By Dapo Akinrefon

O tunba Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State, turned 60 on April 6, Daniel, also the Chairman of Krestal Laurel, in this interview, says he has no regrets trusting people as he clocked that milestone. He speaks of his dream for a better Nigeria. Excerpts:

60 years of your life, you have experienced a lot in social, corporate and political spheres. Are there regrets if you look back and, if there are, what do you think you would have done differently.

Secondly, at 60, I believe there are so many efforts that you have put into youth empowerment and youth development. What plans do you have as you go into the elder stage?

Thirdly, God has been so kind to you that, before the age of 50, you became a global figure. At 60, if you have a direct encounter with God and He asked what you want from him, what  would you ask from God?

I am happy on the question about the youths because, without any doubt, there is no future without the youths. And what people who have become elders must be concerned about are the people you can describe as the successor-generation. What do they want to do with legacies and things like that?  I think that, in the course of the opportunity that we had to serve Ogun State, youth empowerment was key in everything.  And in everything that we also did, we were looking for ways to give the younger ones some kind of advantage . The reason is not far-fetched . Many many years ago , let say before independence , the few people who got educated, who became lawyers , I don’t know anyone of them that is poor.

And in those days, it is rarely difficult not to find in any village a person that is a lawyer and you know that at least there is one person that is educated. But with the advent of education which, of course, Chief Obafemi Awolowo opened up, everybody became educated in relative terms in the South West. So you now have lawyers that are poor, engineers that have no jobs and so on and so forth . So, there has been some kind of explosion . So, 15 years ago, when we started this process, we were sure that we needed to worry more about the youths than the older people and that is really if you have a recall of the activities, the kind of government we ran and all of that , it was providing opportunity for the youths to develop themselves in all ramifications. In education, sports development, employment creation , education, anything you touch in Ogun State during our tenure, you would see that there was a conscious effort to put the youths at the forefront. And I think, to some extent , we had largely become successful.

Gbenga Daniel

But the latter day challenge that I saw was the fact that it is not too easy for our people to be shocked into misinformation and this is a situation  in which people take position not based on empirical evidence but largely because I heard or somebody has told lies or posted some stuff . And we have ran a culture of believing anything and everything before we think.  And, regrettably, the youths who are supposed to be highly educated are also victims if not worst victims. Most times when we hear things , we don’t sit back to say ‘does this makes any sense?  The first thing is that we believe and we  condemned, we take position and later on when facts begin to emerge, then you start wondering what has happened. But rather than having a sense of remorse, we feel justified with what we have done . I then thought that the next thing I could do is to set up a kind of academy  to enlighten and re-enlighten the youths. That is the reason  we have a political academy . Because you find out that a lot of our younger people requires knowledge, information and education aside what we were taught in the university. In the university, I studied engineering.

Why do I understand Nigeria to some extent was because, during our time, it was usually Almighty June, June was when you had the end of the year examination. So, between June and September when the school will résumé, you had  long vacation. So if you had an opportunity, you can work. And if you didn’t work, what some of us did was to go to the library. At the University of Lagos, there are several level, for different faculties. Engineering is a  high level but social sciences, philosophy, sociology are at another level . So having cram the formulas of engineering from September to June, during the holiday, I would  read about things that are not related to engineering. So, I met all the great Nigerians, great world leaders in the library, reading several biographies. Who  is Awo? Who is Balewa? Who is ZIK?  I therefore developed this knowledge. That was a major background for me when I got to public office and I found out that a number of young people don’t have that opportunity and they don’t have anybody to tell them anything. I grew up  in Ibadan, and along the  road  where I lived was where Chief Bola Ige was living, down the road was where Chief Onabanjo was living, on the other side in Oke- Bola was where Chief Awolowo was living. Opposite Awo’s  house was the Western House of Assembly. So,  Operation Wetie, I  saw it . As a  seven, eight years old, I saw Nigeria from  different perspectives. We heard stories, we saw people, we saw poverty , we saw wealth, we saw everything. So we had a round view of what this country is which I am afraid a number of you people don’t know.

If there is anything that I should have done that I didn’t do when I was in government, it is to pay more attention to the youths. We did education under our tenure. We established tertiary institutions. We laid  the foundation, it is just left for other people to develop it. But beyond  formal education which is like  meal ticket, there is something that is missing, the people who say they want to play politics, where are they coming from? Is it because they have become jobless or there is no other thing they can do with their lives , they are now in politics . They found their ways into the House of Assembly and you want them to make any laws that can be useful to you, it is a joke. If we can’t stop that, the only thing we can do is to say they are there now but why don’t they go and spend a month in that academy.

What we are having today is that people are just going into government and they say having got in there what  can they do to help themselves  and that is why we are not getting it right.

At 60, what would I ask God ? I would just ask God to open our people’s eyes to wisdom because you are the bridge between the government and the people and when you are not bridging well, that is too bad . But you have also become victims and you must live your life so because of that you have not been able to say what you should say when you should say it . And as long as you are like this, I am afraid we wouldn’t get anything right . So God help us .

At 60, you said if you can get 30 years more , you would thank God . In a tabloid form, if a newspaper writes: OGD: I want to die at the age of 90 , would you like it.

No, because that is not what I said. You wouldn’t have said anything wrong but that is just part of the problem because for anything that somebody has said, what you are just looking for is your headline. And most of the time in the course of looking for headline, the import of what you said is lost. The context within which I  spoke is, ‘Oh, God thank you, I am 60, some people say 40 or 45 is life expectancy, so, if somebody is 60, he should be happy. I said that it is like 15 years extra. I said if God can give me 30 years more, I will also be grateful. I didn’t say if God gives me 40 years, I will not accept. So I think your headline should be ‘OGD thanks God for His grace’ and prays for long life.

I asked people what is that thing that is bad about OGD and they said it is that you trust people too much . Do you agree and, if that is true, why you do trust people so much?

Well, I agree that I trust people too much, but I have no regret trusting people. It has to do with my upbringing. And not necessarily that I am correct but it is difficult now to change. The reason I can trust people is that if my intention is noble and I go out of my way to support and to help and to assist and I cannot trust, then there is a problem. If I trust you and you betray that trust by misbehaving as it has happened on a good number of occasions, then good luck to you. I am at peace, I have done what God had asked me to do. I think if you do not give people certain level of trust, you wouldn’t be able to get the best out of them.

You have been silent for quite some time now, particularly since the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration took over at the national level. What will you say inspired this gathering?

I did not call you here because I want to declare for another political party and I’ve not called you here because I want to join another party or I want to declare for any presidential election. I just decided to invite you journalists and interact with you as I would be marking my 60th birthday. Now, we are here, no election in view, no political ambition in the office. We are just here to interact freely. I really won’t like to start taking about people in government. At 60 years, I don’t want to disparage anyone.

 At 60, many Nigerians will like to know how healthy you are, whether you are into full-time politics or not?

I think I’m healthy. I have no ailment whatsoever. I’m quite sound and strong and I have a lot of stamina. I have played table tennis this morning. We actually had a tournament of table-tennis and I played with my driver and other people around. Health issue is just a question of God’s grace. That’s the only way I would put it. But if we should talk about warning being given by health experts about our health, I can tell you that I do not smoke and I do not drink alcohol.

I have tried to adhere strictly to professional doctors’ advice. But that is not to say that one shouldn’t smoke or drink. I have seen people who smoke and drink who lived up to 100 years. In my case, however, I can say this is just the grace of God and I can also say that good health is hereditary in our family and just have to thank God. I try my best to look after myself. I don’t get into trouble as much as I can. But even at that, if God says you would not be healthy, something would still come. But I just thank