Electoral Reforms: No system is static, Akinsola Jimoh

By Dayo Johnson

Akure - Mr. Akinsola Jimoh,  a chartered insurer and former lecturer at the University of Lagos, is now aspiring to go to the Senate from Ondo South Senatorial District.  He says the basic motivating drive came from friends, associates and believers in his passion for expanding the current frontiers of progress and prosperity.  He is a member of the PDP.

Is the amnesty granted the militants in the Niger Delta really solving the problems in the oil rich region?
As a realist, I have a different idea. The youths in the area embraced militancy because they believed that other institutions set up to address their problems have broken down.

They are confronted daily with challenges of environmental pollution and they are aware that their area was the least developed in the country despite the fact that they produce the oil upon which the nation’s economy is surviving. They are also aware that in other parts of the world areas where resources are sourced are usually well developed and these models already exist all over the world. Granting amnesty to the militants without addressing issues of development, provision of infrastructures, problem of gas flaring and so on in the area, can not solve the problem in the area.

Do you subscribe to the current clamor for the nation’s electoral reform or do you think that credible elections can still be held in the country with the current system?

There is no system that is static. When you practice a system for too long, smart but dubious people will always look for loop holes to cut corners and twist the system to satisfy their personal interest. They will manipulate things. There is the need to reform the existing institutions, policies as they relate to our electoral system. We have held about three general elections in this country and it graduated from good to worse, instead of vice versa. We should have sat down to identify the flaws in the first election, and improve on it in the subsequent ones but the reverse was the case. Electoral Reform is a must.

Can you assess the performance of the National Assembly in the last eleven years?
We have really moved forward in the last 11 years. We may not have arrived at our destination or moving at a pace that we ought to move. Look at the issue of Yar’Adua’s illness for instance, the man was seriously incapacitated and rather for taking the necessary step to remove him and put his deputy in his place, the National Assembly foot dragged and waited for nature to put everything in proper perspective but a lot of energy and resources that could have been channeled towards productive ventures had already been wasted. So, generally, the federal lawmakers wasted too much of the nation’s precious time in the last 11 years and we need to address this in the subsequent legislative regime.

You have never contested an election before, not even as a councilor but now you want to become a Senator.  Don’t you think that you are being too ambitious?

I will not call it ambitious but audacious. It is an audacity which I developed over the years. As far back as 1988, I had attempted to go to the army.  By now, I would have been a colonel and you can not say that a retired colonel cannot aspire to contest election into the senate. I am an AGM in a big insurance corporation, a position that is equivalent to a director in the public service. Is a retired director too small to contest election as a senator? More importantly, it is about what you are passionate about. The huge challenges on ground in terms of poverty, poor funding of government institution, and dilapidating infrastructures among others, the time is not just there for me to go and start from a councilor. I know where to start so that we begin to solve this problem faster.

The PDP is strong in the Ondo South Senatorial District, what is the selling point you possess that make you to eye the senatorial seat?
As a person, I have a very good attitude and a phenomenon personality such that I can still draw people from the Labour Party to join my teeming supporters in the PDP. That to me is an advantage to me.

Other notable politicians in the party are equally eyeing the seat and they have intimidating political antecedents than you.

It is true that I have not had a political appointment in the past and I have not been given contract by any government before but I have always been around, I have always been contributing my quota to the PDP. I have also been a card carrying member of the PDP. I have always been in the private sector where I rose to the position of an Assistant General Manager in a public liability company.

That means that I also have my own experience in terms of corporate governance and you know that is a key aspect of democracy, since we are gradually moving away from the era of politicking for four years, to practicing democracy. So I am not a politician per se. I am a democrat and as a democrat, I have a very huge experience because you don’t have to be a politician to be a democrat. That to me is an edge. The insinuations that the party structure belonged to some people is also very erroneous, peoples the structure actually belonged to the people not to an individual. Whoever is thinking that he owned the party had taken the first step towards failure? I considered myself very lucky, so far so good, considering the numbers of aspirants on ground so far because I am still operating below budget. Not necessarily financial budget but budget in terms of the holistic strategy that we have. When we are starting off the assumption was that I would be contesting against 30 others in PDP for the primaries but we have fewer than ten now. We are still in line with our strategy and there is no cause for alarm.

We also learnt that former governor Olusegun Agagu may contest the Senatorial seat that you are also eyeing. If this happen, do you think that you can defeat him in the primaries?

As a very focused person, I don’t give room for distraction. In this case if you are contesting election into the Senate, it is expected that you will do your home work very well and one of the home work is that you must have it at the back of your mind that people will also be interested and like I said, in our initial planning, we had prepared to contest against 29 others within the PDP. These people are also qualified, focused and vibrant politicians. They would probably have an edge in some areas. If it is true that our leader, Dr.Agagu is coming to the race, he is welcome because he has every right to do that. We have also included that in our assumptions.

Now, the current senator representing your area is interested in contesting likewise the ruling LP in the state will want to take over the area, how do you hope to surmount these two powers of incumbency?

The two scenarios will be coming on different occasions they will not happen simultaneously. That means that I will have time to defeat one, then sit back and launch a fresh strategy to defeat the other.

There exist a divisions in the PDP in your senatorial district would this not affect the chances of the party?
When a party is divided based on interest it is very easy to correct. There is a universal interest, this includes the fact that our people are languishing in poverty, our schools are under funded, not potable water for the people, and rural communities were not developed among others. These are the general interests that should bind the people together. Those who are engaging in fighting among our members have personal interest but some of us who are genuinely concerned about the plight of our people are in the majority and we will carry on.