Hon Olatunde Kehinde is the member representing Akinyele Constituency 2 at the Oyo state House of Assembly and the Chairman House Committee on Works.
In this interview with Ametrocopy, he reveals some of the projects being carried out in his constituency, activities of the committee, his opinion on recent mass defections from the PDP, and the coming elections.
Sir, how well are your constituents enjoying the dividends of Democracy?
Well, with the limited resources that have gotten to me, I have been able to carry on some projects like rural grading, most especially in ward 9 from Aba Igbira to Muideen Kasali Ojedeji to Tola to Saanu Jaa rija, SangoIbon, Kege oke and Kege isale, Odunewu and so on and so forth. The construction of the Customary court that was at Ojoo, was dilapidated, it was a mud building, had to pull it down and construction is still going on there. A bridge culvert at Kajorepo, that’s opposite Agbowo, that falls under my constituency, Borehole projects; there is one at Abaeko at ward 8, there is one at Tola Village, there is one at Ilagbeja, I have about ten borehole projects which for now I cannot really remember.
Ongoing?
No, no completed. There is one at Ajibode, completed, underuse, sunk, and with generators provided. Odo Seriki, that’s at ward11, a pedestrian bridge that the community was planning to construct, I gave them money to assist them. The butchers, that is the Butchers association at Ojoo, I gave them a whole live cow worth 400, 000 Naira. The butchers at Moniya, I gave them a whole cow worth 400, 000 Naira. Also, the facilitation of the Gbagadeje Bridge is been included in the 2022 budget. The same thing with the Onikainkain bridge that swept a man during the last rainy season.
Are those pedestrian bridges too?
No, normal bridges Onikainkain bridge which swept away a man during the last rainfall, that was last year, has also been included in the 2022 budget. I have helped people and assisted them in paying for their surgeries in my constituency.
About the 2023 election. How are you planning to deliver your constituency to your party?
I was talking to someone on the phone this morning, and the person was actually telling me, he is not a politician but a landlord of an area, was saying everything this government has been doing even with the limited resources, we are still trying our best to give out dividend of democracy. So, it is not about what we are going to do, this coming election will be on our past records, what we have done, and how long have we been able to carry people along? The rate of our accessibility, have our people, the people in our constituency been able to reach us? When they come to your office can they see you? When they call you on phone, are you assessable on the phone? With the interference and the association that we have with the people, the electorates. Is it that you go somewhere, you are being bodyguarded, and people cannot see you? With that, I am accessible, very accessible and I believe that has gone a very long way.
What are the recent activities of the Committee on Works?
Well, as the Chairman of, the Committee on Works, we have been able to do a lot of oversights even with our own personal vehicles.
At times I’ll be driving, I can see construction going on somewhere. For instance, there was a day I was driving towards Ashi to bust out at the express, I saw some guys cutting the tar, I had to stop and ask them where is the permission to cut this tar, and they called someone on the phone and gave the phone to me to speak with the person. I spoke with the person and I introduced myself. The person told me that they have a permit, I told the guy I am coming back to see how you will fix this road back. In fact, at that place, I called the Director of Highways and the Commissioner for Works. I have a sample of the thickness of the tar they cut and I told them that I want something like this back. The way the governor does his inspection, I also do it like that. I will not inform most of our contractors that I am coming, I will just drive there. For instance, yesterday, I was at the general gas bridge, when I got there the project manager was not there. I called him and asked him where he was, thank God he did not lie, he said he is overseeing one of their projects at Ajia. I told him I was at the place. Some days ago, I was at Iseyin-Ogbomoso road, the new awarded road. It is been done by two contractors, Strabag and Kremborg. Kremborg is starting their own from Ogbomoso and they have a boundary, while Kopek is starting from Iseyin and they have a boundary where they will both meet. I was also at Saki-Ogboro road. Projects are going on and we are trying our best to see how we can help the executive to scrutinize the contractor and make sure that a quality job is been delivered.
Now let’s talk politics at the state level. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen some massive defections from the PDP, we also have into the PDP, but very profound of it is the defection of Senator Kola Balogun, how do you rate this? Also, people have been accusing the Governor of Imposition of candidates, especially at the level of the Reps, what is your take on this?
When you hear something like that, it is like the Yoruba Proverb that says,’ nnkan to koju senikan, o kayin se lomi ni.’ Who are the people saying this? The people saying all these things, are they the electorates or the politicians? You know we politicians when things don’t favor us, if PDP takes APC to court now and the judgment is in favor of PDP, we will say we give kudos to the judiciary and if it goes the other way, they will knock the judiciary. There is an instance when you say the imposition of candidates, I quite know that for instance the Rep, the one representing Ibarapa/Ido Hon. Taiwo Oluyemi, the claim of the people from that district is that Hon. Taiwo Oluyemi would be going to that House of Rep maybe the third or the fourth time. And their complaint is that the people of Ido are saying that it is supposed to be their turn, that they have been marginalized. Now I want to ask them a question when Taiwo Oluyemi contested this House of Rep that he is into, he contested against who? He contested against Olowofela of APC. Olowofela from APC is from Ido, why didn’t Olowofela win? At least Taiwo has been there twice and the people of Ido knew that he has been there twice and he wants to go for the third time and they feel their own son still lost and Taiwo Oluyemi from Ibarapa still won. So, those are the things you look into in politics, is the person sellable? If he gets the party nomination, will he win the general election? Those are the things that one should look into. When they are talking about the Governor imposing people, those are the things that I believe the Governor looked into, that for now if you want to bring somebody, apart from that person, would the person that you are bringing be sellable? And if he’s not sellable, you present somebody that is sellable. For instance, in my own constituency, I have been in this trade, that is I have been aspiring to be this Honourable representing the people of Akinyele since 1999. Now somebody is just coming in 2015 and you believe that person will have the kind of structure that I have? So, if the person is now agitating to contest with me, good let the person come, the person finally now comes and contest with me, the Governor will look between the two of us. For instance, let me give you an example, even with the Governor’s nod that he was going to return me, we still did a mock primary in my constituency. In the mock primaries that we did, we had 27 voters, out of the 27, I got 15, the next person got 10, we were 3, and the next person got 2. So how do you want to judge that? And the Governor also consulted the leaders of those areas. We were two from Akinyele, I was returned, and the other guy was not returned. Why didn’t they return him? Why didn’t the Governor insist that he must be returned? Because he has his own think tank, he has people working for him and for the progress of the party. We just have to put the right person.
Specifically concerning Sen. Kola Balogun, what is your assessment of that situation?
Concerning Sen. Kola Balogun, like I told you, underground work is being done. This tenure that Senator Kola Balogun is running, he didn’t contest for primaries. It was Bayo Lawal that contested before they gave it to Balogun. He was the one that contested against Gbolarunmi Hassim and he won. So, Bayo Lawal won, but then they gave it to Kola Balogun. So, what are we talking about?
Alright let’s move to the national level and we will be looking at the zoning issue. It has really become a very serious one, especially with the interest and desires of the Southern region generally to be the one to field a candidate for the two major political parties, that is the PDP and the APC. But the ways things are going, do you see it happening?
Concerning the zoning at the Federal level, well, I have little or nothing to say about it and I am going to give you my reason. My reason is, at the party level, the way the party is being run has been trotted during the regime of Baba Obasanjo, during the NPN/UPN saga, the party chairman is supreme, then if Chief Akinloye the NPN national chairman wants to see Shagari then, once he calls Shagari like this, Shagari will fly to where ever Akinloye is. Baba Obasanjo has put the party in the hands of the Governors and President. The President will say that he is the overall leader. You can see in APC; you can see the kind of issue that they had before their national Chairman emerged. People had to start visiting Buhari in London to talk to him that they should take Bumi, they should take Adamu. Eventually, they picked someone that has a case in court with the EFCC. So, all these things are a result of the problems that we have with the 1999 Constitution. Until that book is re-written this is how we will be going about it in Nigeria because you cannot build a house without a foundation and that is the structure where Nigeria is founded. So that is what I see.
So, sir do you see any possibility of a Southerner mounting this position?
See let me tell you one thing, for the election to be won in Nigeria, the Northerners have a very great impact. The only way we can overcome that and have a free and fair election is when we start this electronic voting. We can see that it is what everybody knows that can help us, but nobody wants to go in that direction and all this is happening because the Northerners have more influence in the affairs of this country. Do you know that at the National Assembly, they can form a forum without the South-West and the people in the east and they will move a motion and scale through? So, is that a constitution? That is not a constitution. It is like the Local Government election; it has been moved at the National Assembly that INEC should take over conducting the Local Government election. The Governors turned it down, they said no. so, that is why it has always been happening that in any state it is the party that is ruling that always wins the Local Government election.
Finally, do you see restructuring as a solution?
Definitely, if I say that we should rewrite the constitution, that is restructuring on its own.
