He held sway as the deputy speaker of the Osun State Assembly for eight years and took an active part in the struggle to reclaim the mandate of former Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola during the latter’s first term in office, ruffling the feathers of the powers that be and paying heavily for it by way of persecution that landed him in prison. Akintunde Adegboye, a lawyer, engineer and estate consultant spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI about his prison experience, life as a deputy speaker, the misconceptions a lot of people have about political office holders, especially lawmakers, among other issues.
You participated in the struggle that brought Aregbesola to power. How was the experience?
We started the struggle in 2004 when we formed the Oranmiyan Group. I was at the forefront with the likes of Chief LayiOyeduntan. We were having meetings in his house at the Oroki Estate. Aregbe (Aregbesola) later came to join us with their own group and we came together. We were in the Alliance for Democracy (AD) then and he was a member of the AD in Lagos. That was how we started until the election in 2007.
He was our governorship candidate while I was the candidate for the House of Assembly to represent Osogbo. Before then, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) had metamorphosed into Action Congress (AC) and then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Election came and we won. We had 11 members in the House.
On the day of the election, you know that PDP was in power with Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the governor, so it was a matter of do or die. The PDP was running down the members of CAN. Eventually, we won the election. We believed that we won all the seats, that was the reason we went to the court. Aregbesola was not declared the governor. We had 11 members out of the 26 in the House, meaning that 15 were for the PDP. But after the election, some of us were declared wanted for disrupting the peace of the land because our members protested.
In my own case, I had to run out of town. I was in exile for 52 days because I was declared wanted ‘dead or alive’. But we needed to come back to collect our certificates of return and get sworn-in as members of the House. We couldn’t do that until the last day, which was June 2nd, 2007.
At the point of entering for the inauguration, some of us were arrested; I think three out of the four that were declared wanted. We were arrested and taken to police custody. The following day, we were arraigned and were remanded in Ife Prisons. I was in the prison for 32 days before we regained our freedom and went back for our inauguration. That was how we started going to court. We were discharged and acquitted after four years; that was in 2011.
You know that Aregbesola regained his mandate on 26 November 2010, after three and a half years, and in my own case, it was after two years. There was a party going for nomination but the logo was not on the ballot paper—PPA, which was being used by PDP to see that I was not the accredited candidate after polling 27,000 against the 8,000 polled by the PDP.
So the case was at the tribunal here and we won. But when we got to the Appeal Court, the court said any election in which the logo of a party was not on the ballot paper, the Electoral Act 2006 stipulates that the election remains void and the election should be rerun. My party said no, we were not going for a rerun. That was on November 2nd, 2009. We didn’t go for the rerun and the PDP candidate came for the election and they completed that tenure. So by 2011, it was an automatic ticket for me because of the pains I went through. I was the candidate for the 2011 election, which I won with 29,000 to 4,000 against PDP. That was how I came back in 2011.
Talking about your 32 days in Ife Prisons, how was the experience, considering the fact that you were not a common criminal?
There are two different cases for whosoever is in prison. It is either you are awaiting trial (we call them ATM) or you have been sentenced. In our own case, we thought it was going to be for a few days. The days we were arraigned, the lawyers applied for bail. Initially, it was at the magistrate, but the Magistrate said he had no power to handle the case and that we should be remanded. He said he could not admit bail verbally but written bail application.
The time we knew this could not be treated was when we eventually went to the high court. The judge now said: ‘We are sorry, we just have to look at the written bail whether it matches what can be used to give us the bail. Since our own was not just ordinary, it was political, that was the reason we went for so long. It was an experience that was not too palatable. We still have pains till today. I had never been to the police cell not to talk of prison. What they called your bed was nothing to write home about, and prisons services were not good. After how many years I have left there, I still go to the prisons to see prisoners and talk to them. It was not a good experience. The 32 days were like one year.
Considering that you had a taste of what prisoners go through, did you eventually do something about the prison when you became a member of the House of Assembly?
We have been saying that it is better for whosoever is going to lead to visit places like the prisons and health centres to see how they fare. I told you that I have been going there to render necessary assistance not only to the prisoners but at times the people working in the prisons. At times, you will see some inmates who are supposed to go to court not going because there is nobody to fuel their vehicles. The prison service itself is worrisome. Some people will just collect the money but they won’t do the necessary things. Some inmates won’t have legal assistance; they won’t have anybody to visit them.
I had an experience of somebody who was charged for armed robbery, even the case file was missing and he was there for many years. The government would not know that somebody is in their custody. Family would come, but it would get to a stage they won’t be able to come again. Somebody will be there for 10 years for an offence whose sentence will be just for six months or one year; nobody to ask of him, nobody to fight for him. It is an experience that is not palatable.
With the state of political development in Nigeria, do you see politicians still being given the treatment you got when you were in opposition?
I can say we can still have such, but not in this part of the world. When Aregbesola came into power, he said whoever among his followers would want to hound the opposition would be disowned. There was a case of some people in Ijeshaland and even here (Osogbo) and Ejigbo where our party members were happy that we had won the election and would want to do to the opposition like they did to us. He said the police should arrest those people. In Ilesha, some PDP stalwarts arrested a lady and she was raped. They even inserted a stick in her private part. But when we came to power, Aregbe said we should leave them to God. That is how a true democrat should behave.
A true democrat believes that today I may be in power, tomorrow I could be in opposition. If you hound opposition today, that means tomorrow you would be hounded and the cycle will continue. You see, we have had peace since. That is why you see PDP coming into APC and APC going into PDP, because they still believe they are together.
Talking about people changing parties, nobody would ever believe that Aregbesola and Oyinlola would sit down together. What lesson has that taught you as a politician?
In my own case, if I’m tired of the APC today, and APC is not moving into another party or APC is not transforming into another party, I won’t join another party. There is nothing that can happen that would make me say I want to defect to another party. I’ve never done that in my political history. I’ve been in politics for almost 30 years, and in all my political life, it has been just in one way. If I’m not satisfied with the APC, I will sit down, because I see politics as pastime.
Here in this part of the world, nobody is teaching politics. If they say what is your profession, nobody will say it is politics. I have my profession; I’m a lawyer, an engineer by profession and politics by calling or pastime.
What you’re saying in essence is that legislating should be made part-time…
There was a time we went to the US, particularly the state assembly in Atlanta, Georgia, and this question came up. It was part-time. Their own part-time is not like the part-time we are thinking about here. You can’t do the two together here, but you can do it there. In the US, you can go for your teaching job and later come to the House. But here, it is almost 24hours per day. Unless we sit down very well and couch it, work it out on how it can be done, it will be difficult.
It is not possible to have part-time state or national assembly. People will be coming to you that they are your constituents; they are the one sending you to the House, unless you want to tell them not to come to your house. They won’t come to the gallery at the assembly to see how you are performing. What they come for is money. At least you must know your representative, you must see how they perform. That is the essence why we have the gallery. Come to the gallery to watch, but they won’t come. What they will come for is for you to give them money. Somebody cannot go to the farm and come back to work as a part-time lawmaker for now.
Even the economy is so bad that if you want to do part-time, there is no way you will not steal, that you will not be corrupted. For now, I can’t see it working, but it would have been better.The young ones now are becoming members of the assembly. I hear that a 31- year-old is now a Speaker in a state assembly. Will you say that person should have part-time plan for the house of assembly? What has been the experience? Somebody who has not been a councilor, who has not been a chairman of a particular area, it can’t work. But I believe it would have been the best for us. The economy too is not encouraging.
I read in a report that when you were a lawmaker, at a point, you could not fuel your generator. What could have gone wrong?
That was then. Some of us would want to say it as we see it.
But many believe that politicians, especially lawmakers have so much money?
When I was saying it, I meant it and I still stand by it. It was at the birthday special programme for Mr. Special then. We couldn’t fuel our generator and the government could not pay for electricity. There were two things but it was only one that was reported. Why did we have generator in the first instance? It was because there was no light from the national grid. We needed to do our legislative duties of going to the house at least three or four days in a week and getting there, there was no light, there was no fuel and there was no money. The executive would give certain amount of money per month for running of the office. Normally, we have three tiers of government: the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. Of these, nobody would say one is superior, but we know it should be the legislative first before the executive. But since they have the money, they have the custody of the entire money, we just have to go and beg since they have the money.
However, when people look for power and such power does not include money, they are powerless, and that is why legislature would go and beg the executive. We’re entitled to certain amount of money per month to run the government. It is supposed to be at the first week because we want to run that month. At times they would owe two, three months and even salaries. When I was there, our salaries would be the ones to be paid after paying all the agencies. And the running grant would not be paid as and when due. So we begged them. There was a time we needed to travel officially out of town. We needed certain amount of money and we had to go to Wema Bank. The Wema person said ‘Oga, it is 15 per cent o’. That was the interest. But when they are paying you, would they pay with interest? This was the experience. That was why I said some people are looking at us and they are seeing us as bad people.
At least if the hospital was not giving all free because there was no money, the other facilities that you constituents and electorate must have enjoyed, it is you that they know. They will come to you. And we have been telling them, we’re sorry o, it is only that some of you won’t move nearer to us, you would have known these problems. We can’t at times fuel our generator.
What are the things you are missing right now as a private person?
When you’ve been with your people for a very long time, you still want to at least serve them once you have signed that you want to serve your people. But now, you have moved from being a public person to private person, some people, even if they want to come, they will say I’m sorry I have other things to attend to or may feel this one has left. That is the only thing I see there, but I’m enjoying myself.
A prominent politician once said deputies are spare tyres. You were a deputy speaker. How true is this?
Whoever made that statement is right. If somebody is a deputy, he can only perform ultimately, optimally if the Number One is not around. So it shows they are spare tyres. But in some cases, you have some Number One that would delegate, but not total. He will delegate the power of leadership of such organization or institution to his deputy, but not always. We have seen experiences where Number One will exchange words with his deputy. Some will not delegate authority because they don’t want their deputies to know anything about the running of that place.
But in my own case, at least I can say I didn’t experience such. But it was not total. Because if it were to be total, that means he was not capable. If somebody is capable, he would leave some duties to the deputy. It can’t be total. But I enjoyed working with my Number One because he at least gave me the opportunity to showcase my experience.
If you were given an opportunity to be made a speaker or deputy speaker again, what would you do differently?
You know in this life, the more you grow, the more you learn. That is the reason for somebody who has the experience to still move forward so that you would use past experience. You will figure out where you tried, where you failed and see the necessary innovations to put into it. It is only when I’m there that I know we have done this in this way, why can’t we put more efforts into this? But I believe that I will still do more in terms of legislation. This is the number one duty of a legislator, and moving closer to the executive without jeopardizing the power of the legislature. Because at times, your friendship with the executive will cause you many things since you’re expected to introduce checks and balances.
Challenges like insecurity and religion were alien to the South West but now they are issues. What is the way out?
Do we say alien?
Aregbe was the governor, religion nearly became an issue. On insecurity, Fulani were never a threat in the South West, but now things have changed. That is what I am saying.
Let us detach the two. One is religion. In every house in the South West, you see Christians, you see Muslims living together. Even some are living together as husband and wife. Almost every family has either religion. In Aregbesola’s case, it was only the system that escalated religious imbalances. Here you would see pastors inviting an Alhaji for programmes. I’ve been to churches. Last Sunday, I was in Ilesha in a church, Cherubim and Seraphim. But in a situation that some people want to be mischievous, they now want to pitch religion with politics. The two cannot go together.
During Oyinlola’s regime, the governor was a Christian, the deputy was a Christian, the SSG was a Christian. Even during Aregbesola’s regime, among the executive members, Christians were in the majority. In the House, the Christians had the majority. Yet they claimed Aregbe wanted to Islamize the state.
On insecurity, first it is because the economy is bad. We have the herdsmen. But I read in a paper that not the herdsmen but the rustlers that are causing insecurity. You can see a case where somebody was given a cow and he is bringing the cow down South. On the way, the rustlers stole all the cows. Instead of going back to tell the owners of the cow that the cows had been stolen, he would come down to find the means of getting arms and ammunition, because he wants to replace the lost cows. I think that is the reason we have kidnapping. But here, we have been living with the Fulani since I was a toddler. We have some of them who even their parents were born here. Such people, can we call them the Fulani herdsmen that are killing our people? Though we have cases of Fulanis and farmers clashing in Osun here, we have a team that looks into it.
While you were in the prison was there a time you were frustrated being a politician?
In the prison, they knew I was not what I was arrested for. When you see a criminal, you know this is a criminal. They knew I was put there unjustly. I won an election in April 2007 by a wide margin. Could I have gone out the following day to start burning the houses of the opponents? My father’s house was burnt on the 16th of April 2007 and my father was 90-years old then and he was to be burnt in that house, because they went around 1 am, thinking that my father was in the house. I didn’t even have that in mind, but somebody just called me and said can’t we go and take Baba out of that house? I said go. But I knew of my late father; he would say whatever would kill him would kill him inside his father’s house! It was the family house. The house is built inside our family compound.
When they got there, they said Honourable said we should bring you. He said for what? They said they didn’t know. He said okay. He went inside and dressed. They didn’t even go with a car, they went with motorcycle and they brought him to our house. That was between 7pm and 8pm. By 1 am, the house got burnt.
The following day, somebody came and said his father’s house was burnt the previous day. He came to look for the burnt honourable elect’s father. How frustrating that was. Before then, we had been declared wanted.
Inside the prison, those people saw us as people being victimized. They said I should not worry, that there was a reason God kept me there. That was the way we looked at it. But the experience was bitter. How could I have won an election and be kept in a prison? We thought that the court would just sit and give us bail, but it was not so. It was an experience we can never forget. In spite of that, because we wanted to serve our people, we knew we could experience such. It is easy now. Somebody wins an election and he is sworn-in. It was like we made way for the people coming in now.
As for my children joining politics, for me whatever the Lord has ordained, whether you like it or not, it must come to pass. But my children are young because it was late before I started having children. They are still toddlers. If they grow old and they want to go into politics, I won’t stop them. But I would guide them on the type of politics they must play. I believe that it is only God that can give and it is only God that can take. Some don’t believe in that. I don’t because of political position go to pastors or Alfas. If you pray for me, I allow you to pray for me. But to just go to somewhere because there is a powerful man of God there, no, no. It is only God that is powerful. I believe in my God.
So if my children they want to go into politics, the only thing I’ll do is to advise them on the type of politics to practice. Some join politics for position. It is never done. You will discover that you can’t plant in a farm today and start harvesting. Some people they jump from one party to the other because they were not given tickets. I wanted to go to the House of Representatives in 2018 but I was not given the ticket. I was made the chairman of the campaign in our federal constituency. I was the one taking candidates to the nook and crannies of my federal constituency, the senator, the reps and the members of the State House of Assembly.