WHAT is the state of PDP in Oyo State now?
We are just coming out of shock. We went into a merger with five other political parties, unfortunately, some individuals pulled out specifically Senator Rashidi Ladoja and some of his followers and some executive members. Naturally, we have some vacancies to be filled, that is what we are doing at the moment. I can say that the party is back to its feet.
Are you still in the race?
Yes, I am.
What is in the offing for the Oyo State electorate?
I grew up in this state, went to school and I have lived all my life here and irrespective of what the yardstick is , I can say that I enjoyed good life in the state. I witnessed good life and I know we can bring back those good days. I was in the boarding house and I knew what a boarding house was. The kind of boarding house I was, was better than what a university is now. The health system equally needs to be revamped. I grew up in a state where I could walk into Adeoyo Hospital, when it was functioning well; I did not have to go to the University College Hospital(UCH). I never went to the UCH all my life until about 10 or 15 years ago because Adeoyo Hospital had all the facilities we needed as a young boy, Jericho Nursing Home was fantastic! Schools were good. I never knew anything called borehole until 1990 thereabout because water taps were running. I also want to create wealth for our people, I have done this before, if we are able to create jobs for our people, I am indirectly solving the problems.
What if your party decides not to zone the governorship seat to your zone?
Incidentally, my zone is the only one left to produce a governor. My party does not have a choice because we have three senatorial districts in Oyo State: Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North. Oyo South of course have had a fair share and I will be shocked if anybody from the South, where Senator Ladoja came from, Governor Ajimobi is also from the district, late Governor Lam Adesina was from Oyo South wants to be governor again. Oyo North has produced Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala. The only area that has not produced a governor in the last 20 years is Oyo Central where I belong to. Any party that picks outside of this zone has lost.
Who are your godfathers?
It is only God that I have. I don’t have a godfather in politics, but if you talk about mentors who I believe we all have in our different professions.
How is the issue of money going to be downplayed in politics?
It should be downplayed not only in politics, but in elections because this is the major reason why people are compromising. We want a situation where people will vote according to their conscience. Anybody that is using money to entice the electorate in this country is committing a sin to God, such a fellow is taking advantage of the people because they are poor. This can never be done in Europe and America where the level of poverty is low. If you have anything to do for the people, do it for them instead of buying their conscience with money.
How have you been going about your sensitisation with your zero tolerance for money inducement?
I have been doing that because I believe this is the only way to lift the down-trodden. I don’t believe in giving the electorate handouts in form of N2,000 or N3,000. This will not help them. If you really want to help people, create employment for them. During campaigns, it should be clearly spelt out that I have been creating jobs for people. If you want to help your people, build schools for them and make reference to this as a testimonial. A candidate should be able to point at what he has been able to do for his people.
Will you say the happenings at the National Assembly are healthy for our democracy?
They are not healthy. It is painful that we are not learning from the past. America was colonised by the British, but when the British left, the Americans came together and looked at their culture with people from diverse backgrounds and came to the conclusion that there was no way they could practise parliamentary system of government with the assemblage of people and they thought of a system that would suit them and they came up with the presidential system, a system that respected judiciary, executive and legislature. They put up a system that allows checks and balance. We went in there, we settled for parliamentary at a stage, we said it did not work, now we are practising presidential which to me should work if we practise it faithfully because politics is more of give and take as you are representing your community, it is expected that you should fight for the interest of your constituents, there is no way there will not be occasions for give and take. We have to come to the table and agree. In a situation where we have three arms of government, the executive is completely independent of the legislature as it will take care of itself as the legislature has self cleansing mechanism just like executive and the judiciary. No arm should interfere in the business of others. If this is done, there will be mutual respect as the three must work hand in hand.
Do you believe restructuring will put to rest all the agitations in the land?
Actually, restructuring is the way out. It is the only option left for us now because we have tried several options. We need to have a weak centre, we have all seen that people gyrate to the centre and in the course of doing this they abandon their areas and less concerned about the happenings in their domain to the extent that they don’t see it as a big deal to generate money for their development because they believe there is somebody somewhere doling out money. There are so many things on the concurrent list that are unreasonable to me, agriculture, education… How will somebody in Abuja control education in Ibadan for instance? How will a man in Abuja control agriculture in Fiditi? It is bloody waste of time! We are not doing the right thing! We are wasting resources. Until we go back to the regional arrangement, let the South West go its way, this is not to say that we will not do things in common that we will be doing together, this does not mean that I will need a visa to go to Enugu, it is still one country. But for ease of administration and control of cost, I support restructuring wholeheartedly. Let every region develop at its pace. Let every region be an encourager to other regions.
It is so rampant for Nigerian political stalwarts to jump from party to party at the threshold of a general election. What do you see is usually in such defections for the common man?
I will say that there could be so many reasons why people do this, maybe to actualise their aspirations or to move away from certain people in a particular political party or that there are still several classes of people that believe that if they don’t change ship the political party they are presently in may not be positioned enough to win the next election in their area. I want to believe that they all have their different reasons which to me are not genuine enough which should be discouraged. The crafters of our constitution probably did not envisage that such a thing would happen. I feel this is not good for our democracy, it is not helping us in building the institutions. The institutions in this case are the political parties, we now have situations where people are more known than political parties in Nigeria, this is very wrong. I will trace this back to the beginning of this dispensation -1999, it was unfortunate that it was not checked then, if the various amendments made to the constitution had been inserted, this problem would have been solved. If people are forced to remain in their parties, they would be forced to institutionalise and strengthen their political parties. By now, we would have had just two strong parties, but because people know that there are windows of opportunities opened to them to run into one party or the other once it is obvious that their chances of winning tickets is slim or even their parties, may jump ship. I am looking up to that time when this would be corrected in the future amendment of the constitution.
What is in these movements for the masses?
As far as I am concerned, if we look at the masses, it is difficult to say what is in it for them. Irrespective of the movement from A to B, if the parties were stronger that would have more positive impact on the masses than the individuals because presidential form of government being operated should have strong ideological political parties irrespective of who is there. If you are coming into a party, you must believe in its ideology before you move into it, this is the only way this will impact on the masses; irrespective of the movement, it remains the same personality.
Politicians make promises of turning stone to bread or turning Nigeria to an Eldorado when seeking elective offices. Why do you run against the voters by abandoning those promises after winning?
I have not had the opportunity to go out there to make promises to people. But in all my interaction with the media, I have always been saying that the bulk of the blame is on the masses, the electorate.
How?
The man selling his goods will say anything. He is a sales man, he will say anything to market himself. It is the electorate that should see beyond what he is saying. Sometimes it is you the media that is not helping the masses!
How?
If someone comes round and says he can do this, I will do this… Has the media ever asked the politician, can you tell us where you have done this before? Can you tell us what you have done in your private life, when in the civil service among others? What have you done on your own before you start promising people? I am sorry the media is not helping the electorate who so much believe so much in her.
Are you passing the buck to the media?
Yes, because the electorate have much confidence in the media. They believe whatever is churned out by the media as the truth. The electorate believe that before the media publishes any story it must have done its check. The media is selling false information to the public. It is not the politicians, let them say anything, but the press has a role to play double checking the politicians’ claims and be sure that the candidate’s profile being fed the public is right. Tell us what you know about governance. Tell us what you can do for the good of the people in your constituency you have promised water, roads. Please, ‘Mr Man’ can you tell us how you want to go about all your lofty programmes? Tell us what you have been doing in the last 10 years. This is one of the ways you media can help the masses.
The political elite brought Nigeria to its knees, don’t you feel a sense of guilt as a member of the political elite?
I don’t feel so because it takes two to tango. The leadership have probably not performed as they should, but then, the electorate that put the incompetent people there should expect incompetent performances.
How do you measure incompetence?
If you are going to employ a driver or a gateman, will you not ask of his experience? Will you just take a driver just like that as you have just bought a Mercedes Benz? Will you not ask him the type of car he has driven before? Can I have a word with your last employer? We have a situation now at hand where such probing questions are not asked. People who are not supposed to be near governance are there and you are expecting results. I keep saying that we are not yet serious in this country.
And when are we going to be serious?
When people start to ask questions, start profiling candidates, when electorate tell candidates that they cannot contest because they don’t live with their people, have never worked here before. The fact that a candidate is from a particular zone does not guarantee or qualify him to govern or represent that area if he doesn’t stay there. How will he know their problems? I thought I was joking just two weeks ago at the club when I asked one of the contenders to Oyo State Government House to name just 10 secondary schools in Ibadan not Oyo State, he could not mention more than two! Yet he is going round canvassing for votes. If people are not asking questions, what kind of result do you expect from such people? The buck stops at the door of the electorate. And by extension the media that is not helping the electorate. The media should educate the electorate what they need to know about candidates coming to them for their votes. Yes, there may be poverty everywhere, but I will say that people cherish development more than money.
Do you think people are that thirsty for development or stomach infrastructure?
Yes, there is poverty everywhere, but I maintain that people cherish development than money.
Are you sure?
Yes. It is because the electorate no longer have confidence in the system, they are not sure whether the man coming in would solve their problems. All they are after is to take what they can take now, but if somebody who is coming on board has been able in the past to impart on his people, transform certain areas, then the electorate will not ask such a candidate N5,000 because he knew that the lives of his children will be good when he becomes the governor! But people are afraid of their future, afraid of people they are voting for, don’t know their competence, they just want to get money from them and move on.
Do you see any prospect for genuine progress and prosperity for the country given the current acrimony and cacophony among the major political gladiators and power centres across the land?
With time all these things will fizzle out, it is unfortunate that it has come this far because I have expected that in the first 10 years, we would have found our footings politically with all our problems solved. But we have not been able to do this because the present players are not people that are supposed to be in politics. I can conveniently say that 80 to 90 percent of the so called politicians parading themselves as politicians should have nothing to do with politics and leadership. Leadership goes hand in hand with democracy. If you are not versed in leadership then, how do you want to govern a state? How do you want to represent your people? By extension, these people don’t have any other thing than democracy, they have tasted it and probably didn’t have any other thing doing as of 1999 or 2003 when they joined politics. Now you want to deny them, what will they be doing? They are ready to do anything to remain relevant politically and these are problems. But we have people who have a second address who are in politics not because of what they want to eat or because they don’t have a choice.
All the so-called main are seen by many as sides of the same coin, what is the general problem with the parties?
I have said it over and over again that it is the people that make a party, it is not the other way round. It is the kind of people that come together that will know the kind of party they want, form it, lay the rules for it together with guidelines and make a plan. Where do we want to be in 10 to 20 years? But we now have a situation where the parties themselves are weak, so we don’t even have institutions, we only have individuals that are so fluid, they move in and out of parties on a daily basis. We have people in Nigeria who have been to all the parties in the country. So, how do you want to institutionalise the system? Until such a time that we have a strong institution in the name of a strong party will be the only time when all these problems will be solved.
What do you think is the place of integrity and transparency in the face of looting of public till among elected public officials, political appointees, contractors and civil servants?.
Morally it is wrong and I am aware that in a society that has law, order and justice, all these must be checked. There should be system in place where there would be check for all these things and there should be punishment for people that are caught. It is not as if there is no corruption and breaking of laws in other climes, but the moment you know there are punishment for people that breaks the rules then people will caution themselves. Honestly, I support this wholeheartedly. We cannot have serious development side by side corruption. Development and corruption can never go together and leaders must have integrity. It is when a leader is full of integrity that the followers will believe in him. This is one of the qualities of being a good leader integrity is key. Apart from being intelligent, you must be a man of integrity.
Why are you still in the PDP considering the happenings in the country?
I will start with a joke. My brother-in-law asked me about three months ago ‘why I am still in the PDP?’ I answered him by asking another question. I said ‘why am I still married to his sister alone?’ Laughs…It is by choice. I want to believe that I believe in myself and ability. I believe that I can cause a change wherever I find myself. If I leave a party that I joined as far back as 1998, who are the people that will transform the party and build it to the enviable standard that we want it to be? I believe we can strengthen a party, I know that with time people like me that believe in building and strengthening an institution will be in the PDP and together we will say no to changing party. This is the main reason why I have remained in the party. I don’t believe I should leave the party just because every other person is leaving. I am not in politics because of positions. I am in politics because I love to serve and democracy has provided a platform and opportunity for me. Probably, if we were still under the military, maybe I would have joined the Army so that probably because I still love to serve as a military governor one day.
But that word serve has been abused…
Yes, it has been abused by a lot of people and aided by the press.
Are you sure your wanting to be a governor is not a way of adding to your curriculum vitae or borne out of love for your people?
A lot of people do that, but I am in politics to effect that change and I am sure better life will be the lot of my people. I want to say that we abuse the essence of democracy, the essence of democracy is really to have someone to represent a community, a group of people. Democracy has taken it for granted that you belong to that community. In effect, if you live in a community, work in a community and you are representing that community, it becomes difficult for one not to perform particularly if you have a track record like me. If you have a track record of performance,what you have done and that which people can see every day that people will have the thinking that if the guy has an opportunity to replicate it at a bigger level, he will not hesitate to do so , but where we have situations where people representing a particular community do not stay, work, live with his family in that community and you are expecting the best from him, you are deceiving yourself. These are the things the media should point out and highlight to the populace. Somebody who is not living with you cannot represent you effectively such a person will have the fear of non performance because they will get at him. Anybody who is chosen through profiling will be held accountable by his constituents for non performance with his people getting back at him. There is no way someone will be representing a local government and living in the same council will not perform and he will not get the reaction of his people. You go to church every Sunday, go to mosque every Friday, you move around that community and not that you live in Ibadan and your local council is somewhere else, this becomes difficult. I have stayed all my life here, so it is difficult for me not to perform. I have a track record. I am doing it perfectly well in the private sector.
You think a hungry electorate on the street is ready to listen to you?
All we want now is for the media to help the masses because people are wiser. For the past 20 years that they have been collecting N10,000 from politicians, has it better their lots? Their children still remain poor! Their houses still remain poor! They still live in the slum! Meanwhile, during electioneering campaigns every four years, they go out to collect N10,000 or bag of rice, immediately that finishes probably in two weeks, they go back to their former life. The politician will not build their schools because they don’t even know hi, they only knew him because he distributed rice and money.
How are you going to disabuse their minds on the issue of selling their votes?
They know the people they cannot collect money from. They know who their people are.
The saying now is dibo ko se be.
It is a demonstration of the level of poverty in Ondo and Ekiti states. Such a thing can never happen in Oyo State that people will have to ask for money before voting. It is not that it is not done elsewhere, but openly now. It is so bad that people now were so bold to release their account details for money to be sent to them and that they will go and vote after getting the alert. It shows that people are not even ashamed again. Buying votes of electorate is a shameful development. It is bad, it is unomoluabi in nature. This is unYorubalike.
How can this practice be stemmed?
A time will come and I believe that time has come where the representatives the people want are those that will be put forward, it will not be a case of managing a candidate. It will be difficult for your neighbour to ask you for money before voting for you because he knows you are having the same problem that you want to solve. So, why will he demand money from you? But when they see people from Ikoyi or Victoria Island in Lagos or Maitama in Abuja who want to represent them at the Senate or Representatives, or at the state level, what do you want them to do? They will want to collect money from such because they know they will not see them again after winning the election. But the opposite is my case because people have been contributing towards my aspiration. I receive unsolicited text messages on a daily basis with their support for my election.
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