my attention is needed to move our state forward.

How will you describe your relationship with other community leaders as the President General of Yoruba community?

My relationship with other tribes has been very cordial. Before now, most people never believed that I am a Yoruba man. I once told somebody that one of the reasons I have to actively identify with my community is that they are trying to mistake my identity. I used to joke with people then that maybe one day I will have to go back home to give myself a tribal mark for easy identification. Basically, we have a good working relationship with the Ibos, who are the majority, as far as other communities are concerned. There is a synergy between the Ibo and the Yoruba, which has gone a very long way.