The Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and governorship hopeful in Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni, told select journalists why he wants to run for the coveted seat. The former governor also touched on some national issues, especially the kind of governance visited on the nation by the former President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, with a verdict that all those who participated in Jonathan’s government deserve to be punished publicly. PAUL UKPABIO was there.
You were once a governor in Ekiti State. What was the experience like?
It was very interesting. I contested for governorship because I had ideas that I wanted to try out. So, I was very excited that I had an opportunity to try out those ideas. They worked, and I’m very grateful to God for that.
If given the chance to be the governor again, what would you want to correct?
Most of the ideas that we had, had been abandoned. The only thing that might need my immediate correction is the micro-credit scheme that we did. We are not going to bring micro credit back the way we did it before, but definitely, we have to do something to give people access to credit, which is what one was trying to achieve. The scheme would undergo complete repackaging. What is important for me now is new thinking. All over the world, we have not given enough attention to young people. We are bringing children into the world and their standard of living is much lower than our own, but we are not bothered. We want to survive first before we think of our children. Time is ticking. This is not an Ekiti problem. It is not a Nigerian problem. It is a problem for all humanity. That is why you see people, out of frustration, being trafficked. The trafficked person is first and foremost a frustrated person. Even when you tell them, don’t allow yourself to be trafficked, a frustrated person wants a way out. Whether that way is reasonable or not is not his immediate concern. Many of them pay to be ferried across the Meditarenean, and they know that not more than one in two would get to the destination. Some even go through the desert where they are exposed to extreme danger and some die in the process. But they are not bothered. And if you check their age, the average age of these desperate people is below 40. So, it is the failure of our system not only in Nigeria but the world over. We must provide for the younger generation. Even if you look at the so-called terrorists, what is their age? They are young people. If you look at the one that we call home boy terrorists, which nobody wants to admit to that they are homeboy terrorists; the guy who on his own enters a night club, brings out his pistol and decides to level up a few heads before he is over-powered. They would say he is not a terrorist but has gone bunkers. The guy who all on his own drives into a crowd and he is not a jihad terrorist, he is definitely going to be a home boy terrorist. What is their average age? It must have suggested that they are people who are in their productive years but are frustrated. The energy they would have used to serve themselves and humanity, is what they are diverting to all that. So, this is the time for us to call for attention to the plight of the youth, and we are not going to do that by singing on the pages of newspapers. We have to create an opportunity here to affect the youth, to make the youth a frontline agenda and to do our own martial plan for the youth. That, for me, is the most interesting challenge I want to go for. I’m not saying I know the answer, but they are beginning to come from people I have thrown this question to and were challenged also that yes, we can solve this problem. That is more important to me than building roads. Nobody has built more roads than me in this state. I did the blue hospital. I did the best eye hospital in Africa here in Ekiti, and in the short period it operated, it recovered many sights, both from within the South- West and all over Nigeria; even from outside the country.
People say it was former President Olusegun Obasanjo who imposed you as governor the first time you came. What is the story behind your emergence at that time?
When we were going to have the primaries or before the primaries, three years before the primaries, I was doing micro credit. I started a free JAMB forms and lecture in the state. Every year, I was giving qualified people free JAMB forms and 15 weeks of coaching in every local government. I was paying. If you do your arithmetic, you will discover that it runs into millions of naira. So, I’m sure the delegates picked my name� by goodwill. After the JAMB, I started a scholarship scheme, because many of them did well in JAMB and needed to go to the university. In terms of goodwill, I have never had any coma or dent in my career. I worked at Xerox and many places. So, if there is any screening about who will be the party’s candidate, I don’t think I will fail it. But you would remember that the PDP had been embarrassed by the fact that it had to support the determination of the tenure of a governor here and they think that okay, we are not just going to do with primary, we would combine the primary with the assessment of the individuals. Chief Ropo Adesanya was the Chairman of the party at that time. Unfortunately, before the primary, he had a problem and he was on crutches. On the day of the primary, he climbed the dais to address all the aspirants, and he said it very clearly that the party had said he should address us that the primary was not everything; it would be combined with the assessment of individuals to know who would represent the party. So, 1, 2, 3 and after three, I think the next gap was more than 500 marks between me and the next person who came fourth. If they exercised what they had told us about and they now picked one person, how does that become an imposition? I was there when they opened the ballot box. There were three boxes, and I had more than 40 per cent, and we were about 16 contestants. I had more than 40 per cent of the call in the first box, and they stopped. They met. I don’t know what they discussed. But some of them are still alive. Immediately I saw that, I believed that they had made their decision. It was not local government voting, so you cannot say that delegates were not voting according to their local governments. We had just three ballot boxes for the 16 of us. You just dropped your ballot in any of the three boxes. By the time they resumed, the story changed. The guy who was representing me was very naive. He was not conversant with the procedure. He was not asking to see what was going on. He was just calling and calling, and what I heard was that, that was when the people did whatever they had to do. But I never complained and I did not say anything. So, I believe, and I’m saying this now, that I didn’t lose that primary. If I was not made the governor, I would not have also talked about it. Immediately I was told the result, I asked my team to go inside our save and take N1 million and give to the person who came first, because it should be normal that the person who came first is the one we are all going to support. The primary was not conclusive. Because to be conclusive, you have to score more than 50 per cent. None of us scored as much. Yinka Akerele scored the highest, Prof. Ojo followed and I came third. Oni from Okemesi came fourth. And I said they should go and give N1 million to Akerele, and I told my people to also give him two buses, because I would say that we were the most prepared of the groups that were there. I also told my people to let us go round and thank all our delegates and tell them that this is the person you will vote for at the gubernatorial election. But eventually, that was not to be. I think the lesson for me is that human beings can only strive, it is only God that can strike. And if He strikes, nobody has an option. I’m saying this for the first time. I don’t mind the controversy, but individuals will justify their actions. So, when I kept hearing that I was imposed, it sounded so annoying. Because on rating basis, which of the candidates would have rated higher than me? What had they put in the lives of other people, young or old, that would have made them rate higher than me? So, if I rated number one in goodwill, and I was number three by the result of the primary, what stops me from being number one? And I don’t think I was number three. But let us assume I was number three, what stopped me from being number one? Let me also say categorically, until I became the candidate, I was not close to Baba Obasanjo. People would just say all sorts of things without being fair to the old man. He was doing what was best for the party so that the party would not have a candidate that would go the way of the previous person in future. I was not imposed by Obasanjo. Anybody who wants to counter all have said now is free and we would talk. But in terms of goodwill, I was number one. Let us also not forget that the primary is supposed to be an indication of popularity, because the party did not want to risk giving its ticket to somebody who could not win an election. And then at that time, the people of the state knew who was in the best position to command votes. More than 10,000 candidates benefited from the free JAMB forms and coaching for the three years the programme lasted. And also in our strategy room, we said if every person who benefited was 18 years and above, let us assume that they would have parents and two other siblings. So if you assume that five votes would come on account of one beneficiary, that is 50,000 plus votes. The number of votes you needed then to be governor of Ekiti, and it is not much different now, was not up to 200,000. So it means my personal goodwill was already worth more than a quater of the votes, whether I’m in party A or party B. So, people who decided this thing knew what they were doing. Ask any other person who wants to querry it what was in the basket of the goodwill of any other person. I don’t want to keep talking this way. That I’m quiet does not mean that what they are saying is true. It is not true. And if the party wants to take a decision again tomorrow on this same issue, I believe that they would have taken the decision they took.
There is this story making the rounds that your governorship ambition is being backed by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. How true is this?
I’m being backed first by God. And let me say very clearly that nobody could have achieved what we are seeing on the field now, if he does not have the backing of God. And I believe, I will be backed; note my answer, I will be backed by Asiwaju Tinubu. I will be backed by Baba Akande, just as I know that I will be backed by President Muhammadu Buhari, and also by the Vice President and by everybody who wants the party to win and have a good run here. I am not backed yet, but I will be backed, and I’m working towards that. But I’m not backed by anybody yet. I’m backed only by God the Almighty. But it is a very good run so far.
You were known to belong to the PDP before you crossed over to the APC. Recently there was this statement made by someone that APC’s governorship ticket is not for somebody who does not have a progressive background, which was believed to be a veiled reference to those who defected from other parties. What is your reaction to this statement?
My reaction would be to ask who has a progressive background? Fortunately, I have been governor of this state. What is progressive politics? Progressive politics is about care and attention to the under-privileged. It is about equity and equitable distribution. When I was governor of this state, I was the first to start a scholarship scheme. There was no scholarship scheme before I came to this place. The state that was then called Fountain of Knowledge. I started the scholarship scheme. Bursary was the only thing the state was doing, and I told the local governments to take over bursary and they were doing it. So, in addition to bursary, we have scholarship. I introduced subsidy for parents in terms of nutrition for their children twice a week with chocolate tea and egg. Yet I’m not a progressive, I did free health care. I introduced quarterly free surgeries and we had more than 2,000 people who underwent surgeries, who are alive today but would not have been alive. Yet I’m not a progressive. I abolished the practice of carrying bench and desk to school and ensured that every pupil had full complement of desks and benches. I ensured that every school had full complement of library, and not just ensured that free textbooks were given to students at senior and junior secondary, we opened the gate to ensure that the rich and the poor had equal level of access. Yet I’m not a progressive. I recruited more than 4,000 people into the civil service in one day, and I said it must be by merit. I did not appoint one and I did not allow my colleagues to do. I said everybody whose child had the advantage should take the advantage because I wanted equity. Yet I’m not a progressive. I can just continue. Things that meant subsidy, openness, fairness were and still my principles. If Baba Awolowo was a progressive because he did education, education was virtually free here then. I was supplying free textbooks, free food and furniture. Other people who are progressives, what would they have done? And if anybody is a progressive and he’s running for this election, we should show what they have done for the people. Even before I became anything, I told you about free JAMB, free coaching and scholarships. So let all the progressives who are contesting show their credentials. What did they do, whether they were in public office or not? I did not respond because I thought it was not worth responding to. But then, it was not because I don’t have progressive credentials. I believe that without mincing words, nobody faults my credentials.
In view of the southern agenda in the state, how are you going to overcome the mounting opposition to your ambition?
Well, I would say that, that agitation is legitimate and fair, because you cannot preach brotherliness when some people are feeling short-changed. But I want to say very clearly that every opportunity at contesting election in this state, I have never excluded any zone. It wasn’t that people from a particular zone were asked not to contest. All the three contested before me and against me. Right from when Otunba Adebayo contested, there were only three parties. Incidentally, the three gubernatorial candidates came from the three zones: Otunba Adebayo from the Central won; Prof. Adeniran from the North came second and Dr Olowoporoku from the South came third, and that was the first governorship election in the state. There has never been a time when any zone was excluded. But even then, I believe it is our responsibility as leaders to prepare a marshal plan to help our brothers and sisters to have access to it. But for us now as a party, as APC, the most important thing is to win and take power; it is not to allocate power and lose it. If we allocate and lose it, God forbid, we would have done ourselves a very grave injustice. I believe that we should be looking for who can win for us, not necessarily where that person comes from. I will tell you that in terms of love for the south, those who are talking, including those from the south, would need to labour to prove their love for the south over and above what I have done. When I was governor, apart from the deputy governor, the three most important positions in the state were held at the same time by people from the south: the positions of minister, speaker of the House of Assembly and Secretary to the Government. It had never happened. It didn’t happen before me and it did not happen after me. So, the people of the south would know that I’m indeed a friend. If I was born there, I would not do more than that. Apart from that, I was a member of the PDP and around 2012, I was informed that PDP survey showed that my reputation was intact and that I have tremendous goodwill. Therefore, the party will find it more convenient to have me run for election for them, but I said no, I would not run. They asked why I would not run and I told them to go back to Ekiti, ask for Adeyeye, Bejide, Aluko 1 and Aluko 2. They said who are these people? I said Aluko 1 is the former Deputy Governor of the state while Aluko 2 is a former Senator. Pick any of those four and I will back them and I would work ruthlessly hard to deliver that person. All these people that are talking, how many of them would be offered the governorship ticket of a state on a platter and he would look away? I looked away because I felt we should go in there, but I learnt a lesson: it is only what you have in your hand that you can give out, otherwise you waste it. That is why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m doing this out of conviction. I don’t want us to waste this opportunity. So I believe that if I run, I would win. I don’t know of any other person.
There is this insinuation that you are planning to defect back to the PDP…
Let me say this, it is good that all these questions are coming in. But if I were the one they are telling outside, I would ask how did they know? Did you attend a meeting with him, where he planned the evil? People who are saying these are exhibiting what I would call low intellect. Why will I be trying to go back to PDP? Did I owe PDP money which I have to go and pay to them? Why will I be going there? I have been here. We fought the PDP out of power with everything we have got. Many of these people who are talking were either bystanders, people who didn’t believe in the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari and who are now trying to find ways of rubbishing people who believe. Let me tell you, wherever I am, is where I am. I am a member of the APC and by the grace of God the Deputy National Chairman. I don’t know any other party. People have asked me. They have come to me to say these people who are trying to tarnish your image, why don’t you show them where the people of Ekiti are by leaving this party? Pick any party, we would support you. And I said to them, don’t come here to insult me. I said honour is the greatest virtue, I said if I don’t pick this ticket, I would not go to any other party. I don’t have a plan B. They would say let’s have a plan B, me, I don’t have a plan B. My plan A is APC. My plan B is APC. If there is a plan C, it will be APC. That is me, because I’m not desperate. Why would I be desperate? I know that honour has no equivalent. So if anybody says he will go to the PDP, the question you should ask is, did he tell you so? Did you hold a meeting with him?
Do you have any romance with Governor Ayo Fayose?
Romance? How can I have a romance with a man? I don’t have any political relationship with him. But I regard everybody as a brother. I don’t have enemies. One of the things people see in my politics is that I don’t have enemies. I try as much as possible to affect people positively, because access to me is very simple and easy. Even by my opponents. So, if anybody is talking of me having a romance with Governor Fayose, that is not true.
You are the most attacked aspirant in APC. Are you comfortable with this or what do you think is responsible for that?
If I were not the most attacked aspirant, I would be afraid, because I’m the leader, the one in front. You want somebody to be throwing stones backward as we are running? He would be throwing his stones forward. Whoever is in front of him, he would throw his stones at. So, I’m not surprised. I’m not discouraged. That is the way it should be. I should be attacked by everybody coming behind, throwing their stones at me, trying to malign me, trying to lie against me, and so on. It is only me who has a responsibility to show maturity. I should not attack anybody. In fact, other than clarifying issues, I should not throw stones at anybody. I should not malign anybody. Who would I be throwing stones at? I’m not surprised. I’m not angered by it. Except that I can always take time to explain issues away, so that they don’t become facts. That is why I’m even saying some of these things, because when falsehood becomes translated into different languages, it is fast becoming a fact and you must curb it. That is why I have taken time to respond to the issues you have raised.
If given the APC ticket, how do you hope to overcome the influence and power of incumbency of Governor Ayo Fayose?
Let me say this very clearly, and I also would challenge you journalists to go out there and talk to people. The people of Ekiti State have made up their minds on what they want, and they are saying it very clearly everywhere—beer palours and other public places. Go and find out. If you conduct a short survey in Ado-Ekiti, Ikere and all other major towns in the state, you would know what people are saying. That would tell you how difficult or easy it could be. That is the reason I decided to give in to the pressure to run. I didn’t want to, but I know that if I didn’t come or answer the people’s call, I would have been the man who was responsible for our defeat, God forbid. So, find out. Feel free. Talk to our people. Find out. I would suggest that as you are leaving here now for Ado-Ekiti, take different public transports, put your question to them and find out what people would say. That is what Ekiti people are saying at the moment.
Some people say Buhari’s performance would make it difficult for your party to win the election. What is your take on this?
I disagree with that. I would say President Buhari has performed excellently well. The economy that we inherited was prostrate, completely down. The pilferers and the thieves of the last government had taken it down completely. I’m sure if people remember where we were coming from, all they would be doing is clapping for President Buhari, even at the level the economy is today. There is no economy in the world where you would take so much money out as if we are running the economy of America, and where people would steal so much. They said they took 56 buildings from somebody and Nigerians are even not talking. Who paid for it? The Nigerian economy. And if they are taking all those money out and siphoning them into private pockets, do you think this economy would stay? The economy we inherited was a hollow shell. They have destroyed it completely and it is now the responsibility of President Muhammadu Buhari to raise it up. It is like waking up a dead body. If you wake up a dead body and you are successful at waking it up, that body would not begin to run the moment you wake it up. The people we should be angry with are the people who plundered this country so hard; people who when they stole the budget and they were not satisfied started stealing crude oil, exporting crude oil with zero cost of production to the Far East and other places. When your cost of production is zero, you can export at any price. And they were now doing it and Nigerians were not talking about them. God forbid that they continued. Maybe they would have sold the reserve itself and then we would have nothing to even look at in future. Nigerians have to be very grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari for stopping that rot and for rebuilding the economy. You don’t expect the economy to do better than it is doing at the moment. It is doing very well. It was bottomed out and it is now moving up. No magic could have done more. And if anybody wants to quarrel about the state of the economy, he should bring the PDP people and flog them. Honestly, Nigerians should bring a bench to the Eagles Square and ask the youths whose future they have destroyed to flog those who plundered the economy of this nation. You all know those who should go on top of this bench for thorough flogging.
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