As the 2019 governorship election in Oyo State draws near, the lawmaker representing Ibadan North Constituency 2 in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Olusegun Olaniyi Olaleye, has told members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state to be wary of aspirants who he described as ‘political interlopers’.
Radical, as the lawmaker who is concluding his second term in the House is fondly called, advised members of the party to shun “people who see our party as a ready-made platform and say let’s jump in because we have the money; because we have the billions. No! I represent the face of the people in Oyo State who are saying no to political interlopers.”
In an exclusive interview with insideoyo.com, the former president of the University of Ibadan Students’ Union and National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, explained that it is by looking inward to choose the party flagbearer that the society and party members can be good for it.
Radical, who is aspiring to represent Ibadan North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, said: “Actually in a game of democracy, it is always a welcome development for there to be what I call internal competition within the party. While accepting that as a normal standard within any democratic setting, it is actually very important to separate the wheat from the chaffs and allow water to find its level because the happenings around us, the yearnings and aspirations of the party people show to us at every point in time that it is very important to have someone to be the candidate of the party come 2019; who will have a grasp of the internal workings of the party, who would have been able to relate well with the party people across board, over time.
“No matter the ideological leaning of those people within the party belongs to, we need someone who can rally everybody together. APC is an amalgamation of different ideological blocs. We need a candidate who would be acceptable to all the blocs; who can be able to relate with all groups, who can be able to unite the party the more, a rallying point, someone who will know many people as many as possible, especially our elders, stakeholders, lawmakers etc by name. We need people who have worked together with us, since we started. The person might be a senator, commissioner, federal or state lawmaker; it might be anything but not a moneybad.
“While I am advocating for this is that people who we’ve been working together in this same party, under this government; people who have mobilised for the success of this party from 2011 till date will be able to continue and lead us to the expected destination. These are people who are still actively involved; people who must have understudied the transformation agenda of Governor Abiola Ajimobi; who have been able to understand what it takes to govern a state like Oyo.
”Governor Abiola Ajimobi has done excellently well but there is no excellence without its shortcomings. We need someone that must have understood the strength and shortcomings of the performance of Governor Ajimobi. There is nobody that is perfect. But if you scale Governor Ajimobi administration, you’ll definetely give him 80 per cent. We need someone who will be coming on board and say we must have what the Bible refers to ‘the glory of the latter house will be greater than that of the former’. What we want is somebody who will bring up a new era whereby the economic and political era will continue to boom.
“And for you to arrive at that, we need somebody from within the system; who will appreciate the value, challenges and psyche of the system. The administration we are running as both political and economic psyche.
“The economic psyche of the system is that we must not allow capital flight. The next governor must be able to look inward and say this is how we can boost the economy of the state by allowing homegrown participation in terms of government patronage. Governor Ajimobi is doing that but we need more of it, whereby contracts are given to people who live within us. With this, money will spread within the system. This is like what Governor Ajimobi did during the YES-O programme by contracting the uniforms to local tailors. I coordinated the programme. We need to create a platform whereby you don’t need to know big men to get contracts. That is the economic psyche of the system.
“The political psyche of the system has to do with the integration of people; people must be carried along politically. And we must extend patronage to party people. We must give them sense of belonging the more. That is why I am saying no to political interloppers,” he advised.
