When did you join politics?
I joined in 2014. I came to Nigeria from Canada and I saw a lot of things going on. How come we don’t have local government chairmen, they said they only have caretaker and they have certain amount of things they can do and said that should not be so. Then, I discovered that some of those representing my constituency- Itesiwaju local government at state and federal constituencies are illiterates. They don’t even know that they are doing anything at legislative houses at all.
We have senators; we have members of House of Representatives. They are literates but they are not educated. We cannot even see the presence of the state government there. So I asked which parties are available because that I wanted to contest. I joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I started my politics with the PDP. I joined and bought expression of interest and nomination forms. But the way they play politics in Nigeria, I didn’t even know when they did the primaries for the 2015 election held. That was how someone hijacked it and people could not even fight for it or ask for the money for the form that we paid? From there I was able to experience Nigerian politics. Then DPP invited me. I ran for the election, House of Representatives and during the period, it was like an experience. I was able to see the way people reason and think. The day of the election created experience for me because I saw the way money was being distributed because I have never voted in Nigeria.
What’s your vision for Oyo state?
Oyo state is the pacesetter but there is nothing to brag about while we have so many things. The natural resources we have, instead of waiting for Abuja, we can make use of it. A lot of people from Togo and Benin Republic are farmers and they have their workers working along Oke-Ogun axis and making enough money from this state without dropping a dime into the coffers of the state. Those kind of things, we can use it to generate money. And I noticed that nobody cares about stable electricity. Without stable electricity, we cannot get investors. Electricity is killing businesses. If we can have that stable electricity that can entice investors to come, even people will come from Lagos to come and live in Oyo state and they can pay taxes in Oyo state because this is their place also. Electricity has to be the number one thing that we should look for how we can have 24hours electricity supply.
Again, I’ve been contacting some firms in Canada because I know places like British colonial hydro where I live to assist in making this a reality. At the moment, Canada is even helping Ghana to get light, so what’s stopping us? Like in oke-ogun now in Iseyin, there’s one programme they started a long time ago the Ikere Gorge dam. We can be generating power from there. Everything about the project like 80 per cent has been completed even the equipment since 1980’s before General Muhammadu Buhari took over power as military Head of State, but nobody has touched it. Some people are just making money through that by doing fishery and others and there is nothing about the safety of those people in case there’s flood or so. Those areas, we have to make use of it because we have so many.
I will be a governor where we will all work together, do things together and make things happen for Oyo state, not just for my members but for the people of Oyo state so that we will all benefit because I believe that one rich man in the midst of millions of people is still a poor person. If I become the governor of Oyo state, I will modernise the infrastructure. I will make sure there’s compulsory free education for age 3-18. The universities and others will be having grants and loans because education is the only thing that will make the state progress. Without education, we cannot progress. We have to start addressing it. I looked at the constitution, they are not ready to address it, the Nigerian constitution only said education is free where it is practicable, they are not making it mandatory. It is supposed to be mandatory.
How experienced are you with the system of Nigeria that will make all what you are saying feasible?
I’ve been in it. I’ve managed business and I’ve been in the industry and I know how those things work, so for the administrative system of Oyo state, we can make it easy to do once you have people. I’m going to make sure I use people that are very good in the areas like electricity. they will do research and everything. I research as well. Based on that, I know we will be able to implement the electricity sector. For the education sector, I will involve all stakeholders in this sector to come up with a better programme. It won’t be me alone doing it. We have so many Nigerians abroad that are doing very well. They don’t even mind coming to do things here for free but there are no opportunities.
Your party is a relatively small party, how do you intend to compete with the big parties?
In Nigeria, about 30 per cent of the whole of the country are politicians, 70 per cent are not. All these people, we are going to make them realise how powerful they are if they can speak with their conscience and not be influenced. A lot of people don’t vote, they don’t even have voter’s card. We’ve been trying to reach them that they should be involved. They feel the results are going to be rigged and i hope it’s not going to be so. The thing is we have few months to go and technology will help us too. Sometimes I even suggest some things like developing something free for Nigeria, and some people say it’s not possible and just end the comment like that, but it won’t be so.
My party is not small because I have big people around me and I know we are going to reach out and enlighten them because the reason people have been doing it is because they don’t know better. we will reach out to them and tell them how things are supposed to be. I know because of that that we are going to win this election because people are tired of APC, PDP, they are just recycling. No more recycling. Some people will claim they have political experience. There is no political experience in Nigeria. The only thing they know is how to steal money, but if they really know how to serve Nigeria, Oyo state and Nigeria will not be like this. I know how to serve. I don’t have Nigeria political experience which I think is a good advantage for me because it’s better as I don’t know how to steal money. It is better. They should know that there’s a way to end this poverty and hunger in Oyo state and this is a new way. Electricity, education, medical, we are not going the new way. It’s not being a political professor or how many years that an individual has been in politics. We want to give the kids hope, because the education I had during my time was far better. We should make this place an envy of Africa. I tell you that May 2019, I will be sworn in as the governor of Oyo state.
and then