Honourable Taiwo Akeju is the Osun State Commissioner for Political Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. He speaks to DARE ADEKANMBI on the forthcoming governorship election in the state and what stands Governor Gboyega Oyetola in good position to be re-elected, among other issues.
Senator Ademola Adeleke, while hosting officials from the US Mission, boasted he will win the election with a very wide margin. Are you not worried about this confidence expressed by him?
That is far from it. We are not in any way worried at all. Senator Adeleke is not saying the truth because the truth is that in 2018 election, Osun people voted for Gboyega Oyetola. The election was challenged by Adeleke, from Tribunal to the Supreme Court and the unanimous judgment is that Oyetola won the election freely and fairly. There is no dispute about that at all. Oyetola and APC won the last election.
As far as the coming election is concerned, just three months away, I can assure you that Oyetola will win with a very wide margin. You will recall that during the primary of APC, our members came out and voted massively for Governor Oyetola to return as governor. Look at the achievements Oyetola has recorded in three years plus. The level of development in the state now has never been recorded by any governor. Do we talk about infrastructure or education or health? He has performed wonderfully well. Look at the reversal of the education policy that he has done for which the people of the state are very happy and have expressed and are still expressing their appreciation to the governor.
When Governor Oyetola came in, he went round the state to ask them what they would want the government to do for them. He also asked them if there are policies of government that they would like him to stop or improve upon. The people told him the things they wanted him to do. For example, they wanted the education system to be in conformity with the federal government’s, that is, go back to the 6-3-3-4 system and he did. The reversal of the names of some schools was also part of the requests of the people which he has done as a listening governor. And because he is a listening governor, people are yearning that he should continue to govern the state. Just last month, the governor inaugurated a overhead bridge which has eased the congestion of traffic in the state. People are very happy about this. The infrastructure he has provided is across the length and breadth of Osun. It is unprecedented.
If the election is held today, with God on our side, we are going to win massively. What Senator Adeleke said s the normal thing an opposition politician will say to deceive unsuspecting members of the public. But the people of Osun are wiser than their tricks. They know they don’t change a winning governor who has put people at the centre of his policies. Democracy allows Adeleke to ventilate his thoughts. But somebody should tell him to wake up from his deep sleep. Osun is for Oyetola and Oyetola is for Osun people. Oyetola’s scorecard is going [to work] for him. The public is behind our governor. The traditional rulers, labour, workers, pensioners and others are all supporting the governor. Workers’ salaries are paid by 25th of every month. In the mining sector, the governor has come in aggressively to harness the potential there to boost internally generated revenue. We have good news to tell and the people are behind us.
There is a general feeling that Adeleke was rigged out in 2018 and this was echoed by Professor Wale Oladipo, a former national secretary of the PDP. Even a former member of the APC and Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf, said Oyetola did not win the 2018 governorship election. This may be a cause for worry for you…
I insist that there is no cause for worry at all. I want to assure our people that we are confident of victory in the election and we are not afraid of anything. Our records of performance are there to speak for us. Professor Oladipo is somebody I respect a lot and he has the right to say what he has said. Let me puncture some of the claims he has made. As I said, Oyetola won the election. Of course, there was a supplementary election which APC won. The outcome of the election was challenged by the PDP and its candidate up to the Supreme Court and they lost woefully. What are they saying again? We have put the 2018 victory behind us and are better positioned now to bloody the nose of the PDP in the coming election.
Let me state expressly that PDP should not nurse any hope of victory in the next election. They can continue to fantasize as some of its chieftains are doing at the moment like Alice in Wonderland. Osun people will shock them with the kind of support they will give Oyetola and the APC. Osun people will vote based on the facts on the ground and not on any fiction being bandied by the opposition party. Oyetola of 2018 is not the Oyetola of 2022. In 2018, he was coming as a candidate and Chief of Staff to Aregbesola. But now, he is a sitting governor who has done so well for the people and the state. He has used his position to right whatever was perceived as the wrongs of his predecessor.
When Oyetola took over, people thought Osun would collapse on his head in six months. But look at the story today. The state is up and running. He is a prudent manager of resources. While salaries are being paid in full, infrastructure development is going on across the 30 council areas in the state. There is generally paucity of funds across the country, but his ingenuity as a good leader has kept the state afloat without him borrowing a single kobo. Come on, give it to this man of vision. Osun people are not fools. They want an achiever to continue in office to consolidate on the gains of his first term. The facts are clear that Oyetola has done so well. He is paying back loans of previous government and this has not hampered his well-acknowledged success as governor. The government relationship with the labour unions is excellent. They have never gone on strike for one day since Oyetola took over. This is as a result of the maturity displayed by the governor and his performance. The governor has just upgraded the College of Education in Ilesha to a university status and you can see and feel the enthusiasm from Ijeshaland. The institution was established more than 44 years ago and the Ijesa said the only thing they wanted was for the governor to give them a university. This has come to pass.
I don’t know the local government that PDP will win in July. APC and Oyetola will clear all the 30 council areas, because there is no council area the governor has not touched. Is it the road from Ejigbo to Ede, Osogbo or is it the Igbajo to Ada road which was last tarred during the government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1954? From Igbajo to Ada, you can drive smoothly in 5 or 10 minutes. It is not just about the roads, but also about the quality of the roads being built. If you go to any local government area in the state today, people are clamouring that Oyetola should continue. That is where Professor Wale Oladipo missed it. We are also doing roads in Ife where Oladipo hails from. The roads have been awarded and I can assure you they will be completed before the election. We have a good story to tell. We were at the palace of the Ooni of Ife on Thursday and he was happy to see us. He said the government is doing well. If INEC brings the election forward, we will win it handsomely.
In 2018, you had Aregbesola driving the election for Oyetola. But now, he is no longer there. That must be a big loss for the governor…
I don’t think there is any fight between Aregbesola and the state as being speculated. The former governor and Minister of Interior is a great Nigerian patriot who has done his bit in Osun. He is on the same page with us, although in the past, there were little skirmishes here and there which are normal in a party that is as big as APC. I can assure you that before the election, the leaders of the party will talk to anyone or people who have one thing or the other that is making them to be aggrieved. The matter will be resolved.
But by and large, Aregbesola is someone I respect a lot. Some days ago, some people were insinuating that his boys were moving to PDP. He told them to stay put in APC and must never join the ‘demo’ people. Aregbesola is a progressive leader to the core. He won’t abandon us and join the conservatives. He was commissioner in Lagos for eight years, governor for eight years and is now a Minister. God has been kind to him. I don’t think he will do anything against the party’s progress or contribute to anything that will not make Oyetola win. Before the election, Aregbesola will campaign for Oyetola and work for the APC to win in July. I can assure you that.
Will the emergence of Senator Omisore as the national secretary of the APC have any salutary bearing for Oyetola in the election?
In Osun, we have never had it so good in terms of representation at the national level of our party. The position we used to have was that of ex-officio and assistant this or that. But by providence and the support of Governor Oyetola, other South-West governors and Senator Bola Tinubu and Chief Akande, it was made possible that Omisore became the national secretary. During the reception for him in the state, the golden words from the Ooni where we went still ring in my hears. He was praising him and praying for him. The massive crowd that trooped out for him from the airport in Ibadan to Ile-Ife was awesome.
You will recall that during the last election, Omisore was the SDP candidate. He decamped from PDP to SDP in about six weeks and he polled 129,000 votes. He came third. If he was not strong, he would not have got such votes. So, he is a man of the people. His being national secretary will be an added advantage for the APC. Omisore has been a progressive ab initio. He was in AD as deputy governor. He was the one that paid for the nomination forms for AD candidates in 1999. Anywhere he goes, you can be sure that is the winning party. With him, APC will record massive success in July and will deliver Ife for APC. We will win.
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