How confident are you of winning the APC governorship primary coming up shortly?
By the grace of God, I have every confidence of winning. My confidence is not uninformed. It is not a shot in the dark. I say so because first, my reputation precedes me. My reputation as a die hard party man, never decamped to any party, always working so hard for the party, will speak for me. I have been a state collation agent for the party, I have been a candidate, a representative of a candidate in a very serious election. That was between Kayode Fayemi and Segun Oni in the Iddo Osi election.
At some point in time, I was one of the poster children of the APC in Nigeria. As I said, I have worked so hard for the party. And it goes without saying that there is a time for people to now have some recollection, some retrospection about the activities of every member.
I have said it severally that this election is going to be a referendum on everybody who is running. The referendum is on your place as a party man, position as a party man, your role or performance when you had the opportunity as a member of Representatives or Senate, as a governor etc . To whom much is given, much is expected. So, by and large, everybody would be coming into this election on the basis of who he is. And I would expect that, by the grace of God, every delegate, 2,600 in number, will come there knowing fully well that it is a time to reward and appropriate punishment. It does not make sense for people to begin to feel that everything is going to be about naira and kobo. Your character, identity, who you are as a party man, should count. Like I said before, this going to be a referendum on everybody coming into that election. I believe that, the grace of God has enabled me serve this party very well. I am a die-hard party man. For somebody to offer me a $1 million dollars to decamp to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and also get the PDP ticket and I declined shows how committed I am to the party.
I stood before a barrel of guns when Fayemi’s election was going to be tampered with, when the mandate of the people was going to be thwarted. I told them to shoot me if they could. We were not acting a Nollywood movie that night. In the 2014 governorship election, I was the director-general of Kayode Fayemi campaign organisation. I left National Assembly on January 21 and returned June 24. My 87-years-old father was beaten black and blue . It was all in the fight of this party and to respect and protect the mandate of Ekiti people .
The same former Governor Fayemi, whom you served as Campaign Director too is contesting, do you feel you are popular enough to defeat him?
He will answer his father’s name just like I would answer mine. But one thing is clear, I am not a traitor, I have never done anything to deceive anybody all my life. I am a faithful person, my fidelity is not in question . I know too well that once I give you my word I work by those words . I went and met with my oga four times over 18 months. I met his wife twice . I wrote him a letter asking in clear terms to tell me he was going to run . I appeared on 90 minutes with Angela on Channels TV programme . I was asked that question that everybody seemed interested in knowing if I would run. I said no that I would not say anything until my boss says so. If my boss says he is not going to run , then I will run.
My boss told me, ‘no I am done with that place’. Those were his words. I challenge him to tell me today that ‘Bimbo never met me’. I challenge the wife to tell me that ‘Bimbo never met me’. I respect authority, I have known Dr Fayemi for 40 years. Preceding our relationship were days as a 13-year-old senior of an 11-year-old junior in secondary school in 1978. I would expect that somebody who I also offered all my life should treat me in a much more better way. When I say I offered much of my life to him, I mean it. I could have also bucked; I could have said I don’t care and traded him in. But I never did,
Are you disappointed with the way he has treated you?
No, I am not disappointed. He is a human being, there must have been reason(s) for him to act the way he did. The minimum he could have done would have been to say, Bimbo, I am still thinking about it. If he had said to me that Bimbo, I am still thinking about it, I would not have been in this race today.
I met him at his office twice, in his house in Abuja and in his house in Lagos. I met his wife on the plane, we sat next to one another. She asked me what was going on and I told her I was going to Ekiti. She said, “if oga even says he is going to run, I will tell him no”.
It would appear you are engaging in self delusion if you say money will not play huge part in determining who clinches the ticket?
I am not deluded. Yes, money will play a role in all of this, but I can guarantee you that money is not going to play all the roles. On the scale of zero to 100, money may not play 10 to 15 per cent. I know he has money and some other contestants do also, but by the grace of God, I have character. I am going to be putting before Ekiti people my character, reputation, and what I did as a House of Representatives member. I will put before Ekiti people, over 2,000 students I gave an opportunity to have a shot at a good life . I got free UTME forms for 2,050 people . It is not about the forms it is about the significance of the gesture, of the form.
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