Kayode Jelili Amusan interviewed hear him; In 2011, you showed interest in becoming the governor, you later went into the primaries for the post of Senate. You eventually picked the ticket to return to the House of Representatives where you served two terms previously. What happened? I don’t think there is really any issue about that, especially when you look at politics from the angle of service. Kindly note my emphasis: service. It is only when you look at it from another angle that you could possibly have an issue. No doubt, there are lots of intrigues that we play at the political level which may not be too open to many of our people. But some of us who found ourselves in the service area of politics have come to accept these just as they are: they are hurdles to be crossed. Some people may prefer to stay in the Senate all through their political career, while some opt to be in the executive, just in the same manner as those who went to the judiciary stay on the Bench for life. The bottom line remains service; how and what you want to do that will have a lasting positive impact on the lives of our people. It is not peculiar to Nigeria. A judge might leave the Bench and run for any other office: Senate, House of Reps, etc. Bill Clinton ran for Congress in 1974 and he lost narrowly. Now, imagine if he had won that Congress election, he might not have been elected governor of Arkansas. He later went on to become America’s president where he served for eight good years. So, like I said, it is about service and where there are openings. You see, the problem we have about our politics is our peoples’ education. We create some ranking for political office in our minds; we try to grade them according to offices. Are we saying the office of a governor is bigger than that of a senator or a senator bigger than a governor? Then, why do we have governors contesting for a Senate post after serving their terms as governors and why do we have senators competing to be governors? Same with other lawmakers. We know of a deputy governor who went back to serve his people as a councillor. It is about what you want to do for your people. A lot of judges and top businessmen in the UK retired into the House of Lords, while many retired judges and professionals are found in the American Senate. How would you then assess Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration? I tell my friends and political associates that Governor Ibikunle Amosun has performed relatively well only within the limits of his capacity, competence and exposure. You know some of these things we bring to bear in our lives in the public service, we gained from all the things we have done in our private lives. We don’t learn governance or political administration in the classroom. You learn by applying the knowledge you have gained over the years from doing some other things. You will notice that much of the noise associated with the state in the last two years has got to do with money, debt, loans and borrowings from banks and so on. We shall have more time to review the performance of the new government in the state soon. You know as a politician, we have to gather our facts, and as a stakeholder, I should be interested in how my state is being run.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 13:34:56 +0000
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