What has been the response of the people to your aspiration since you started your campaigns?
The response, by my own assessment, has been wonderful; it is very encouraging. With the massive reception, I am convinced that the people of Ondo State are truly yearning for a change.
You said the people want a change. But many people have continued to endorse the incumbent.
When you talk about endorsement by individuals, this does not in any way translate to votes. When you talk about what you read in newspapers, these are bought articles. These are articles that are skewed towards a particular candidate. This does not bother me; my concern is about what happens in the field. I talked to the people and I got their feelings.
Two deputy governorship candidates are coming from the Akoko, which is part of your senatorial district, does this not suggest that you have no hope there?
Let’s wait and see what will happen, but I can assure you that ACN will sweep the votes in Akoko, notwithstanding that two deputy governorship candidates are from the area. By the way, who are these deputies, is it the one picked by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a weightless candidate; or is it Ali Olanusi, the old and tired horse that would be changed before the election? I can assure that the people of Akoko are not looking for deputy, what they are looking for is governor. The people are happy that ACN zoned the governor to the North. So I am very sure that my people in Akoko would naturally prefer having a governor from their senatorial district to having a deputy that carries no authority to do anything for them.
Your manner of emergence has created acrimony. How is your party containing this?
It is a well-known fact that all primaries throw up what could be called opposition. Every political party has devised what they consider the best option to pick their candidate; ACN is no exception. So, I don’t see what ACN has done that is not right or that is not democratic. Having submitted yourself to a process, you cannot approbate and reprobate. Everybody was part of the process. But because of the number (of aspirants), we are bound to have people who would probably not agree with the decision and who were never party men, who were only in the party to pursue their personal ambition, and would want to pull back when this personal ambition is not realisable. All we can do is to wish them well. Ambition can make people do many reprehensible things. It can make you lose your party, it can make you lose your ideology, and it can make you lose everything. The party has been reaching out to many of them and a good number of them are now with us, they have reconciled with the party and are working hard on the field to ensure our victory. Those that are yet to return, we wish them good luck wherever they go, but we are sure that, sooner than later, they will return to us.
What is the nature of the reconciliation?
A lot of reconciliation has been done. That is why I said that what we have done really is that immediately after the exercise, a lot of meetings were held where aggrieved aspirants were reconciled with the party and a lot of them now are in support of my candidacy. Yes, one or two decided to opt out. That is not something that is strange; it happens everywhere, it happens every time. When I say everywhere, I am not saying all over the world, what I am saying is that it happens everywhere in Nigeria. If out of about 27 aspirants, about two or three decided to go, I don’t think we have done badly. So, reconciliation has been done, we have gone round, if one or two people are still sitting on the fence, we will continue to talk to them.
Are you saying for instance, that Dr. Tunji Abayomi, who was very bitter, is now supportive of your candidacy?
I don’t know of Dr. Tunji Abayomi being bitter. He is my respected egbon (senior), a highly principled man, who is never out for personal ambition, but the collective good of our people all the time; he is a chronic party loyalist. What he did was to express his feelings; he didn’t do this to bring down the roof of the house. He made it known clearly that he was opposed to a few things the party did, but at the end of the day, he is with us, a true democrat and a strong party man. It was right of him to say he felt hurt by the decision of the party. I concede that to him. He is a true progressive, of course, he cannot be in any other place except among the progressives and we are matching on together.
How true is the report that you did not register in Ondo State?
Anybody can say whatever he or she likes. I don’t have to be registered in Ondo State. It is not a legal requirement for me to contest election. They can say whatever they like. It is part of Labour Party propaganda. All I can say is that I am a registered voter at Ijebu II Ward 5 in Owo.
Violence has suddenly crept into the election process with reported clashes involving the three main political parties. Is this not of concern to you?
I am concerned about violence, but I’m not surprised. Even before now, I had raised the alarm that Governor Olusegun Mimiko is keeping a ‘thugdom.’ His own idea is that he would get this thing (election) by force. But I make bold to tell the governor himself and his party that they are fooling themselves. We would win this election fair and squarely, in spite of the thugs he is breeding. His thugs are all over the state. What is however of greater concern to me is that we have never had a fair deal from the Police. Not until when the DIG (Deputy Inspector-General of Police) came and held a stakeholders meeting, my belief was that that meeting would have put things in its proper stead, but after he left, the incidents that happened thereafter have continued to show us that the Police Command here is biased and is willing to do the bidding of Governor Mimiko and his party. The Police Command here is under the influence of Labour, whether it is monetary influence or whatever it is, but it can be otherwise anyway. The Police have been bought; it has demonstrated a total bias. We urge the Inspector-General of Police to look at the case of the Ondo State Command and do a surgical operation. The command that is parading the likes of Tunji Fadairo who has been in and out over five times, cannot be trusted. The police have showed tremendous bias that, if care and urgent steps are not taken, might increase violence in the state. Because when people cannot find protection in the police, they might protect themselves and the leaders would not be in control of such situations. I have been preaching to our supporters to remain calm, not to be violent but if they are faced with a police that is now an arm of Labour Party, then they may have no choice than to protect themselves. One day, they may react and they may not be under my control.
But the police have openly indicted your party as the aggressor?
You don’t expect anything different from people who have shown bias. What do you expect the police that is under heavy monetary influence to say? They are writing a script for Labour; the (Police) Commissioner is a Labour (Party), his deputy, Tunji Fadairo is a Labour (Party) person, everybody knows, so they are writing a script for Labour. On the day of the incident, all of us were in joyous mood, having elected our candidate, so you don’t expect us to be unruly. If Labour Party men had not driven into our convoy, nothing would have happened.
The important message to the police is that it would do well to remain unbiased. They should know that we are not people that are afraid, we leave our fate in their hands, we leave our protection for them, but if they fail to do so, we will protect ourselves.
Would a resort to self-help not lead us to the type of crisis we witnessed in 1983?
I don’t know where it would lead us to. We are in 2012, we cannot go back to 1983, but all I know is that if the Police refuse to protect us, we will protect ourselves. When the DIG came, he appealed to all the political parties to conduct their affairs in a peaceful manner, he appealed to the police not to be biased, but, unfortunately, all his appeal fell on deaf ears as unfolding violent events have now shown.
How far has the incumbent administration provided a level playing ground for all?
We are not expecting the incumbent governor to provide a level playing ground because he is not interested in it; what we expect is a police that is unbiased, a police that should and must not take side. It is the police that should give a level playing ground to everybody, if there is any attack, the police should do its lawful duty by arresting whoever is involved. So, I never expect this government to give a level playing ground; that is a suicidal expectation.
But people say the previous administration of Dr. Olusegun Agagu gave a level playing field; they wonder why the same cannot be expected from Dr. Mimiko.
You can’t talk about Dr. Agagu and compare him with Dr. Mimiko. Agagu is an urbane gentleman. Agagu is not someone you can compare to Mimiko. Mimiko believes in thuggery, he lives on it, his life depends on it, and his electoral aspiration depends on it. Agagu is a disciplined democrat, he allowed campaigns, he allowed billboards to be erected, he allowed posters to be pasted, and he allowed a level playing ground for all the parties. It is not the same thing with Mimiko, who is the exact opposite of Agagu when it comes to democratic tolerance. But he has to be very careful because these thugs he is rearing would sooner than later turn on him, so he has to be very careful.
But it sounds incredible that you are saying all that about Mimiko, the same man you defended four years ago at the election tribunal?
When you talked about defending him, remember that I am a lawyer. If I were convinced that there were election malpractices and they bring the matter to me, I would prosecute the case. But I will not support thuggery. The matter that went to court was not for me to defend his thuggery. All I was there to do was to plead his case that his votes were manipulated, that votes were not cast and there were multiple thumb printing. All these we successfully proved. But if the case was pleaded that he used thugs, I won’t go there to defend him. I guessed he probably did not use thugs because Agagu gave him a level playing ground to operate.
Some observers have adjudged Mimiko as doing well; why change a winning horse?
I don’t know if that is your own judgment. Anybody who says Mimiko has performed well must be seeing governance through a jaundiced eye. Mimiko has done nothing. What you see are cosmetic projects. If you want to say he has performed well, go to our local areas, go into the interior, not a single life-supporting or promoting project is there. When you travel round the state and you go to the interior, you will weep for the people of this state. No light in the whole of the Southern Senatorial District, most communities in the state are not accessible, most of our farmers are living in abject poverty. The fact that he is asphalting and building fountains in Akure is not a measure of good performance. Here is a man who in his four years has not commissioned any tangible project except markets, which are supposed to be local government affairs, here is a man who, four years down the lane, has not employed one teacher, yet we have schools where you have over 100 pupils in a class, we have schools of about 2000 students with only two English teachers. Here is a man who, in his four years, no industry built by him or by private investors has been commissioned.
But the same man has been endorsed by prominent Yoruba leaders?
Chief Ayo Adebayo and co. were park-lane politicians, they never knew how the works were being done on the field. What Chief Adebanjo and co. are doing is that they are still fighting a war that has ended. Their support for Mimiko has no scientific base. It is simply, ‘yes this is ACN being led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, so we oppose him, no more no less. A party being led by Tinubu and headed by Baba Bisi Akande is an offshoot of Bola Ige, our enemy, therefore we must oppose it, and we must never allow any good thing to be seen in Yoruba land that has to do with Bola Ige.’
What they are saying is that in life and death, we are against Bola Ige. My appeal is that that battle should have ended with the death of Chief Bola Ige, let all of us match together for the greater interest and development of Yoruba-land. The Yoruba will forge ahead with or without them, it is in their own interest to return to the fold, they cannot be against Yoruba interest.
Are you saying they are misleading the people?
With due respect to them, they are generals without troops, so they have no one to mislead.
