INL award to Aregbesola commendable – Oyatomi

Barrister Kunle Oyatomi is the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State. In this interview with Correspondent, Gbenga Faturoti, Oyatomi spoke on the Man of the year 2013 award bestowed on Rauf Aregbesola, the unusual nature and style of governance of the governor, the forthcoming governorship election in the state, among other issues. Excerpts:

Barrister Kunle Oyatomi

Independent Newspapers has given Rauf Aregbesola Man of the Year Award for 2013, how did the party welcome the award?
First, let me thank the Independent Newspapers for adjudging the governor worthy of such an award. The task of taking a decision of giving an award where millions of people are in contention is difficult enough, but it gets even more difficult when a complex personality like Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is in contention as well. A person who is known to be unusual, thinking outside the box, passionate about what he believes in and tenacious in the pursuit of it, regardless of any controversy that may surround his action, is not easy to identity and recognize. That the Independent Newspapers took their time to find the governor worthy of the award is commendable.

You have just described the governor as unusual. What makes him unusual?
You will recall that when the governor started his campaign and described his campaign organization as Oranmiyan, the former governor panicked and described him as another trouble. The campaign itself was a battle royale. Aregbesola won, but he was robbed of victory. He persisted in the struggle that stretched for nearly four years before he got justice and became the governor of the State. The second unusual thing about him was the six point integral plan for Osun which most people thought were unachievable because they appeared so. But immediately he set to work, he stunned not only the opponents, he pleasantly surprised his critics. Within a hundred days he had taken 20,000 unemployed youths from the streets. He declared 90-day state of emergency on the environmental degradation in the State. And everybody stood in total amazement when he cleared up all the dump heaps within the capital city and other major town of the State. It was an amazing spectacle, when the citizens of Osun woke up to see an unusual machine excavating the waterways and heaps of refuse that had blocked the drains which hitherto had caused floods that drowned people and destroyed score of properties all around the States. The effect of this is that since Aregbesola became governor, neither human being nor property had been destroyed by flood. The rebranding of the State was another unusual thing he did. He did several other things which were so unusual, but which turned out to be universally accepted that all over the world, including Nigeria, he is being presented with awards. For instance, he won an award for the Opon Imo in far away Sri-Lanka. In Ghana, he got an award for redefining governance and integrity. The British parliament had to invite him to give an idea to the world as to how he is able to feed 240,000 pupils every day and how that has impacted agricultural development in the State. We can go on and on.

The latest allegation against the governor is that he is allegedly trying to bribe Christians with the construction of a Church. Is it true?
It is purely false. At no time did Aregbesola plan to build a Church and it is beneath the Governor to bribe anybody for his or her support or the support of any group of people. If Aregbesola wants to do anything which he believes is in the public interest, nobody can stop him. In the case of what misguided people are now calling a church that Aregesola is allegedly bribing the Christian community with, I like to put it on record that as far back as 2006, Aregbesola had it in his comprehensive plan for the State to build an open heaven as an interdenominational centre for those who may want to use it. As a result of the ignorance of the opposition elements within the State and outside, they are trying to give the public an impression that the project was a Greek gift. We pity their ignorance. But that won’t stop Aregbesola.

Then, what is the relationship between the government and religious organizations?
I would rather say the relationship is robust and engaging. On all sides, people expect something from government other than what government is doing and the government is engaged in a delicate act of balancing trying to meet each religious organization mid-way into their demand to create stability and harmony. Osun State is stable. It is peaceful and disharmony is minimal; in fact that is why we have the level of peace that we have in the State today. Wherever issues are yet unresolved, they do not create any crisis, except in the minds of vicious people who trade in discord and disharmony. We do not worry ourselves too much with alarmists anyway, because the more alarm they raise (they have been doing so in the last 3years) the more peaceful Osun is, and the more awards Aregbesola gets.

But the opposition keeps talking about a religious crisis brewing?
You work in Osun, you are all around the place reporting for your paper, do you hear any sense of conflict between the people of various religious faith. Secondly, are you not a Yoruba man? Don’t you have members of your family (immediate or extended) in either one or the other of these religious groups? Would you be persuaded to believe that any religious crisis of the magnitude of Boko Haram is possible in the Yoruba society? The truth of the matter is that Osun is a key concentration in Yorubaland of families that are integrated and entrenched in all the religions, like everywhere else in Yorubaland. So, those who are conjuring crisis in their thinking are the ones talking about religious crisis in the State and their anarchist friends outside the State are trying to give traction to what is essentially fantasy. As I told you before, what Aregbesola is doing is in the best interest of the people of Osun. And those who cannot understand it now will hopefully appreciate it better in the future. What is happening is that a few people are reacting to change, out of both fear and ignorance.

In the next few months now, governorship election will hold in the State, and considering the drama in Anambra, does your party have confidence in INEC’s ability to conduct a credible election?
Anambra is not a model of the free and fair election we all wish and hope for in Nigeria. INEC knew that when it said that the coming elections in Ekiti and Osun will be better. We’d like to have faith in Professor Jega’s leadership of INEC to perform. However, we’d like to put on record the fact that the elections coming up, especially in Osun, would be critical to the survival of democracy in Nigeria which makes it more imperative for INEC to go the extra mile to ensure that the conduct of the next election is not seen only to be free and fair, but also that INEC retrieves its credibility. The immediate past history of governorship election in Osun was unfortunate. Our confidence does not exclude the lessons lent from that election and we hope INEC will factor into its plans measures to curb criminals, relentlessly inclined towards violence as it happened at the last election and is being rumoured to be repeated in the next governorship election. The bottom line is for INEC to ensure a peaceful, credible, free and fair election, after which the people of Osun will decide who they want to rule them. Our faith is unshaken in the possibility of Osun people. They will not vote against their conscience. Besides, in the lead-up before the election proper, INEC must ensure an updated register of voters and must do everything possible to render the election-rigging machine of the master riggers of election in this country ineffective. If these things are in place and INEC staff are conscientious, we will have a free and fair election.

With more PDP members defecting to APC on a daily basis in Osun State, do you think your party will be able to manage the influx?
It is gratifying that you acknowledge the influx of the PDP members into the APC. Osun people are neither gullible nor impressionable. They must have solid reason why they are defecting from PDP. The PDP is a house of fraud, lies, violence and destruction. They were at their best 90 months before Aregbesola came to power; it was the period of the locust. They ate the State up and left it a desert. But now, Aregbesola has been in change 36 months on, and the desert is now flourishing. And the difference is clear, not only that Osun is progressing, it has never seen this level of progress, since it was created. So when the people start leaving the PDP to seek refuge in the APC, their purpose first, is in appreciation of the change that has taken place and a desire to be identified with or benefit from the change or both, that is the cause of the influx. There is joy in their heart and a lot of gratitude to God for the goodness of having Aregbesola in charge and that is what is responsible for this incredible progress that Osun has made in the last 36 months. You don’t have problem dealing with happy people, because only good can come out of joy. So PDP members flocking into APC is a matter of joy and the APC has no problem with that.

The level of confidence PDP aspirants appear to be having over their chances for the next election is uncommon, what do you think is responsible for that?
Illusion and delusion. The PDP from its very inception and what we have seen of that party in the last 15 years is one of Africa’s political tragedies. I have just told you of how they reduced Osun to a desert in 90months. The illusion that they can return to power in Osun is based on the delusion of absolute power and its possible misuse by the Federal Government in their favour. They are only chasing shadows. In terms of records, (i.e what good they have done to Osun), PDP is a disgrace. In terms of idea, they are pathologically lacking. It was this deficiency that resulted in their 90 months’ disaster. As we speak, not a single aspirant has been able to articulate a programme of action to outclass Aregbesola’s achievements. Most of what we hear from them is how they are going to destroy what Aregbesola is doing. When you contrast that with 2007, you will see how far ahead, Aregbesola had been. Before the election, he articulated a six-point integral plan of action for Osun. In 36 months, there is not a single plan that has not been addressed. That was what made the people of Osun voted for him. The PDP has a gargantuan task to out-plan or better Aregbesola’s 2007 six-point integral plan before they can convince Osun people to vote for them. Rather than think of such a plan and present it to the people of Osun, they are talking of destroying the good work of Aregbesola and removing him from office through the use of violence and abuse of Federal might. God Almighty will not permit it.

In less than a year from now, the first term of Governor Aregbesola will come to an end and it has become a campaign strategy of the opposition that most of the infrastructural and developmental projects are yet to be completed, what is the opinion of the party on this?
That tells you that the PDP politicians are mischievous. They should know that governance and government are a continuous process and in civilized climes, all major projects of government continue, no matter the party in power. In the case of Osun, Aregbesola has done what great political leaders all over the world do. Like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the man spent only 4 or 5 years as head of government in the western region, but his work outlasted him and today Aregbesola continues it. The opposition may not know it, but Osun is the resurrection of Awolowo’s marvel. If anything in that process appears unfinished or uncompleted, it should not be an issue for the campaigns, because the man behind the project is alive and well and he is in the race. Already he is sounding more persuasive to the electorate than the opposition that want to destroy the good work that Osun people are enjoying. It is logical and wise for the people of Osun to extend his mandate than to give power to the same people who wrecked the State between 2003 and 2010. The people of Osun want their children to continue having their education in the restructured and reconfigured school system that Aregbesola has built to replace the shacks and dilapidated school structure which the PDP gave their children. Even the parents of the children who eat nutritious meal at school will be happier to have Aregbesola continue in office.