ACN governors are building their states on debts - Oluwatukesi: Honourable Olasoji Adagunodo Oluwatukesi was former Deputy Chief Whip of the Osun State House of Assembly when he represented Obokun state constituency. He is also member, board of National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu. In this interview with KEHINDE OYETIMI, he speaks on some knotty issues affecting the nation and the Peoples Democratic Party. Excerpts: THE nation is witnessing different states of unrest as the 2015 general election draws near. But most worrisome is the crisis in PDP. People are ascribing what is happening in Rivers State to disregard to presidential order. Do you share this view? The Peoples Democratic Party has to put its house in order. That house is not in order from the national to different state chapters. The effect of that is what we are seeing in governance. The governors’ forum is enmeshed in crisis. I don’t see why a party that is controlling the majority of governors will find it difficult to get a chairman for the forum. The leadership of the party should sit and put the house in order. The party and the government should have been united in picking someone to lead that forum. As the biggest party in Nigeria, the PDP is supposed to dictate and other political parties should follow. Don’t you feel that the in-house wrangling of your party can give boost to the opposition thereby reducing the fortunes of the PDP in 2015 and for some governorship election that will hold in a state like Osun before that time? I strongly believe in having a virile opposition. It always puts the party in government on its toes. When there is no opposition, democracy will not thrive. There is a world of difference between democracy and civilian rule. For the democratic setup to be virile, the opposition must in itself be virile. The composition and conception of APC have their faults. I will suggest an opposition that is serious and focus. An opposition that can seriously criticise the party in government so that it can be alive to its duties in governance. APC is very faulty; it is a gang-up to claim power. I don’t see it being vibrant. The party is just after power. Many of those in APC would have been members of PDP. What kind of criticism do you expect to get from that? If you claim that the PDP is not good, why take people from that party and make them major members or founding members of your party? They are not serious. Many of those who were elected on the platform of the ACN in the South west are from the PDP. These are people that were called thieves and rogues. But they come to your party and become superstars. They are given automatic tickets, thereby winning elections. Does that change things? Does that change their persons? PDP can be good; we only have leadership problems that can be managed. Some of them left the PDP to form the ACN and people are of the view that they are delivering the dividends of democracy. Don’t you agree with them? We are particular about South-West. During the era of former President Obasanjo, the focus of the various governments of the PDP was how we were going to cancel our debts. We were not thinking of borrowing money. We looked at a position whereby the economy would be put on a good pedestal. There was a policy that government should not borrow money. That was why you noticed that people performed based on their income. Are you trying to excuse the fact that the inability of the PDP to embark on projects was because its governments were trying to reduce debts? Yes. They were not allowed to borrow money. All these developments that you see today are from borrowed money. Some states are so indebted that they cannot pay those debts in the next 16 years. At what cost are these developments? These are issues that should be raised. Chief Alao-Akala was taken by the EFCC because he tarred a road for N50 million per kilometre. Right now, one of the ACN governors is tarring a kilometre road for N1 billion. Another South West governor as we speak now awarded a 29 kilometre road for N30 billion. That is about over N1 billion per kilometre. It could be because of the topography of the terrain. Whatever it is, we must ask ourselves questions. When Oyinlola was constructing some of these roads, he used about N50 to N70 million per kilometre. There must be a basis for drawing comparisons. Oyinlola stayed for almost seven and a half years and borrowed about N18 billion. He spent N8 billion and left N10 billion. As we speak, one of the ACN governors in the South West has borrowed so much money to the tune of about N80 billion under three years. How much was Oyinlola earning? When I was in the House, our budget for the whole year was N38 billion. And that N38 billion is used to construct just one road. The budget in that state now is over N100 billion. They are borrowing money. So they have to show something for what they are borrowing. There must be good value for money spent. I have been in Akwa Ibom and Enugu states. Go to those states and see. No state in the federation has been so developed in terms of infrastructure and road developments than those states. Not even Lagos State. But ACN has so much propaganda. Performance is relative and subjective. What are you looking at? What are your parameters? Some people will argue that Akwa Ibom is an oil-rich state. I agree with you but it is not borrowing money like some of these other states. Lagos is one of the most indebted states in Nigeria though it has resources. Akwa Ibom is living within its resources. We should live within our resources. There are two chairmen in the governors’ forum, what is your take on that? I don’t even have a take. The forum is unconstitutional. The governors’ forum will not make the dividends of democracy to come to my state. I don’t believe in that forum. Let each governor go back to his state and develop it. What are they doing? What have they been able to achieve? You must have seen the video clip of what transpired in the Rivers State House of Assembly. As a lawmaker, how do you feel when you see some of these things? I feel very sad. In advanced countries, there are misgivings in the House but those differences do not degenerate to the point of fighting. What is honourable about fighting with sticks? President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo used to be very close but watchers have observed that things are no longer good between them. How are the political elders trying to resolve these? One thing is certain and that is what I heard. I was told that Baba is in the know of everything that has to do with government appointment in the South West in this administration. The newspapers will claim that Baba was not consulted. Baba is a statesman of high repute. But unfortunately, we Yoruba do not value what we have. We are supposed to idolise him. He has his weaknesses but his records are sterling. If we have valued that man, he would have been more respected than he is today. The irony of politics is that if they differ today politically that does not mean that they will not mend their fences before 2015. Politics is management of crisis. They may be working differently because of different interest but they will resolve their crises. Some are insisting that Yoruba are marginalised in relation to political appointments. They also claim that the release of Al-Mustapha is a slap to the Yoruba race. The Al-Mustapha issue was a court process that spanned 15 years. Any accused is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. If the judges or the lawyers came up with his release then I wouldn’t want to question that. We can only question our rule of law and the integrity of our judges. If there is a problem there, then there is a problem with our country. We are marginalised because the Yoruba are not well represented at the national level because of the fallout of the fallout if the 2011 election. It was what they asked for. The party zoned the Speakership of the House to the South West. It was the same South Western legislators that worked in tandem with some people to take it from us. If you have a Yoruba person as Speaker today, nobody would dare do what they are doing to the Yoruba today. If any major decision is to be taken today, Yoruba will not be there. We are the cause of our mishap. I don’t see anything wrong with the election. They nominated a Yoruba person to be Speaker and the Yoruba representatives decided and voted for another person. Too bad. Why is the PDP divided over the nomination of Professor Wale Oladipo in Osun? People are not against him. He is a gentleman and honourable. He cuts across. People are only against the process of nomination that brought him. Over 60 per cent of those who are against the process will not mind if he holds any elective position. But the process is wrong. We are in a civil regime. You want to nominate either active or substantive national secretary of our party from Osun. In PDP, we have two former governors there. We have about five senators; we have about 14 former honourables there. What is disturbing is that they are not aware of the process used in bringing up such a person. We have former chairmen. They were not carried along. That is the process that they are fighting and not Professor Wale Oladipo.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 19:12:34 +0000
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