Former Secretary to the Oyo State Government, and a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Ayodele Adigun, speaks on security issues in the country, challenges besetting the ruling party and his governorship ambition in an interview why President Buhari must not go for next election.
You gave a reason for abandoning Senator Rashidi Ladoja just as you explained why you defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), what informed your decision to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC)?
I have so many reasons. I was in Accord before I left for APC. I observed that what obtained in Accord is same to what I experienced in APC.
Where do you think APC got it wrong in the state and at the national level?
The problem is fundamental. It is always very dangerous to make the leader of government the leader of the party. When you have immense power, you tend to misuse it. In the past, the leader of the party was different from the leader of government. It is dangerous to concentrate too much power in the hands of the leader or the governor by making him the leader of the party. When you do, they don’t listen to leaders of the party because they have the control of government. That accounts for the breakup of many political parties in Nigeria.
How will you assess the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, at least, you were in his government?
I was in APC very briefly. One of the problems with the government of the day is insecurity. This is a fundamental responsibility of government but once this is not guaranteed, you will question the credibility of the government. Look at the situation in Nigeria now, the Fulani herdsmen have been going about killing people without government making concrete effort to arrest the culprits.
Very recently, there was this regrettable comment coming from the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr Femi Adesina, insinuating that the people should abandon their land in their own interest to the marauders. What they are telling us is that all those gun-wielding Fulanis should be rewarded with ranches because of their violent streak. How can someone in his right senses, in a civilised world, tell people that they should abandon their ancestral land and give to foreigners? Is that not another form of colonisation? In a civilised country, such statement is enough to bring down the government or how can you tell your law-abiding citizens to abandon their ancestral land and give to strangers? It means that the president has been surreptitiously supporting those disturbing the citizens. They are all over the place, killing and maiming defenceless citizens. Once security is not guaranteed, such government does not worth its name again.
On the other hand, the economy is not doing fine. Look at the poverty index, according to recent report confirming that Nigeria has the highest number of poor people overtaking India. The population of India is over 1billion while Nigeria is not up to 200 million yet, our poverty ratio is higher. It is a sad commentary on the performance of the government of the day. Without looking at Brooklyn’s report, I have been living around Iwo Road, here in Ibadan, for over 30years now. Before now, the beggars around there were Nupe and Hausa people. Today, there are as many Yoruba as well as there are Hausa and Nupe people begging for alms. The poverty rate is higher now and the government is not helping matters. In Oyo State, we are in July but the workers were last paid in April. These are the lucky ones. The staff of the College of Agriculture in Igbo Ora said that they had not been paid for 25months. How do you want them to survive? There is poverty all over the place. Some pensioners have not been paid gratuity since 2011. Primary school teachers have taken government to court for owing them. This is a sad commentary on the part of government.
You are a farmer and you were said to have a bitter experience with the Fulani herders…(cuts in)
When you talk about the Fulani aggression I experienced it firsthand. I started my farm in 1992. Between that time and 2016, we never had any bitter experience. But from 2016 and now, they would disagree with farmers over grazing issue. They were reported to the police and, about three weeks after, over 40 of them invaded my farm and other neighbouring farms. They shot and wounded so many people and destroyed their property. But the police never apprehend any of the killers. That is how they have been terrorising since this government came on board. I think that they erroneously believe that since their man is in power, they can cause havoc. We are not surprised that the-powers-that-be never apprehend them. They have official backing which is unfortunate. If General Muhammadu Buhari cannot bring these people to book, it means that he has failed in his primary responsibility of safeguarding the lives and properties of Nigerians. This is the first responsibility that the constitution conferred on the president.
What do you think must be done in the light of this?
What must be done is that we should have a change of government. We don’t have any hope under the current administration. You don’t see anything like this in civilised countries; some miscreants are killing people but you can’t apprehend and bring them to book. What is to be done is to restore normalcy. We are now having influx of people from the Middle Belt into the South West. Our people have been displaced and can no longer farm. They no longer feel safe in their own environment. This will bring a rise in the price of foodstuffs.
You are aspiring to run for the Oyo governorship seat in 2019 on the ticket of the ADC. Why do you choose that platform?
In every evil you find a streak of good. APC does not have solution to Nigeria’s problems. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was magnanimous enough to call our attention to the rot in the country. He was able to call our attention to the inactivity of the government of the day. Instead of commending him, they begin to call him names. I think we should salute him for this and for midwiving a political organisation. Obasanjo is not a member of ADC though.
The National Assembly is looking at a bill on state police, are you in support of state police?
I support state police. It is nonsensical to call a governor the Chief Security Officer of his state without being able to address security matters in his state. Sadly at the moment, a governor has to call on the Federal Government for help on the security of his state. All security apparatuses take orders from Abuja and so a governor is not in control of anything. Imagine if Plateau State had its own police, it could have been very easy to defend the residents and easy to fish out the killer herdsmen.
What is your unique selling point as someone vying for the governorship position of the state?
My government will not be a lazy one that waits for stipend from Abuja to perform. When people say that they want to run, most of them don’t know what they are saying because they concentrate on expenditure, saying ‘I will pay salary, build bridges’. It shows that they don’t know the nitty-gritty of government. You cannot talk of expenditure without talking about how you generate revenue. All governments are local. The problem with Oyo State is dearth of intellectual capacity in government to fathom new ways of getting revenue.
When I go out every day, I see Oyo State government wasting money. There is literally money on the streets of Ibadan, not to talk of the entire state. I have 15 new ways of generating revenue for the state. With my experience in the civil service and government, it is possible to generate N20bn on a monthly basis in the state. How I will do that will be a subject for another day. As an insider before, I know what can work. You require requisite public service experience before you can handle governance. You can be a successful bank or private sector manager, but to handle the public sector is another ballgame. Any state government that waits for Abuja to pay salaries must be indolent. It is because they cannot think outside the box.
The typical politician doesn’t usually walk the talk after winning elections. What differentiates you?
It is just that some of them stopped being realistic. Osun State, for instance, embarked on projects that are beyond the capacity of the state. Under normal circumstances, you phase projects out in order not to be overwhelmed. It requires some careful planning. What is the point in having an airport in Osun State when Osogbo is about an hour drive to Ibadan and the one in Ibadan is underutilised?
You are from Ibadan, don’t you think the state capital has had its fair share of the governorship slot?
Politics is a game of number. Ibadan has about 60per cent of the votes in the state. If you go to Kogi State, if not by default, nobody can become governor in the state if not from Kogi East because they have the voting population. By the way, I have a very cosmopolitan approach to the issue of governance. It is not possible to concentrate development only on Ibadan. To do serious mechanised agriculture, you have to go to Oke-Ogun or other rural parts of the state. Once you do such things and people discover that farming is lucrative, they will migrate to rural communities to farm. This will help to reverse population drift.
