Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade, a member of the House of Representatives and candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), is a front runner for the governorship position in Ogun State. At a meeting with some journalists in Abeokuta, he unfolded his agenda for the state. INIOBONG IWOK, who was at the session, brings the excerpts:
Can you tell us where you are now in your gubernatorial ambition, in terms of prospects?
What we did from early January is to commence what we called ward-to-ward tour; that is one of the things I learned from the political structure here in Ogun State; that for you to reach the people you need to go to them; that is what we have done.
We have gone to wards and in the process of doing that we have sold the APM brand, and you know that most of our communities are rural.
Cassava is our major food, and if you are conversant with our people you would know that we are blessed in that.
For those who did not know what happened in the presidential election, it got to a point where we realised that as a party we had to move fast; that is APC and APM- we did not import anybody outside Ogun State to form APM. What we did was to reach out to our people who voted for us in the primaries and we sat down and said let’s look for any other platform, on which we can win this election.
But it got to a point that we realised that if we proceeded with the way we were going, President Buhari would not win the Presidential election in Ogun State.
So, how sure-footed is APM in the state, and how bright is your prospect?
In the last two months, we resolved among ourselves that it is important that Buhari wins in our state because of the rail project to be completed. Yes, we lost some of our candidates who would have won the election in their constituencies with landslide but we had to come out openly in a bus telling our people, ‘for the first election vote Buhari and APC’.
It is important for us for the project because you realised if the President did not complete those projects; Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and other projects littered around Ogun State, I would not get allocation, about N7billion, to complete them.
So, when that project is completed most of the companies and industries in Apapa would want to build their warehouses in the railway corridor.
It would bring commerce to the state; so it was important that Buhari had to come back; thank God he won. Where we are today; the governor has said it openly that if we come out openly and work with him and Buhari wins, he would in turn come out openly to work with us, to make sure our party wins come March 9. We have held meeting this morning, when he came back from Abuja.
I have met with some of his lieutenants; we have understanding that he would commence campaign; he would come out openly and campaign for me. That no matter what the APC says to him, the agreement he had with them is that Buhari should be delivered and now he had done that.
We lost our candidate in Abeokuta North; we lost the election in Abeokuta North and in Ijebu, Mafe, Shagamu; it is painful for us as a party, but if I think of what we lost and what we stand to gain it is a strategy for us. We have reached out to everybody; it is few days to the election; we are all set. Ogun West is ready, Ogun Central is ready and Ogun East too. We have reached out to people; they are all ready.
If you look at where we are today, majority of the people that voted for Buhari are APM members; so, all we are saying is that let us come back home.
The remnants in the APC would come back home; by God’s grace this election would be landslide.
I am confident of winning; all I am telling the media, the electoral umpire is that my vote should count.
What I am telling the security agencies is that my vote should be protected. We voted for Buhari, and I have no doubt that he would support us. We have resumed our campaigns and we are reaching out to everybody and by God’s grace we would go round in the remaining days. I am sure everyone would see that APM is home and dry.
Recently, when President Buhari came to campaign in Ogun State, your mentor Amosun was in the eye of the storm; has that affected your campaign?
I am a member of the APM. I would not be able to speak on what happened in APC; I am not a member of APC. I cannot say what is happening in APC; we went there to give support to Buhari and came out openly to support him. What happened there I believe is left for the security agency to investigate. I am not a member of the security agency and I cannot say what happened there. It has not affected me in any way. I was not with the crowd; I sat peacefully where I was sitting; people saw that I would continue to enjoy support of my people.
You said that the majority of people who voted for Buhari in Ogun State are APM members; are you saying that without APM Buhari would not have won in the state?
The people who voted for us in the primary last October are people of the state who have remained resolute that injustice will not stand and that it would be corrected in the gubernatorial election next Saturday. And I have said it many times that the President does not require Prince Abiodun to win election in Ogun State. I said that we APM would come out and work for him to win Ogun State to the extent that they sacrificed our party, because if we had not come out and campaign openly for Buhari in Ado-Odo, Ota, our candidates would have won the House of Representatives election where we lost in the state. But because we said everybody should vote for the President, our candidates lost election in Yewa North, Ado-Odo Ota, IFO and Shagamu. Among all our candidates, only the one in Ipokia won and that is because it is my constituency. None of the people went round to campaign like we did but what is important to us is the real election on March 9.
What are your strategies at creating jobs and empowering the youth in Ogun State?
If you understand the topography of Ogun State, you would realise that we have highest number of young people in the country; because we have the highest number of tertiary institutions in the country today.
We have the highest number of industries too, thank God for the administration of Ibikunle Amosun.
What we have decided to do going forward is to focus on education; education is paramount. I am from Ipokia Local Government Area and one of the problems there is teenage pregnancy we would step up to make sure that young people go to school.
So many times we recommended graduates for jobs, when they go for interviews they often fail and can’t do the job. I mean these are people who have 2:1 and you can see that it is not just going to school to get certificate but are they employable?
We have some strategies with the industries to make sure that we engage these industries; you may go to school and acquire a diploma but lacks work experience and skills.
So, we would run and internship programme where you can go and work in these companies for three or four months and once graduates can get certain skills then they would be employable. For those that are uneducated; we would focus on agriculture; it is now one of the biggest sectors if we would tap into it; we would create numerous jobs.
Some of them can work in fishery production, crops production, etc. I would create 30,000 jobs or more for the citizens and take development back to the rural areas. The present administration has done much in terms of developing the rural areas, but we want to do more; the money is not in Abeokuta; Abeokuta is just the seat of government that is what we would do to make sure our people are employed.
After the presidential election won by Buhari, don’t you think the people of Ogun State would want to belong to the government of the centre and vote for the candidate of the APC in the gubernatorial election?
Not really; if you understand what I am trying to explain; the people who voted for me last October 2018 are APC members, who voted overwhelmingly out of their conviction; they are out to prove a point.
This is Ogun State, our people are out to prove a point; may be, because of what happened to Abiola, may be if it was in other states it would not have mattered, but with the June 12 incident Ogun State people are politically enlightened now even in the villages and when that happened I just sat with our people and tell them that the way it happened to Abiola is the way they want to do to me.
So, our people on their own came to the conclusion that they would vote for me on any platform regardless of what is happening at the centre.
If I say our people voted for Buhari that should tell you that they don’t care if Buhari is in APC or not.
They would still vote come 9th March for APM and our people would now decide where we go from there. It would be so good because our people would want to prove that we voted in the presidential election and we want to vote again. That victory did not come from anywhere; we voted in the presidential election and we would vote again.
The youth form the bulk of the voters in the state, what is your plan for sports and the entertainment sector in the state?
You see, what we have done in our blue print is that sport is not just about the physical side; there is the commercial side of sport.
We are going to promote sports and we are talking with the private sector. One of the things we want to have in our local government is that, we want to have sports centres; we would invest in sports; get people in major cities, this may not touch the lives of people, what we want to do is to take the commercial side of sports to the rural communities, there are lots of raw talents in our communities that you can’t get in the cities. In the cities, most young people are either playing with their Ipad and as they grow old their attention shift from sports.
But in the rural areas, you would see young people jumping and doing sports; so there is lot of talent that would be tapped in the rural areas.
And what we have done is to come up with this concept, I saw it in England; to build sports centres; and this would be where young people can go and do sports and raw talent discovered.
Once their minds are engaged, they would discover that there is so much they can do; rather than do immoral things; they would spend time doing things that would add value to them and their communities.
Like I said for every investment that we would put our hand into, that goes for music; music today is one of the biggest money spinner in Africa; home video and theatre is one of the biggest in Africa today. We are aware we have big talents in Ogun State already; a lot of them are involved in our campaign and they are coming in to say how they can support us.
We would try and see how we can bring them in and have a synergy in our community. Our administration would focus on young people we have strategic plan. By Wednesday, we are going to have a march of 10, 000 young people with PVCs. This is what we intend to do, God helping us.
I am under 50; I went to LASU, and a member of House of Representatives, I have always had open mind with the youth and they relate with me clearly.
I believe strongly that conservational politicians represent 15 percent of the population; I believe majority of the voters are not politicians. I believe young people hold the key; if you look at the record of the PVCs collected, you would see that the young people are over 60 percent and I think every reasonable politician should from that know where we are going. We want to make it as inclusive as possible; like I tell them anywhere I go; the future of Ogun State is in their hands; I was given opportunity at 41 when I met Amosun as SSA. Imagine what would happen if we give a 21 or 22-year old opportunity into government; imagine what they would do. That is why we say it can only get better.
We have to get the younger people into government; let them know what is happening in government; so that by the time we are finishing, the next governor would be in his 30s or 40s, that is how I look at it and it is only when we engage them that they can have a platform to take charge of this great state.
Because I know Ogun State in the next five, ten years would be the envy of everyone and it would be for the younger generation.
There are many candidates in the gubernatorial race in Ogun State, what is your unique selling point?
Let me put it this way; firstly I would be the first governor of this state who have served as an appointee in the state and worked here before. I was the SSA Revenue and served in the ministry of women affairs that endeared me to the heart of the civil servants in the state because I have interfaced with them.
I worked in the ministry with top directors and other officers, I was younger then, that was when we were trying to regularise staff, which we inherited from the Gbenga Daniel administration.
We tried to see how much we can regularise and I played a key role to see that most of them were regularised, you can ask them.
I stand a unique chance among the candidates with Ogun State workers. I am from Ipokia Local Government Area of the State, a member of House of Representatives. The opportunities I have had in the committees I have served in have helped me to understand the workings of our dear state.
I have interfaced with lots of corporate organisations and institutions in the state while as the SSA internal revenue. I have interfaced with everybody, including the central bank over insurance matters; none of the candidates has the wealth of experience I have coming into this election.
The only person that may have experience is Buruji; but those who understand the working of the parliament would know that the major works are done at the lower chamber of the House and not at the upper chamber, the Senate.
We do the job; that is what I am bringing on board; I have also had experience of working with the private sector, I have had the privilege of working with Amosun; I share his vision right from day one when you look at Ogun State you would say he has done his best, no one is perfect.
I believe it is the same with every administration; they beat the same drum, but how you interpret the rhythm and how we dance it is different.
Amosun interpreted the rhythm to the best of his ability.
I am a man with clear vision of what I want to achieve with our people; we are well-positioned to Lagos and to the west coast of Africa, you can call us gateway to Nigeria.
For you to get anything from the sea from Apapa into the hinterland, the South-West you have to go through Ogun State to do that. So that is why when I talk about the rail project and the need to make sure it is fully harnessed. My areas of competent are wealth management, but Governor Amosun is an accountant, so if you elect someone who does not have that capacity, who is not creative, he would just be harassing our people, the market women, and may not have the knowledge to generate money for Ogun State.
