Chief Olayiwola Olakojo is by no means a man of small influence in Oyo politics. A former SSG and a traditional Chief in Ibadan, he bared his mind on the 2019 election in an interview on a popular radio station ahead of the coming elections.
What do you make of Nigeria’s political scene in recent times ahead of the 2019 elections?
In recent times, we’ve shown that there must be a change. Not the change that the APC uses as an acronym, there must be a change in the political system of the country. We found out that during Jonathan’s time, many things went wrong and the APC came up with change, thinking that their regime will be better, but we Nigerians know that a lot is happening with governance and their regime isn’t better. Let me say this that ADC came up through a movement, called Coalition for Nigeria Movement, established by the elder statesman, “ebora” of the world, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. This is a genius in a way, an elder statesman and an international figure. So, there are many things that are wrong with the system, and due to the situation of the country, Baba Obasanjo decided to float a movement. When he called his disciples I was one of them and I’m still one of them and as at that time it was an option but Jonathan and that was how Buhari came in. But we have seen many things that are really wrong with the present regime. So, Baba founded the Coalition for Nigeria Movement and had foreseen that as time went on, this movement would eventually metamorphose into a political party. After considering all political parties, we decided to go with ADC. And as an elder statesman that Baba is, I can say that he wants the best for Nigeria.
One of the major points of your political party, the ADC, appears to be pushing is in the area of security, of course, with calls from different quarters calling for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari in relation to the killings that have been going on in the country. So what do you say the PDP failed to leave a good security architecture in the past 16 years?
I won’t say the PDP left a failed security. In any country all over the world, you cannot avoid issues of violence here and there. It happened when Obasanjo was there, Boko Haram was there, but the killings in Nigeria were not as bad as this. You get to places in the north where they were killing 200-500 people. Insecurity is the problem of the country and I’m happy that people, especially the generals, have been crying out. In the 16 years government of the PDP, you will not hear any Fulani man or herdsman carrying Ak47, and no herdsman has been arrested. So, it is a serious problem in the country, and this is why insecurity is just the bane of this government. I’m sorry, but nobody is enjoying anything.
There have been calls for state police, are you in for state police?
To some extent, yes. If there can be conditions where the state will not misuse them. For instance, the chief security officer of the state will not use them politically, and they will use them mainly for security. Even if there will be state police, there should be a kind of control by the federal government so that any government cannot just wake up in a day and say the state police just go and rig elections of local governments. We don’t have state police today but you can see what has been happening in local governments all around. If we have state police, will it not be worse?
One of the concerns of those against the call for state police is the fact that governors would end up using this Police. How can we avoid this?
That’s why I said if the federal government, especially the national assembly can come up with a law that will curb the excesses of misuse, whereby, no governor or chief security of the state will use the state police for political purposes like hunting an election, using the state police to rig or wanting your state police to do something in favor of the chief security officer of the state. I believe state police is very essential but at the same time, there must be checks and balances. I think the federal government can come up with a type of law that will curb the excesses.
I want to take you back to your introduction where you talked about you Olusegun Obasanjo, you said he’s the “ebora” of the world. Now, the first time, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo sold Jonathan to us for us to vote for him, we did, the same General Olusegun Obasanjo sold Buhari to us, we voted for him, and you said the state of things is not ok when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was the one that sold all these candidates to us. Now, you are saying ADC is coming on board to do something new to take us to the next level. How can we trust the same man?
Let me tell you something! Nobody can sell anybody in politics. If you say that the PDP then nominated Jonathan as a presidential candidate, I will agree with you. We are not in the military regime. Baba Olusegun Obasanjo was not the only person, there was the board of trustees, the democratic center and so on before Jonathan came up, so you can’t blame Olusegun Obasanjo for that. The same Obasanjo was not in the APC, but as I told you, Obasanjo wouldn’t have sold Buhari to us. What happened was that at that time, everybody was fed up with the governance of Jonathan and Baba wanted someone else. Let me put this to the public if President Jonathan had taken to the advice that one should not force himself for the second time, there was an agreement about that. He should have left the stage, and if PDP was able to get another candidate from the north, maybe we wouldn’t be facing this problem. But at that time, everyone was fed up with the government of Jonathan and preferred that any other person should come up. And like I said, Baba never told anybody that was the option as at that time and had nothing to do with it. Things then favored Buhari, and if you see the way Buhari ruled during the military regime, you would see that there’s a big difference. When there is insecurity, the citizens will not enjoy governance and this is a big minus to a government in power.
Let’s look at the aftermath of the Ekiti governorship elections which is quite embarrassing, UK government and the coalition of observers lamented the high rate of vote-buying. What makes Nigeria’s election flawed?
What has happened in Ekiti is a misnomer. I will blame the PDP that had not paid salaries for months, paying peanuts of 4000 to the accounts of all the pensioners and civil servants. I will also blame both parties giving money out inducing voters to vote for them. But let me tell you, Nigerians have a conscience now. Some people will take the money and go all the way and vote according to their conscience. He might take from APC and vote for PDP. I want a kind of situation where the government can enact a law about fraud during an election. If there is a law that if somebody is caught bribing anybody or inducing somebody to vote, that once you are caught, you go to 6 months imprisonment without option, there will be sanity. Because now that the pattern is about who has money to spend then if I spend money, once I get to office the first thing I do is to get the money back, and that is not good for our democracy is not good for Nigeria.
The election of Ekiti is gone now and we are looking forward to Osun State, which should be coming up in September. Let’s look at the template for 2019 with the way the election was run in Ekiti state, are we not going to expect the same thing in the general elections in 2019?
I don’t know. I don’t know, but I’m worried. I won’t be able to say we shall not expect such a thing because no law has been enacted to catch or to deal with culprits who induce people to vote for money.
Don’t you think that we should have a reform in INEC in terms of independence; not getting funds from the federal government?
Under democracy, I see no reason why they should not accept independent candidates. There are some good materials outside there, but because they don’t have money to spend, they feel that they cannot be accepted.
I’m not talking about independent candidacy now; I’m talking about INEC being on its own
I think INEC should normally be on their own. No government should be able to bribe INEC. If INEC was not on their own during the Jonathan regime, Jonathan will still be there today, but kudos to Jega for what he did then. If the present chairman can do the same thing, we hope Nigeria will be better.
It has been the trend of INEC making use of professors nowadays as their returning officers. Don’t you think we should look elsewhere?
I don’t know the qualities that they see in professors, even right from the time of Baba Obasanjo’s regime. There are some people that can even be better. There are some that don’t hold more than the first or second degree, but I believe they have their reasons for choosing professors.
Do you have an idea of how much these professors take as their fees for being returning officers?
I don’t have any idea.
Sir, as a seasoned politician with the knowledge of the power of incumbency, of course, we saw what happened during the Ekiti elections. We saw the use of the federal might and of course, the PDP could not outspend the APC, which is the ruling federal government. How does the ADC intend to step around these?
Let me quickly correct you. The power of incumbency is being defeated today in Nigeria. If Jonathan could be defeated, let’s come back home, if Akala could be defeated, then the present government is just lucky for where it is today. So the mere fact that somebody is there does not mean that he cannot be defeated because this is a democracy. And under the ADC, the difference between our party and other parties is that we are promoting the youths and the women. Our plan is that if ADC wins election in Oyo State today, 30% of all these appointments and so on, right from the ward to local government to the state government, 30% will go for the youths and 30% will go for the women and the remaining will be 40% for other people like us. Because at any time that there is an election in this country, we have the youths working seriously. Not necessarily as agents wanting to vote. So, it is time for the youths. And looking at it globally, people under 40 are becoming presidents of countries. So the youths should not wait till tomorrow, this is the time for them to take the bull by the horn. And ADC is the only one trying this. APC doesn’t do this, and I think Baba Obasanjo saw this. So let us encourage women and youths. This is their time and that is an innovation that no other party has never thought of, and I want to assure you that we are doing everything to encourage youths and women.
The ADC is an offshoot of a Coalition of Nigeria Movement…
Cuts in…. I won’t say it is an offshoot because the coalition of Nigerian Movement metamorphosed into ADC. You know there’s a difference between an offshoot and something metamorphosing
The ADC is no doubt a part of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP). What are the objectives of the CUPP?
The CUPP stands to achieve one important thing. Let me quote that of Oyo State. Everything we are doing is that all parties, like 40 political parties will come together and come up with a single candidate so that it will be an equal might. And now that the president has said that he will run again, if we come up with a single candidate, definitely, he will leave.
What exactly do you think you did not do well the time you were in power that makes you want to be part of this new coalition?
I decided on my own. I have a principal, the “ebora” of the world. I’m a very close disciple to him. Immediately he felt he was leaving PDP, I also left PDP. So it’s not that I jumped from a party to another party, I rested for some time and I saw the need for me to be a member of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement and I’m proud to say that if not in the whole of Nigeria, the Coalition for Nigeria movement was the biggest in Nigeria, and because of that I’ve been able to gather support.
Let’s look at opposition in Nigeria, for example, in Oyo State, we have an APC led government. Why don’t we have a strong opposition?
I will not agree with you because in the House of Assembly. you have Accord, you have APC and PDP. So it depends on those that are members of the house. If they’ve been bought over, you will not have an effective opposition. We really need a viral opposition, be it at the state or federal level.
Recently, we got APC members coming together, trying to get a formidable candidate for president. So, looking at the preparedness of ADC, are you going to have your own candidates or you want to make a coalition with other political parties?
I’m happy with this question! Wait for another 2 weeks and you will find out.
Are you in for restructuring or you’re against restructuring?
I am not against restructuring. If there’s been restructuring, killings of these people at the north-central will not take place, killings of people at the far north will not take place, and restructuring will make each state demand what can improve the lives of people in different states. So, I am fully in support of restructuring.
What is your idea of restructuring?
As of now, we have a unitary system of government, not a federal government. Whereby, everybody goes to Abuja to take money. So, there must be restructuring like it was done during the regional system. I am not saying that the states in the southwest should come up with the idea of having a region, but all those things that made the regions develop then can still make regions to develop now. There must be restructuring, I support it.
To some extent, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the brain behind ADC, does not really support restructuring based on what he said recently that if you want to restructure, we have to restructure our minds.
Unfortunately, the press will not carry most of the things that this man is saying. I was present at his convocation in Abuja and he said that when they talk about restructuring, all of us should sit down and examine the points for restructuring. It doesn’t mean that he’s opposed to it. There might be an aspect to it that he doesn’t like, but it doesn’t mean that he’s against it. So he will not oppose any restructuring that will bring about development.
Recently Obasanjo was canvassing for women in politics, and he also said that only two governors nominated women as candidates when he was president, which is sort of canvassing for women. Is this one of your strategies to get the women on your side?
Let me tell you, any politician will normally have a strategy to win and this is part of it. When women and youths come in and they know that if they vote for ADC they will have their way, they will vote for us.
Let’s look at the political space, especially the issue of Saraki leaving the APC with the presidency trying to woo him back. What’s your take on this?
The president of the Senate, Saraki, has said that he will make his mind known very soon. So why are they trying to woo him when he has been persecuted for 3 years in Nigeria? God is just on his side. I believe that Saraki will leave the APC.
Chief, you are all for Saraki leaving the APC?
I believe he will leave. If I were him, I would leave also. They persecuted him for three years and then because they want to get reelected within the next nine months, they are now begging him to come back. I know he’s going to leave. I don’t know to which party, but he’s going to leave.
That brings to mind the movement of politicians jumping from one party to another, to some extent, Nigerians feel that they are doing this based on their own interests.
No. Because of the impunity in the PDP; no respect for the law or internal democracy, and the same things still happened in the APC. If anyone sees that kind of thing, you don’t expect them to remain in the same party. So, they look for alternatives. You can’t blame them for this.
Chief, it appears a lot of Nigerians believe that the senate, and lawmakers generally, have been sleeping and they will not be so interested in the creation of state police if not because of their issue with the IGP. What do you feel about this?
A. What the IGP did is not good, but it will not stop the national assembly from considering anything that has to do with the state police.
On a parting note, what will you say to Nigerians out there just as we prepare for the elections?
Nigeria is progressing, we are being more civilized, and what you want me to tell Nigeria may be a bit political and I cannot avoid that. I advise all Nigerians, especially youths and women, and even old men, to please think twice before they choose any party they will vote for.
