You are leading an Assembly dominated by first timers, would you have preferred a more experienced house?
Well, it’s somewhat a mixed house, although my experience is not as much as that of some other members in the Assembly. Coincidentally those who have more experience than me are in other parties. You have Honourable Wumi Oladeji, Honourable Asimiyu Alarape. So, we leverage on the experience of the old and new, innovative ideas to find a middle ground. You can’t keep on doing things the same way and expect a change. In the representations that we have had in Oyo State for a long time, we can only count a few good leaders but in this dispensation, we are running an open government which will attract foreign direct investment and improve the Gross Domestic Product of the state.
What is your definition of service to your community or constituency against the backdrop of some politicians who defined theirs as giving grinding machines, generating sets?
I would not fault anyone on giving grinding machines and other items to assist the people of his or her constituency in any kind of way. I understand that true service to one’s community is giving them things that will help them fish. It is easy to give fish, but to teach people how to fish is important. One important tool I believe in is education. Education is not just about people getting certificates or degrees, rather, it is about letting them know how they can use those degrees that they have. A lot of people say that my dad was a philanthropist and an industrialist, but we had to grow our own fortunes by ourselves. Moreover, I was on the farm and had to grind out everything that I had. It was the opportunity of being on the farm that brought me to where I am because I got to meet my mentor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, on the farm. Senator Ladoja mentored me, brought me closer to him. He didn’t know about my family background until I was interested in politics. He was shocked that I did not use my background to source for where I would work, as I had opportunities to be anywhere in the world but decided to be on the farm at Idi-Amu. I believe education is the most powerful tool that you can give to any community.
You mentioned Senator Ladoja as being your mentor but you were never recorded to have contested on the platform of his party, the Accord back then or joined him in the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP)?
Senator Ladoja is a PDP man but it is about philosophies and ideologies in politics. Even when he was in Accord, it was still more of the ideologies of the PDP so, it is just the organisation that differentiates us, the ideology still keeps us together. So, at the time of the ADC, Accord or so, I had to stay through and loyal first to my community. A mentor can serve in any capacity; a mentor can serve in any part of the world; in any organisation that is different from mine but the important thing is that we have similar ideologies and philosophy which I do share with my mentor, Senator Ladoja.
Since the inception of the ninth Assembly, you have considered a number of bills, largely executive bills, and motions. Most recently, the Assembly approved the request of Governor Seyi Makinde to borrow N10billion. Some reservations have trailed the Assembly’s approval of the request. What informed your approval of that request; did you see the nitty-gritty?
I said during plenary where we approved that N10 billion that I wished government could see themselves as a continuum. At the time we got into government, the treasury was pretty much empty. And we were told that when they got into power in 2011, they met an empty treasury. So, we should work to build our own treasury in order for us to do our projects. Loaning such amount is not strange, moreover, the current debt profile of Oyo State is over N100 billion. The law stipulates that a state or nation cannot loan more money than 20 percent its income can service. So, as long as 20 percent of your income can service the loan, you are allowed to borrow as much money as you want. Right now, we are servicing our loan at 13 percent and additional N10 billion will keep it below 14 percent as well. So, we are still in a good position at 14 percent service charge. But the good thing about the loan is we are putting it into infrastructure in order to entice foreign investors and put some machinery in place.
What specific infrastructure is the loan tied to?
I can mention the Moniya-Iseyin road which will really boost agriculture along that axis. We know that Oke-Ogun/Ibarapa region is the food basket of Oyo State. If the farmers and transporters are not encouraged to go to these areas to bring down goods, the price of these goods will increase. If the prices of these goods increase, it will put a strain on the economy. Another good thing we can see is that the governor is transparent as seen in the declaration of his assets. So, we can always refer to how much he has and how much he is leaving with.
The opposition APC has also queried your loan approval asking whether the Assembly reviewed the current 2019 budget for the loan to be fixated to the expenditure framework component of the budget. Did you consider this?
The truth about the budget in Oyo State is that the budget is inefficient, ineffective, pointless and embarrassing. Imagine as a private citizen working and you actually earn N20, 000 a month but make a budget of N50, 000 a month. How does that make sense? How can you share your income in accordance to your priorities? If you assume that you will be sharing N50,000, your scale of preference will be in disarray. You do not know how much to allocate to different ministries, different sectors and you cannot plan properly for the future. Looking at the immediate past administration, you see that there is no long term plan; they had no plan for the state, unlike states like Lagos, Ogun, and Rivers. In those states, even if another government comes in, they can see the plans on the ground. So, collecting a loan of N10 billion is just to set us on a path to success. Imagine we say we are in government and we have no money to do any project to show the difference between this government and the past administration. The former administration had all the resources, the support from the Federal Government, but they still did not manage to do anything. They always boast about one bridge they did at Mokola; one bridge in eight years is very poor. I have lost count of the number of bridges built in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Governance is not about constructing one bridge or few access roads; we are talking about real infrastructure that we can see. As times go on, it will be clear to people as to the difference between this and the past administration in terms of responsibility to the people, keeping our campaign promises, being open and transparent in general. One of the new state ministries coming on board is the ministry based on Energy; we’ll have Commissioner for Energy. Oyo State should have a power generating agency. The agency will look at the ability of the state to generate its own energy.
Recently, the Assembly set up an ad hoc committee to investigate local government activities. What are the revelations so far and when will the Assembly present the full report?
The truth is that a formal report will be presented and it will not be biased. Based on what I have heard, it will be an interesting report. I can assure you that we will use this as an example to the kind of mess that happened in the local government system. I am just waiting for the report of the ad hoc committee before it is presented.
The last Assembly passed about 157 motions and 70 bills; many of these bills and motions were not implemented. Your Assembly has begun considering motions and bills, what will be different this time such that we once again are not going the way of lack of implementation of your resolutions?
It is not about the numbers. I always choose quality over quantity any day. What is the point of having a lot of rubbish and a few of quality bills or motions? Our governor is a listening governor; all the ministries, departments and agencies have been reoriented. We have a legislative compliance committee that sees that the resolutions from motions are followed through and if they are not followed through, there will definitely be consequences. We will use the full limitations of the powers of the House of Assembly in order to deliver good quality representation of the people of the state. We will not compromise ourselves and we will not be rubber stamp. A lot of people say that the state house of assembly is rubber stamp, but how can we be rubber stamp? Before we got into office, we sat down with the governor to plan a road map for the state. Now that we are trying to implement what we planned, does that make us rubber stamp? Do people expect us to naturally go against our own plan just to prove that we are not rubber stamp? Are we trying to achieve a better government or better perception so that we are fighting everything that the executive does? This is a brilliant and successful governor; in fact, we have a lot to learn from this kind of people. We need more people like that in government to lead us rather than having figure heads as our leaders.
In your Ibarapa zone and Oke-Ogun area of the state, there are rampant cases of herds of cattle invading farmlands. Will the anti-grazing bill initiated by the eighth House of Assembly see the light of the day in this ninth Assembly?
Regardless of the said move by the eighth House of Assembly, I have sponsored a bill for an anti-grazing law which is a comprehensive one. We did consultation with security heads to know all the laws that could assist the security agencies in tackling this menace. All the advice from the security agencies was included in the bill. The bill provides a solution to the problem once and for all. When it is enacted, the security operatives will be happy and jump straight into action for us to have a safe environment free of herdsmen challenges. By God’s grace, the people will know about the law and penalties, and this will come out well.
Generally, the nation faces different security challenges from the same farmers/herdsmen clashes to banditry, kidnapping among others. What will be your admonition to the Muhammadu Buhari led government to tackle insecurity in the country?
Government should dialogue; they should call the stakeholders involved in this issue. Let everybody sit down and talk and come up with generally acceptable resolution and implement it forcefully. Every developed nation takes laws seriously. Without the law, everybody can choose to do whatever they want to do, and enforcement is important.
The 100 days in office of the Governor Makinde administration is just a month away. What feats will make the 100 days in office mark a worthwhile celebration by the administration?
In 100 days, my desire is that we should have set up all the machinery in place, put all the state ministries to work, put quality people in place that will actually do the work in place. From there, we should start implementing some of these plans that we have and as long as we put ourselves in a position to takeoff, then we are fine. We have taxied onto the runway now; the plane is about to move; we are generating momentum; we are just trying to get the right speed for takeoff. Once we takeoff, anybody left behind in the plan should catch the next flight. But, we are calling everybody to come on board, cooperate with us for us to take Oyo State to the next level.
Your emergence as speaker was preceded by varied circumstances from the death of a former Speaker of the Assembly, Honourable Michael Adeyemo to the fact that among the four returning members, you were the only one from the majority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). To some observers, your emergence is a combination of opportunity and destiny. How do you describe the circumstances that led to your becoming speaker?
On my emergence as speaker, I say man proposes, God disposes; God finishes the job. Starting politics, I never thought to be speaker; what I thought of was to make changes within my own community, that is, Ibarapa East. But, I have been involved actively in community development through my charity foundation which I named after my dad, Adeseun Ogundoyin Foundation. But, I realised that without leverage, without a stake in what is going on in the society as regards to politics, I couldn’t make the change that I wanted on a large scale. So, at the time that I was on the farm and employed a lot of people and got closer to the people of my community, they motivated me to get involved in politics. I got active in politics in December 2017 and started my groundwork in January 2018 where I started being more active in my constituency, local government. From then on, an opportunity presented itself, although it wasn’t the way I planned it to be. Unfortunately, the then Speaker of the Assembly, Honourable Michael Adeyemo passed on and it was an opportunity to represent my constituency in the state House of Assembly. Some would say I declared my ambition too early, but, in my thinking, I thought if I actually had something good to do for my community, I do not have to wait until a political season comes in. People saw that as being too forward, but because of the work I had done before, it put me in a position whereby I was able to advantage of the situation. I was already on ground when the by-election came in and with the help of God, the structure of my party, my family, the people in my constituency, I was able to defeat the incumbent state and national government in order to take the Ibarapa East state constituency seat. From then on, I continued working. I was involved in building a maternity, right from when I got into the state Assembly; I repaired numerous boreholes because water is a real issue in my constituency, including health, education, youth development. I started attending to the primary needs of my community which is food, water and shelter. When I knew, I will be Speaker, I never felt overwhelmed because I usually say that if I cannot do it, God will not give me the opportunity. So, as long as I have the opportunity to do something, that means I can definitely do it. There is nothing that I have opportunity to do that God will not give me the wisdom, knowledge, understanding and strength to do it.