Chief Sunday Ojo-Williams, erstwhile acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, is contesting for the post of chairman, following the recent dissolution of the state executive committee of the party. He speaks with Abiodun Awolaja on his aspiration, the Rauf Aregbesola-led administration in the state, and sundry issues. Excerpts:
THE Osun Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) exco has just been dissolved and now you are gunning for the position of state chairman. Why should you be voted for?
Thank you very much. I have been acting chairman for 11 months now, and it has given me the opportunity to see the party as it is. Looking back, I want to thank God for the opportunity given me by members of the party to lead them. At the time I came in, my predecessor had resigned and the party was like a plane whose pilot suddenly disappeared. There was no compass, no proper handing over, but I thank God for those who rallied round me to see that the boat did not capsize. I discovered that people really love the PDP in this state; all we require is proper organisation, honesty in the management of our affairs and sincerity about our motives and objectives. If that he is done, the sky will be the limit for us in Osun State. Mark my words, PDP will bounce back in Osun.
The Osun PDP recently scheduled a week-long programme to mark the one year anniversary of the Rauf Aregbesola administration in the state, with a lecture on democracy and the delivery of intangible projects. What informed that decision?
We were not celebrating Aregbesola’s achievements as such, because there is nothing on the ground which we can call achievement. Rather, what we have is capital flight.
We’ve been complaining and crying out about this for almost one year now. A lot of capital flight is taking place in Osun State; our economy is being run aground and nobody seems to care.
With the bulk of the contractors coming from Lagos ( consultants I would call them), we haven’t seen anything on the ground that they are executing and yet you are talking about billions of money being paid to these Lagos consultants. These are people who don’t reside in Osun here, whose families do not reside here, whose children do not attend schools here, whose wives do not buy from our market women here—that is capital flight. So, apart from this, from the societal point of view, the judgement that was procured in Ibadan on November 26 last year...
Procured, you said?
Yes, I used the word ‘procured’ advisedly. The judgement was procured and that was the essence of our petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC), which saw the exposition of what actually took place and which led to the unceremonious exit of the erstwhile President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami.
Osun State has remained comatose since that judgement was delivered. Our psyche as a people was assaulted. Many people lost their lives to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) thugs; so many houses were burnt by ACN thugs, so many people were maimed, particularly in Ilesa.
The programme you are talking about was actually to re-assess what has taken place since the procured judgement of November 26, 2010. And then we factored in people who can talk about real democracy, people like former governor Segun Oni of Ekiti State, a performing governor during his time; people like Osokomole (former Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State), who just came back into the PDP, and we wanted to share in his experience.
But Governor Aregbesola established the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-YES). Secondly, the governor said he had been working on value re-orientation, trying to change the way things were previously done in the state. Don’t you consider these achievements?
Well, if you talk about his 20,000 people that he said he had employed, where are their terms of employment, letters of appointment? Which ministry employed them? You don’t just talk glibly. These people are casual labourers, and they are not up to 8,000. Tell him to give you the manifest, the roll call of these 20,000 people. It’s a farce, a charade, a stratagem to siphon money.
Does that mean that the people of Osun State are docile?
I would not say our people are docile. But they now know better; they were victims of sweet tongues. You know, the Lagosians’ tongues are very sweet; people would say Eko for show, no substance. Aregbesola’s O-YES people are casual labourers.
Perhaps it is uncharitable to call them casual labourers.
That is what they are. For somebody to claim that he has been employed, he needs a letter of appointment, he needs a station. Under what ministry are they (O-YES) working? Where is their station? These people are not posted anywhere; they only come out on days when they are required to come and wash gutters and pack refuse. And are they being paid the requisite minimum wage, which is the legal entitlement of a gainfully employed person in Nigeria? Anything short of that, my brother, is casual labouring.
You can be hired and fired at any time; you are only called upon when there is refuse to pack, you have no file, your employment has no documentation, you are not attached to any ministry; you are only required to show your face and in uniform when there is a public function where guests are coming from Lagos, to cook, to serve at parties, to wash plates.
Can you substantiate all this?
Make your findings. I have spoken to a number of them. Many of them, after the first three months, they left. They are not even up to 8,000 now as I’m talking to you. We have the records.
But what did the PDP do for the youths when it was in power?
Very good question. Number one, when Olagunsoye Oyinlola came in, he introduced Oyin Corps and ensured that those people were formally employed to serve as teachers in primary and secondary schools, not people to sweep roads. We had the Osun State Road Management Agency (OSROMA ) then; those were the technicians who were doing roads then, not graduates. I do not pray that my brother or sister, a graduate, will be sweeping refuse dumps, carrying faeces, serving at parties.
You know the expectation of the average Yoruba parent when they have sent their wards to schools
Are you saying that the ACN administration in Osun State is a disaster?
That is an understatement; I think it is a tragedy.It is a big tragedy, and when you talk to the market women, doctors, nurses, teachers, they are unanimous in that truism that this administration is a tragedy.
Can you elaborate on the influence of former Lagos governor, Chie Bola Tinubu, and Lagos on South-West politics?
When we were both in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), he was very fortright, and that is why I want to commend my good friend, Otunba Gani Adams, on the courage with which he spoke few days ago.
But like Adams said, going into government was a big temptation for Tinubu and, honestly, he did not discharge himself creditably on that score, which is a tragedy for the Yoruba. You see, here is a man who had all the opportunity—forget about his pedigree—to make a difference.
Our forefathers in the South-West laboured to make Lagos what it is today, and for Tinubu to have been at the helm of affairs in such a cosmopolis for eight years was a window of opportunity which nobody had ever had. We expected him to have developed his inner self, to have been able to subdue his lust for wealth and developed his spiritual person, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo did. The contrary was what we found.
Being in that vantage position, Tinubu believed in the satellite theory which he propounded: that all other states in the South-West are satellites of Lagos State. He started imagining himself as an emperor, posting people to other states, capturing states as Gani said, and I agree entirely with him.
Don’t forget that in Yorubaland in the 1860s, we fought a war against native colonialism, and that was the Kiriji war. Gani Adams knows all this. He knows that that kind of satellite theory will be resented by our people.
Aregbesola, my brother, said that he was a Lagosian when he was a commissioner. My good friend, Tunde Odanye went to Aregbesola when they were looking for money and he said that he was not from Osun State then. But after eight years as commissioner, he claimed that he was from Osun State.
source: www.tribune.com.ng
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