By Dapo Akinrefon
MR Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  in the governorship election in Ondo State. In this interview, Jegeda bares his mind on issues surrounding his candidature and his plans to turn around the fortunes of  the state. Excerpts:

The platform on which you are contesting is believed to be factionalised. Will this not affect your chances?

This faction talk could be amusing you know, because the same people selling this idea of faction are also aware there is none, but their activities have not affected my ambition in anyway just as it will not affect my aspiration of becoming governor.

It has not affected my candidacy as candidate of PDP in the state, it has not stopped me or distracted me from campaigning. You would see that I have been to the 18 local governments and everywhere I have gone, they have addressed me and I have seen myself as the PDP candidate. I have obtained the form required, I have taken steps the law says I should take and I have had no difficulty on this journey.

Jegede

You seem not to see anything serious in the seeming factionalisation in your party.

Like I said, it is very funny if you evaluate what you call the faction talk, with the reality on ground. What are we talking about here? For instance, the leadership of PDP is known, we all know where the elected governors are, we all know where most of the elected senators are, ditto for the members of House of Reps elected on the platform of PDP.

We all know where the chairmen of PDP in 36 states of the federation are, we all know where INEC is. We all know again, that the party is one, indivisible but we are not oblivious of the fact that some people are dissatisfied but we are hoping that we will resolve the differences. By God’s grace, I will reach the destination.

How are you resolving the post-primary issues in the party?

God is resolving it for us. The party is trying its best, I am also trying my best. The important thing is to extend hands of fellowship to those who feel genuinely aggrieved and hope that they will come back to the fold and also in the interest of the party and in the interest of the people, join hands with the people that have been given the mandate. Let me go a little bit spiritual, no person receives unless it is given from above and some of these things that happen, happen because the people believe in it.

They said the voice of the people is the voice of God, but you must have support from people before you can realize your ambition. People have said yes, may be somebody supported him or some people have gone too negative to say imposed, and I said, look at them, if there is any imposition at all, it is the imposition of the delegates and the people.

We should all face reality, it is not the amount of noise that you make that determines your effectiveness, we are all in this business to offer service to our state and only one person will be governor, it can’t be two. Ultimately, the people will decide who will rule them and I think that is one thing we must concede to the people.

Everybody believes that he is the most popular and that is one thing I have learned in politics. There is no politician, who does not believe that he is not the most popular person, but ultimately the people decide and once they decide, we should have the humility to allow the people have their way. We are working on bringing everybody on board, everybody who is genuinely interested in ensuring the party forms the government in February 2017.

The incumbent governor is from Ondo Central and you are also from Ondo Central. How do you reconcile this with the zoning formula in the state?

This idea of zoning, as far as the PDP is concerned is non-existent because I have not seen anywhere it is written that there is a zoning arrangement in Ondo State. I have not seen any contest before now that was contested on the basis of zoning arrangement.

What I have seen is that at all times, Ondo State people want to put their best leg forward. What I have seen is that at all times various individuals and actors have always contested from the various sections and zones and one of them will emerge. For instance, the election between Dr. Mimiko, from the Central, Akeredolu from the North, Sola Oke from the South, if there was zoning, would they all come from different zones.

Then come to think of it, why is this issue of zoning rearing its head up now? This is a contraption of politicians, who because they want to stop a particular candidate, not on the basis of merit, but on the basis of their own primordial and emotional interests and most of the times, those who propagate this interest do not mean well for the state.

I think it is time our people stopped this because they are not in the interest of our people. Of course, I want to concede to them, because most of them have nothing to offer in terms of merit, they want to go and take refuge under zoning. They know that on a plain platform where you look for your best hands, they may not be able to achieve it and the best way to achieve it is to develop a cleavage or develop a principle that will eliminate the best hands and let the people continue to suffer.

The economy is bad, states are finding it difficult to meet up with responsibilities , yet you are keen on becoming a governor. How do you intend to manoeuvre the state’s ship to a safe haven if elected?

I have a fairly long experience in private practice, it was a life of struggle but we made a success out of it. I have a fairly long experience in public service, it was a period of service and I have also learnt from it. Now if I have learnt from these sectors and I cannot translate this experience into practical, of what use is it for me? Of what use is it for the people?

That is why I think that at a period like this, we need dedicated hands, people who have very clear vision; people who are interested in governance and less in the politics of it to be in the saddle and that is why I have decided to take a shot at the highest office in the state, and that is the office of the governor because I believe I have a lot to offer.

Again, these are challenging period and again I believe this period demands and compels that we must come up with our best hands and I believe I am one of our best hands in terms of experience, in terms of training, in terms of commitment, in terms of integrity, in terms of dedication and in terms of service.

I believe that even in this challenging period there are good sides to it and we must leverage on those good sides to develop our economy, to make our states more self-reliant to be able to provide resources for governance, to be able to change the fortunes of our farmers, to be able to provide the platforms for employments, to be able to go to those areas of our states that would need very daring and bold steps.

I know we have bitumen and I know a lot of our people have paid lip-service to the need to develop this potential and I believe that we can take a very bold step to develop it, maybe not for today but for tomorrow.

And because I believe that there is need for us to leverage on our potential in cocoa production where Nigeria is the fourth largest producer of cocoa in the entire world, where Ondo State produces about 30 per cent of the Nigerian products, where we do about 78,000 tons per annum out of the about 250,000 or thereabouts that Nigeria produces in a year.

We should be able to leverage on those potentials to develop our economy and that is why I believe that time has come to now look more on the side of developing economy of our state, creating an industry, ensuring that we provide jobs for our people and also providing the necessary protection and comfort for our farmers.

We are coming with brand new bold ideas, not the normal one of providing equipment, providing seedlings, no. We want to go further than that, we want to make the farmers our positive targets, we want to give them a life that they would be proud of, we want to make sure that at the end of the day, a farmer should be able to say that I am a farmer not because he represents poverty but because he represents wealth.

My belief is that some of these things are achievable and they can be done by a person that has a clear focus about the economy, not taking away the need to provide for the welfare of our people and make sure that nobody is denied medical service because of inability to pay and nobody is denied education just because he cannot afford tuition. Those are some of the things I want to marry together, but we need both and that is why I am in this business.

You are probably going to be faced with the issue of salary payment as governor as it is the case with most states at the moment, how do you intend to tackle this unfortunate trend?

The issue we have with salary in Ondo is not non-payment, but delay in payment of salaries which is something that is global. It is affecting virtually all states of the federation, Ondo State is not an exception, federal government is also not an exception because it also borrows money to pay salaries. But the states cannot borrow because before you can borrow you need some form of assurance or guarantee from the federal government which has not been provided.

Secondly, if you are borrowing money, you are borrowing money from banks and banks also will want a fair assurance that you will pay the money back. And because state governments don’t have central bank, they don’t print money, they only run their economy within what is provided in the country, to that extent, the state government will have a lot of challenges and there is no need to downplay anything.

Every worker deserves his wage, we should be able to compensate people who have worked, but faced with the reality of our economy, there would at some point be an understanding, the economy is in recession, there is no doubt about it, and that again is the reason why some of us are in this business, we are in this business so that we can bring new, refreshing ideas to meet these challenges, so that we can make preparations for what I call occasions like this, we can develop the economy that will be able to adjust itself, to be able to fill in the gap where federal government somehow is not coming in with the required funds and when the economy is failing.

Again, because there is need to have a self -sustaining economy, even though the money that is credited to the federal government actually is the money that belongs to the states, if for instance you have oil well in Bayelsa and you have in Ondo State, and those economic potentials are meant to develop the state and you have the entire funds taken away from here and given to the centre for redistribution, then you must have creative ideas to be able to manoeuvre your ways so that you can also develop your own independent economy where you have some level of independence to propel the economy and generate revenue.

Now, there is going to be some form of restructuring in the economy of the state and draw in on those areas that will have bigger IGR. We have 20 per cent of our land area in Ondo state, or about that, covered by forest reserves, so we have this potential there, and every day people go there to fell trees and take them out to run a private economy and government  does not adequately benefit from this.

And then again, there are a lot of mineral resources deposited on our soil which we have not gotten investors to tap. All our efforts to date to bring investors have translated    to some level of success and we have some things to show for it. I was in Ese-odo recently    and despite the high rate of piracy on the high sea, Ondo state coastal areas are still relatively  very safe.

Despite the fact that you have bunkering, Ondo State coastal areas    are still relatively safe. Despite the fact that you have the people you call militants in other Delta areas, Ondo State is still relatively very safe, and this is because of our security partnership that we have with independent organisations, who are locals and who are able to provide a form of security .

And they are security services that have locations  and stations on top of the waters, I have seen it. They have built what they call mini barracks in every measured distance along our coastal lines and you see them in uniforms. They cooperate with the police, and once in a while, you have the navy and the soldiers superintending over what they do, but they are physically there 24 hours and they are on guard to protect our coastal areas and protect our people. And these are areas of partnerships that will translate into economic gains because if our coastal areas are safe, then investors will come. Now, we have also done    some other partnerships in terms of commerce.

My vision is that we need to get people who can run it. Government may not be able to do it but then the equipment that we provide, we must make sure that we keep it there and make it to serve our proposed industry around that axis and then get some revenue from it.

Now, those things, if we have the mandate, and I believe the mandate will come, will serve as the platform to change a lot of things and bring in revenue and then close the gap that exists now in terms of salary payment. And there is something we call force majeure, some things happen because you have no control over it but as soon as it happens, it create revenue for you to overcome it or get around it, but it doesn’t stop it from happening.

What is likely to be your primary focus as governor?

There will be focus on opportunity of employment that will be provided by drawing on those who have skills and who have investment and giving the state statutory supports that will create those platforms of enterprises that we intend to bring on board. God willing, we intend to touch on very clear economic sector – the farmer and the product – and in doing that we will create comfort for our people, we will create more employment and then bring in food security and also bring in revenue, in terms of giving security for our farmers, providing    them with the incentives that have not been provided before and doing the unusual in protecting security of their earnings.

Now again, I have said this before that we are going to leverage on those potentials that we have in terms of industries. We are going to concentrate our efforts, and because we are going to work with the federal government on this in getting the required licences to build  the deep sea port that would positively change the economy of the state, and also provide the infrastructure, create a state capital that we will all be proud of, create many business districts in Akure, which is the capital, and ensure that we bring in tourists and investors into various locations of our state, especially the state capital and then draw on the economic potentials of our people.

The immediate challenge that we face which is the issue of salaries will be quickly addressed because there is need for us to ensure that we close this gap of resources that are needed to provide the basic obligations of government and have new ways to deal with it, and the only way to deal with it is also about the economy so that we can now have a relative sense of independence in terms of fiscal structure of our state itself as against that of the federal government.

The potentials that are available in our areas of tourism would be explored to the maximum because we also believe that this is an area that will bring in revenue and serve as platform of employment for our people and make our state a destination of all those who desire to have good scenes and learn new ideas in the state. We will do that, God willing, and the people will see it and they will see the transparency that will also accompany it just like we have always done in the government I participated in and the result will be visible for all to see.