Akinloye Oladele Aiyegbusi, a former banker and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Ekiti state governorship candidate thinks people are tired of the PDP and APC and are poised for a real change come July 14. In this interview with EMEKA NZE in Abuja, the SDP flag bearer outlines his blueprint for the development of the state.
As a banker, why you are suddenly into politics? I want to bring good governance and transparency; a government that has stakeholders involved in decision making for the overall interest of the society. I will work assiduously to bring back the glory of Ekiti State. I want to work and give all it takes to make everybody understand that if they work hard they can become whatever they want to be. Besides, we want to tap our God given resources to benefit the lot of our people. Agriculture is the mainstay in Ekiti State. We want to focus in agriculture, increase our revenue base, and as much as possible de-emphasised on the over-dependent on federal allocation. We need to develop the critical sector of our tourism, our education, which we are well known for. We need to bring back the glory of Ekiti which is the fountain of knowledge, endowed with human resource, human capital. Sadly enough, what we have are people begging on streets – graduates (are now) okada riders… these are what policies of the state by successive governments, have turned our youths into. So we are saying enough is enough. We want to take it upon ourselves to build and work together to give the state a better status and bring back the glory of yester-years where we really intend to be. We want to take our destinies in our hands. I want to work within the confi nes of the manifesto of the party, the Social Democratic Party, which is social welfare, to get the best of the state and to carry everybody along. We need the support of the elderly, we need their advice, we want all hands to be on deck.
As a youth aspiring for leadership, are you satisfy with youth leadership in this country? I am disappointed. Their performances are below expectations. But you know, taking up a challenge is different from when something is given to you unprepared. We have worked for so many years, we have worked with so many people to come to this decision to say, it is right time throw our hart to the ring. I personally, I’m not impressed, without mentioning names.
And you believe you can make a difference? I am going to make a difference.
What gives you the courage to think that you can make the difference in politics? I’ve been in banking since my youth service years, and I have been in banking until recently when I exited. I am an indigene of Ekiti State but grew up in the north, but I hardly go home. One thing I find disheartening recently when I started going home is if you park your car, before three minutes, people will gather around, able bodied young men, they will ask you or N500, the next minute, you will see them in beer parlour, drinking. And it is like we are breeding a wasted generation, if nothing is done, we are sitting on a time bomb that will consume all of us. That is the reason I took it upon myself to go into politics. If I can be what I am, they can be better.
The major challenge youths are have today is to engage the elders in elective political offices. They seemed to be disconnected from the grassroots. How So SDP is actually the party to beat in the election. As it is now, the Ekiti people have said that they are tired of the PDP and APC and that they are ready to try something new. much grassroots person are you in Ekiti State? The future of this state is in our hands. Collectively, it is our responsibility. It is not about government. What about Igbimo Rice, it is one of the best rice you can have in the world. Lagos State, they have twenty million population, for instance, if Lagos State buys 200 bags of Ekiti State rice every day, that’s N1 billion. That means we can generate revenue of over N1 billion. And where is Ekiti State with that capacity when Lagos State was investing in Kebbi Rice? So we need to look inward. There is a cave in Ekiti that can take over 400, 000 people. We hardly find things like that anywhere in the world. We have Ikogosi, that have hot water. I think there are only two places like that in the world. So, why won’t you develop this tourist haven into a place where Nollywood will be acting their fi lms? But we seemed to be contended. Everybody you meet in Ekiti will tell you he’s a politician. So I say to them that, four years, they will come, give you money, for instance, they give you N2, 000, if you share it by the number of 365 days times four, how much does it give you? It can’t even feed you in a day. And in the next four years they will come back again, they will give you money… no development, no growth. We can’t continue like that
A lot of aspirants usually very optimistic when they are vying for political office, how do you hope to create employment for the teaming youths? When we talk about agriculture, let me just give one simple analogy to help explain what I want to say. Olams is a company in Nigeria, registered as a cocoa trading company but recently that same company invested $150 million in Kaduna to buy Gulder, so why would we not have a company like that in Ekiti state? What are the government and the Ekiti people doing? You can take up partnerships with companies like that and say okay farmers need money to grow their crops. You can partner with such companies and introduce agrocredit scheme to give loans to the farmers which will be guaranteed by the government to ensure that farmers grow crops and eventually sell to them. There are so many cash crops in Ekiti state that if we concentrate on that alone, we would be one of the richest states in Nigeria, instead of being second poorest state.
Are you talking about government investing into agriculture? No, what I mean is PublicPrivate Partnership. Again, we have this World Bank project, like the Fadama programme, that helps to promote farming. All that is needed is to create the awareness and enabling environment, let them form associations so that they can access this funds to do all kinds of agricultural products. There will be a lot of investment in-flow; both locally and internationally in the agriculture sector.
You are still a green horn with little or no experience in running a government at any level, don’t you think this may be a disadvantage? In banking, a philosopher once said that “he who manages money, manages all”. Sitting on my seat as a banker, the person who wants to go into farming will come and tell me his problem, the one that wants to go into telecommunications business will come and tell me his problem and the person who wants to go into export business will also come. So, you see, it is place that exposes you to so many other areas, to every facets of the society. In fact, sometimes some men that have problems with their wives expect you to help tell them on how to solve the problems because you manage their money. So banking job has really prepared us over the years for situations like this. What I am saying is that I don’t want to see it as administration, I want it to be like a movement.
How popular is the SDP in Ekiti state? You see, the 2018 governorship contest is between the SDP and others. The APC and Governor Ayo Fayose’s PDP, because of what are happening in these parties, they will fight themselves to the fi nish. Only few days ago, no fewer than 79 key members defected to the SDP and we are still counting and by the time they fi nished their controversial primaries, a lot of them moved to the SDP. So SDP is actually the party to beat in the election. As it is now, the Ekiti people have said that they are tired of the PDP and APC and that they are ready to try something new.
