Osun 2014: Aregbesola will win again -Rep Honourable Abdulgafar Akintayo Amere, is a member of the House of Representatives‘ Committee on Industries, from Osun State. In this interview, he speaks on the 2014 governorship election in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), ongoing attempt to review the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly, among other issues. KUNLE ODEREMI brings some excerpts: WHAT do you think are the chances of Governor Rauf Aregbesola in the coming governorship election, beyond the factor of incumbency and why? How would you rationalise the rejection of the six-year single term for the President and Governors by the Senate in the current debate on the review of the 1999 Constitution amendment? I must state that the on-going debate on the review of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly is another good development in our political history. To me, the throwing out of the six-year single term by the upper chamber is a very good thing. This is because the proposal has many disadvantages if the clause is allowed to see the light of the day, one of which is the high level of corruption and nonchalant attitude towards the welfare of the electorate by the executives. Secondly, six years single term will not allow the governor or president who is genuinely serving his people to complete his good work. For example, look at what is happening in Osun State under the leadership of our amiable Governor Aregbesola and other (defunct) ACN leaders, if the constitution only permits them for one single term of six years, how would they be able to finish their good work? Thirdly, the bad leaders who probably managed to rig themselves into power, would through bad administrative polices, would remain in office as the electorate would not have the opportunity after four years to vote them out. So, by implication, the electorate would have to suffer for the whole six years of bad governance and inept leadership. Another disadvantage of the proposal is that even some leaders, who initially had good intentions to serve before, may end up disappointing their people because of the belief that whether they do it well or not, they are not coming back after six years of single term in office. So, I am of the strong belief that the two-term of four years each is far better than the six-year single term proposed in some quarters. Many insinuate that the crisis in PDP has contributed more in over heating the political space lately. How would you rationalise the challenge that has balkanised the ruling party and led to a number of litigations? I’m not surprised that they are fighting themselves. Right from the onset, the leadership of the party didn’t have any sincere agenda for Nigerians. The leaders are in government to feather their individual nests and are completely anti-masses in their policies. All Nigerians must strive vote out PDP in 2015. If indeed they were to serve the good people of this nation, they will not be fighting one another to the extent of organising parallel national conventions that have culminated in two factions of PDP. This is why Nigerian should realise that a party that cannot put its own house in order like PDP is not fit to rule the nation. Look at what happened in Anambra State, where two governorship candidates emerged from the same PDP for the November 16, 2013 Anambra governorship polls. I understand that two factions loyal to Andy Uba and Nwoye are seriously at loggerheads over PDP ticket in the state. So, this has clearly shown that PDP is crisis-ridden and the electorate must do away with it in subsequent elections in the country. Since their reign began 1999 till date, what are the tangible things are their achievements? For instance, electricity is not stable. Yet, they are budgeting billions on the power sector every year, and without stable electricity, the country’s economy cannot grow. In the area of job creation, the PDP administration is not doing anything meaningful to address rising unemployment in the country. The crime rate is on the increase, leading to frequent loss of lives and properties, especially in the Northern part of the country. Our roads have become death-traps, in spite of trillions being voted for the transport sector yearly. The menace of corruption is also there. They set up the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yet they (PDP top shots) are the ones falling victim. Another related political crisis is the one in Rivers State, which a lot of people claimed was already affecting governance in many states, many months after the controversial chairmanship election in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) election. Well, the crisis can be likened to a situation when two elephants fight and the grass is made to suffer. To be honest with you, I believe the crisis is being fueled by some people at the federal so as to make Rivers ungovernable for the state governor, Mr. Rotimi Ameachi. You would remember that the problem gradually started the moment Amaechi contested for the chairmanship position of the NGF. The man won his second term in office by polling 19 votes to defeat his closest rival, Governor Jonah Jang, of Plateau State, who got 16 votes. But unfortunately, a day after the election, the 16 governors that are loyal to Jang, who are believed to have been sponsored by the Federal Government, went ahead to conduct a kangaroo election and then declared Jang as the chairman. I don’t see any reason why Ameachi should be crucified for telling the federal government the truth. They have frustrated him to the extent of withdrawing his security personnel and suspended him indefinitely from PDP. They have forgotten that the more they wage the war against him, the more important Amaechi becomes politically popular and relevant, both in the country and all over the globe. However, I think it’s high time they stopped criticising and harassing the governor so that peace can reign in Rivers State and Nigeria as a whole. The chance of Governor Aregbesola in winning the polls is very bright. The beautiful work he’s doing in the state is already campaigning for him. For example, since the creation of the state over 22 years ago, apart from Baba Chief Bisi Akande, there is no other governor that has ever done what Aregbesola did so far in less about three years. We have seen the woeful performance of his immediate predecessor. In fact, Governor Aregbesola’s achievement in less than three years is 10 times of the performance of the immediate past government which was in power eight years in the state. In the area of road construction, there is no area in the state that Aregbesola has not touched. Talking of agriculture, he has turned the state to the food basket of the nation through his various agricultural policies, giving out loans and farm implements to farmers, sending thousands of youths to China and Germany to go and learn how to farm in a large scale and so on. In the area of employment generation, within his first 100 days in office, he recruited 20,000 youths under the scheme called OYES. He has also recruited the second batch of youths, making 40,000. Aregbesola has also employed many unemployed graduates into various ministries in the state, including Osun State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the teaching service commission. He introduced Opon Imo in other to ease teaching and learning process. Other areas of his achievements include: purchase of clothing materials for more than 750,000 children in primary and secondary schools, free feeding, reduction of tuition in the state owned tertiary institution, construction of millennium schools across the state, among others. So, with all these achievements and many more, I believe Aregbesola will defeat all his opponents hands down in the 2014 governorship polls in the state. People often criticise Nigerian lawmakers for neglecting their constituents. What is the evidence you that you have been different in two years as a member of the House in terms of delivery of democratic gains to the people? Well, I can boldly say that within the last two years, I have touched the life of my constituents positively. For instance, I have assisted a lot of people to secure jobs into Civil Defence Corps, Customs Service, NAFDAC, OYES programme, Federal Civil Service, among others vital agencies. Also, more than 80 per cent recommendations have been made to the Federal authorities for the completion of all the abandoned Federal Government projects in my constituency. Besides, I have taken over a lot of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) projects such as big federal health centres to be constructed at Ile-Ogbo, Amere village in Olaoluwa Local Government and Moloeefon area in Iwo. The Federal Government has approved the projects and work has already started on them. As part of my effort to boost agriculture, I have distributed a lot of manual spray and chemicals free of charge to many farmers, as well as subsidised the price of fertilizer, just as I have provided loan facilities to farmers through bank. I attend to the need of market men, market women, artisans and farmers so as to promote their businesses.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 09:12:27 +0000
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