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From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
Prince Akintade Olayisade is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State.
In this interview, the coordinator, Tinubu/Shettima Grassroots Independent Campaign Council (GICC) in the state for the February 25 Presidential election, spoke on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory, the election, what Nigerians should expect from the incoming president, among other issues.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 Presidential election, what will be your reaction to his declaration as the president-elect of this country?
Yes, we thank God for mercy and grace. It can only be God. APC going into the election, the party was intact, no hanky panky, no acrimony, no crisis, no faction but the government policy was against the candidature of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am talking about the issue of fuel scarcity and the issue of Naira swap. Some people may say it is a good idea, it is a welcome development for us to change our currency at intervals but it came at a wrong time and this seriously worked against our party.
So, it will not be out of way to say that it was the personality of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that won the election, not the party as APC but he contested the election on the platform of APC because in Nigeria we don’t have independent candidates yet. So, the election is a sweet victory. It represents the people, the votes counted. For the very first time, there has not been an election that is as transparent as this election.
Assessing the election, what factor(s) do you think influenced the voting pattern in favour of your principal?
In my very opinion, I was expecting that the election will be landslide. I never envisaged for a minute that we will only win in 12 states out of 36 states plus the FCT in Nigeria, even though we had 25 percent in 26 states, which was quite okay. My own opinion as I said earlier is that the election, I believe if not because of the fuel scarcity and the Naira swap, some of the people that supposed to travel home to vote, they didn’t get money so they could not go, so this caused voter apathy. In a country where 93 million registered and we only recorded about 26 million votes is not encouraging.
Some people have raised issues about the election including former president Olusegun Obasanjo who wrote a letter that there were flaws, that the election should be cancelled and the rest, do you see merit in their agitations and what is your take about the letter written by Obasanjo?
Obasanjo as others have said and I am repeating, does not have any moral justification to talk about rigging of election in Nigeria because he midwifed the worst election in the history of this country if not the whole world. He came out openly to say it was do or die, I will win the election no how, any how and the late Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua, may God be with him in heaven, former president of blessed memory, came out because he was a man of conscience and he confessed that the election that produced him was full of flaws, was faulty, was fraudulent; the man said so. So, Obasanjo as we all know is a stormy patriot.
He is not really a leader or somebody you can dissipate your energy in listening to. It is out of envy, he knew that the election was quite okay, deep down in him he knew, but he cannot but talk for obvious reasons. Number one, Obasanjo doesn’t want any Yoruba man to be at the helm of affairs of this country. If you are playing a game with him, if you beat him to that game you will become his enemy. There are only two people in this world as far as Obasanjo is concerned, Obasanjo and others. So, he can hardly see anything good in other people.
If you look at his antecedent and what happened ab initio between them, he tried all that was humanly possible in making sure that he derailed the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos State but heaven did not permit him. So, the complaint of Obasanjo is not legitimate.
Now the election has been won and lost, with the winner basking in euphoria of joy and the losers writhing in pain, what is your message to the winner as well as the losers?
As far as this election is concerned, there is no winner, there is no vanquished. Nigeria is the winner. Our country is the winner. Democracy is the winner. It is not a particular party because Alhaji Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will govern all over Nigeria irrespective of your party affiliation, state, religion, ethnicity or tribe. Even if we are being joyful, we must moderate it. It is not about one person rejoicing and others not rejoicing. It is Nigeria and we must have a leader at a time. So, Nigeria has won for one reason. For the very first time in the history of Nigeria since 1960, this is the first time that we are getting a business- oriented minded man at the helm of affairs in Nigeria.
Looking at the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, who polled over six million votes in the election. Were you surprised with his performance in the election?
Yes, I was surprised. I must be sincere with you. Even before the conclusion of the collation, I started ruminating over what must have happened and I came out with these factors. Number one factor, primordial ethnic sentiment. If you see the voting pattern, that is not the Nigeria that we are praying for. It is quite unfortunate. But it happened that way. It has to be corrected. We must learn how to see good in other people and not that somebody comes from your tribe and definitely he has to have your vote, no. Number two, primordial religious sentiment. I
t is quite disheartening that Obi traversed the nooks and crannies of this country, going from one church to the other telling them as if Tinubu has committed heinous crime by having a Muslim as his running mate. So, the preachers all over churches were telling their congregants that they should not vote for a Muslim-Muslim, that Muslim- Muslim is evil, the end will justify the means. One of the things that we achieved in this election is that after this, we know that religion is not going to be a major issue; if it is going to be an issue at all in our body politics, it doesn’t have to be because they are not going to be the head of a church; they are not going to be the head of a mosque, all we are yearning for is good governance. Whoever that can give it, so be it.
Even if you are an atheist, if we know that we have reasons to vote for you, we will vote for you, it is not about religion. Let’s leave religion to churches and mosques. But religion in politics was quite pronounced to the point that some die- hard Christians didn’t want to vote for Muslim- Muslim ticket.
Another factor was the EndSars in Lagos and our youths, all these internet youths that do not know the history and geography of our coexistence in Nigeria. Because if we have to say, Igbos should be our friends more than any other tribe because after the war, it was Yoruba that salvaged them.
Everything they left in Yoruba land we gave it back to them; we are supposed to be their friends in all ramifications. So, Tinubu even cuddled them and we say may be liberalism taken too far, to the point that they are claiming that Lagos is no man’s land. Who can do that in their own area? So all those things contributed to the score of Obi.
Most of the second term governors lost their bids to retire to the Senate, how do you see this and what lesson(s) do you think governors, especially those seeking re-election should learn from this?
It is a great lesson. How I wish that they could legislate that whoever that has been in the executive should not dream of going into the legislative arm but it is their constitutional right; nobody can take that away from them. Now that they have seen it, they have tested themselves, and people have voted against them, is a referendum. They should know that if they do it right, they will get it back. Look at Governor Ortom of Benue State. Ortom is governing a whole state and now you are seeking election into one-third of the state and you could not win. It means that you are a failure, history has judged you. Also, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State and most of them like that, history has judged them. If they do it right, people will vote for them. So, a lesson that we must learn from this election is that it is no more business as usual. The hero of this election is INEC. INEC under Prof. Mahmood has given Nigeria a very transparent, I am not saying that it was flawless but to a larger extent a very transparent election. A very transparent, very free and very fair election. In the history of electioneering in Nigeria that was the best one, I give kudos to INEC, that’s number one.
Number two, I give kudos to the northerners. They thought of Nigeria’s unity, they allowed it to supersede, to overwhelm their personal aggrandizement. Because if they had thought along ethnic line or tribal sentiment, if they whip it like the way it was whipped in the South East, South South that they only voted for their own son, if they had done the same for Atiku in the North, I am afraid Nigeria will not get it right. I pray God be with Alhaji Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Kashim Shettima. I pray God gives them the knowledge and understanding to paddle the canoe of this country; they have the wherewithal, I believe with them Nigeria will move forward.
Your GICC campaigned for Tinubu in Ekiti here, what should the people of the state be expecting from the president-elect?
With or without GICC, Asiwaju Tinubu is deeply rooted in Ekiti. Number one, without sentiment, his first daughter is married to an Ekiti man, his lieutenants that are very close to him are from Ekiti. He knows Ekiti like the palm of his hands. So, we should be expecting great things. We have people who can talk to him and he will listen and may God give those people courage to talk to him. May God give those people courage that they will not be selfish. Because some people when they get their own, they don’t care about other people. May God raise leaders that will be able to take care of the down trodden in this society.
Also, what should Nigerians be expecting from Tinubu?
Nigerians should be expecting prosperity. Prosperity in all ramifications. If you go by his blueprint, he is a man that doesn’t deceive himself, he does not deceive other people. Since 1963, we have relied on oil. That is the single product that we have relied on and this single product the leaders, they have chopped, chopped, chopped and Nigeria does not die but Tinubu said in his manifesto that oil is okay but is that the only thing that we have? If you go to Kogi State, we have iron and ore, thanks be to Buhari for that because this Atiku sold it out as part of privatisation. It was Buhari that went to court to retrieve it and he paid two million dollars to the company that brought it. Today, as I said in one on my interviews with you, Ajaokuta is fully Nigeria- owned and it is 90 per cent completed. So, Asiwaju that I know will do something as far as iron ore is concerned and the bedrock of any economy is iron ore and we have it plenty, the best of iron in the whole world. But here we will be importing iron from Ukraine. If you compare Ukraine iron with Nigeria iron, Nigeria iron is better in everything. All these are what put pressure on our dollars. You will see before the end of this year, dollars will start going down because there will be no too much pressure on dollars. Dangote will be operating his refinery, there will be concession for iron and ore in Kogi and apart from that, he mentioned Bitumen in Ondo State, the second largest deposit of Bitumen in the whole world.
We have it and he said not that Nigeria will be looking for money, all Nigeria will be doing is looking for partners. Foreign partners who are high net worth companies that will invest in that area. We have second largest deposit of Bitumen in the whole world and we don’t have roads in Nigeria. We are importing Asphalt instead of exporting Bitumen to other countries. So those are some of the things that have been wrong in this country that Tinubu will correct by the special grace of God.
The February 25 presidential election witnessed so many surprises, what do you think of our future elections?
It is the down trodden, the masses that also won in this election because the leaders will not take us for granted anymore. I believe in cashless electoral process. If you want to contest for second term, you will work, people will see what you have done, you will campaign. It is not like in those days that you will be working towards storing money and on the day of the election, you will be giving them money for vote, so they don’t work but now they will work maximally; number one, to save their names, number two, if they want to contest for election again, they will be able to win.
