February 13, (THEWILL) – Professor Ayo Olukotun is the Director of the Oba S.K Adetona Institute of Governance, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. In this interview with AMOS ESELE, the scholar and media expert speaks on topical political and social issues trending in the country. Excerpts:
As a political scientist and media expert, how would you interpret President Muhammdau Buhari’s recent disclosure that if he named his successor, the candidate might be assassinated?
Well, it could mean several things. One of the things he may be saying is that all eyes would be on the person. The preferred candidate may be excessively targeted as president- in -waiting and with regards to the kind of political violence in the country; assassination has become a means of settling political disputes. Again, it could be interpreted to mean that.
Is it not a disturbing statement coming from the commander-In-chief of the country’s armed forces, more so at the level of investors?
Not necessarily, if it is interpreted to mean that if I reveal whom I am supporting for the presidency in 2023, the person may be in serious trouble. Investors and most people know that politics in Nigeria is a zero sum game, that it conflates and the stakes are high.
Do you think the general election will be held next year, considering the worsening insecurity in the country?
I think the election will be held. The model to the world is Anambra where security forces overwhelmed the opposition. By that, I mean those who were opposed to the election taking place. Given that model, I am convinced that the election will hold.
Really?
Yes, we do not yet have urban guerrilla warfare in the country. What we have is banditry, mostly operating in the rural areas where the strength of police is yet to reach. They operate in the hinterland where, for example, distress calls in distant places cannot be heard instantly. If you check the location many schools that have fallen into the hands of the bandits are fairly in the rural areas. In cases where you have urban guerrilla warfare you have to fear. The worst that may happen is that some states like Zamfara where banditry has spread fast. But remember that even in Borno State where Boko Haram held sway for many months, elections still held there.
Coming to the election, the INEC has called on the executive and lawmakers to speed up the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment to enable the Commission meet its timelines for the conduct of the 2023 poll. What is your take on that?
Well, yes I agree that the conduct of elections must be done with timelines. But I think we have enough time to expedite the process to pass the Electoral Act if we do it in the next one or two weeks. But if there is further delay they may have issues with the delay.
Do you think electronic transmission of results will make voting more representational as has been canvassed by those who are calling for a more transparent way of conducting our elections?
I think electronic transmission of election results will make voting more transparent. In the past, results were pre- determined and ballot boxes were snatched. But if there is collusion in terms of what is fed into the computer, things may remain the same. That may be difficult because agents of political parties would help by being transparent. Yes, electronic transmission of results will reduce tampering with the results.
What do you think of the current clamour for a president of southern Nigerian origin in 2023? Is it democratic?
It depends. If the political parties have zoning arrangements in their constitution, whether it is zonal or geographic, they have to respect it. In a federal constitution you have laws such as what we call consociation. It is like safeguards that ensure that no part of the country is marginalised. It is part of the federal character principle we operate in the constitution and also the affirmative process. If it is agreed by consensus that the presidency must rotate, so be it. If the North has had it, it must go South. It is not what can be enforced anyway. So you have to allow candidates from the North to contest as well.
Focus on gender issues have recently heightened ahead of the 2023 general election. One aspect focuses on gender discrimination, which Senator Biodun Olujimi has proposed in the Senate. The other by Honourable Onyegeochia proposes to make it constitutional to reserve some electoral seats for women. Do you think it is discriminatory to make it mandatory to reserve seats for women, as some opinion molders have said?
Not necessarily. Gender equality is a universal thing. Remember the Beijing Conference in the 1990s which mandated governments to give women 35 per cent participation in their administration, while for the United Nations, it is about 30 per cent. Nigeria is far short of that. That is what affirmative action seeks to bring about. As for making it a constitutional thing, there will still be public hearings where it can still be shortened by those opposed to it. It should be properly looked into, the pros and cons could be looked into. The phrasing could be looked at, settled and amended. But in general, I support affirmative action for women considering, among other things, that 49 per cent of the population, according to the last census, is made up of women. Change is by choice of the leaders and their inclination. When you make it constitutional it becomes the grundnorm and has to be obeyed.
Do you think Nigerian youths stand a chance of making good the motive of the Not-Too-Young-to-Run law in the monetised politics of the country?
They should not give up. I do not expect a 30-year-old man to have the kind of money that an Adenuga or a Dangote has. It takes time to gather wealth unless you come from a wealthy family. Now, we have youths in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly. Change is incremental, so they should not be discouraged.
Currently raging in the polity is the issue of petroleum subsidy removal or continuity. There is a prevailing agreement that government should remove it and let market forces determine the product. Where do you stand on this issue?
Not everybody agreed that petroleum subsidies should be removed. This is because there are several issues involved. It involves the exchange rate, importation of fuel and the refineries that are not working. The NNPC is giving conflicting figures. NNPC has come up with the figure of N3trillion and everybody is querying that, saying we do not use such an amount of fuel. Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has said that there is a lot of corruption involved in the subsidy regime.The issue is that we need to build our refineries. Maybe when the Dangote refinery and petrochemical and modular refineries come, we will not be forced by the regime. If we do not import and we depend on locally refined fuel, subsidy will not be a difficult thing.
There is the thinking that the government was playing politics when it postponed removing the subsidy as it had planned repeatedly before the consideration of the electoral impact it may have in the 2023 election. What is your take on this?
I said that much in my article for the week published in The Punch. I said in a portion of the piece referring to subsidy that “all kinds of unusual favours for well-known reasons. Recall the famous words of the Swiss philosopher, J. J. Rousseau, made centuries ago, that “the people of England regards itself as free, but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it…”
The Buhari administration’s eight years of so-called reformism, we have come full circle regarding the abracadabra of subsidy, resulting in a gargantuan foreign debt and the spectre of national bankruptcy.
“This apart, the Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed, confirmed recently that the deepening suffering of Nigerians as a result of high inflation is one of the reasons why the removal of fuel subsidy earlier slated for June has been put on hold.
“The eternally opaque Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation told us that Nigerians consume fuel to the tune of 65.7 million litres daily and that it will require a sum of N3 trillion to underwrite the cost of the postponement of fuel subsidy removal by 18 months.
“Unsurprisingly, an irate Dr Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman Nigeria Governors’ Forum fired back that “there is a lot of fraud in consumption and distribution figures,”suggesting that no one is sure anymore about the competing and contradictory figures churned out by NNPC.”
Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency Deserves More Government Presence – Okolugbo
A former Commissioner with the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC) aspiring to represent Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency of Delta State in the 2023 general election, Sir Ken Okolugbo, speaks on issues affecting Delta State and the Peoples Democratic Party in this interview with AYO ESAN. Excerpts:
You recently indicated an intention to contest the Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency election come next year. What informed your decision?
One of the things that informed my decision is the degradation and the neglect that my people in Ndokwa have suffered in the hands of the Federal Government. I have also looked at the representation we have had in the last 12 years and I felt it was below average. As a legislator, I know I have to make laws and act as an oversight to the executive. Above all, I am also expected to attract infrastructural development to my area, which is Ndokwa/Uwani Federal Constituency. The only way I can do this is by raising my representation above board and also engaging in interface with the necessary Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). It is through MDAs that I can get budgetary provisions in order to improve the infrastructural development of my area. Again, my area is one that is rich in gas. Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West and Ukwuani are also oil producing areas. We have marginal fields and we actually export crue oil . So if we have such a federal contituency that is contributing so much to the national purse, I see no reason why we should be in the kind of state that we are in, in terms of federal government presence in Delta State. Mainly what we have in this area are state government developmental projects.
That is one of the reasons that have informed my decision to represent the people.
You once served as a Commissioner at DESOPADEC. Many people in your area, especially youths, benefitted from DESOPADEC through you. How do you intend to satisfy their yearning when you become a member of the Federal House of Representatives?
When I was in DESOPADEC, I was in the executive. I couldn’t give the people jobs, like you rightly said, but we gave them 600 tricycles. They were able to use that to earn a living. I know for one that it may not be as easy as when I was in DESOPADEC. But one thing I can assure the youths is that I will get the Federal Government to provide an enabling environment by seeking infrastructural changes that will take place in the areas that would create opportunities for employment. I will also be able to attract empowerment programmes from the Federal Government.
Your declaration for a seat in the House of Representatives is the first official announcement by any aspirant in your Federal Constituency. How are you so sure of securing the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket for the seat?
Well, the truth about it is that the PDP ticket is very competitive in Delta State in a sense that the state has been like a one-party state and that includes Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency. We have never really had representation from the opposition parties at Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency. So I know the party’s ticket will be quite competitive. I intend to make myself available. I have declared during consultation with the delegates to make myself available on the day of the primary and to make them understand why I should be the one to be elected during the delegates congregation for a primary election to pick a representative for the Ndokwa/Ukwuani Federal Constituency.
What do you think makes you stand out among other aspirants?
My report card is one thing that makes me stand out. When I was in DESOPADEC, I was able to complete 90 projects. Our people say, the festival will be successful starts from the breaking of firewood. If I should judge by my performance during the time that I served as a commissioner in DESOPADEC, then they should be rest assured that I will not fail them by the time I get to the Federal House of Representatives.
Let us look at Delta State under the PDP-government led by Ifeanyi Okowa. How has it been in the last six and half years?
Okowa’s governnent has done very well. If you look at Asaba today, it is the next tourist destination in Nigeria. You can’t believe it that for you to get hotel accommodation in Asaba, you must book three to five days ahead and more hotels are still springing up. But the best way to judge whether the government is doing well is the level of infrastructural development in the state. The value of land in the state capital has appreciated. The values of properties have multiplied and people are eager to invest, whether foreign local direct investment, in Asaba. Governor Okowa has been able to provide roads infrastructure in places that previously lacked good roads. That is why they call him road master in the state.
Okowa’s government is the first in the state, I stand to be corrected, that has been able to build technical colleges in all the senatorial districts of the state. These new technical colleges will be able to equip people who can become gainfully employed. He has started empowerment programmes through small and medium scale industries, in the form of training the youths and equipping them. This is intended to assist the youths who cannot get employment from the state government. You know you cannot satisfy everybody. Nevertheless, Okowa’s government should be given a pass mark for what he has done in the last six and half years in Delta State.
Look at the Federal Secretariat, for example. The governor has been able to get all the ministries to move into one building. Then you now know that the money that is being paid for rent will now be saved. Apart from saving them money, those areas have also been filled up by people who want to carry out more infrastructural exchanges, in terms of investments, like I told you we are having in Asaba right now.
The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege and some APC stalwarts in Delta State are boasting that APC will win next year’s governorship election in the state. What is your reaction to this?
Well, I think the Deputy Senate President is hoping that the PDP will be a divided house. How can the APC win a governorship election in the state if the house of the PDP is not divided?
First and foremost, Omo-Agege, with all due respect, is a product of the PDP. He served as an Executive Assistant, commissioner and secretary to the state government under a PDP government. If he knows too much and too well about how the PDP became entrenched in the 25 local government areas and all the Wards in Delta State, he cannot boast of the same in the APC. The APC is divided in Delta State. Festus Keyamo is not with Omo-Agege. Victor Ochei and a couple of others are not with him, too. The two names I mentioned, one is a director in NIMASA, and the other is a Minister. When you don’t put your house in order, you may not count them as having a strong political strength. But it is definitely going to hurt the deputy Senate President when he goes to the poll.
You must put your house in order first before going to poach other places. And when you are poaching, poach those who are relevant. I see most of the people who defected to APC in Delta State as those who have outlived their usefulness in the PDP. And they are not commanding the followership as they were used to doing. They want to find where they will be relevant. So I don’t see how the APC will win the governorship election in Delta State. If they want to rely on an implosion, there may not be any implosion. This is because, the way the PDP has been structured in Delta State, the governor is not out to encourage a primary that will be tilted towards an aspirant in the governorship, senatorial or even in the other sectors. I don’t see any implosion happening in Delta PDP.
How would you advise political leaders and PDP elders in your constituency, regarding your aspiration to represent them at the National Assembly?
I would appeal to them to go for merit. In terms of merit, I don’t think there is anybody that can beat my record. The records are there. The first Glass House that was built in the whole of the local government area was done under my watch. Today, it is housing an educational institution. I reconstructed a lot of primary school buildings. I started many health care centres from the scratch. I provided vehicles for our foremost union. So they should look at merit and allow us to have for the first time a representative that will listen to the elders . That is one of the things I promised my people. I promise to engage the elders and listen to their wise counsel. Nobody can do it alone.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
