Senator Yele Omogunwa is the lawmaker representing Ondo South Senatorial District of Ondo State in the 8th Senate. In this interview with INNOCENT DURU, he speaks about how he ventured into politics after being a classroom teacher for over a decade and why he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), among other issues. Excerpts:
What was your experience like as a teacher for over a decade and why did you quit the classroom for politics?
I was doing so well in my carrier as a teacher when I made a foray into politics. I was the vice principal of the largest secondary school in my area. Politics at that time was not all about money as it is glaringly being associated these days. The story was that in the whole of my area, we only had four men calling the shots there. And I felt I could help, so I approached one of them, and demanded that they should invite some of us young and viable men into politics, such that we can be giving them a helping hand, by handling some assignments, but the answer I got shocked me. He bluntly told me that you don’t invite people into politics, whoever is interested comes to play. After a while, I was appointed the secretary to my local government. Thereafter, I became the chairman of that very local government.
For me, politics has never been for money. If it were to be, I would have made some big money, as I was appointed the Commissioner for Works, when Dr Olusegun Mimiko was Commissioner for Health in the regime of Chief Adebayo Adefarati. I later became Commissioner for Education, Commissioner for Information and again Commissioner for Works in the first term of Governor Mimiko. As commissioner for education, I could have made some fairly good money, if that was my priority, mostly as commissioner for works, I could have enriched my pocket if that was my focus. My major concern ever, has been the wellbeing of my people. My lifestyle attests to this.
It is on record that you and former governor Dr. Olusegun Mimiko were good friends. What went wrong that made you desert your friend and the party on which platform you became a senator?
I still believe we are friends but there is no permanent enmity or friendship in politics.
We became friends on the phase of politics. In fact, we were on the same cabinet of the late Chief Adefarati, the then governor of Ondo State in 1999.
He was the Commissioner for Health and I was the Commissioner for Works.
He told me of his ambition to become governor, so we had an arrangement and I agreed and was following him and working with him. Eventually he became governor by virtue of his popularity, hard work, acceptability by the people of the state and divine order.
I eventually became the Commissioner of Works. But that story is for another day. He is a friend.
This is not my first time of aspiring to be in the Senate. I was supposed to be in the 7th Senate, but that was not God’s plan for me and now I am in the 8th Senate.
I went on spending the little money I had when I wanted to get the ticket to be in the 7thSenate, and as a friend, Mimiko would ask me how my campaign was faring, without me knowing that he had a hidden agenda. He was supporting another candidate as against my own agreed candidature and, he kept deceiving me. I was annoyed and resigned from his cabinet and his party.
In the long run, he came begging me and brought a delegation. We went to a neutral place and settled our differences. Again, I agreed and supported his ambition for a second term. He won, and that was the end of that.
While he did not do well in supporting my candidacy for the 7th Senate, he did well in supporting my ambition for the 8th Senate. As a matter of fact, he paid the N4.5 million nomination form on my behalf because he knew I did not have the means to do that.
How do you see APC in Ondo State and how does it feel having Rotimi Akerdolu as the governor?
I did not know Rotimi Akerdolu much when I decided to support him. By my calling, I am a minister in my church. There is a way God reveal things to me. I knew Akeredolu would win the primary elections despite the chaos that occurred. Governor Rotimi Akeredolu is doing his best and he is working to leave a legacy. This is evident in his attempt to ensure youth empowerment through the bitumen factory work in my district of Ondo State. It is a lifelong investment for the entire people. The contract for the road leading directly from Ayetoro (in the riverine area of Ondo State) to Lagos has been signed and we all know the advantages that this direct link to Lagos State would have once the road is done. Some of the projects that he met before he came into office are still on going, like Oba Ile Airport Road.
Are you saying that you stand with Akeredolu?
Who is the leader of the party anywhere in the world? Is President Muhammadu Buhari not the leader of the APC in Nigeria? Or Governor Ambode in Lagos, although we have the national leader. Governor Rotimi Akeredolu is the leader of APC in Ondo State. Do you leave the leader and follow the follower? How many people would I follow? I have told you repeatedly that I came to work for the governor and that is who I follow.
How would you describe the leadership style of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki?
The name Saraki is legendary in the Nigerian politics. He hardly smiles but his heart is pure. He is highly cerebral. He is able to run the affairs with no commotion and no disagreement of unmanageable dimension, I give it to him. He is consistent. My love for him was when he stood and introduced all the senators in Nigeria to President Buhari, he would mention your name and your constituency. He does this for the whole 109 senators off hand. I was marvelled, and I think is remarkable.
What are your achievements in the Senate so far?
The totality of the achievements of the Senate is the totality of the achievement of the Senate President and is equally the totality of the achievement of every senator.
The viability of a senator is not only in bill presentation, and neither is it by visibility only. Yet, one of my bills has just gone through the first reading and very soon would be going through the second reading. The bill is about the coastal security and coastal region of Nigeria. It has been slated and mentioned for the first time.
What would you say are your contributions to your senatorial district?
I might not have been able to put money into the pockets of every one in my senatorial district, enrol all the children in schools, help all the widows , meet up on all the numerous requests of the people of my senatorial district, but in my own moderate way, I have made impacts in all these areas.
Among all the senators in Ondo State, I was the first to carry out empowerment programme. The first empowerment was in less than eight months of my membership of the Senate. I gave over 200 motorcycles, over 60 sewing machines, 80 dryers and so many other items. I have also constructed quite a number of drainages in Irele and Okitipupa Local Government Area. The records are there.
When I gave the second empowerment, the present governor, Akeredolu, was present. I gave mattresses to different hospitals, I brought trucks of cement and distributed them to some dilapidated schools in my senatorial district for their repairs. I gave out ankara and N30,000 to each of the registered widows in my district.
I am giving another empowerment currently. However, I am doing this so quietly this time around, because the first time I did empowerment programme, about 70 motors cycles was stolen.
I recently took a loan of N43,000,000.00 to buy a grader. The grader is fully deployed to regular work in the entire district right now. The operational engagement of the grader is such that the community or farm road where the services of the grading machine is needed would place request at my constituency office nearest to them, for their request to be scheduled on the graders time table. So far, the grader has worked in Irele, Odigbo, Ile Oluji and Okegbo. I am solely responsible for the maintenance, fuelling, operators’ and two operator assistants’ salaries. On January 7th, 2018, it moves to Odigbo. Thereafter, it will move to Odeaye to grade their roads, all for free. The graders request list has ever been increasing. So far, this is my little way of giving back to my people.
You were reported in 2017 to have said that corruption should be legalized and liberalized by the Senate. What informed that statement?
It was during the budget review of last year when we were debating and I raised the point of not being briefed of how far the budget of 2016 had been executed before bringing in the budget of 2017, and if you may recollect, the 2016 budget was delayed, which made its success level doubtful. And then, there is the accusation and counter accusation that everyone was corrupt. The executive, the legislature and even the judiciary were all being accused of corruption. The EFCC was arresting and detaining quite a number of dignitaries in and out of government and would charge some of them to court. Their activities seem superficial, what they seem to be doing is recovery and not checking corruption.
It was in the light of this ceaseless corruption accusation in the country, with no plausible scheme or technology deployed into the Nigeria system to curtail corruption that I made that ironical statement, that we should either cure our system of corruption genuinely or legalize this hydra headed monster called corruption.
When you defected to the APC, all your PDP colleagues in the Senate walked out. Was it because they felt you betrayed them?
No! They could not have said that I betrayed them. I left majorly for three reasons: Failure of Dr Olusegun Mimiko to respect and follow the zoning fomular. Secondly, I was the only PDP Senator from Ondo State; even in the Senate, I was a lone ranger. Remember, at the influence of Dr Olusegun Mimiko, we decamped newly from our original Labour Party to PDP. So, I did not know them in the PDP. It’s only now that I am getting to know them at the Senate. My third reason was that President Muhamadu Buhari is in the APC and the Senate President Dr Olusola Saraki is also in the APC and I saw some acceptable qualities in them. The Senate President has a very large followership and acceptability across board in the Senate. Therefore, on this basis, I wrote to the Senate telling them I would like to move to APC because I wanted to support a candidate from another district in the person of Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) for the governorship seat, and this decision was before the APC primary in Ondo State. The active part I wanted to play in Akeredolu’s emergence as candidate of APC and subsequently the governor of the state goaded me to join APC. All these was in my declaration paper. Thereafter, the PDP Senate leadership claimed that their protest was triggered by my stated reasons for decamping to the APC, that it would have been considerable, if my reason was based majorly on the crisis within the party, rather than for the reason of a preferred governorship candidate in another party, but I was just being frank and sincere to myself.
Is the PDP currently talking to you to come back?
Only one person in the person of Mimiko can talk to me about PDP but I have made up my mind on remaining in APC. As I said before, I am too old to be jumping around.
What is your advice or what role can you play based on your experience in politics to ensure the success of the party in 2019?
I will tell you the result of what would happen in 2019 elections and I have my reason for saying that but for now, I want to assure you that if any prophet or prophetess tells you that the APC would not win, tell him or her to forget it. My leader in the Senate is Olusola Saraki and I know he remains in the party. The Chairman House Committee on National Planning, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, is in APC. The big names in politics in Nigeria areall in APC. If you read the papers, a lot of people are decamping to the APC. I am hopeful that the party would remain in power in 2019. What problem does APC have that the other parties do not have? Leadership matters? Then, President Buhari should carry all the leaders along, including the national leaders. I am not saying that he is not carrying them along. He should draw closely to the National Assembly, endorse their constituency projects; if he does all these, then it is a forgone issue.
The post Why I can never return to PDP—Ondo senator Omogunwa appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.