with a team of reporters recently; Adewale Ogunniran of Integrityreporters was there.
We want to know your opinion on the call for restructuring?
The call for restructuring has always been there, you know we have a constitution that would not always work, a constitution that pays lip service to running a nation. And if we are going to have a true federation, I think we have to go back to re-engaging one another to discuss together how we want to run our country. We should not be afraid of that. We have a constitution that promoting the wills of the people and give the people the chance to seat down and discuss together.
The constitution that we are using was produced by the military, drafted by one or two people without the inputs of the people. The kind of governance we have in this country is determined by this constitution and because of that there is agitation all over the country; in the south east and in the south west. Without confusing one another, some people think the issue is just the issue of resource control. You have like Lagos State for example in the South West which is clamouring for a special status. For example in terms of tax revenue, most of the taxes we generate in this nation comes from Lagos, in any form you would want to look at it; in terms of income tax duty or custom duty. When you break it down you think about the revenue of the government, you think about royalties from petroleum, VAT and the custom duties. Lagos is saying that we provide more than half of this revenue, so we deserve a special status.
We have all these competiting agitations for renegotiation on how to stay in this corporate entity called Nigeria because the developmental progress of Nigeria is necessary.
We have a one speed nation, we develop at different speed. The call for restructuring would engender the atmosphere of competition. When we have our region was when the University of Ife and University of Nsukka were set up and we had centres of excellence but now we don’t have that now.
The style of government we’ve operating is too expensive and we can’t afford it. For the local government level to the presidency, everybody has Personal Assistants and Special Advisers, it is totally unnecessary, there is a lot of wastage in the system. The amount of recurrent expenditure that we spend is higher compare to that of regions, the money we could have invested in education, agriculture and rural development.
Don’t you think this would lead to secession in the future?
If we negotiate the terms with which we stay together as a nation, there would be an agreement, there would be devolution of power to the regions, there would be a stronger region and there is a coordinating centre, there would be no need to secede. For example, each region send a representative to the UN and to national bodies, you let the regions deal with the issues in their regions because they are closer to the electorate, and there people would hold them accountable.
Do you think this country is ready for such?
I think we are more than ready. You see, time after time religious, tribal and ethnicity that always come to the fore is because we have a common address that binds us together. When you keep people under a region and they are addressing their own issues all these would settle.
In terms of progress continuity, we have a region and that region have some element of self determination. Even if they want to have a rotational development policy, everybody knows when it is its turn; it is easier to develop the polity.
What we have as at now, time after time, is absence of a plan; everybody wants to become a governor and a president. To do what?
When we talk about restructuring, we also have a national view, where is this country going to. But as at now, there is no plan, everything is generally disjointed. When they become the governor they starts thinking on what to do and they have forgotten that the tenure is short. So, nothing has been done. The country has been stagnated since 1999.
Is restructuring going to work in Oyo state?
Oyo state would be the most to benefit in any kind of restructuring. Cosmopolitan cities benefit more when you have restructuring; it has more diverse population; different talent and abilities would come to work together as it were from time immemorial in Oyo state. The diversity acts as a catalyst for innovation and growth, that is why places like Oyo and by extension, Ibadan should be the most to benefit from that. It has the largest amount of research institutes in the country; outside Lagos. It is probably has the largest amount of higher institutions; it has all the ingredients but it is left to the people who wants to prepare the soup whether they have the know-how and the inclination.
How would you say the government has impacted on the life of the citizens of Oyo State?
There are two things; we have ineffective and a very lazy government. You are not opening new roads, Oyo state is such a massive place, if you travel wide in the state. All what we have is theft; we have an unseen situation whereby the civil servants are not paid. One point in time the governor talks about restructuring the education sector, it wasn’t particularly such a bad idea, but as usual, it was not done properly this is because he should have met with the original stakeholders before going public with the plan. You need to see the decay that is in education in the state.
They should have said, first and foremost you have to sit down and ask yourself, what kind of education system do I want, cost it, what other stakeholders can I bring into play to assist in achieving this; it is now a collective dream or agenda.
It is actually disgusting that Oyo State came around 29th position in WAEC and NECO examination ratings. Oyo State is supposed to be the education Mecca of this country. When they talk about agriculture, it is a lip service. Even if they say they are the disciples of Awolowo and they believe in rural development, integrated development of rural areas, what have they done?
Why you do not see too much revolts in Oyo State is because food is cheaper because you have rural roads that was put in place by Awolowo and successive governments.
People begging for money in Oyo state, half of the time, they want to use it for another thing, not to eat because a lot of them know where they can go and ask for garri and they would give it to them. We need a government where everybody can work together; I think that would help the administrations that has failed the people.
What do you thing about lots of alliances coming?
Everybody has the right to say he want to become even the president of Nigeria but you know when the time comes, people would begin to make more realistic decisions.
Let’s remove the individuals and look at the general structure. If you want to see where a party is, then you have to go the state house of assembly, then you know whether the party is there or not there. In the Oyo State House of Assembly, APC has the majority followed by Accord, then Labour; there is no body from PDP and SDP, that is the composition and this are the people representing the 33 local governments of the state.
But we also know that our politics is aggressive, APC is in government now and other party would want to unseat them, you can’t divorce what is happening on the local scene from what is impacting in the national scene.
Someone says all the major parties would break up and reform. The APC have the tension that cannot be resolved. In the candidates that come out from Oyo state for example, if you look at them, and you screen them; when you look at them in different terms, there are people who believe in the power of Abuja to resolve certain things for them and they are those who believe in going to Agodi thinking that things would be resolved for them; and there some people who are hoping that if it just scattered they would be able to grab something.
On the other side of the equation, the largest people of the PDP belongs to the Makarfi group, those who belongs to the Sheriff group would not openly agree that they belong to the Sheriff group; they would tell you that ‘I belong to one PDP’ and we know what that language means. It is only the Makarfi group that would tell you they belong to Makarfi even in Oyo state and what we know is that that the group is speaking for all other party to form their own grand alliance.
So what is on ground now is that there are parties that would be used as a platform; Accord is one of them, SDP, APGA; but the smart would either use the Accord or the SDP; they would be used as a new platform for opposition.
But the opposition would surely get together and the state that this can happen to the best of my knowledge is Oyo state.
Ajimobi runs a minority government because he was voted in by 32% of the people. That is why he doesn’t think about the other 68%. The 68% didn’t vote for him so you have the dictatorship of the minority, the majority would surely rise.
I am part of a movement whereby we were talking to ourselves across political parties on the basis that lets forget our party differences; most of us all came from PDP at one time or the other because of different purposes and whatever. So we have to appreciate the fact that unless we operate collectively; there are meetings on different levels to make sure that group come together. I am a realist when it comes to politics, I know that we would not score 100% in bringing everybody together but as long as we score 60 to 70 percent then we have tried.
Why did you rejected APC ticket for senatorial position?
I left PDP for a particular reason, the reason I left was because there were issues with the governor then (Akala) and I was part of the fall out; at that point in time, if I want to contest would Akala allow me to have a plain ground?, the answer is no. At the twilight of his administration, I went into the ACN; it thought they were respectable gentle men then, but I found out that they didn’t really believe in primaries and democracy like that; I was misled by the leadership. I can sa it without any fear of contradiction that Senator Rashidi Adewolu is the only political person in Oyo state, I can line up behind him because his politics has been consistent. And because he also has intellectual capacity I have seen his vision, I have shared his vision. But the issue of if he would context for governorship or not in 2019, I think that decision is left for him, it is his own personal decision. He has a role of leadership to play not just in Oyo state but also in the national politics and the politics of south west.
What is you aspiration in the next dispensation?
What is important is that let’s do the work. We have to stay strategically, you have to have plan and implement the strategy. That is what is more important now, not who is going for governor, senate or what have you. My problem now is how do I get together with my brothers and sisters of the other side of the divide. I have been speaking with them as well. People who are within the APC are yearning for us to get it right at the other side of the equation.
Before the last election, there was agitation to reform the party; we chose new chairman and party officers from ward levels to the state level. Some people had an agenda to hijack the party but it did not work. Then we had a ruling in the court in Ibadan which said that the authentic chairman of the party came from the party that conducted the congresses and who the party at the national level recognises.
Do you intend contesting for governorship election?
There are number of people who would want to contest for governorship. For me I personally think we have to be better organised, otherwise we would lose and I don’t like losing. When the time comes the decision to contest or not to contest, as far as I am part of the team that would deliver the governor I am more than happy.
If you are able to meet Governor Ajimobi what would you tell him?
I would tell him that you have the glorious opportunity to write your name in the annals of the destiny of this great state, but you have been a spectacular failure. When they put your picture in the State House or House of Assembly you will be the one I will point to because what is most important in this world is a legacy. What is your legacy? Is it the one of unpaid teachers, civil servants, dilapidated schools, a failing state economy, a rundown health service? If you look at the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, you can’t see any industrial hub which is created to address the challenges of those coming out from the universities without employment. You miss the opportunity and it is only because you don’t have the intellectual capacity to discern what is right. You have the opportunity. You even collected bailout funds and yet you haven’t paid your teachers.
What is your parting shot?
My parting shot is that all hands must be on desk to help the good works done by our founding fathers. As at now, the state is in a state of complete decay. We can’t engage doctors because we can’t pay them properly. We are talking about IGR, if you don’t pay the civil servants who will help you generate IGR, there won’t be development. There is no other revenue raised anywhere. We are highly indebted to the tune of N110 billion domestic debt, but by the time Ajimobi came we didnt have a debt; so even when you talk about the bailout, they are loan giving by the FG but what have we done with the debt.
