Chief Olusola Oke, the governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, AD in Ondo State was national legal adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and until recently, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC. In this interview, the candidate speaks on his mission and vision for the Sunshine State
WHY  do you want to govern Ondo State? I contested in 2012 to be governor, there were good reasons for me to contest then. These reasons have only multiplied, I will be failing in my responsibilities if I did not  come out at this time.

By Erezi Efunu

And what are the reasons? Ondo State is a state generously loved by God. If we look at the resources available to us, we should be leading; a shining example to others in Nigeria.

I am talking in terms of natural resources, human resources, agricultural resources, whatever resources you can imagine that would help the development of a state, Ondo State has them in abundance.

Olusola Oke,

A critical assessment of Ondo State today would show that the people of Ondo State are poor. They are not poor in their heads but in their pockets. And I have come to appreciate  over time that poverty of the pocket could also cause poverty of the head.

Poverty of  the head

If you traverse the entire landscape of Ondo State today; you cannot find one industry that is producing anything. The concomitant effect of that is that employment cannot be generated anywhere. The government has come to a standstill in terms of the employment of its citizens.

I believe that given the opportunity to be the governor of Ondo State, I can start to re-direct the development of the state. And the starting point will be to examine what is on ground. I already have the database on what is on the ground; how do we utilize what we have to solve the problems confronting us? I believe further that anyone who must lead Ondo State at this crucial period must have the fear of God, must be one that is well known to the people and knows the length and breadth of the state, and I fit into these descriptions.

That is why I cannot relent until we sing a new song in Ondo State; until we have a new lease of life; until we have a new sense of direction; that is only when I can say okay, let others run. For now, I am the person that fits my description the man that Ondo State needs.

What are the issues agitating the minds of the people?

The aggregate opinion of the people of Ondo State is that the present situation is no longer tolerable; they want a change. They want a change that will bring about creation of wealth, that will bring productivity back to the table; a place where a labourer will earn his wages for work done; that will see the emergence of industries in this state; not government initiative alone but private engagement in flourishing businesses in the state.

The people want reduction in poverty level; they want job opportunities; they want infrastructural decay to be addressed. They want our schools to wear good look; they want the transport sector to be organised and less chaotic as it is today; they want the coastline resources to be developed and exploited. They want  abandoned industries to come back on stream. So the desire of the people of Ondo State fits into my dream, it fits into my manifestoes, and we are on the same page as to the Ondo we desire and deserve.

How do you hope to achieve all of these lofty ideas and projects, if elected?

We are not unaware that the economy is in bad shape and Ondo State is worse for it. And of course, it has to be so, when we had enough we never built a solid foundation for the future.

Lagos State is said to have the fifth largest economy in Africa today because while there was abundance, preparation was made for the future. We didn’t prepare, and now we have been caught unawares, and therefore, we need a lot of vision to bring about all the good things I have said.

How will you react to insinuations from your opponents that as candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) you are an orphan and that Ondo State needs to be in the mainstream by voting for the party at the centre?

That is why you need somebody like me who operated at that national level, who, therefore, will be able to leverage on his experience to synergise with other institutions and other government levels to get the best for Ondo State.

Solid  foundation

What is important at this moment is to get a leader with vision, one with a sense of direction who must have a solid foundation at home upon which you want to leverage. Ondo State is part of Nigeria and good enough, I can say that in President Muhamamdu Buhari, we have a President whose politics is nationalistic. Therefore the argument of having a government that will  have access to the centre is not correct.

Of course, I am not becoming governor of Ondo State to fight the Federal Government. Mine is to collaborate, to synergise with government agencies to get the best for Ondo State. So what we get from there is not a question of which party you belong but a question of your vision, direction and sincerity of purpose.The excellence you see in Lagos was attained when it was under the suzerainty of the ACN not because it was part of Federal government controlled states. That foundation was laid a long time ago. So it’s a question of leadership. What the leaders of Lagos State saw years ago which we didn’t see is to our chagrin today.

There are people who are saying that having been in PDP at some point at the APC that you are likely to benefit from the crisis in the PDP in this election. Do you agree with this analysis?

What is happening in PDP and the APC as well is rather unfortunate. I am coming into this election, not on the basis of calculation of crisis in any political party. I believe that I have the pedigree, my people know me, I have a vision, I have a sense of direction and I want to campaign on the basis of issues and things I can do for the people of Ondo State.

But if there is crisis within any party or all of the political parties, the advantage that I have is that I have traversed the entire political landscape across all the boundaries. So, if you are talking of the progressives, I have been there, if you are talking about a little to the right, a little to the left, I have been there also. And if you are talking about the extremes, I have also seen it all. So, I stand, even without internal crises, to benefit from these experiences over the years.

If you are talking about PDP, there is no one among the who is who that I don’t know and who does not know me. If you are talking about the APC, I have seen it all and therefore, I am bound to benefit from any crisis within these parties. But I am not one who will exploit any situation and therefore what is happening in PDP and even APC is to me regrettable and I urge them to find solutions to their problems.

My direction is for the people of Ondo State, whether they are in PDP or APC, whatever they are, provided they are citizens of Ondo State, I have a mission for them, I have a dream for them which I want to actualize by being their governor. Whatever good thing that I hope to achieve in Ondo State when I assume office as Governor is not going to be enjoyed by AD members alone but by all and sundry. If I put up a road, everybody will use it, ditto water and so on. So I am going to be the Governor of Ondo State and not governor of Alliance for Democracy.

But some allege you are desperate given your movement from PDP to APC and now to AD?

Those who say this are either ignorant or being mischievous. Ignorant because they fail to know that I have been in politics for over 31 years and I have been rock steady all these years. I was a little boy during the UPN days; I came to SDP and was there throughout its lifespan. I was in UNCP throughout its lifetime too. I came into PDP; I was there for 16 years. I rose through the ranks, and I became a national officer of the party. I am no doubt a beneficiary of some of the achievements of that party.

People cannot close eyes to reality. At the time I had to leave PDP, it was expedient, and I had no option than to do that. All of a sudden, people with ideologies that are incompatible with my dream and vision came into the PDP and hijacked the leadership. It wasn’t partnership or patriotism; it was pure hijacking of the leadership.

Hijacking of  the leadership

And I found it difficult to operate in that kind of environment. For instance, I was the indisputable foremost leader of PDP after the demise of our leader, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, but all of a sudden, the only way I will know what was happening in the party will be via terse text messages sent by one small boy to me.

I was totally vanquished within the party, and all it required for me was to either get out of politics or find a new platform, so I left the PDP painfully because that was a party that I built over the years; I put everything into that party. And so, I challenge anyone who found himself in that circumstance that will believe that staying put and fighting, confronting the governor, fighting the system was the answer to it. I didn’t want to heat up the polity, so I left quietly

In APC, the facts are still fresh in the memory for anybody not mischievous to have forgotten. I came into the party in April; I put in everything in terms of energy, resources, time to build that party and the party was built only for us to be assured and re-assured that free, fair, transparent, credible primaries will be conducted.

But you all saw what became of that primary. It was the most corrupted primary I have ever witnessed in my life.

It was the most perverse primary that I have ever witnessed. Delegates’ tags were sold, and people that were not delegates were allowed to vote, there was no proper accreditation and in the middle of the night, the delegates’ list was substituted. I lost over 250 delegates in the process, and so the election was compromised.