Mr Ayo Adedeji, a financial expert, speaks to SEGUN ADEBAYO on his expectations of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
YOU are a chartered accountant with many years of experience, what are you doing in politics?
To state it very clearly, any profession can be interested in politics. In the very first instance, politics leads to governance and governance is just about the people. I am interested in the development of the lives of the people; it is something I have been doing before I joined politics on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I have never joined any other party. I love people, I love to see people liberated, I love to see people move from one level to the other. The story of my life is an inspiration on its own.
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In what capacity have you been able to serve the people and how has the journey been so far?
As a member of PDP, I contested for Oluyole federal constituency seat in the last election. I came third of six contestants at the primary election and did quite a lot of things to support all our candidates in the 2019 election. I contributed largely to the man that emerged the candidate of the party and I supported even the governor himself.
How did you feel losing the opportunity to fulfill your ambition?
Yes, I was disappointed. If you look at all the energy that has been channeled into the primary, it’s not a joke. If you consider the energy, resources and the team that stood by you throughout the journey, you would feel bad. There is also the aspect of money; to purchase a form in the first place is not a joke. So it’s disappointing, we really believed we were going to win after all the commitment but that’s politics for you. We understand things didn’t go our way but we were not discouraged. When we lost the ticket, I was the one encouraging my team because your mind must be prepared when you are going into politics; you can lose and you can win. I feel also that if you have your job before you get into politics and you are always busy with what you have been doing, your work and business will help you to absorb the shock and get back to your feet. So, if you asked if I was disappointed, I would say yes but I am not discouraged. Politics is about process, it is about supporting the party, it’s about steadfastness, it’s about you seeing tomorrow, it’s about being strongly focused and that is what someone like me tries to work by. I want to keep supporting the party and to hope for the best.
The PDP in Oyo State has started to show some glimpses of what the people should expect and how governance would be in the next four years, what is your assessment so far?
Oyo State is just lucky to have someone like Seyi Makinde as the governor. This is someone who is a lover of the people and who admires and lives by merit and competence. He is energetic, passionate and visionary. I feel it’s an opportunity and I want to appreciate the people of Oyo State for giving PDP the opportunity to come back with such a margin and to come back and lead at the state level. Politics and governance must be about the people, if after four years of your time and we cannot measure effectively that the lives of people have not moved forward; you have just wasted your time. It’s clear to all that the governor is a clever person. If you look at the steps he took in his first 30 days, we could see very clearly that the governor is interested in merit and wants things to work. We all desire good things for Oyo State and I feel this is such a good opportunity for the state to move forward. Immediately after the election, he went outside of Nigeria to look for a pathway of investment for business.
Why would he do that?
It is only when we have businesses in Oyo State that we can get our tasks and things will move up in terms of generating revenue. We need new businesses and the big ones that have the capacity to employ the people and help them to grow. That’s when we can get jobs for the youth. So, I believe the governor is taking steps in the right direction.
He is creating the department of quality and excellence and due process. Currently in Oyo State, our Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) is in the region of two billion naira or there about and what we get from the Federal Government is in the region of N4.5 billion. Normally, we hover between 7 and 8 billion naira every month, and our expenditure is N10 billion. So we have a short fall of 2billion naira every month. No government can survive if it keeps borrowing and piling up deficit. So, the governor of the state must look at the situation and see what can be done to improve what we generate. If you keep waiting for what comes from Abuja before you can touch the lives of the people positively, then I will call that lazy thinking. So, the governor needs to critically think about how to improve the internally generated revenue. Can he move it from 10 naira to 15 naira or even 20 naira. The governor said quite a number of things before election and somebody looked at those issues and programmes during his campaign. I come to the conclusion that Oyo can become the food basket of Nigeria. Every part of Oyo State is agric-ready and we are laying emphasis on the agric business. We are looking at how the people can benefit and I am happy that our governor is thinking in that direction. Some weeks back, he went to the state-owned quarry to look at how it could be resuscitated. That is one of the ways the state’s IGR can improve. I pray God gives him wisdom to execute some of the good plans he has mapped out for the state. I know he wants to work and he wants to move Oyo State forward.
You are talking like someone that knows the governor and the workings of the government. How would you be contributing to the development of the state in the next four years?
First thing first, I am PDP person, am committed to my party and all I want to be able to do is to strengthen the party. The people of Oyo have given us their mandate and we are being careful notg to ruin our chances. In my capacity, I will do everything within my bit to promote PDP and make it stronger in Oyo state from my ward level and to my Oluyole Constituency and Local Government level. Secondly, I am setting up my own project: I have a youth hub that I have set up already in order to add value to the lives of our young people. Whether the people are doing their own business or they are in the school, I want to support in terms of entrepreneurship. I have worked in various places and the last time fourteen years. I have been into business all my life. I have written a lot of books on business. I have a 247-page on business. So, in that particular area I want to be able to strengthen the youth in terms of giving them business ideas and teaching them how to recognize a business idea and opportunity. What is it to manage a business. I have a hub that I am setting up for that. That hub also accommodates an ICT place. If we look at the richest people in the world currently, you will realise that 70 per cent of them are into Information Technology, IT drives everything in the world right now even buying and selling involves IT. The richest man in the world right now, all he does is buying and selling using IT. Oyo state needs to create that kind of environment. So in my little way, I will do that in order to charge the young people and drive them to their goals that no matter what you do, you will stand out. There are mechanics and there are other mechanics too that have gone into IT. You can’t compare them to the road side mechanics. In terms of government, everything depends on His Excellency and the team around him to know who will serve in government and all that and if that kind of opportunity come, I will take it and if not I will keep on doing things that I am doing to push Oyo state forward.
Tell us about your background and how it shaped your life?
My first degree is also in Agriculture. I am a tax consultant a fellow of the Chattered Institute of taxation of Nigeria. I am also a fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountant (ICAN), so in terms of budget I can also suggest things in the ways to move things forward. I’m a certified project manager in Public Relations from the US. So in terms of project I can also advice on how things will go, currently right now we are putting something together in helping to build the capacity of many people that will be involved in many projects within government. I have my own material on project management and I have been training management for more than ten years.
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