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By Sunday Ani
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a former lawmaker in Ekiti, Segun Erinle has said the country will be great under a Tinubu Presidency.
In this interview, Erinle spoke on issues bordering on Ekiti and the Country at large.
What in your view were the lessons learnt from the last general elections?
Let me say it clear and loud that was the best election in the history of this country. My party won because we went into the election as a united party; the disunity in the PDP gave us the Victory, they(PDP members) split their votes into three which favoured us( APC).The first lesson learnt is that you don’t go into a major Election as a divided party. People may say there was friction in the APC but the issue was internal problem, more so, it was not blown out of proportion, unlike what happened in the PDP whereby Peter Obi took the entire votes of South East, Musa Kwankwaso got Kano votes and the G5 governors did not help matters. The division in the PDP assisted us to secure Victory.
But they are in court challenging the election results?
Our problem in Nigeria is inability to accept defeat, even when we know we failed woefully in an election.
I want to believe our people behave like that because it brightens the hope of their followers, it gives false hope to the followers that there is still opportunity for them to claim the mandate they have lost.
You know election petitions take about six to nine months to complete and while the case lasted, their followers would be with the impression that all hopes are not lost.
At last,when the Petitions are dismissed they now resort to blaming the Judiciary.
What are your expectations from Senator Bola Tinubu’s administration ?
We expect a change of direction from the new government headed by Bola Tinubu because he seems to be the first Nigerian President that planned for the office than any other elected politician in the history of our country.
He should make restructuring of the country a top priority, unity of the country, security and provision of infrastructural amenities to kick-start our economy. Youth Employment should be another key area.
What is your assessment of the immediate past regime, headed by President Muhammadu Buhari?
To be fair to that administration, I believe Buhari tried his best but the insecurity situation in the country overwhelmed his administration.
The insecurity situation made all what could have been regarded as his achievement to come to nought.
The major duty of government in power is provision of security for its citizens.
Ekiti State governor has spent over 200 days in office without appointing cabinet members, what could have been responsible for that?
The impression you gave is not correct. There is a cabinet in place but not in full as provided for in the Constitution. I think the government is making a move to complete the appointments soon.
Recently, an Appointment Committee was put in place to consider people for various positions; is that legal?
The governor of a state can appoint people to manage his appointment procedure; there is nothing illegal about that. The committee you mentioned had requested each Local Govt to submit names which is Legal and within the procedure.
Do you think such procedure is the right way; do the youth and women have opportunity in this process?
On women, there is an existing law in the state that certain percentage should be given to women when making appointments, hence, it is in order for inclusion of women as our law provides for it. The governor campaigned that his government will include youths, so it is in order to include youths, in order to fulfill the governor’s Campaign Agenda.
One thing is always clear in all policies; there are advantages and Disadvantages.
What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages in the govt’s policy?
Inclusion of grassroots in policy making is a very good advantage. The disadvantages are the fact that those responsible to nominate may use it to score political points and settle rift amongst rivalry groups within the party.
You can see the protest in some Local Government areas in the state but thank God the people mandated by the governor to carry out the exercise in the state are experienced politicians who understand the state very well and at the end of the day, they will do a very good job.
Your governor Oyebanji has started receiving accolades from people of your state; some with the impression that his achievements may surpass that of his predecessor, Dr.Fayemi, what is your view on this?
Our People don’t understand certain things, l remember when Fashola took over from Tinubu in Lagos, people were saying similar things; that’s one of the advantages of continuity in govt. There is no major difference in both governments apart from style of governance.
Fayemi has his own style which differs from Oyebanji but when we talk of governance, it’s the same.
Does it mean Oyebanji is building on the foundation laid by Fayemi?
Yes of course. Was Governor Biodun Oyebanji not the SSG of Fayemi. It’s the same government, which is an offshoot of our Progressive Governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo.
Governor Oyebanji is the 4th Term of Otunba Niyi Adebayo and the third Term of Governor Kayode Fayemi so, in essence, the current governor is concluding the 4th Term of the Progressive family in Ekiti.
What is your assessment of Governor Fayemi’s administration then?
He did his best and brought governance in Ekiti to the limelight; he increased the state Internally Generated Revenue IGR by at least 75 percent, which showed that governance is a serious business; he encouraged Ekiti indigenes outside the state to contribute their quota to Ekiti development. He will always remain my person any time any day. He loves Ekiti and ready to do more for the state to develop.
What were his weaknesses when he governed the state?
There is no human being without a weakness, some of the weaknesses people say about him includes not picking calls or responding to mails and refusing to speak out his mind on political issues. All those weaknesses are human but the only thing he did that l will continue to say is after returning to office for the second term, he should have invited his Elected Assembly members in the first term and apologised to them for the ill treatment meted out to them by Governor Fayose and paid all their outstanding salaries and allowances which Fayose denied them. This is because government is a continuum. I am aware that he paid some Civil Servants, that were sacked illegally by Governor Fayose but l expect similar things to be done to the elected Assembly members who were in office when he served his first term. As l said earlier, he’s human and nobody is perfect in life except God.
What are the expectations of people of Ekiti from Oyebanji?
The people of Ekiti expect a lot from the governor because the state is a Civil Servant State -regular Payment of salaries to stimulate the economy, building infrastructure to promote investments and inviting core investors to the state. The governor has started well with the prompt payment of salaries and road construction; the Developmental Plan on Ekiti free zone will help to stimulate the state’s economy and l expect a lot to be achieved during the first term.
The slogan TOKAN TOKAN that was adopted during the election seems to have been laid to rest
l did mention earlier that there is nothing like Tokan Tokan in politics, what we have is current interest. People will be your fan only if they know you can influence things to favour them.
As soon as you leave office, people forget you. Those so called Tokan Tokan advocates at the time are now the major critics of government in place now, but thank God for the new governor; he knows them and continues to put them where they belong.
Are you scheming for any appointment?
The party in govt is my party, so I am not an outcast in the government. The mistake many people make is that you ought to be holding a position in the cabinet before you can contribute your quota to governance. I teach students free of charge in my local Primary and secondary schools; I am also contributing to governance that way. It’s the prerogative of the governor to choose whom he wants to work with. I have a role as a party man to support the governor and his government in or out of government. That’s the way l see governance.
Recently, there was an invitation by the EFCC to Fayemi, don’t you see this as an indictment to the administration he ran?
A petition was submitted to the EFCC; it’s the duty of the anti graft agency to investigate all petitions submitted to it hence, in the course of investigations, they have a right to invite the governor to ask questions based on the petition before it.
One thing many petition writers don’t understand is how governments are being operated. Many believe that state monies are in the hands of the governor and he spends as he likes, forgetting there are due processes to be followed when spending govt funds.
Who could have petitioned EFCC?
The governor like others have many enemies, so you cannot rule out many writing petitions against him for one reason or the other but all l know is that he will triumph because he worked for the benefit of Ekiti people.
Many see you as one of his allies?
Well, people do assume; what I can say is that he dragged me into Ekiti politics and my constituency cannot say they have not benefitted from me playing politics in terms of many infrastructural facilities facilitated to the constituency from 2010 to date; so l am grateful to him.
