By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Honourable Bosun Oladele, a former Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation and Member House of Representatives representing Irepo/Orelope/Olorunsogo Federal Constituency in the state, is current the Secretary General and an initiator of the popular SWAGA’23, the South West Agenda for Asiwaju. The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and legal practitioner for many years and still standing, speaks in this interview with The DEFENDER about why and how achievements of the APC’s Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari will earn it continued victory come 2023 and beyond. Expectedly, also, while acknowledging that APC has many good materials that are qualified to be President of Nigeria at any time, Honourable Oladele says Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the most selling among them, pointing out that SWAGA’23 was established to encourage him to contest. Excerpts:
The next election season is fast approaching and the task before the All Progressives Congress (APC), as a leading and governing party as well as showcasing its achievements in over six years and how these achievements can earn it continued victory in 2023 and beyond, have become the focal point of discussion in the streets. From what angle would you love to look at this?
First and foremost, let me say thank you for the opportunity given to me to speak on this. I want to say it categorically that, like him or hate him, President Muhammadu Buhari has done his best in these circumstances. And you see, you have asked a very, very important question. How do we harness the various opportunities by the real time performances or performance index of the administration to earn voters’ confidence come 2023? That is the question.
I will say that nobody lights his candle and puts it under the bookshelf. The world will not see the light. The administration has done a lot of things, especially in the area of infrastructure. The administration has scored a number of Firsts. Look at the number of roads ongoing that will soon be completed. It is probably the first time an administration is starting something and is completing it. And it is also the first time an administration is not abandoning projects started by previous administration or administrations, rather it has adopted them, modified them for greater benefits and it has always been work in progress regarding most of the projects.
The ones that I can see right under my nose, because I come from Oyo State, is the Ibadan-Ilorin Expressway; a lot is being done especially the Ogbomosho-Oyo section. Look at Shagamu-Ore road, Onitsha-Enugu road and the East West road. Look at the preponderance of roads in Northern part of the country. Look at what is going on there. I follow the Presidency regarding most of these roads and so I see the number and you can begin to count and you will see that they are more than 300 highways ongoing. From there, do you want to start talking about bridges that connect – not just connecting individuals but connecting commerce – commercial activities?
People would say things regarding the gas pipeline project. But nobody had ever thought of that until the Buhari administration came and it is only a fool that would be thinking without considering the next source of energy as oil is going done. Gas is coming up and becoming more prominent in global sales, energy wise. And this is an administration has seen the fact that we must now think of gas that we can export to another country and we start earning direct income, immediately.
Hon. Bosun Oladele, Former Member, Nigeria’s House of Representatives.
A lot of people are saying, “Oh, because Buhari is from Niger, that is why gas is going there.” Okay, assuming he is from Niger and he sees that Nigeria can earn money from Niger and he has embarked on the project that will make the money for Nigeria, why don’t we look at the substance rather than being sentimental unnecessarily? Because that is what I have seen; unnecessary sentiment.
And the President’s media handlers, people would say, “Oh, they are not trying enough, they are not doing this, they are not doing that”. I would go by the saying that, ‘To everyone suffering from jaundice, they will always see things in yellow’. The media handlers would put out things on various platforms; social media and all the rest, and yet, people would say they have seen nothing. People would not see that. They would rather see what they share in their whatsapp groups, which, more often than not, are not only falsehoods but are also misleading, loaded with hatred, misgivings, unnecessary skepticisms. And all these things have engendered lack of trust in the administration.
Why people easily gets misled
But I ask questions and, I think everyone of us should be interested in asking questions. How many people listen to radio? How many of us watch the television? How often do you watch the prime time news? People would rather watch the prime time music. People would rather watch the prime time drama but a lot of people would not watch prime time news. How often do we read newspapers, papers that we know will not pick their news from the social media? How do we know papers that are picking their news from unverifiable sources? Do we even have the tips on what to look out for, if we want to know whether a news item is authentic or not? But everyone wants to be ‘social correct’ and the definition currently of being ‘social correct’ is that you must badmouth the current government. It is not done!
“How often do we read newspapers, papers that we know will not pick their news from the social media? How do we know papers that are picking their news from unverifiable sources? Do we even have the tips on what to look out for, if we want to know whether a news item is authentic or not? But everyone wants to be ‘social correct’ and the definition currently of being ‘social correct’ is that you must badmouth the current government. It is not done!”
Go to security, a lot of things are changing. There is a preponderance of light arms everywhere and Africa is even worse for it, because of long term and unending feud in Libya, South Sudan, and in all places, lately Ethiopia and so on and so forth. Arms get circulated easily, therefore. We all have porous borders everywhere, even between America and Mexico leading to former US President Donald Trump wanting to build a wall across the border between the two countries. That also even did not succeed. So, monitoring what gets across the borders becomes a problem and it is even more so, if you have people that are not dedicated enough manning some of the borders. Those that are dedicated are working their heads off but some would still sabotage their effort, just for pecuniary interest.
Loss of moral, family values also cause insecurity
And people crossing the borders with those arms see that things like banditry and kidnapping look lucrative. Gone were the days you would say highway robbers. Those ones don’t have things to rob anymore because, nobody carries cash traveling along the highway any longer. But every little robber in one corner is now either a kidnapper or a potential kidnapper because they believe the yield is rapid and enormous. It is like the case in Nigeria: If somebody is selling pure water and the neighbours see that he is making more money, he too wants to go into it. More so, we have lost a lot of moral values. The family values are gone; it is the student in school that takes care of the parents now rather than the parents being responsible for the wellbeing of their student-children.
A lot of these have eaten deep into the fabrics of the society, and what do you have in turn? Decadence! But the government has tried in terms of security. There is no government, even in the times of military regimes, that has invested so much in the Army and equip the military within so short a period; there is no government that has done as much as Buhari government has done. Give it to him.
I remember before now, may be Nigeria had about three or four functioning Alpha Jets. But look at what we have today. A lot has been done in that regard. And now Nigeria has been able to produce some of the combat vehicles at Ilisan Remo, Ogun State here and that is another foreign exchange earner for the producers. So, we don’t really have to look at Russia or others for such vehicle. Other West African countries and wider African countries are looking to us to get that.
Manufacturing on the rise despite harsh situation
So, like they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. And the government has invested so much. Take it or leave it, when you move from security, manufacturing is on the rise despite the harsh situation occasioned by the increase in the value of dollar against Naira or, if I put it right, the fall of Naira against the dollar. But any fool will realize that, that is a product of demand and supply. We need dollar to buy most things we use because we are not producing them. So, it is whatever price you get the dollar that you buy and that increases the value of dollar. But how about manufacturing more and exporting from the surplus of manufactured products so that we can earn the dollar and then that will crash the prices?
But I can see that a lot of manufacturing activities are going on and bigger factories are springing up. If you go on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway today, left and right, from Lagos up to Shagamu and up to when you near Ibadan, left and right, factories are already building up there. I believe it is the enabling environment provided by the Muhammadu Buhari led APC’s Federal Government.
How much is the enabling environment really working now, considering the hitches still being recorded leading to high cost of production as it affects manufacturers’ performances?
Yes, it is the enabling environment but you see, we cannot do without having issues and hitches. One of them is the one I have highlighted, the scarcity of dollar and the drop in value of Naira. But again, there is also solution to it. The solution is produce more. And the first solution is, let us produce for our internal or local consumption so that we don’t depend on importation of what we use. If fewer people are chasing after the dollar to be able to import things, then, definitely there will be less pressure on the dollar because of less demand for it. Once there is less demand for it, the dollar will crash.
But the situation has always somehow been fewer people demanding and the few people have always impacted negatively on the majority. How do I mean? Garri is not imported just like yam and we have huge amount of commodities, for example rice, beans, even meat, produced here locally. But the marketers still claim their increased prices are due to dollar. What do we not know but which you may know about this?
I will answer that by saying that the number of people chasing after the dollar will still reduce, if we get our manufacturing right, especially for local consumption. That is number one.
Number two, I heard the President commenting on the activities of middlemen in respect of food items. That should be looked into. It is not just enough to identify it and make pronouncement. The pronouncement must be backed with action. Visible action! Actionable progress!
Any suggestion of the type of action you are talking about?
I remember those days in the 80s there was the Nigeria National Supply Company. It was administration of this same Buhari, during his military regime, that established, funded it and got credible people in each Local Government to be suppliers of essential commodities; that was what we were calling it then, essential commodities. I was in the College of Education (and my father was in charge of the supply for our Local Government here in Oyo State then). Each family can buy milk, sugar, beverages and things like rice and so on and so forth. We can buy for monthly consumption with a definite allocation. So, once you exhaust your allocation, you have to wait. So, a matter of buying and reselling was ruled out by that system.
But then, can we still have credible people that will man such establishment, if re-created today and can we manage it?
That is another problem that the government needs to look into. But I believe things like that can work, then, price regulatory commission or board will also be needed. The government can begin to think and look at it. And I am sure people in their 30s and 40s today may not know what I am talking about but quite a number of people would know that it worked well under the military regime of this same President Muhammadu Buhari with late General Tunde Idiagbon at that time. It can work again, if well managed and trustworthy individuals are made to drive the process.
“I remember those days in the 80s there was the Nigeria National Supply Company. It was administration of this same Buhari, during his military regime, that established, funded it and got credible people in each Local Government to be suppliers of essential commodities; that was what we were calling it then, essential commodities… Each family can buy milk, sugar, beverages and things like rice and so on and so forth. We can buy for monthly consumption with a definite allocation. So, once you exhaust your allocation, you have to wait. So, a matter of buying and reselling was ruled out by that system.”
Do you have any particular lead towards making that system that worked under Buhari’s military regime to still work under Buhari’s civilian administration or administration of any President that comes after him?
We can take it to the ward level, since we are delineated up to ward and polling unit levels, so that the thing will become deeply penetrating for the benefit of the common people. So, these are the things that can be done to manage that area and the effect will be almost instant and it will be far reaching.
And serious monitoring must also be ensured?
Yes. There are three levels of monitoring. Don’t forget there were people monitoring the N-Power. But how effective were the monitors? The same people monitoring it also monitored the school feeding programme in most states. How effective were they? The government should look at the effectiveness, thinker with some of the processes and use the same model, not necessarily the same set of people but the same model. And I recommend that there must be, at least, three layers of monitoring.
Sometimes there is monitoring but the problem continues when there are no punitive measures against offenders. What about that?
Of course, I agree with you. There must be punitive measures to serve as deterrent to others that might think of messing up the system.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) actually said they would rule for 60 years although at the 16th year, they crashed out. So also we have had some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders now, who said the party will rule for 50 years. What difference do you think exists between both that will make the latter more realistic than the former, as far as such tall dream is concerned?
I will start from the former. Look at that statement. Every right thinking person knows it was a joke. As a matter of fact, it was a joke carried too far to say you would rule for 60 years or whatever PDP were saying at that point in time. If you want to rule for 60 years, that wasn’t the way to rule. You were ruling and everybody was busy stealing money. Everybody was busy looting the treasury up to the point that, by the time their reign was closing to an end, the government was borrowing to pay salaries. We are not talking of borrowing for capital projects or infrastructures but borrowing for recurrent expenditure; paying salaries – overheads! Once you get to that slope, there is no turning back. You are heading for crash.
So, if you are going to rule for 60 years, you just ruled for about 12 years and the curve is already down, that was a joke carried too far.
And, for me, I am not part of the people in the APC, who will say, “Oh, we will rule for 50 years.” I would rather say we will rule well. Everything that is worth doing at all is worth doing well. And it is not how long you are projecting, but people want to see the immediate results. And that is why you have short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. I think the short-term goals of the Buhari administration is paying off in terms of infrastructural development because, it is the development of infrastructure that will save everybody a travel time and brings us the necessary comfort that will also put us on the part of manufacturing for local consumption, which is what we are seeing currently.
Although insecurity is ravaging us in the sense that the more you try to quell such problem, the more it rears its head. But I know that government is trying in that regard leaving no stone unturned.
So, the medium-term should be to leave a good legacy in terms of visible developmental projects. It is only somebody out of his senses that would not say he has seen or that would say he has not seen the rail work between Lagos and Ibadan. Even the so called enemies of the administration have all enjoyed the services and have benefited. That is one legacy visible enough. Even those who protest to blackmail and show that the administration is doing nothing, after protesting, they still enter the train. That is one legacy that is visible for all to see. No administration has done it before now. It is being done.
Another thing is the second Niger Bridge. At a point it was, “Oh, it is a joke.” At certain point it was, “Oh, it was started by previous administration.” If there was no bridge, how could previous administration have started it? At another point somebody said, “Oh, it is a dwarf bridge. It is not high enough.” Every controversy has now been put to rest. People have seen the bridge, traditional rulers have gone there to inspect, notable Nigerians across Niger have gone there to inspect, people have commended it, people that know what they are doing have commended it and people that can imagine the benefits have commended. And, lately, now we can see that, rather than the congestion that we have at port here in Lagos, containers are being moved with barges to places like Onitsha and all the rest over River Niger.
These were things that were only in the realm of pronouncements before this administration. But with Buhari now in power, the administration has given a bite to those pronouncements. Again, to naysayers, even if you like, kill yourself, they will never see anything good that you do. These are achievements of this administration that have impacted and will continue to impact lives across various regions and zones in Nigeria. So, I want to believe, whether you like it or not, that those visible legacies are there.
The next thing is the long-term goals. Part of the long-term goals is planned succession.
(Cuts in) That is where I am actually going now but before then, we need to discuss the Presidency in the next dispensation and the “unputdownable” choice of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as candidate. What is this interest that makes this SWAGA’23 so committed?
Well, SWAGA’23 of which I am the Secretary General is a political pressure group and is an acronym for South West Agenda for Asiwaju. A lot of people have told me that it shouldn’t just be that but that it should be South West Agenda for Great Asiwaju because of the ‘G’ there, but the target is 2023. The idea is home grown within the South West region.
We look at the possibilities and the chances that we have as a region and, looking at that, we discovered that we stand a great chance. If you remember very well, by convention and practice, we don’t use micro zoning in Nigeria. It is North-South zoning and antecedents had been in the past.
Remember the last time we had President of Nigeria from the North was from Katsina, the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua. Now that we are having another President from the North, where is he from? Also from Katsina. Nobody complains. That is in essence of putting your best foot forward. It doesn’t matter whether it is only one geo-political zone or state within the region that is producing the President. That is it.
We are not even saying the President must come from Ogun State, Ekiti State or wherever. We are saying that the next President must come from South West. Of course, that is hinging our clamour on the fact that it will be zoned to the South. And if it is zoned to the South, don’t forget the three geo-political zones in the South are entitled to it: South West, South East and South South. We saw that and we believed that look, if you have a place to go, start early. And we believe sincerely that we have looked at our products, the sellable materials we have them. I won’t mention others. But we believe that the most sellable is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former Governor of Lagos State.
“We are not even saying the President must come from Ogun State, Ekiti State or wherever. We are saying that the next President must come from South West. Of course, that is hinging our clamour on the fact that it will be zoned to the South. And if it is zoned to the South, don’t forget the three geo-political zones in the South are entitled to it: South West, South East and South South. We saw that and we believed that look, if you have a place to go, start early.”
We believe that for him to be projected to the outside world, within Nigeria and the other zones, we that believe in him in the South West must blow our trumpet on the rooftops because, nobody will do it for us. And we also believe that we must get our traditional rulers and traditional institutions, we must look at the people that may be begrudging him one way or the other and appeal to them, appeal to our traditional rulers to appeal to them and appeal to him (Tinubu) too, not to reject the call to come out. We believe he can do it. He had done it in Lagos. He was a governor for all in Lagos and we believe that he will be a President for all in Nigeria. So, Tinubu is our best foot. That is the reason for the commitment.
Who bankrolls you for this huge task?
We have financed ourselves, so far. SWAGA’23 is made up of former members of National Assembly and notable politicians across the South West zone and we are led by Senator Dayo Adeyeye from Ekiti State. So, we believe that we should start our journey early and make it a fiat accompli for the man so that the ovation is getting louder, he won’t have a choice than to accept to run. We know that he has the capability. So, the next thing is for him to come and declare. We have financed ourselves. People believe that, “Oh, Tinubu is giving them money.” No. This is not about him giving us money. We contributed money to finance ourselves. We have seen among us who has sold property and put the money on the table saying, “Let’s spend this money for the project.” We contributed money individually.
