CONSCIENCE THEY SAY IS AN OPEN WOUND, ONLY the TRUTH CAN HEAL IT. THose who worked against OGD are now Embracing his Camp seriously. They Claim this present administration is worse. Daniel far prudent than Amosun – Hassan Remi Hassan, who represents Odogbolu constituency in Ogun State House of Assembly, vehemently stood against some policies of former Governor Gbenga Daniel towards the end of his tenure. He was one of the lawmakers who praised Daniel’s successor, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, in the early days of his administration. But the Redeemed Christian Church of God pastor now sings a new song, telling Reporter, ANTHONIA SOYINGBE, that Daniel’s administration was prudent compared to Amosun’s, and why his relationship with Amosun has gone sour. You are one of the top loyalists of Governor Ibikunle Amosun in the early days of his administration. What has gone wrong? There are fundamental disagreements in governance, especially as it relates to putting smiles on the faces of the governed. This happens when we do things that are not up to the minimum expectation of the people, such that it is just about the few privileged in government. These are the fundamental disagreements. Of course, they range from aspects of governance to personal issues, but majorly on governance. What are some of the policies that you are not so satisfied with? I make bold to say that majority of the roads that are constructed in the state are outright misplaced priorities. The state doesn’t have the money to embark on those massive capital-intensive projects, so we resorted to borrowing. Commonsense for someone who is a financial manager will inform that a substantial part of that money should be spent on things that will readily pay back a larger chunk of the borrowed money. All of the roads we have invested on so far are not income-yielding, neither are they going to aid any revenue. Even the funding itself are short term funds with high interest rate. The other side of it is that we have concentrated so much energy on these roads construction and we have allowed other critical infrastructure to suffer neglect. Very good examples of such are health and water supply; but education is a major one. Let us take, for example health vis-à-vis water supply, I am sure you heard recently that there was cholera outbreak in Abeokuta. Don’t forget that water is life and naturally people can’t survive without water. In this legislators’ quarters, water doesn’t flow; it flows once in a while and we depend on water tankers that you are not even sure of the source. If it is like that in legislators’ quarters, what goes around in the metropolis is better imagined. We don’t even have the requisite health infrastructure that will be able to accommodate that outbreak; that is double jeopardy. In the last dispensation, road construction at N50 million per kilometre was challenged in court. But do road for as much as N1 billion per kilometre in this current administration. I am aware that the House Committee has requested for bills of quantities for these roads, so that we will be able to tell what is costly in all of these and which is constituting the incidence of high cost of road constructions. The road constructions have caused so many homes to go into penury because breadwinners whose business premises were affected by the demolitions and no alternatives were provided for them. If all of these are causing hardship for the people and we pretend not to see them, it will be criminal for some of us who stood against things that were not as much as this in the last government. That will be a sinful silence in all standards. We are misplacing priorities because there is an urge to perform and that urge is not well spelt out. If I may get you right, the last administration under the leadership of Gbenga Daniel was more prudent than the current administration in Ogun? The last administration is far more prudent than this administration, if the project pricing that we are witnessing at this time is anything to go by because, ultimately, it is the people of Ogun that will pay back the money. Even the repayment plan drawn out by the current administration for those existing exposures of the state outlives this government, which means that whichever government that succeeds this government will inherit those debts. One of the aides of Governor Amosun said the major cause of the rift between you and the governor started when the governor couldn’t assure you of a ticket as the House of Representatives candidate in your constituency come 2015. The source also said the governor was instrumental in your re-election, as your people rejected you. I have heard this before, but this information you are giving me now is a reported one. I will be glad if the governor himself will make this pronouncement, then I will know the kind of reply to give. I will rather not talk to anyone who seeks to speak for a principal I assume has not spoken and will never speak anything of such. In the last administration, you had issues with the governor, and here we are again you are not in good relationship with Amosun. Don’t you think that people will perceive you as a rebel? I was close to the last government up to the point when there was a change in the leadership of the House of Assembly. Arising from the crisis that time, I volunteered that I was going to help this particular government to succeed by all standards. When things are now going the way that was not the struggle that we hitherto fought for, like I said earlier, it will be sinful silence for us to keep quiet. If successive governments will do what won’t please the people, I will sing the praise of no one; but whoever does what the people want will get showers of praises from me. Before this government started to derail, I said good things about the government at every given opportunity. When the internal mechanism to resolve our disagreement failed, I needed to defend my own stand for whatever it worth because, ultimately, I will return to those who are my electorate. If anybody will say he rigged for me in the last election, first of all, that is an admittance of a criminal offence; that was why I said I would prefer if such person could come out and boldly say so. I also wish that such person says this to those who voted me into power, and such person will get the right response from those people. That is why it is constant that whenever I call out my people and tell them my next line of action, they always support me. At this point, I must sincerely say that if I am to compare this government with that of Daniel, I will rate the Otunba Gbenga Daniel administration far better because there were fundamental issues in approach as regards how some issues were handled. But people were not impoverished, neither were they having miseries. Disillusionment is on the face of everyone in the state. I stand to be corrected with the anomalies we are seeing; it was a better time in the last administration because we are not doing prudent management of resources. There are notions that you are now a member of Labour Party (LP)? I am on the way to be a member and I am not there yet because the declaration has to be on the floor of the hallowed chamber. But I have been identifying with Labour Party, and that will come up any moment from now. That doesn’t in any way point in the direction that one is not going to deny that Labour Party is the next platform which will readily usher in a new atmosphere of governance into Ogun and other states in South West geopolitical zone. If we are not getting it right, people will move on and seek the platform which will help them to get it right with the people. Political prostitution cannot be defined as someone who hobnobs from one party to another; you need to keep moving until you get the right place in which your people are better served. You also continually and constantly win. Definitely, it is not about the politician; rather about the party in which you belong. Daniel, we understand, is one of the major financiers of Labour Party in Ogun, and before now you were not in good relationship with this former number one citizen of Ogun. Is it that there are no more disagreements between you and him? There was a time we disagreed and the situation and circumstances that led to the disagreement doesn’t exist anymore. It was majorly about the handling of finances of the state back then. He is no longer in power, and at the end of the day, the fact that we disagreed based on the process leading to the accessing of the bond market then, which the then legislators stood against, turned out to be a blessing in disguise because he left an audited account of N49 billion then. The money then was not just about debts to banks; it included pension, commitment to contractors, donor agencies and gratuities. What was owed them was less than N20 billion. This present government has reasons to believe that there was corruption with the figures, and so a forensic audit was carried out. The forensic audit, rather than discover more debts, found out that there were even figures which ought not to be in that debt stock. The firm further brought the figure down to N39 billion. The House of Assembly is the organ of government that has power over public fund and, till today, we haven’t received any report from those auditors regarding any other debt. In this particular government, we have lots of debts in the name of infrastructural development. I don’t see why we should keep having a face-off with Gbenga Daniel since the reasons for our disagreement with him then no longer exist. Besides, the tenets of Christian faith do not permit you to keep malice, and this icon of leadership is from the same root with me. One way or another, we will always connect, and if the interest in the next political dispensation in Ogun is bringing us together, so be it. Before now, even during the face-off, whenever we see, I greet him; so if the greeting of then will lead to an embrace and metamorphose into the good of the state, I think that is good.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 07:14:53 +0000
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