If elected, Kashamu’ll run a govt that leaves no one behind in Ogun —Abati, PDP deputy gov candidate

SOME few months ago, most Nigerians were jolted when you were announced as the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This was because people have, for decades, known you as a writer, columnist, journalist, but never a card-carrying member of a political party. So how did that come about and for how long have you been playing politics?

Well, the standard response to that is to say that we are all politicians. Once you are involved in public affairs, you are involved in politics. A lot of people have attitude about and are scared of politics, maybe because of the nature of politics in our environment and the way professional politicians play it. But the truth of the matter is we are all involved in politics and I think that every citizen has the responsibility to get involved, and not to observe.

In my entire career, I have been commenting on the political processes in Nigeria. When this electoral process began and the opportunity came, I felt a sense of duty to be part of the process. Before now, I’ve been involved in the governance process in Nigeria in so many capacities. I’ve been a member of the governing council of the Olabisi Onabanjo University for four years. I was part of the pioneer team that set up the Lagos State Security Trust Fund; I was on the board. We put that structure in place under the leadership of Mr Makanjuola of Caverton Helicopters and I was the spokesperson for President Goodluck Jonathan for four years. So, it is not as if I am new to the governance process. With the experiences that I have had, I know that you get to learn a lot about how your country is being governed. It is one thing to be a critic and writer; it is another thing to be a participant-observer, an insider who is part of the process. And I will like to encourage more professionals to get involved in politics.

Many years back, there was this group founded by Professor Pat Utomi and other called Concerned Professionals and the key argument was that professionals should not alienate themselves from the political process. And over the years, one gain of that initiative is that we have seen more professionals going into politics and I think the more we have professionals, educated and enlightened people getting involved in the governance process, the better it is for the system.

For more than 20 years, you have been a critic, now that you are a card-carrying member of the PDP and a deputy governorship candidate, how has it been relating with politicians?

Well, there are professional politicians. There are professionals in politics and there are technocrats as well. It is not as if all the people in the political arena are homogenous; there is diversity. It is a great lesson in human psychology, because politics is about people. And you just have to know how to relate with people. Politics is also about structures. You can’t be a politician and think you can rely on posters alone. You must connect with the people, because it is the people who will, at the end of the day, choose who their leaders would be. For me, it’s a great lesson and I’ve not done anything unusual. Look at the history of Nigerian politics; we have had several journalists going into politics: Chief Obafemi Awolowo started as a journalist, Ernest Ikoli was a journalist, the famous Odemo of Isara was a journalist and even Nnamdi Azikiwe started out as a journalist. So, another journalist going into politics is part of a tradition that has been well established. In more contemporary times, we have heard Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, Chief Olusegun Osoba and so on. So, we should not really be surprised about journalists going into politics. We are not the only professionals venturing into politics. We have had lawyers, accountants, medical doctors, architects going into politics. I have not heard anyone question these other professionals why they are in politics. But when it is the turn of a journalist, it is our own colleagues that will question us.

The position you held as the spokesperson to the president is said to be equivalent to the position of a minister. Why are you contesting as the deputy governor; why not as the governor?

It is a straightforward thing. If you look at the geopolitics of Ogun State, there is always this unwritten code about zoning. And if you look at the person who has been our governor for eight years, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, he is from my senatorial zone. He is from my hometown and he is from the same constituency with me. So, there is no way, after an Egba man has done eight years as governor, another Egba man will come up and say he wants to succeed him. So, even if I wanted to be the governor, the geopolitics does not favour me. Now, you know that there is politics in Ogun State between the Ijebu division and the Egba division, with the Ijebu saying it is their turn, while people from Yewa are also saying one of their children should also be governor. We have been on that since 2011. In 2011, there was a Yewa son on the ballot, but he didn’t win. Same thing happened in 2015. Now, in 2019, there are two Yewa sons fighting to be governor. There are also a few Egba sons – Dimeji Bankole and Mr Segun Odegbami, who are also from Ogun Central. Maybe there are others who are contesting in this election as governorship candidates, but you won’t see so much enthusiasm about their ambitions, because there is this unwritten code that if a man from a place has done eight years, let power go to another zone. It is an unwritten principle of rotation. But the good thing about my candidacy is that I’m on the strongest ticket. Senator Buruji Kashamu is from Ogun East; I am from Ogun Central as his running mate. Between us, we have nine LGAs in Ogun East and six in Ogun Central, making 15 LGAs. In terms of relative strength, this makes the Buruji Kashamu/Reuben Abati ticket the strongest. It is the best combination to unite the state and to give every zone of the state a fair representation.

Talking about the relative strength, you are on the platform of the PDP.  The PDP has been viewed as a house divided against itself because of the tussle between Honourable Ladi Adebutu and Senator Buruji Kashamu over the governorship ticket. What do you think this portends for the party in the election?

The sentiments in Ogun State – what we have seen and heard –  are in favour of the PDP. If they wanted change in 2015, they want it more now in 2019 and PDP is clearly the frontrunner in the race. I will not agree with you that the PDP in Ogun State is a divided house. Even those who are contesting the rule of law,  if you interview them, they will not tell you they are leaving the PDP. They will tell you that they belong to the PDP, and that they will campaign for the PDP. So all of us under the umbrella of the PDP, whatever our orientation, we are all campaigning for the party. That is not a divided house. I think that the media need to be more properly educated, because I have seen a lot of reports by many of our colleagues, which I found really strange. What is out there is that the people who may be contesting this and that in Ogun State. The matter has been taken to court, all the way to the Supreme Court. Court judgments are available that people can read; they are in the public domain. In virtually all those judgments, the courts have held that the validly elected executive in Ogun State that can conduct primaries is the Adebayo Dayo-led exco of the PDP in the state. That is not too much for anyone to understand. And that particular judgment has been reaffirmed at different levels: the Court of Appeal and even the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has, twice, thrown out the case of those contesting these things on the grounds that the case either lacked merit or was incompetent. One after the other, the courts have affirmed the validity of the Adebayo Dayo-led exco; they have also said that the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Ogun State is Senator Buruji Kashamu. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also relied on the court judgment to say this is the position of the law. And the law is superior to any other entity. No group in Nigeria is superior to the law. No group in Nigeria is in a position to disobey court orders. If you do that, it will be contemptuous. The courts of Nigeria have even said that the PDP at the national level is disobeying court orders. Yes, political parties have their own authorities and constitutions, but no political party is superior to the courts of law, because they are there to ensure justice and fairness. I am not making these comments because I am involved. I am making these comments because I am an analyst and it is part of my job to do dispassionate analysis of events.

You said the PDP is not a divided house, but there is this Yoruba saying about people losing their friendship after a legal face-off. Beyond the courts, are there efforts to reconcile the two groups within the party?

There have been reconciliation meetings. On at least two occasions, Senator Kashamu issued statements persuading that all of us should work together to ensure the victory of the PDP in these elections. Again, there have been meetings at different levels; I have attended some of those meetings. Members of the party have met and I think that is the reason you will see that going into the election, PDP members are campaigning for the PDP. Except for few individuals who may have gone to other parties, I think we are all working together for the party. What this shows is that there is room for everybody coming together at the end of the day, because whatever victory we gain in Ogun State will be a victory for the party.

So, that is why when some people say are there are divisions, I just laugh, because we are all working together. I’ve gone on campaigns before and we met Ladi Adebutu’s people; we stopped and sang the PDP anthem together. We shouted PDP and they went their way and we went our way. Senator Kashamu has also been saying that should he become the governor on March 9, he is going to be the governor for everybody; that he will not only be the governor of PDP, but of everybody, no matter the party you belong to. Once we win the election, it won’t just be about peace and reconciliation in the PDP, it will be about peace and reconciliation in the entire state. That is why some of the major pillars of our campaign are inclusiveness, transparency and accountability. We plan to run a government that will not leave anyone out. We will run a government driven by inclusiveness.

You talked about the fact that people want change more now than they wanted it in 2015. But the question people in Ogun State would ask is what would your party do differently if elected?

We are guided by the constitution of PDP. The constitution of PDP talks about social welfare, service to the people, justice, and the rule of law. Our own policy entitled: “The Road to Progress in Taking Ogun State to Greater Heights” reflects all of these ideals, objectives and goals.

We have refrained from condemning anybody in these campaigns. You will not see us anywhere saying that Amosun or this person has not done well. That is not what we promise the people of Ogun State. What we promise is that if they give us the job of leading the state for the next four years, we will serve them and do so in a transparent and accountable manner and in a manner that will not exclude anybody. It is not going to be an Ijebu government or an Egba government; it will be a government of all the people of Ogun State. And that will require meeting them at their points of needs. We have spelt these out in our policy document. There is a lot that needs to be done in the education sector. It is scandalous that all of a sudden, when WAEC results come out and the states are ranked, you will be struggling to find Ogun State and you have to look at the bottom of the page. That never used to happen. We will also address the grievances of workers in the state, particularly teachers.

• Buhari defeats Atiku in Obasanjo’s polling unit with 87 to 18 votes

One of our priorities is to make sure that standards are raised and the grievances of the workforce in education are addressed. We will ensure that we upgrade the infrastructure in the education sector. It is not about building new schools or building model schools. We can refurbish the existing ones and provide enabling environment for them and this will not just be at the primary and secondary school levels, but will also include the tertiary institutions. Some teachers of tertiary institutions met with us and they even gave us a document in which they said they have not been paid salaries for 29 months and that pension arrears have not been paid to those who have retired for 49 months. The document they gave us indicated that some persons had died on account of these and that some families had collapsed, marriages broke up, because the bread winners were not able to take care of the home. These are the kind of issues Senator Kashamu has said will be investigated and addressed.

Take local government workers, we had a delegation from them and they told us about their plight. You know I told you earlier that politics is about people; one of the things you have to learn is to listen to people. If you do so, you will know how they feel. Governance is not rocket science. You just have to listen and know what is going on. Everywhere we have campaigned, Senator Kashamu has continued to say that the local government, being an important tier of government, seems to be disadvantaged and that it will be one of the very things he will look at, if elected. Local government workers complained that they don’t get their allocations, that if anything comes to them at all, the state government would have deducted from the allocations. The local government has been left incapacitated. The question we will be asking is how local government can become more functional, because it is the closest to the people. So, you are likely going to see us do a lot of things in these regards.

We have been meeting with traditional rulers, and they have complained about being neglected as well. We met with Baale and even some coronet Obas and they told us they have not been paid for two to three years. So, we intend, as part of our policy of inclusiveness, to carry the traditional institution along, to involve them.

Of course, there is also the challenge of infrastructure. If you look at the Amosun government, it has done a lot in terms of road infrastructure. It has done quite a number of roads, bridges and all that. We don’t intend to abandon these. We intend to take that further, because we believe government is a continuum. We are not going to have issues of abandoned projects, because we are not talking about ego; we are talking about serving the people. So, all the projects that Amosun is not able to complete, you will see us completing those projects.

Now, industrialisation is also something that is important to us. Luckily, Senator Kashamu is an entrepreneur. He has been doing business for about 40 years and the issue of industrialisation is something he takes very serious. If you look at Ogun State, there is an industrialisation drive in the state, which has improved over the years from one governor to the other. Look at the Sagamu Interchange area, you can see many industries coming from Lagos to settle there. So, Ogun State is benefiting a lot from being contiguous to Lagos State. Look at Agbara, the whole of that Agbara Sector is Ogun State. Look at the Lagos-Sagamu corridor, which is also in Ogun State. So, you are going to see us doing a lot in terms of encouraging both real estate and factories along that corridor. Ogun Waterside has been relatively overlooked; it is just a few minutes from Lekki. It will be one of our strategic thinking points to link Ogun Waterside to Lekki. We can attract development to that corridor. People who are into real estate will be attracted to the place. We only need to construct  a bridge linking the place to Lekki. We have lands that investors and industrialists can take advantage of; all we need to do is to provide the environment. We will work on industrialising the state by encouraging factories to come around. We intend to capitalise on our contiguity to Lagos for the development of the state. Another thing Senator Kashamu will look into is entrepreneurship, poverty alleviation through small and medium scale enterprise. I am particularly scandalised that we now have ‘area boys’ in Abeokuta and other parts of the state. Many  young men, some of them are educated and some are not, are just busy loitering about. These are so many talents in this state wasting away. How can we engage them? How do we encourage small and medium scale enterprises? Because by doing that, more people will have jobs and more young people will have better things to do other than riding commercial motorcycles.

In June 2018, you wrote that Nigeria is on the road to Babylon; one wonders what you would have to say today and secondly, the Jonathan government in which you served continued to be blamed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government. You’ve been in government and you returned to your job as an analyst, what is your take on these issues?

Whatever I say about the APC government at this time may be interpreted as a political talk, but I have to say that it is disingenuous to keep blaming Jonathan for what is happening today. Jonathan is now in a class of a statesman; he has done his bit. When people say they want power and they seek elective positions, I don’t think it makes any sense to be looking back and blaming other people. The Buhari government played that card earlier, but I don’t think people are interested in that card any longer. I have heard Nigerians say ‘okay, we elected you so that you can come and run your own government; focus on your government.’

You know when we were talking about Ogun State earlier, I told you that we will not get into government and be looking back. We will make our contributions when the people give us the mandate. We have done a review, an assessment and a forensic analysis of what the people need and what we consider our priorities and that is what we will focus on, because it will be foolish for anyone to be elected governor of Ogun State and all he will do for four years is to discuss Amosun. No, Amosun has done his bit and we will thank him for it. Others before him did their bit and we respect them for that. So, all the blame game about what past administrations did not do, to me, is not a good way of providing leadership. Leadership means taking responsibility for your actions, keeping your promises to the people. When people come and they are blaming other people, what they are parading, if they need to be told, is incompetence.

As a celebrated columnist, people would expect that you would have published two or more books about your experience while in government. Is there such a plan in place?

I’m not just a columnist, I am a journalist. I’ve been into print, broadcast and online journalism. I’m going to write to document my experiences. As you can see, I have been gaining more experiences at different levels. Writing a book or a memoir is not time-bound. When I am ready, I will write on my experience in government. If I want to do a collection of essays or a book, I have what I need. There are many issues one can reflect upon and write about. But it is a matter of time.