One of the governorship aspirants under the Oyo State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Yunus Akintunde has revealed how he once told incumbent Governor Abiola Ajimobi that he would succeed him.
Speaking on a radio programme monitored in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, by insideoyo.com, Akintunde noted that anybody without ambition is dead.
According to the Oyo-born politician, “I once told Governor Ajimobi that I am interested in his seat. It was during a discussion. I said I love the chair he was sitting on. There were many of us there that day. He asked if there was any other person that is interested and 3 others signified. He prayed for us, saying that one of us would succeed him after completing his second term.”
Saying that he had no grudge against Ajimobi for relieving him of his position as commissioner for works and transport, Akintunde disclosed: “At first, three of us were relieved of our positions before others were also relieved. Except the governor and his deputy, all others were appointed. And anybody that is appointed has four conditions; either you are sacked or you resign, you die or your tenure ends. Every morning, I have it at the back of my mind one of such may happen. There was no fight between us. In fact, I was later appointed executive assistant. It is only the governor that can choose whoever he wants. Till we were sent away, I didn’t go to office with my official car. I only used offficial car for official purposes. I drove myself to the office and I didn’t, for once, live in government quarters.”
When asked about his achievements as commissioner, he said: “There is nothing a commissioner can do if his/her actions is not in tandem with the wish of the government or governor. We achieved many firsts. All the roads that enter cities like Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso, Iseyin were dualised during my tenure. There is no councils where we didn’t construct, at least, a road. The benefit of Ajumose bus is enormous. It has assisted our people greatly, especially workers, students and the poor in the society. It has even helped the environment as polution is reduced.
“Before Ajimobi came on board, virtually all major roads had gone. It was during my time that we started using concrete drainage against the normally used blocks,” he added.
Akintunde, who was a permanent commissioner in the Oyo State Civil Service during the reign of late former governor Lamidi Adesina, said he has no regret being a commissioner. “I worked like it was my enemies that will come to assess me. We were not partial while demolishing houses. We didn’t demolish houses because we hated some people but for development purposes.”
On his aspiration to govern Oyo State, he said that though money is very important to prosecute elections, you don’t need billions to win governorship election. “What you need is qualification, goodwill, acceptability. What is important is your closeness with people. Being a commissioner doesn’t mean you would win governorship election. Only Governor Nyesom Wike, out of the 7 ministers that resigned from ex-president Goodluck Jonathan administration to contest the 2015 elections, made it.”
