Honourable Busayo Oluwole Oke is the lawmaker representing Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency of Osun State in the House of Representatives. He speaks with SAM NWAOKO on his recent defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which platform he has been elected five times to the House of Reps.
The Nigerian polity is agog today and among the things buzzing in the nation is defections. You have defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after about 26 years in the party. What now pushed you out of the party that had done so much for you?
Fundamentally, our leaders in PDP have intentionally killed the party. The party is fractured, it is fragmented and there is no cohesion. There are divisions here and there. These things are in the public domain, there is nothing hidden in the troubles bedeviling the PDP. So, for a young person like me in politics, I have to determine my future. Firstly, I have the right to determine the political party I want to belong to and if everything were okay in PDP, I would have had no reason whatsoever to leave the party. Secondly, I actually will be taking a big risk in the near future to go into an election in the PDP as it is right now. With the way the party is, you do not know who would ambush you during the electioneering time and take you to court and say ‘this person shouldn’t have signed your nomination form as the national secretary, it should have been that person.’ I do not want to go through all that. So, I consulted my people, I consulted my constituents and I sought the opinion of my leaders and for two weeks, we were all on this. Eventually, we resolved that I should move, fundamentally. These are aside other internal and local issues at the level of Osun State.
Apart from these, Nigeria is a developing nation and when government sneezes, everybody will catch cold. In Nigeria, it is largely the government that drives the economy while in developed economies, it is the private sector. So, while we are growing to attain that level, we still rely on government for so many things here unlike in the developed economies. So, we have to find means to engage the hordes of our unemployed youths through the government. For instance, the kind of employment that could take a reasonable number of the youths out of the employment market cannot be provided by the state government or can the state employ you into the FIRS or the Federal Civil Service and so on? These are under the control of the federal government. The Osun State government can only do its bit by engaging the youths in places like the University of Ilesa and so on. Apart from interventions like that, the state government has not employed in a number of years now. How do I handle the women who seek empowerment and support? So, these are the issues.
In addition, most of the roads in my constituency are, unfortunately, not federal roads. They are in a very bad state and we are still waiting for the state government to intervene in the repair of the roads. So, is it not better for me go and seek help elsewhere, like at the doorstep of those who are in control of FERMA which they can tell to go and fix the roads for us? Those are the issues. It is about the people because you will get to a stage in life that it will no longer be about you but about the people and your community, because God donated us into our various communities.
When you consider the perceived bad performance of the ACN/APC in the governance of your state, how will you now convince the people to bring that party into power in Osun State?
After the exit of my leader and mentor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, we had the APC led by another brother from my area, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola rule the state. I tried to monitor his programmes and policies even though we were not close. He came with very brilliant people, technocrats and knowledgeable people from all over but in financial parlance, we would say he ‘over-traded’. He over-traded, that is what happened to him. He bit more than he could chew. He ended up taking so much loans. I have no problems with loans, but at the end of the day he had problems because they did not understand rural development economics. They concentrated their projects on urban areas and city centres and abandoned the rural areas. He abandoned all those schools that Oyinlola built and even merged some of them, and things like that caused him problems. Eventually, when he was exiting there were a lot of issues including inflation and debts; and Nigeria ran almost solely on proceeds from crude oil which was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. It was unlike now that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is looking at the non-oil sector. Can you ever believe that Nigeria can have a N54 trillion budget economy? But then, what was the budget of the entire Osun State? N80billion annually out of which civil servants would be paid and a lot of things would be done including infrastructural development. Compare that to the budget of Osun State now, which is in the neighbourhood of N500billion. Then, fast-forward to Governor Gboyega Oyetola, of whom there was no records that he took loans. He ran his own race but in-between COVID came. We never bargained for COVID but he took the centre stage across the world for almost two years. Take two years away from his four years and he had just two years. So, he had barely two years to actually settle down and work. That has been the scenario of the 12-year governance of the ACN/APC? I can write about this.
But in politics, everybody looks out for their own. I am looking out for my own too and what am I looking for? I want infrastructural facelift for my constituency. I want youths of my constituency to be employed. Those are my sentiments. I don’t know other people’s concerns but those are my own. I want my people to have access to electricity, to water. When you check the constitution, is it my duty to construct rural roads? Is it my duty to construct local government roads? Is it my duty to construct state roads? Those are not my duty. My duty is to make laws for the good governance of the country and I have done that in Abuja. I have participated in protecting the interest of the country. I have participated to ensure that appropriation acts are passed and what is due to the states are made available to the states; what is due to the local government is given to the local government. After doing that, what is left for me is to track the money. Even to track money at the state level is not my jurisdiction but that of the state assembly. But as a member of the political party in government, I owe that government a duty (and the electorate) to also track the money to be able to defend the party and the government.
So, what you are saying in essence is that you are going to look at the performance of individuals before we now know what will happen in Osun State in the next governorship election as you have shifted base on party grounds?
Yes, that is the yardstick to be used. If we do not use that yardstick, on what basis would you be supporting a candidate of a party? You have to also look at capacity. When you talk about capacity, you’ll ask if the person can attract capable hands. Even in governance, there are people you would also have to bring on board who don’t have to be professors or lawyers or accountants. But they are people who have native intelligence who can connect you to the electorate. And that is how you can have successful governance.
So, you have already laid your groundwork for how you will convince the people to bring APC back to power in Osun State?
Take it from me today: APC will win Osun State come 2026. And I can tell you that unlike before that the announcement of election results could take two days, by 8 pm on the day of election, any person APC presents as its candidate in the election would have been declared as the governor of Osun State.
You’re supporting President Bola Tinubu. What are your reasons for giving him this level of support?
I’m a member of the House of Representatives and we interface on policy framework. Mr. President presents his budget to us. There are so many issues, like the Tax Bill we just worked on. The fact remains that aside Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, President Tinubu is a very experienced person. I don’t see any person that is as experienced as President Tinubu because he came from the private sector, he had been a parliamentarian and he had served as a governor of the state that has the largest economy in West Africa. So, he came with a wealth of experience. He bided his time, he paid his dues and he networked and, even when everybody was against him, he won. Look at the crop o people he has developed… do you know how many people he had supported to become governor and the number of governors he has produced in the country. Do you know how many persons President Tinubu supported to be senators, House of Reps members, and state assembly members? On his own, he is a success story. In Yorubaland, we say anybody who wants to give you clothes, you would watch what he is wearing. So, he is a success story and we cannot start to argue this about him.
There is a groundswell of opposition against Tinubu, especially in Northern Nigeria. Then, the defection of people like you and some governors would appear to make the coming political dispensation a North versus South thing. Are you not seeing what is coming as a source of worry?
I grew up in the old Sokoto State and I speak Hausa. I have come to see that it is a few members of the Northern elite that are disgruntled. Some of them have already moved to the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Do not forget that the governors are the ‘commanding officers’ of their states. So, tell me if the Kebbi State governor will allow his party to fail in Kebbi State. Tell me if the sitting governor in Sokoto will not deliver his president, from the same party. Tell me what will happen in Jigawa? The only state in the North West that is not APC is Zamfara, and we understand the man there. Also, watch Kano, Kano will fall in. The Deputy Senate President is there; the Speaker of House of Representatives is from Kaduna State. People need to calculate what Mr. President has done in the North Central. Unlike what happened in the past that the APC lost in the North Central, watch what will happen there this time round. How many states in the North Central that is not APC? Go to the North East – Yobe, Bauchi, Borno. Has the PDP ever won election in Borno? So you need to understand the politics. Before you leap, you need to look and understand the terrain. In the South East, have you forgotten Governor Hope Uzodimma and Dave Umahi, the Minister of Works and his state governor? I think the 2027 game is over. Maybe after Baba’s second term. But while the game is on, I want my constituency to benefit.
Are you saying that the coalition that is coming up cannot do anything to hurt the second term ambition of President Tinubu come 2027?
When you evaluate it, it is pertinent to ask who will finance the coalition. The coalition is dead on arrival. The SDP presidential candidate in the last election, Adebayo, has said that he will still contest, and truthfully he has the right of first refusal. Maybe they will go and float another party. I respect these leaders because I have my relationship with them, I’m like a child to some of them and I respect them so much. But in this case, President Tinubu is a planner and any man that plans better won’t fail.
Some people are of the opinion that you defected to the APC because there is mounting opposition against your desire to return to the House of Reps, where you have been for four tenures as a PDP member. How do you react to this?
Even when I ran for the second term, people complained that I was running for a second term. When I ran for the third term, there were complaints, when I was going for the fourth term, there were still complaints. Hon Nicholas Mutu from Delta State is running the seventh term in the House of Reps. Ado Doguwa is there also. Their complaints are not the issue, I do not have a problem with those who are complaining. Mine is to work hard and win my election. Anyone who has issues with that is entitled to it. Anybody is also entitled to be Member of the House of Reps. It is interesting that they have not waited to see what I even want to do when that time comes. I am less than two years in the term and they are already raising issues, if they want to run against me they should come out. They should go and get their tickets. They should get their ticket and they should let us meet on the field.
That said, I must let them know that I work with the people. I don’t joke with the people, I take the electorate serious. I am not a lawmaker that will not pick the telephone calls of his constituents. I am not a lawmaker that will not render assistant to his constituents, no matter how little. I know my people, I know their needs and I attend to them. I don’t leave them to their problems. Elections are not won on the social media but at the electoral units. If I was not doing well, I would not have won election five times. So, you must be committed and they must have you at their heart and they must trust you and believe in you.
How much of the trust of your leaders do you have in this new venture, how many of them are with you on this quest?
I can assure that I have my leaders with me. I have my leaders across political parties. You can take that to the bank. Let us ignore those making noise on the social media, I have business with the voters and the real electorate. I don’t make noise, I don’t publicise my empowerment programmes as such. I don’t impress people, I impress the electorate. You have to invest in the heart of the people. You don’t win election and run away and then return at the next election cycle. The people will not take you serious.
Do you see the PDP coming back from this current deep crisis?
PDP will come out of its problems in 2028. PDP will become a strong party again in 2028/2029 and by 2031, it will become an election party. But for now, PDP is in the morgue.
You have programmed it to be so or you see this in your crystal ball?
It is not hidden that PDP has been fatally fractured and that it has problems. It is also a public knowledge that the leaders have refused to come together and that is the cause of the coalition, and even the coalition is not what some of the leaders want.
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