We know those who won’t succeed Aregbesola —Kunle Oyatomi, Osun APC Director of Publicity

Kunle Oyatomi is the Osun State Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the All Progressive Congress (APC). He speaks with OLUWOLE IGE, on the threat by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to dislodge the ruling party in the state next year, the APC’s loss in the July 8, 2017, Osun West Senatorial District rerun election and indiscipline in party politics, among others issues.

APC’s defeat in the last Osun West Senatorial by-election election has remained the talk of the town, in the opposition. What do you think was responsible for the defeat of the party?

There are two aspects to this question. The first aspect is that the passing away of the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke created genuine sympathy that was politically exploited by his brother who succeeded him, with the assistance of some APC members who sabotaged the party. The second aspect is that strategic errors were made which we have identified, but we refused to talk about. Those errors will not be repeated.APC’s defeat in the last Osun West Senatorial by-election election has remained the talk of the town, in the opposition. What do you think was responsible for the defeat of the party? 

 

Some party members appear aggrieved over the selection processes in the party for election. What do you think is actually responsible and is there any remedy in sight?  

There is terrible indiscipline in the politics of Nigeria and everyone wants to be the leader at the same time. Some will kill to achieve that goal; others will sabotage their own party to achieve the same goal. At the end, it is the inordinate ambitions of some individuals within a party structure that lead them to jettison rules, regulations and standard set up by the party which they purport to support. Behind the rat race for political positions in this country is a selfish end to become wealthy and powerful. Most politicians are not in politics to serve. They are in it because it has proved to become a faster way to become rich in Nigeria; that is what is behind the sabotage of APC by some members of our party in the Osun West by-election scenario. But a party that is well structured and disciplined will stick to its rules and principles and damn the bluff of inordinate ambitious individuals who want to subvert the rules. That is what APC in Osun will do to take care of that crisis.

 

The opposition has vowed to unseat your party come 2018, boasting to re-enact the last Osun West victory’s syndrome. What is your take on that?  

The Osun West Senatorial District by-election is not a standard gauge for the popularity of APC in the state. Let’s put that victory in context as we said earlier. The figures revealed that the majority of votes that gave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the victory came from Ede land (Ede North, Ede South and Egbedore). The Adeleke factor is predominant and the sabotage by the APC dissidents added significantly to PDP victory. However, when serious and responsible politicians in Osun are weighing their options, there is no way they will opt for PDP as an alternative to APC in this state.

The people of Osun State have had the opportunity to experience PDP and APC for about the same period of time (seven years each) and Osun people are intelligent enough to know the difference. Only a fool will look far away for an answer because the difference is clear. We need not say more. The coming weeks and months will determine how the future of Osun will unfold. But as far as we are concerned, the outcome is clear. Osun will remain an APC state after August 2018.

 

The issue of workers’ salary has remained one of the reasons the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration is being criticised. What do you have to say on this?   

Sadly enough, the criticism has been amplified unduly by the media. The question of the inability of a state to pay salary was and is not peculiar to Osun. But for some satanic reasons, Osun appears to be the only state that was criticised beyond the imagination of the more than 20 states that have the same problem for the same reason. Nigeria’s economy collapsed and went into recession between 2013 and 2014. By 2015, we were already in recession, a very serious one. Yet, the only state that was criticised for not being able to pay salary was Osun. We do not want to waste our energy to go into the satanism involved in the unprecedented criticism that the Aregbesola-APC led government in Osun was subjected to.

The records are documented in the print and electronic media. However, nobody cared to look at the details of how the crisis was managed. It was easy to assault the personality and administration at the same time, but everybody turned the blind eye to the skillful way that the crisis was managed. First, there was the human aspect. Should the government sack workers in order to pay salary, or should it define another way to keep people on their jobs and manage to pay some kind of emoluments or the other? If the government had chosen the former, it could have involved sacking over 50 per cent of the workforce in the state.

This appeared and indeed was inhuman as well as inhumane to the government. So, the governor decided to dialogue with Labour and no other person than Africa No 1 Labour Leader, Alhaji Hassan Sumonu, was brought to preside over the negotiation. To cut a long story short, Labour leaders and the government agreed that sacking workers was not an option. They then agreed that workers on Levels 1-7 are to receive their full salaries; Level 8-11 take 75 per cent of their salaries while those on Level 12 and above get half salaries.

That has been the situation since July 2015. But the wicked propaganda of PDP which was widely politicised was that Aregbesola was paying half salaries to all workers while, in fact and in truth, only senior officers from Level 12 and above, which represent less than 25 per cent of the workforce are getting half salaries. Unfortunately for us and for humanity, majority of the people are easily persuaded to believe lies than to believe the truth. And PDP is a very rich fountain of lies in Osun.

 

High debt profile is another factor militating against the APC-led government in Osun. What is the situation of things?  

There is no serious and responsible government on planet earth that is not indebted in one form or the other. That means, from the point of view of a layman, governments are always indebted because they cannot function optimally on their own funds. The principle surrounding borrowing is that you can use funds from other sources to develop your country or your state in such a way that jobs are created for people and development can take place in the area of governance. One of the best examples today, if we can say so, is that one of the greatest and richest countries in the world, the United States of America, is the most indebted government on earth. Now, talking about Nigeria, the most indebted state today is Lagos. Let the PDP cynics tell us which is the most developed states in Nigeria today, ahead of Lagos?

The question of indebtedness Osun has a very positive side to it which people are not being allowed to recognise. The impression being created by the amplified lie of the PDP that Aregbesola’s government recklessly misused borrowed funds without anything to show for it. That egregious lie has gained resonance with the uninformed, the ill-informed and the unsuspecting clientele of doctored information. This is what created the wrong impression that nothing has happened in Osun to justify all the money borrowed for developmental purposes.

 

It will take the gullible or the cynical and the wicked to come to Osun and then agree that the Aregbesola government has been reckless. The infrastructural development in Osun since 2010 when Aregbesola assumed office has been monumental. The environmental impact of his clean-up operation of the state has not only saved lives, but has also improved healthcare of the people The government’s investment on education is first of its kind since Osun was created. His human capital development has been unique and unparallel in the history of Osun. Osogbo and many other cities of the state have become such an attraction for the citizens, that only evil-minded people will not notice the difference during holidays. It will be stating the obvious and we are proud to say so that no government, since Osun was created, has done half as much as Aregbesola has done for the state and its people, and no government has achieved as much in internally generated revenue (IGR) as Aregbesola has done in the last seven years. For anybody to think and speculate that the PDP opposition or its collaborators or both could be substituted for APC in 2018 will amount to calling the people of the state fools, which they are not.

 

What are the factors that would come to play in determining the party’s choice of its candidate?

This is a very good question. As we said earlier, APC in Osun State is a very responsible and disciplined political party, which will take into serious consideration the quality, loyalty and competence of whoever will take over to continue with good job that Aregbesola has already done. A saboteur cannot qualify; an indisciplined person cannot qualify and a person who is not ingrained in and with all the developments that have taken place under Aregbesola cannot be trusted to succeed him. Anybody who has motives inconsistent with and treacherous in the main, against what Aregbesola has done can never, ever be the party’s choice in Osun. Also anyone who is looking outside Osun APC to win the party’s nomination will fail and therefore cannot succeed Aregbesola.

Also Read:

Buhari’s 57th Independence Day speech is empty ―PDP