APC LOST BECAUSE EKITIS ARE NOT YET READY FOR JKF REFORMS SAYS HON SEGUN ERINLE Hon Segun Erinle is the member representing ilejemeje in the Ekiti State House of Assembly and one of the allies of the Executive Governor of the State Dr John Kayode Fayemi. In this interview Hon Erinle pointed out that the Ekitis are not yet ready for the type of policies introduced by Dr Kayode Fayemi. EXCERPTS Hon Erinle, the election has come and gone, what are your views of why your party lost? We lost because the people of Ekitis were not ready for the type of government we came up with, as you know there are no industries in Ekiti, everybody depends on Government work and Politics became the other job, we were the first to introduce Social Security Scheme in Nigeria, we started given stipends to our young ones and a lot of other things we did but Ekitis don’t want all these even though they applauded it , they are not used to writing exams before you secure a job, teachers were not used to the changes we tried to introduce, Okada drivers were deceived we would drive them out of town, Civil servants believed we did not allow them to make money by the introduction of biometric system, young graduates felt they were not being employed into the civil service despite being graduates and when we introduced all these basic changes , they complained but we believed as a government we need to move the State forward but they waited for us at the election and they showed us the red card so that is my own assessment of the election. Did you believe money played a role in the election? Definitely, an hungry man is an angry man, when a party can boast of distributing a trailer load of rice to each local government and one million naira to each ward definitely it must play certain role. The main issues are the ones l have stated above i.e. Ekitis are not prepared for our type of government which they see as being too western style. Other issues raised was that most Commissioners and Advisers are not known in their different Constituency which did not assist the government? Well l have no comment on that all l know is that we brought in a change for the future benefit of Ekiti people which the people don’t believe in, they don’t look at the future effect of our policies but they look at the immediate gains and benefits and as you know the only constant thing in life is CHANGE. Hon, you tried to dodge our question but we learnt that you were able to win your ward and nearly create history by delivering your Constituency to your party because you moved with people at the grassroot which others don’t do? Our mission is a Collective RESCUE MISSION so l don’t believe it is my work alone, it involves all our people at the Local Govt, we were able to sell the mission of the Govt to the people and we were lucky they understand our mission but still we lost the Constituency. Are you worried? l have no regrets that we came on board to make Ekiti great. I don’t regret the innovations brought into the State by John Kayode Fayemi, Ekitis may have rejected him at the polls but he still remain my man, he was transparent, honest though may be stubborn in what he believed in but there is no perfect man in the world. I would miss him but l look forward working with him in the future. l strongly believed that Ekitis would demand for him in the near future dont forget age is still on his side. What are the lessons to be learnt from the election? Well l think some basic lessons to be learnt is for us as leaders to respect the views of the people and don’t always trust the views of people closer to us because they may be deceiving us without us knowing. I read all the Social Network and l could see the negative aspect of what people say about our government but l always believe it is the minority views because we hear other different reports from outside. The worrying aspect is the PDP candidate that won the election, the man has two cases in court but still the people of Ekiti gave him another mandate, assuming he was found guilty and disqualified, don’t you think the State would be thrown into chaos? Well an accused is proven innocent until the court decides so let’s wait for the outcome of all the cases before we know what would happen. You are still a member of the Legislative arm of Government and your party is in majority, how are you going to work with the incoming government which is a different party? We are all Ekitis and the interest of Ekiti is paramount in our mind hence if the incoming government comes with a populist agenda that would benefit our people we would not hesitate to support him. How would you assess the Governor Elect Dr Ayodele Fayose? I don’t Assess my leader because by virtue of the election of 21st June he has become a leader in the state so l cannot be assessing him but to pray for him and wish him the best in his new office. It is being rumoured that most of your Honourable members have defected to the ruling party, what is your comment? I am not aware of members defecting because we lost an election but l still remain in APC and would always be in the party. Now lets talk again about the governance of Ekiti, it was generally believed that the Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi is a stingy person hence he refused to recognise members of the Legislative arm of Government, he denied you Constituency Projects instead he does it by himself? We have been talking about Constituency projects for a very long time, the only mistake in there is the fact that instead of going through the communities, it should have been project the honourable members promised the different communities, what happened was that most communities were expecting the honourable members to do Capital projects like their predecessors in office so they don’t see the project done by the Executive arm as being done by the honourable members, this becomes very worrisome as you don’t expect honourable members to use his salaries for Empowerment and at the same time Capital projects. It is a general believe that you were very close to the Governor and you being a grassroot politician failed to advice him? I don’t need to publish my advice to the Executive Governor of the State on pages of newspaper, don’t forget he is my leader and the leader of our party in the State. The State Executive Council recently approved the list of Eighteen additional Local government for the state after the defeat of the incumbent Governor don’t you think this is illegal and would create problems for the incoming government? The Constitution is very clear on procedure to be adopted in creating Local Government if these procedures are met, there is nothing illegal about it, don’t forget the term of office of Mr Governor does not end until 15th October 2014. The issue is still coming before the House of Assembly and l believe l and my colleague would critically reassess the procedure before passing it into law. Are you going to recontest? For now lam reviewing the whole political scene and also seeking the opinion of our people, and the good God that sent me to contest in the first instance, thereafter l would announce my intention to the whole world. Have you seen Mr Governor after the election? Yes, l have seen him afterall he has Congratulated the Governor elect . Your Party has decided to challenge the result in Court, do you think this is good for our Democracy? My party leaders may have seen what l don’t see in challenging the outcome and process of the election at the Tribunal, l live that for them and as a loyal party member l respect their decision. You see it is very worrisome when you drag soldiers into the political game because they are not civil, l cannot imagine soldiers beaten innocent people for doing nothing on the eve of an election, we have gone a long way in this democracy than to allow it to be pull back by the military. I continue to pray that the PDP would not destroy the political game which they have benefitted a lot from. Did you notice the military? Yes, one of our leaders in my Constituency was beaten by this soldiers and detained till after the election, three of my boys were beaten heavily by a team led by one Captain Adewale and l was humiliated myself for doing nothing, l have told my lawyers to file a suit at the High Court claiming damages of one billion naira from the Nigeria army. What was the offence? No offence was alleged, you know the military guys, they are not civil, they ruled by decree and martial law, like the late Fela Anikulapo called them. I think they were sent to Ekiti for a purpose to distract our people. What is your advice to Nigerians? Nigeria is our country, our home we have no other place we can call our home so lets Unite to make it great. Ekiti election have come and gone, we thank God there is no violence and lets pray we would have a free and fair election in Osun in August and in Nigeria by February 2015.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 19:55:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015