#Tinubu, Akande, Fayemi and I – Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB)# Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele is the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget. In this interview with DAPO FALADE, he speaks on his purported removal as the Ekiti State Caucus Leader in the House as well as issues thrown up by his determination to contest the 2014 governorship election in the state. Excerpts: On Tuesday, your fellow lawmakers in the Ekiti State caucus of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) took a decision removing you as the leader of the caucus. What really transpired? I want to emphasise that I believe that it is God that makes kings and princes and there is nothing that you can become in life without God knowing about it. Let me also emphasise that I am not the kind of inordinately ambitious person that they are trying to portray me to be. But it takes more than sheer harassment or intimidation or blackmail to get me to abandon the things that I believe in. The people that are doing all this don’t seem to realise that they are dealing with Opeyemi Bamidele, an unassuming Nigerian boy, home-grown and humble guy with an antecedent. It is not just a matter for the resume that I was Public Relations Officer of the then University of Ife, Ile-Ife Students’ Union; it is not just a matter for the resume that I was chairman of the University of Benin Students’ Union or that I was President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). What is important about all these facts is that I grow up, learning enough in life about how to exhibit a strong sense of indignation to injustice and stand up for what I believe is right. And I think it is too early in the day for anyone to assume that I can be cowed either into or out of anything that I feel strongly about. I believe it is an inalienable right guaranteed by the constitution for anyone above the age of 21 to vote and be voted for in our democracy. I believe also that as much as possible every party would have its own code of conduct and ethics. I am convinced that regardless of what might have happened or may still happen, part of the provisions of the constitution of our party provides for party primaries and those who wrote the constitution would not have provided for party primaries if they didn’t that there will always be more than one aspirant for a position. As far as I am concerned, even a sitting governor who is aspiring to come back for a second term in the next election is an aspirant until he emerged as the candidate of the party. If somebody has emerged as the candidate of a party and I am attempting to disrupt the process of preparing for the election, then you can accuse me of anti-party activities; not when the governor has not emerged or has not even filed a nomination form to say ‘I am running for election or that I am aspiring to be the candidate of the party for the election.’ With respect to what happened yesterday (Tuesday), I believe that it was a macabre dance and I have chosen not to make any statement; I am not going to glorify that process. It was laughable and I think the issues were definitely beyond those guys. It was something that I have chosen to leave in the hands of the national leadership of the party and the national leadership will address that because the guys were not the ones who gave the appointment in the first instance. This is even a position that is not recognised by the National Assembly and, therefore, it is not recognised in the standing orders of the House of Representatives. I think for them to be calling for the transfer of my position as the chairman of the House Committee on Legislative Budget to the new leader that they appointed for the caucus smacks of ignorance or lack of adequate understanding of the workings of the parliament because I didn’t get my chairmanship position in the House on the platform of being the Ekiti State caucus leader. But don’t you think the action of the five lawmakers had the backings of some highly-placed people within the party? I will be surprised if it did. It had the endorsement of anybody, it would only have been the endorsement of those political powers and principalities in Ekiti. It is definitely not the endorsement of the national leaders of the party. You earlier mentioned injustice but the general perception is that your party does not believe in primaries in picking its candidates for election. At what point did you discover that what is going is an injustice? Let me put it this way: I gave an insight into my own background and the indignation and perpetration of injustice in general terms. Part of what I have refrained from doing is taking on ACN as a party because we must draw a line between ACN as a party and some pseudo-democrats within Ekiti who are trying to twist the whole process. As far as I am concerned, it is people like that who are giving the party a bad name and that is why the stand of the national leadership of the party on this issue will be relevant and I am waiting to know what that will be. But I do not know of any political party in this country that can be given an excellent mark when it comes to the issue of internal democracy which I think is a vital issue for any polity to grow and be stable. Beyond this, I understand the fact that we may be using the words ‘internal democracy’, but we have not attained democracy yet. We all fought to have democracy in our land, but what we have yet is, at best, civilian rule and I believe that the real transition to democracy itself has just begun. First, we want to say civilian rule is better than military rule, absolutely. But we are yet to get to where we ought to be. I see all of this as part of the sacrifices we need to make, a part of the struggle and the effort towards the attainment of an ideal democratic situation in our polity. To that extent, it is with respect to all political parties. Coming back to your ambition, you were recently reported to have said that your ambition could be personal and narrow, but you have a greater ambition for Ekiti State. Can you give a further insight into this? What I am trying to do is to draw a line between two concepts; aspiration and ambition. The word ‘aspiration’, I described as narrow and limited to my own individual desire to occupy a particular position at every point in time. The aspiration at this point is with respect to my desire, by God’s grace, to stand election for the governorship position in Ekiti. In other words, I desire to be elected the next governor in Ekiti by the grace of God. Of course, I tried to demarcate this from what I called ambition, which is greater, inclusive, comprehensive and embracing. It is broader than aspiration because aspiration has to do with that individual and that position he is seeking. But my ambition is informed by my love for the people of Ekiti and by my conviction of the possibility of a better state, a better community. In other words, it is my ambition to see a new and united Ekiti State created. We use the phrase, working towards the creation of a new Lagos where I served, working in the cabinet of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A lot of people didn’t understand what we meant when we said we were out to create a new Lagos. Following Tinubu’s administration, Governor Babatunde Fashola came in and the man, in the last six years, has also tenaciously held to that principle and has pursued the dream very vigorously. Today, a new Lagos has been created. Talking in terms of infrastructural development and strength of character on the part of those who are running the government, as well as human capital development, you will see a new Lagos. I believe this is doable in Ekiti; I believe the Ekiti we have today can become a much better place to live, a place where our children can grow up, safe and secure; a state with a future for everybody. We can have a state where, by the grace of God, we can talk more about how our sense of dignity and dignity of labour and the old core values that Ekiti had been known for being brought back from sabbatical and, as much as possible, for us to do more in the area of infrastructural development and also begin to create a new Ekiti. I keep saying it and some people seem to be uncomfortable about that. But it is something I will continue to say because I don’t owe anybody any apology for that. You and Governor Kayode Fayemi have been known to be allies over the years. Some people are, therefore, of the opinion that you can also team up with him as you did with Senator Bola Tinubu to actualise your dream of new Ekiti State… Well, I don’t know how else I could have attempted to team up with Dr Kayode Fayemi, the governor of Ekiti State. To the glory of God, I was with him right from the beginning of this journey. I have tried to be as loyal as a friend can be, as sincere as a brother can be and as helpful as an associate can be. I don’t know what else I could have done that I did not do. Sometimes it is not about what you think; it is not about what you see, especially when you are not alone in a venture. It is not just about you; it is about the other person. Of course, I will not begrudge him for anything; the Yoruba adage has it that ‘omo ti o ba sipa niya e ngbe. All of us are willing to be there for one another but it doesn’t matter how much you are willing to help me; you can only help me as much as I want you to get involved in what I am doing. If I choose not to really relate with you as a stakeholder, there is nothing you can do about it. But I know that I have tried my best. My conscience is clear. Even here in the House of Representatives, in the last two years, I have tried as much as possible to ensure that Ekiti is accorded its rightful position in national affairs in every way that I could influence things. I have tried to influence projects to Ekiti; even in my own constituency alone, I tried 33 different projects to Ekiti in the 2012 budget. And in the 2013 budget, an additional 27 projects – that is 60 different projects in two years. I also ensured that the same thing happened to my colleagues in the five other federal constituencies in the state. So, as far as I am concerned, we are not running a different government. All these things we are doing are to complement what the state government is doing and what the local governments are doing. Governor Fayemi is the one in the saddle; I am not in competition with him, even if there is any controversy some people are trying to generate today. It is about 2014 and beyond, after he might have spent his four years. But I don’t think anybody is competing with him for the leadership of the party or the state at this point; he is in charge. My Bible says that we should respect constituted authority. And every word that I have uttered has been a reaction to something. I have not been on the offensive, but sometimes, when people raise issues and it becomes important or necessary for you to react, I do respond. Other than that, there is nothing that anybody would say that I have said at any point to mean either challenging or an attempt at challenging the status quo in the state. I just know that where there is no mutual respect, things like this cannot but happen. Again, I want to emphasise that it is not so much about the leadership of the party; it is about the style of administration. I believe very firmly and irrevocably that it is the political party, in a democracy, that should put people in government; it is not the government that should distribute party’s positions among its members. I will not take anything less than that under any circumstance. For a sitting government to want to take over the structure of the party by all means and, in the process, end up dissolving ward executives that were constituted at ward primaries of the party and replacing them with another set of people without ward primaries is entirely arbitrary. I am convinced that replacing local government executive of a political party with handpicked people without congresses is arbitrary and is in violation of the party’s constitution. I believe removing people from the state executive of the party and replacing them with a few people without state congresses is arbitrary. These are my points; these are my issues and I am not going to stop talking about them. If anybody now feel that because I am insisting on the right thing being done; because I am insisting on the party constitution being fulfilled and not being violated and they now feel that amounts to confrontation, it is just unfortunate. I am a party man; I believe in the constitution of the party and I believe in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I believe in the provisions of the Electoral Act. Whatever I am saying are within the ambit of the law. You said you respect party decision. It was last week that the ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and the National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, were in Ekiti where they were said to have endorsed Governor Fayemi for second term. What does this portend for your ambition? There was not any endorsement and that is the bone of contention and that is what people need to understand. The more people try to understand that, the better for the understanding of the Ekiti crisis. Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Akande never, at any point, during that meeting said they endorsed or were endorsing Dr Fayemi for second term. They came there, among other things, to see how the lingering crisis in Ekiti ACN could be resolved. Chief Akande and Asiwaju Tinubu said so much to pacify aggrieved members of the party and ended the meeting with a note that the leadership of the party specifically should find a means of reaching out to me with a view to reconciling the differences. Part of the conditions for the resolution of the crisis the two leaders also gave was the immediate reinstatement of the members of the various executive committees – ward, local government and state executives – that have been arbitrarily dissolved. They made that clear. What now became curious even to many leaders of the party that attended the meeting was the fact that journalists who were not present at the meeting got a twisted information from the media team of the governor that Asiwaju had endorsed Governor Fayemi for second term. Two, that Asiwaju had sent people to me to go and warn me to desist from my own governorship ambition without reporting the actual proceedings; without also saying that they had also given a condition for the immediate reinstatement of the dissolved executives of the party. Is it not more curious, given the wide media reportage of the event, that up till now, the two personalities involved, Chief Akande and Senator Tinubu, are yet to refute the reported endorsement? Also, you were not at the meeting, how did you get all the details? Well, it is instructive to note that it wasn’t just the governor and his aides that were at the meeting with Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Akande; some other leaders of the party were also there. Of course, a few people called me even days after the meeting to relay what happened. I also met with some other leaders of the party who were also there and they made it all clear to me. All of them were surprised to read what was in the papers as a report of the meeting as a total misrepresentation of what went down there. That in spite of the wide media coverage, Chief Bisi Akande and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have not said anything or have not refuted it, I want to say these are party leaders, seasoned politicians and democrats and they have their own ways of resolving matters. I am sure they have chosen to adopt an internal mechanism method of resolving these issues within the party rather than using the pages of newspapers. I have no doubt that discussions have been held and I have had cause to meet with some of the national leaders of the party after the whole report. The governor and I know that Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Akande did not come to Ekiti to give endorsement to anybody. This is not about any individual; it is about the institution called ACN. It is about how to resolve the crisis within the party. It is those who are trying to take advantage of the visit of Asiwaju and anyone who knows me will know that I don’t drop names. I am not somebody who can be intimidated with Asiwaju’s name. If anybody thinks he loves Asiwaju, he needs to remind himself that he cannot love Asiwaju more than me. He is my own benefactor but the fact that you have a benefactor does not mean that even if you are trying to put faeces on my face, using the name of the benefactor, I should just fold my arms and wait for that to happen. The Asiwaju that I know will not do anything to undermine democracy in Ekiti State and he will not do anything to heat up the polity. Given your strong conviction about contesting the governorship seat in 2014, what will happen if the national leadership of the party decided to give the ticket to the sitting governor? It will depend on how it happens. Usually, there are two ways by which it could happen -either through free and fair primaries, which would be part of the ways of growing our democracy. The other means by which it could happen is by consensus. But mind you, consensus would require the input and involvement of everybody. A consensus is an all-inclusive process that will involve even the aspirants. What we are having now and which is annoying me is the sheer arrogance in power. You hear statements like ‘no vacancy in Ekiti Government House in 2014’. And they say this to virtually everybody. Again, the manner in which the second term campaigners in Ekiti were going about it; they started from the day that we were there for the first anniversary of the governor and they gave T-shirts to some people and distributed stickers saying 4+4=8; one-year anniversary when we were supposed to be running an account of our stewardship and talking about the challenges and how we are going about overcoming them and how to give the people a ray of hope! And I felt that this was immoral; you don’t do this. One year into office in a four-year term, you don’t start talking of second term. Since then, the campaign has continued and as far as I am concerned, they have used the second term campaign to distract the governor and his administration. They have used the second term campaign to heat up the polity in the state. They have used the second term campaign to even portray ACN as an intolerant ruling party, which is not true. They have gone as far as tearing the posters and pulling down the billboards of aspirants from other political parties. They went as far as trying to stop the convoys of other aspirants from other political parties. You don’t do that. No progressive party anywhere in the world wants to be identified with such anti-democratic practices. But with time, pseudo democrats will be isolated from the real democrats and Nigerians will have a better understanding of what is happening in Ekiti State. You recently said aspirants should not come out to campaign resorting to arms. Do you have any particular set of people in mind, given recent violent attacks on you? That is one issue that has been giving Ekiti people a lot of concerns. Nigerians both at home and abroad have spoken their minds and that was part of the reasons the national leadership of the party came to Ekiti to come and intervene. No doubt, it is an issue that needs to be properly addressed by the leadership of the party and it is also an issue that has negatively affected the image of the party because those who even tried to handle the thing further mishandled it and created more damage. Some of those who tried to speak on behalf of the government first said I was attacked by youths of Igede-Ekiti who felt I didn’t do anything for the community. But community leaders, including the traditional ruler and the Council of Chiefs, spoke up and said: ‘No, Bamidele just brought a one-kilometre of conventional streetlights and today, Igede is not in darkness and we are grateful for that. He just brought motorised borehole, with water reticulation water and the project is completed. Bamidele just attracted a primary health centre which is under construction in Igede. So, it could not have been that he was attacked in Igede-Ekiti and by the people because they were angry. Government should look elsewhere and try to account for those who attacked him.’ The youth of Igede-Ekiti also issued a statement to say they felt insulted by the claim that I was attacked by the people of Igede-Ekiti. In the process, the state secretariat of the party also issued a press statement saying I was probably attacked by my own boys who were around me. But people said, ‘Wait a minute, his own boys, supporters attacked him?’ That did not make sense to anybody and so, it was a riddle and I guess they are still finding an answer to it. But I am sure Ekiti people understand what is going on. But again, I will just round off with what I said earlier that they are making the same mistake, not realising who they are dealing with. I am not a kind of person they harass or coarse out of his convictions and that my desire to run is informed by a vision about which I feel so passionately. It is also informed by what I heard on the streets of Ekiti and the popular yearnings of the people for me to run because they want to make me the governor of Ekiti. It is a project that I am leaving in God’s hands. The love the people have for me could not have been informed by anything other than grace of God and divine intervention. It is not that I am the best man that Ekiti people know. When I say I want to do something, I will do it. Members of ACN know that I have stood by the party. I was a good boy for seven and a half years when the party was not in government in Ekiti and, to the glory of God, He used me to do so much to sustain the party in Ekiti and that is why the people still appreciate me till tomorrow. But those in government see me as a threat and they are entitled to their opinions. Retrospectively, would you say you have any regret supporting the present administration to get to power in the state? I don’t have any regrets. There are situations that even if you feel you are disappointed, you will not have any regret. Whatever I did in supporting the governor, I did out of sheer love for the people of Ekiti State. I wanted the best for the state. I joined others in searching for those we felt have the prerequisite, the education and those we also believe have the exposure and the vision and I also felt that it was going to be a collective vision and all others. I don’t have any regrets. Whatever I did was out of sheer love and for the progress of the state. If Ekiti people today decide to offer you the same ticket on the platform of other political party, will you take it? That is something that I have not even addressed my mind to because I am still hoping that we will be able to resolve this issue within ACN. But one thing that is certain is that I am resolved to contest the election and about the issue of platform, I believe, at the fullness of time, God will speak to me clearly. Culled from Nigerian Tribune
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 17:00:23 +0000
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