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Tag: Akeredolu

  • Akeredolu to return next month

    Akeredolu to return next month

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is expected to return to the country next month, The Nation has learnt.

    Sources said the governor was expected in the country this week or first week of September.

    Governor Akeredolu had embarked on medical leave in June, which was extended indefinitely by the House of Assembly.

    Read Also; Ondo farmers protest sale of cocoa plantations

    He had transferred power to his deputy, Lucky Ayedatiwa, to act on his behalf.

    A top government official said the doctors have certified Akeredolu fit to resume duties.

    His wife, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, had hinted her husband’s imminent return three weeks ago at the opening ceremony of the BEMORE Summer camp.

    She said: “My husband will return soon.”

  • Ondo 2020: I will contest against Akeredolu

    Former Ondo State Commissioner for Information Banji Ayiloge has unfolded his governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with DAMISI OJO, the former Director-General, Aketi Campaign Organisation during the 2012 election, speaks on his ambition and how the party can retain the state in next year’s poll..

    There will be governorship election in Ondo State next year. What are your plans?

    Let me declare through this medium that I will be running for governor of Ondo State. Before I go further, let me say that I am the most qualified of all the people running for the post, including Akeredolu himself. It is about time Ondo State had a well-travelled, well-read, clear-headed and definitely tenacious person to become governor. Nigerian politics is not like those in the organised parts of the world where you can back someone for office and play a good part in the background to usher in development. I know I have a deserved reputation for steadfastness and  passion to implement good developmental programmes. When these personal traits are pitted against someone with lesser skills and personal agenda. My professional degree is economic development. I was educated both in Nigeria and the United States and had worked in the public and private sectors – both in Nigeria and in the United States. It will not only be a personal loss for me, if I do not utilise my experience to uplift my people; it will be a colossal loss to the people of Ondo State.

    If you take a closer look at those who have signified their intention to run, they do not have  comparable set of skills that I have in abundance. You have a defense attorney who has not run anything other than a small law firm of a few junior lawyers running the state. At every turn, we now realize that he lacks any appreciable managerial skill, the finesse in dealing with people, coupled with a penchant for clannishness. Undoubtedly, Governor Akeredolu’s nepotism will have a long lasting debilitating effect on the people. But, we can still arrest the situation before he does more damage. We must make sure that Ondo State bounces back from the spiral fall it has been experiencing for the last two decades. The need to reposition it to its prime place among the states in the country is of paramount importance to me. Right now, Ondo State is only a pawn to outside interests and must be rescued for the sake of our fatherland.

    Recently, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was in Akure to reconcile aggrieved factions within the party. What is your assessment of the parley?

    I will say that the parley was a complete failure. I am not one of those who would hide behind some diplomatic double-speak to describe what has happened. In Ondo State, there is no reconciliation yet. I will tell you the reason. During the meeting, it was agreed upon that an ad hoc committee comprising of all factions be set up to manage the affairs of the party with the aim of reconciling everybody. That committee would then be charged with the task of planning a new congress to replace Adetimehin’s leadership, which in actual fact, is the “Team Aketi” group. Akeredolu grudgingly accepted this condition at the meeting. Ever since the meeting, Akeredolu has vacillated in implementing this very important decision of party leaders. Akeredolu may not be sagacious, but he knows that new executive members in the state comprising  all factions may spell doom for his second term ambition. He is now stalling and maneuvering to buy some others over to his camp.

    Now, let us look at the situation on the ground in the state today. Team Aketi has a paltry 30 percent of the people in the party. The concerned party members constitute the other 70 percent. The task of the 70 percent is being made easier by the day because of the ineptitude of the governor. I am one of the concerned leaders meeting at Ali Olanusi’s house. We intend to build on our achievement so far and move the state forward. I must also say that by involving the APC leaders first, we have shown that we have the interest of the party at heart. If the leaders buckled to the pressure of the governor and ensure his nomination the second time, then all options are open to us.

    Governor Akeredolu is in his third year. What is your assessment of the administration?

    The Akeredolu’s administration is the worse so far in the history of the state. This is why all hands must be on deck to see to the end of the retrogressive administration. For the first time since the military administration, we have a governor that lacks political and managerial skills. Moreover, it is highly clannish and avaricious.  His son is in charge of the state’s IGR. The saying in Ondo State is that you can only have access to state contracts if you are from far away Imo state (where the wife comes from) than if you are a citizen of Ondo State. Even among the people of Owo, his home town, he has a only a coterie of friends who have formed the clique of favored elite. We must therefore, end the unholy racket currently that is currently going on in the state.

    The governor has a pocket of people, especially on the social media chorusing the slogan that he is performing. Most of these people cannot say what the performances are but they say the governor is performing. Most of what are being done in the state at present is designed to misappropriate money from the covers of the government. The spate of roadway dressings – which the state calls constructions, is a case in point. Obviously, Ondo State has not had a new road added to the network of roads in many years. The government keeps applying asphalt on the surface of dirt roads and  calls that road construction. Those roads become impassable within three years, the asphalt coat is washed away after a few rains.   Can we all revisit those roads completed by the Mimiko administrations? They are in deplorable states of disrepair now. This is a state that received combined income of about 90 billion Naira last year. For not thinking harder and not being circumspect in the way we choose our leaders, we have allowed the spate of development as started by visionaries like Pa Adekunle Ajasin to falter. The late Ajasin created industries and financed education of our youths. He ruled the state with single-minded devotion. We must return to that period if we must have a legacy of which our people can be proud.

    With your political experience, how do you think the APC will gain more support to retain power after the 2020 governorship election.

    This a good question and it has far more consequence for the APC than the people of our state. This is because it looks like the leadership of the party is toying with the idea that they can put a band aid on the festering wound in the Ondo State branch of the party. Their calculation seems to be that Akeredolu is going to have access into our state’s funds to bribe the electorate. Those of us in the concerned leadership group plan to embark on sensitisation of the people to this callous practice. We have done it in the past political dispensations in Ondo State and elsewhere in Yorubaland. In the contest against the National Democratic Party (DEMO) headed by Chief Akintola, the Action Group went to town with the slogan: “Bo r’owo mi o r’inu mi, Demo ni mo wa“. You only see my hands but not my heart, I am a member of the Democratic party.) The people went to vote for the Action group.  When the Action Group successor – the UPN came many years later, the people voted the UPN into power and moved to assert its victory on the street. Therefore, Ondo State people are not dummies. They are politically schooled and are determined to send Akeredolu back to his law practice in Ibadan. They know that Akeredolu’s heart is in Ibadan and not Ondo in state. He is merely using the state for his own selfish purpose.

    Having said this, the future of APC in Ondo state depends on how it handles the present crisis. If the APC as a party continues to vacillate and not institute a fair and credible settlement of the crisis, APC must then prepare to be a minority party in Ondo state. I personally wish this does not happen. However, politics is a game of numbers. Majority of the party cannot be on the outside looking in, while a coterie of friends continues to act as if they are our overlords.

    Do you ever believe in zoning system being promoted by some people?

    Let me begin by saying that ideologically, I am opposed to zoning, especially in a unit as limited as a state. A state comprising of less than four million should be able to put its best citizens forward for election and that citisens should work for the interest of the people. Unfortunately, zoning actually limits the prospective candidates to a narrow geographical area. As a reporter who covered the political beats in 1978/79, I helped to highlight the zoning formula which was introduced by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN)was opposed to it. As a fact, I did a story on zoning by interviewing Umaru Dikko, Ibrahim Takuma, Remi Fani- Kayode and Adeyinka Adebayo – all of the NPN. They all had divergent views on zoning. While those from the North supported it, Adebayo and Fani-Kayode were not enthusiastic supporters. I then interviewed Josiah Olawoyin  of Kwara State who blasted the zoning formula as a way for a geographic area of the country to foist itself on the rest of the country. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was later to lend his weight on the side of the anti-zoning brigade. He posited that zoning was capable of imposing mediocrity and declared that he would work against zoning and national character with the last breath in him. It is therefore amusing to see avowed Awoists especially in the state and local governments advocating zoning.

    I want to point out without any contradictions that at the national level, zoning may be desirable as we have not moved from multi- ethnic country to a nation. In fact, nothing makes zoning at the national level to be compelling  than the current political situation in the country. But in the states where people are near homogenous, there is no need for zoning. Our politicians have even taken it to a ridiculous level where there are zoning formulas in the Local Governments. My fear is that soon, some would start to press that we zone according to streets. This is not healthy at all.

    Let us now relate this to Ondo State. It is the zoning arrangement that threw up Akeredolu in 2011 and 2016. This is because we allowed some leaders to gather together to dictate that the Northern Senatorial zone should produce the governor. That arrangement, which was never written in the party constitution, barred the rest of us more qualified people from the race. It became a question of personality and geography and never about competence. Now that the northern senatorial district will be completing one term of 4 years, the consensus is that the representative from the northern senatorial district- Akeredolu, is not worthy of a re-election. It is now time for qualified contestants from other districts such as the Central Senatorial district, to put their best foot forward. I am from the Central Senatorial District and I am the best candidate to send Akeredolu out of Alagbaka- the seat of government.

    You were the Director-General of Akeredolu Campaign Organisation during the failed 2012 governorship poll under the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Why did you leave to United States after the poor outing?

    With due respect to you, I think your first question is unfair. However, while I accept your skepticism about the 2012 outing, I have no iota of guilt feeling as regards your innuendo that someone who once worked tirelessly for Akeredolu’s ascendancy into the political office of Ondo State can now plan to run against him after just three years in office. Let me provide a brief background as to how I came to that point.

    When I returned from the United States in 2001, I joined the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which was a natural thing to do for those of us who were leaders of the pro-democracy groups abroad. I later became a commissioner under the AD’s administration headed by late Governor Adebayo Adefarati. After the Obasanjo-induced political tsunami, which swept all but one AD administration out of power in the west in 2003, I judged correctly that Obasanjo would do the same thing in 2007. What I did not count on was the emergence of Rahman Mimiko through the courts.  Mimiko who became the governor is from the Central Senatorial district like me. I decided to be a passive politician facing my business interests both in Nigeria and the United States.

    In 2010, I had the foresight to join and became the pioneering Chairman of the Congress for Political Change (CPC) founded by President, Muhammadu Buhari. In fact, my living room was the temporary secretariat of that party in Ondo State until Tunde Bakare donated money for payment towards leasing a permanent secretariat. The fight against corruption was the tipping point that brought me to the CPC. It should be noted that most of those closest to Buhari today in Yorubaland campaigned strenuously against him at every quarter. I was vilified for being with Buhari, whose name at that time was a taboo in the political lexicon of Yoruba politics. Yet, I put my resources on the line for the CPC and Buhari. However, with my sheer commitment and dedications, Buhari scored appreciable number of votes in Ondo State, despite the fact that he did not visit Ondo to campaign. I remember writing a memo to Pastor Tunde Bakare that Buhari was preaching to the choir by visiting and revisiting Northern towns and states. I advised that he should leave the North and focus more on the rest of the country, particularly the Southwest. He did not.

    You may be wondering what my explanation has to do with your question, which is my decision to back Akeredolu; and why I am now running against him. They are all connected in the sense that when I realised that Buhari only wanted a region to complement his hold on the Northern region, I rededicated myself to the affairs of Ondo State by helping to organise the party in the state. My calculation was that, even if Buhari would not win at the federal level, the CPC would have at least 11 to 12 governors from the North and thereby help in bolstering the national profile of the party party in the southern states, particularly my Ondo State. Unfortunately, only one governor scaled through in the north, and the rest of us could only watch in disappointment as voters in the north tore up their voters’ cards as soon as Buhari lost the presidential election. It was even more depressing as Buhari vacillated in dissuading voters in the north from destroying their voters’ cards. After the election, Prince Tony Momoh, the national chairman of CPC, inaugurated the committee of State Chairmen – each representing the six geo-political zones in the country, and charged us with the task of finding the way forward for the party. I represented the Southwest and I subsequently played a prominent role in the committee. The committee recommended that the CPC as a regional party, must merge with all other regional parties in the country if it must win election against the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    After the Presidential election in 2011, I again started my quest to make Ondo a state that would be in the forefront of progressives development in the country. Rahman Mimiko was still in office. I decried how the state was being run by him. Projects were developed and executed on a whim and clearly designed to siphon funds from the state. For instance, the Owena dam which was completed under Agagu was not put into use; he then created a government department that was handing out borehole contracts like sweets to cronies and family members.  Since Mimiko and I are from the same Senatorial District, it would have been politically naïve to plan to succeed him. Therefore, backing a good candidate from other districts was the most politically viable alternative. The ACN became an alternative progressive party to use.

  • Akeredolu preaches peace at Sallah, prays for security operatives

    Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, on Saturday felicitated with Muslims across the country in anticipation of celebration of this year’s Sallah, today.

    Read Also: Sallah: Matawalle grants amnesty to 150 prisoners in Zamfara

    Akeredolu hailed the Muslim community for the peaceful practice of their religion, generally regarded as a way of peace.

    He urged all Muslim faithful to continue to pray for the country, particularly as the nation continues to battle the serious issues of insecurity. Akeredolu asked them to offer prayers for the military men and women and security agencies who are battling to maintain the peace in the country.

  • Soyinka, Akeredolu for Okediran‘s book launch

    Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, and Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu are some of the eminent Nigerians expected to grace the public presentation of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) former president, Dr Wale Olediran’s new book, entitled: Tales of A Troubadour.

    Akeredolu is expected to chair the event. Soyinka is the special Guest of Honour. The two eminent Nigerians will be supported by other distinguished personalties.

    The event will hold tomorrow by noon, at the IACD Library, Jericho, Ibadan.

    Wale Okediran is a medical doctor, has published five novels, and short stories in several journals in Nigeria and overseas. He writes a weekly medical column in The Nigerian Tribune, and was formerly general secretary of the ANA.

     

  • Akeredolu: Bench, Bar must rebuild their reputation

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) served as Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president. In this interview with Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, he speaks on his stewardship in the past two years, and his trip to Thailand for legalised and regulated cultivation of medical cannabis.

     

    • ’My Thailand Indian hemp cultivation trip’

    As a former NBA president, what are your thoughts on the legal profession?

    Well, as for me, we have a lot of wrong perception in the country now and I believe that it is wrong although we practitioners too have not helped ourselves. We are probably to blame for a number of those things. Perception, not only lawyers, the moment anything affects the judiciary, it affects you as lawyers.  A situation where we have the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) going through trial, there  is no way it will not rob off on the profession including the NBA. If for one reason or the other, rightly or wrongly, the NBA President is also being tried, there  is a problem. Now the issue of the NBA President, I have made efforts to look at it. And for me if you are not careful, all of us can run into that problem.

    How do you mean?

    All of us because a number of times you handle cases for governors and probably you are a lead counsel, the money paid to you is not for you alone. Never. Most times such money is not for you alone. So, if money like that is paid, if you are not careful, they will say it is being laundered through your office. We have a Bar, the President is being tried, the CJN is being tried. I pray that the NBA  president comes out of this well. If he does, then we have to come together to build the reputation of the Bar again, that is the way I see it. Apart from the President, a number of our colleagues have been tried and some convicted. Other senior lawyers are still undergoing trial with judges and so on. These are things that have given us negative perception. Something has to be done. It may not be done by Paul Usoro as NBA president. Maybe after his tenure we have a president who  gives a different image and all of us can walk in because when all these trials start, to wash yourself clean may not be very easy. We cannot condemn anybody here because anybody could have fallen victim of this.

    You have been in office for over two years. How has it been?

    Well it has been a worthwhile experience and let me say, I had time to plan to come here. I ran for the office once and got it the second time. So, I am supposed to have enough time to plan for it and I did. And coming here, I had my focus. Essentially my focus was the people. When I talk about the people, it is not necessarily my party members who have quarreled with me over time, and are still quarrelling because I just believed that look, when  you talk about people, it is the generality of people which includes my party members. Your focus cannot be your party members alone. Your focus must be the generality of the people of Ondo State. I was convinced that if you are going to make any impact, you need  to do things that will last long, that the people will be the ultimate beneficiaries of.

    So, I said well, something has to be done about infrastructure. I set at it with everything I had, and developed my own  model which is not the common or conventional one. We got contractors to work without being paid. How they accepted this I don’t know. A few of them  felt that well, we have a lot of  trust  in you, ‘why wont we do it? We know that you will pay’.   So, people started work on road construction and other areas and so on.

    They got to 30 perc ent before they were  paid a dime. That approach made whatever  work that they were doing to be of high quality. They set the standard  before they were paid. That is how we set what people came to refer to as Aketi standard for road construction.

    What about education?

    On education, for years my predecessor did not believe in the type of primary  schools  that we have, that SUBEB or UBEC at Federal level will  support. Everybody has his own style. He felt ‘why don’t I spend money to build mega schools?’ and that was good for him. But for me it wasn’t something I was going to embark on because I am learning from his experience. I could see practically what mega schools had suffered.

    What have they suffered?

    The issue of attendance is very poor and some of the facilities are wasting away. So, I felt that I would still approach the primary school education and the improvement of infrastructure through the SUBEB and UBEC  way. So I got money, we paid our counterpart fund. For about four five years we had not paid. So, we got money, paid our counterpart fund and that led us to work on primary schools from over 700 schools. We have constructed new classrooms in some of them. We have repaired so many. We have toilet facilities. We have their recreational facilities. We have solar power to provide  them light. You can see so many schools all over the state, at all the nooks and crannies of the state.

    The other approach is that I said look, our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is very poor. It was oscillating between N600 to N700 million maximum when we came in. It never exceeded N700 million and I said no, we cannot continue in that way. So we got consultants who had to come and work for us and luckily for us now we are getting about N1.5billion and still moving ahead. Luckily again for us when the Federal Board of Inland Revenue did their rating and Ondo State was rated number one in the country in terms of revenue generation, not that we are generating surplus or much but, in relation to what we used to generate and what we have now, the percentage increase in relation to what we used to have ,we are number one. It is on record and was announced, so we thank God for that.  Then  we were determined that we must industrialise the state. I travelled to China and had discussions here and there and today we decided to have the Ore Industrial Park. If you go there, about five or six  major industries are coming up. Some have even come up. We have plywood. We have MDF. We are the only one selling in this country now. We have cassava to ethanol which has been completed.

    What is the debt situation?

    We are paying debts owed by past administrations.  I said that government is a continuum. There were so many people that the government was owing and I remember somebody saying, what is this man doing, his party members have not got anything and he is busy  paying salaries and debts owed by other administrations in the state. People have worked, they were owed about seven months without pay and for me, I have settled about six months out of that and have only one month left. So, by the time we get the next Paris Club funds we will settle that.

    Is your administration debt-free?

    Since we came into office for over two years we have not owed a dime. Consistently for over two years we have not owed a month salary. We are paying those working for us. It is important for us to do that because I believe that every labourer deserves his wage.  I am not sure that an interview like this can capture all that we have achieved. When I was coming into office, I mentioned to them in Ore that the rate of accidents at that junction is high, that we’ll have a flyover over at Ore. They said every government has been saying so. But we have started. We have done the pilling, which is completed. I am sure that before the end of the year, you will see the flyover over Ore. This is part of what we are set to do. The roads in Owo are there and many places all over the state because infrastructure has been key to us.

    It is widely reported that you are calling for commercial production of Indian Hemp otherwise called cannabis. What is your reaction to this?

    I am a lawyer. I am aware of the Single United Nations Convention on Narcotics 1961. We we were part of it. My understanding of that convention is that it would discourage accumulation of cannabis by its cultivation and so on. But other countries have found ways to legalise cannabis, so many countries in Europe, because there is  what is called medical cannabis. When you discover a cannabidiol, whether it’s the STS you find, or CBD oil you find, whichever one you want to find in cannabis its use today is there for medicinal purposes. We cannot deny that fact. How can we as a country or as a state where you have potential, you have good soil and these things are growing and is known everywhere, people are in search of it – I am aware for instance that in Canada they have about one and half years shortage, they need these things. So, how do we now fold our hands and keep pursuing our people? I said we can have controlled cultivation.

    How do you control it?

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) will license you, take your area cover and you have their officers there to monitor so it doesn’t go into anybody’s hands. There is no way they can even take cannabis out of the country. If we have controlled cultivation then they can have facilities to extract the M Oil. Then the M Oil is packaged and sent to them for use for medical purposes. That is all about it. I said that Ondo State with our strain with the type of cannabis we have here, it has been taken out and tested and confirmed that we have the best strain in the world. They are three species here namely those that grow by river, those that grow upland and so on.

    The specie that is grown within Ogbesse here and Amowuya is the best so I believe that we can take advantage of it now before it is late.  It is believed that we have about $140billonn worth of it in the state, so why can’t we explore how to legally harness it for the benefit of the country? Even if it is S40billion we get, it is something for the country. That is why we went to Thailand to study how they do it. They are still at baby stage but they have put in laws to  allow for this cultivation. In their case, there was a time they were part of the golden triangle, growing puppies of Opium and so on. People have left it now and we can equally make people to leave illegal cultivation of Indian Hemp by bringing some sustainable development, bringing some cottage industries to them and make them part of those who work in the farm which is legalised. So, I believe that at the end of the day, it will be a win-win situation for Ondo State. We should not lose out of this big trade opportunity that is coming up when it eventually comes in the form of medical cannabis.

    Why did you go to Thailand?

    I  did  not go to Thailand to  learn  how to cultivate Indian Hemp. It is cultivated everywhere and everybody knows this. We only went there to see the pathway, to map out the pathway for legalised cultivation and export and use of cannabis here. We have our universities here and they can carry out a lot of research. A friend of mine was with me the other day and told me that he bought one Indian Hemp cannabis product from the United States of America for hair growth, his own  hair has changed. There is one for memory loss and so on.

    How do you get funds to pay salaries and still carry out infrastructural projects?

    Well we looked at what comes  to us from Abuja and from it the first line of charge is salaries, after that, whatever is left we make use of it. Whatever we get from IGR we make use of it. We cannot do more than that. There are some challenges now. We are looking at it that we may borrow some money. There  is nothing wrong with that because a number of our contractors are now  being overstretched. So, we need to give them more money. They have done substantial work that they need to be paid. The IGR may not meet it so along the line we may have to borrow. There was a time I said give us one month and let us owe you, they said no way and when I saw their reaction I said what do I do. In my first speech to them I told them that I won’t owe them salary, I am committed to it.  I am duty bound to continue that way and I will continue as much as possible to do that.

    About the time they made demand for the payment of the one month arrears which Mimiko was owing them, a union leader said I know how much  that came and how much that has been spent, there is no money,  it is not possible, so let us not stress it. Most of them work in government and they know when money comes in so if I had spent it anyhow, they would have revolted.

     What is your reaction to the seeming crises within  the state chapter of the APC? Is it true that you did not work for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election?

    Well for me our party has had its own problems which started from the last party primaries in the state. Whether we want to take it or we want to pretend, we must own up to the fact that we had that crises and there must be a way to solve it. And I believe that the way to solve it is not all these talks about suspension or no suspension. That is not the right approach.

     What do you consider to be the right approach?

    The right approach is for leaders to sit down and look at it holistically. I failed to communicate with you, or if I  reacted in a way  you did not like or did not react at all, let us see, bury the hatches and move forward as one family because we are all in the same party. For me when they talk about suspension – initially it was querry and as speak with you today, I have not seen the query.

    The next one was suspension and as I speak to you today, there is no letter of suspension, so I want to believe that maybe it was discussed, maybe the chairman and other people feel that one way or the other we must get this matter solved rather than pursuing this line of action. But I believe  that the way things are right now it is something we can still discuss and  resolve. It is  something we can sit down and talk over. I belong to the APC, I don’t belong to any other political party.

    As for working for the President, anybody can sit down in Abuja and say oh, he didn’t work for the President. But I worked for the President. I was in his campaign strategy committee of 16 and I will make bold to say that it was only two of us from the Southwest who were meeting every two weeks in Abuja. I was living in Ibadan, I was not a governor then. I went round with him before he won primaries as the Presidential candidate of the party.

    So, I have paid my  dues. I supported the President and the President reciprocated in  that when a little crises was about to start about my primaries, it was the same President who said look, I watched the  programme on telly and this primary  for  me looks free. I am not going to be part of anybody to say go and do other things. He didn’t say more than that. All he said was look Mr. Chairman of the party, that was speaking to Mr. Odigie Oyegun,  do what is right. I watched it,  it was free and fair, so he reciprocated and when a lot of pressure was mounted on him not to even attend our rally, he came and for me that was more than enough solidarity.

    So, if someone did that for me, can I then ever work against him? Who then did I work for? Is it somebody that never approached me, never spoke to me? How could I have worked for anyone else? His other opponent was Atiku Abubakar. We never met; we never spoke. How is it possible for me to work for any other person other than President Buhari? It is not possible. So, I worked for him very well. We might have lost the election here; there are reasons why we lost elections on the Presidential ticket here and it is so clear.

    How so?

    It is not easy for him to win because Akure has the population. All that happened was that Akure felt that look, oh their son Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) who had wanted to be the governor of the state is working with Atiku now, and if Atiku wins Eyitayo Jegede may become the Attorney-General of the Federation that was the rumour going on then and if he becomes the Attorney-General, he could always come back to contest as  the state governor. Akure people went all out to support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Everybody was surprised but that was what happened.

     What of your support for other party members?

    When they claimed that I did not support Senator Ajayi  Borofice, but Borofice won, is it not enough? Every other person they claimed that I did not support won election. Tell me what else they wanted me to do.  We supported Alashe Adura from Akure with everything we had, Alashe Adura lost. He is there. Go and ask him. It was the Akure factor. Ok tell me, is it because my party chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomohole and Governor Godwin Obaseki did not support President Buhari in Edo State and that is why the President lost in Edo? No. You see, anybody can lose election anywhere. Buhari did not lose election here because I did not support him. I supported him and wouldn’t have supported anyone else other than Buhari. I supported President Buhari with all my strength. I wouldn’t have supported any other person.

  • Akeredolu: Bench, Bar must rebuild their reputation

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) served as Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president. In this interview with Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU, he gives account of his stewardship in the past two years, and calls for legalised and regulated cultivation of medical cannabis.

    • ’My Thailand Indian hemp trip’

    As a former NBA president, what are your thoughts on the legal profession?

    Well, as for me, we have a lot of wrong perception in the country now and I believe that it is wrong although we practitioners too have not helped ourselves. We are probably to blame for a number of those things. Perception, not only lawyers, the moment anything affects the judiciary, it affects you as lawyers.  A situation where we have the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) going through trial, there  is no way it will not rob off on the profession including the NBA. If for one reason or the other, rightly or wrongly, the NBA President is also being tried, there  is a problem. Now the issue of the NBA President, I have made efforts to look at it. And for me if you are not careful, all of us can run into that problem.

    How do you mean?

    All of us because a number of times you handle cases for governors and probably you are a lead counsel, the money paid to you is not for you alone. Never. Most times such money is not for you alone. So, if money like that is paid, if you are not careful, they will say it is being laundered through your office. We have a Bar, the President is being tried, the CJN is being tried. I pray that the NBA  president comes out of this well. If he does, then we have to come together to build the reputation of the Bar again, that is the way I see it. Apart from the President, a number of our colleagues have been tried and some convicted. Other senior lawyers are still undergoing trial with judges and so on. These are things that have given us negative perception. Something has to be done. It may not be done by Paul Usoro as NBA president. Maybe after his tenure we have a president who  gives a different image and all of us can walk in because when all these trials start, to wash yourself clean may not be very easy. We cannot condemn anybody here because anybody could have fallen victim of this.

    You have been in office for over two years. How has it been?

    Well it has been a worthwhile experience and let me say, I had time to plan to come here. I ran for the office once and got it the second time. So, I am supposed to have enough time to plan for it and I did. And coming here, I had my focus. Essentially my focus was the people. When I talk about the people, it is not necessarily my party members who have quarreled with me over time, and are still quarrelling because I just believed that look, when  you talk about people, it is the generality of people which includes my party members. Your focus cannot be your party members alone. Your focus must be the generality of the people of Ondo State. I was convinced that if you are going to make any impact, you need  to do things that will last long, that the people will be the ultimate beneficiaries of.

    So, I said well, something has to be done about infrastructure. I set at it with everything I had, and developed my own  model which is not the common or conventional one. We got contractors to work without being paid. How they accepted this I don’t know. A few of them  felt that well, we have a lot of  trust  in you, ‘why wont we do it? We know that you will pay’.   So, people started work on road construction and other areas and so on.

    They got to 30 perc ent before they were  paid a dime. That approach made whatever  work that they were doing to be of high quality. They set the standard  before they were paid. That is how we set what people came to refer to as Aketi standard for road construction.

    What about education?

    On education, for years my predecessor did not believe in the type of primary  schools  that we have, that SUBEB or UBEC at Federal level will  support. Everybody has his own style. He felt ‘why don’t I spend money to build mega schools?’ and that was good for him. But for me it wasn’t something I was going to embark on because I am learning from his experience. I could see practically what mega schools had suffered.

    What have they suffered?

    The issue of attendance is very poor and some of the facilities are wasting away. So, I felt that I would still approach the primary school education and the improvement of infrastructure through the SUBEB and UBEC  way. So I got money, we paid our counterpart fund. For about four five years we had not paid. So, we got money, paid our counterpart fund and that led us to work on primary schools from over 700 schools. We have constructed new classrooms in some of them. We have repaired so many. We have toilet facilities. We have their recreational facilities. We have solar power to provide  them light. You can see so many schools all over the state, at all the nooks and crannies of the state.

    The other approach is that I said look, our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is very poor. It was oscillating between N600 to N700 million maximum when we came in. It never exceeded N700 million and I said no, we cannot continue in that way. So we got consultants who had to come and work for us and luckily for us now we are getting about N1.5billion and still moving ahead. Luckily again for us when the Federal Board of Inland Revenue did their rating and Ondo State was rated number one in the country in terms of revenue generation, not that we are generating surplus or much but, in relation to what we used to generate and what we have now, the percentage increase in relation to what we used to have ,we are number one. It is on record and was announced, so we thank God for that.  Then  we were determined that we must industrialise the state. I travelled to China and had discussions here and there and today we decided to have the Ore Industrial Park. If you go there, about five or six  major industries are coming up. Some have even come up. We have plywood. We have MDF. We are the only one selling in this country now. We have cassava to ethanol which has been completed.

    What is the debt situation?

    We are paying debts owed by past administrations.  I said that government is a continuum. There were so many people that the government was owing and I remember somebody saying, what is this man doing, his party members have not got anything and he is busy  paying salaries and debts owed by other administrations in the state. People have worked, they were owed about seven months without pay and for me, I have settled about six months out of that and have only one month left. So, by the time we get the next Paris Club funds we will settle that.

    Is your administration debt-free?

    Since we came into office for over two years we have not owed a dime. Consistently for over two years we have not owed a month salary. We are paying those working for us. It is important for us to do that because I believe that every labourer deserves his wage.  I am not sure that an interview like this can capture all that we have achieved. When I was coming into office, I mentioned to them in Ore that the rate of accidents at that junction is high, that we’ll have a flyover over at Ore. They said every government has been saying so. But we have started. We have done the pilling, which is completed. I am sure that before the end of the year, you will see the flyover over Ore. This is part of what we are set to do. The roads in Owo are there and many places all over the state because infrastructure has been key to us.

    It is widely reported that you are calling for commercial production of Indian Hemp otherwise called cannabis. What is your reaction to this?

    I am a lawyer. I am aware of the Single United Nations Convention on Narcotics 1961. We we were part of it. My understanding of that convention is that it would discourage accumulation of cannabis by its cultivation and so on. But other countries have found ways to legalise cannabis, so many countries in Europe, because there is  what is called medical cannabis. When you discover a cannabidiol, whether it’s the STS you find, or CBD oil you find, whichever one you want to find in cannabis its use today is there for medicinal purposes. We cannot deny that fact. How can we as a country or as a state where you have potential, you have good soil and these things are growing and is known everywhere, people are in search of it – I am aware for instance that in Canada they have about one and half years shortage, they need these things. So, how do we now fold our hands and keep pursuing our people? I said we can have controlled cultivation.

    How do you control it?

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) will license you, take your area cover and you have their officers there to monitor so it doesn’t go into anybody’s hands. There is no way they can even take cannabis out of the country. If we have controlled cultivation then they can have facilities to extract the M Oil. Then the M Oil is packaged and sent to them for use for medical purposes. That is all about it. I said that Ondo State with our strain with the type of cannabis we have here, it has been taken out and tested and confirmed that we have the best strain in the world. They are three species here namely those that grow by river, those that grow upland and so on.

    The specie that is grown within Ogbesse here and Amowuya is the best so I believe that we can take advantage of it now before it is late.  It is believed that we have about $140billonn worth of it in the state, so why can’t we explore how to legally harness it for the benefit of the country? Even if it is S40billion we get, it is something for the country. That is why we went to Thailand to study how they do it. They are still at baby stage but they have put in laws to  allow for this cultivation. In their case, there was a time they were part of the golden triangle, growing puppies of Opium and so on. People have left it now and we can equally make people to leave illegal cultivation of Indian Hemp by bringing some sustainable development, bringing some cottage industries to them and make them part of those who work in the farm which is legalised. So, I believe that at the end of the day, it will be a win-win situation for Ondo State. We should not lose out of this big trade opportunity that is coming up when it eventually comes in the form of medical cannabis.

    Why did you go to Thailand?

    I  did  not go to Thailand to  learn  how to cultivate Indian Hemp. It is cultivated everywhere and everybody knows this. We only went there to see the pathway, to map out the pathway for legalised cultivation and export and use of cannabis here. We have our universities here and they can carry out a lot of research. A friend of mine was with me the other day and told me that he bought one Indian Hemp cannabis product from the United States of America for hair growth, his own  hair has changed. There is one for memory loss and so on.

    How do you get funds to pay salaries and still carry out infrastructural projects?

    Well we looked at what comes  to us from Abuja and from it the first line of charge is salaries, after that, whatever is left we make use of it. Whatever we get from IGR we make use of it. We cannot do more than that. There are some challenges now. We are looking at it that we may borrow some money. There  is nothing wrong with that because a number of our contractors are now  being overstretched. So, we need to give them more money. They have done substantial work that they need to be paid. The IGR may not meet it so along the line we may have to borrow. There was a time I said give us one month and let us owe you, they said no way and when I saw their reaction I said what do I do. In my first speech to them I told them that I won’t owe them salary, I am committed to it.  I am duty bound to continue that way and I will continue as much as possible to do that.

    About the time they made demand for the payment of the one month arrears which Mimiko was owing them, a union leader said I know how much  that came and how much that has been spent, there is no money,  it is not possible, so let us not stress it. Most of them work in government and they know when money comes in so if I had spent it anyhow, they would have revolted.

     What is your reaction to the seeming crises within  the state chapter of the APC? Is it true that you did not work for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election?

    Well for me our party has had its own problems which started from the last party primaries in the state. Whether we want to take it or we want to pretend, we must own up to the fact that we had that crises and there must be a way to solve it. And I believe that the way to solve it is not all these talks about suspension or no suspension. That is not the right approach.

     What do you consider to be the right approach?

    The right approach is for leaders to sit down and look at it holistically. I failed to communicate with you, or if I  reacted in a way  you did not like or did not react at all, let us see, bury the hatches and move forward as one family because we are all in the same party. For me when they talk about suspension – initially it was querry and as speak with you today, I have not seen the query.

    The next one was suspension and as I speak to you today, there is no letter of suspension, so I want to believe that maybe it was discussed, maybe the chairman and other people feel that one way or the other we must get this matter solved rather than pursuing this line of action. But I believe  that the way things are right now it is something we can still discuss and  resolve. It is  something we can sit down and talk over. I belong to the APC, I don’t belong to any other political party.

    As for working for the President, anybody can sit down in Abuja and say oh, he didn’t work for the President. But I worked for the President. I was in his campaign strategy committee of 16 and I will make bold to say that it was only two of us from the Southwest who were meeting every two weeks in Abuja. I was living in Ibadan, I was not a governor then. I went round with him before he won primaries as the Presidential candidate of the party.

    So, I have paid my  dues. I supported the President and the President reciprocated in  that when a little crises was about to start about my primaries, it was the same President who said look, I watched the  programme on telly and this primary  for  me looks free. I am not going to be part of anybody to say go and do other things. He didn’t say more than that. All he said was look Mr. Chairman of the party, that was speaking to Mr. Odigie Oyegun,  do what is right. I watched it,  it was free and fair, so he reciprocated and when a lot of pressure was mounted on him not to even attend our rally, he came and for me that was more than enough solidarity.

    So, if someone did that for me, can I then ever work against him? Who then did I work for? Is it somebody that never approached me, never spoke to me? How could I have worked for anyone else? His other opponent was Atiku Abubakar. We never met; we never spoke. How is it possible for me to work for any other person other than President Buhari? It is not possible. So, I worked for him very well. We might have lost the election here; there are reasons why we lost elections on the Presidential ticket here and it is so clear.

    How so?

    It is not easy for him to win because Akure has the population. All that happened was that Akure felt that look, oh their son Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) who had wanted to be the governor of the state is working with Atiku now, and if Atiku wins Eyitayo Jegede may become the Attorney-General of the Federation that was the rumour going on then and if he becomes the Attorney-General, he could always come back to contest as  the state governor. Akure people went all out to support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Everybody was surprised but that was what happened.

     What of your support for other party members?

    When they claimed that I did not support Senator Ajayi  Borofice, but Borofice won, is it not enough? Every other person they claimed that I did not support won election. Tell me what else they wanted me to do.  We supported Alashe Adura from Akure with everything we had, Alashe Adura lost. He is there. Go and ask him. It was the Akure factor. Ok tell me, is it because my party chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomohole and Governor Godwin Obaseki did not support President Buhari in Edo State and that is why the President lost in Edo? No. You see, anybody can lose election anywhere. Buhari did not lose election here because I did not support him. I supported him and wouldn’t have supported anyone else other than Buhari. I supported President Buhari with all my strength. I wouldn’t have supported any other person.

     

     

  • Ondo tourism potentials huge, says Akeredolu

    Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo has  described the tourism potentials of the state as a veritable source of economic prosperity.

    Akeredolu made the remark in Akure during a courtesy visit to his office by members of the Nigeria Foreign Service Academy, Lagos, who were on a Study Tour of the state.

    He explained that tourist centres like Idanre Hills, Oke Maria and Smoky Hills in Ilara Mokin, with its golf course, had huge potentials to attract tourists from across the globe.

    The governor, however, regretted the huge financial implications of developing the tourists’ sites in order to meet international standards, adding that it has become a major constraint for the state government.

    According to Akeredolu, his administration is prepared to break the challenges of exploring the second largest bitumen deposit in Nigeria.

    “Before the end of last quarter of this year, President Muhammadu Buhari will be here to commission the Bitumen Exploration Factory in Ondo State,” he said.

    Earlier, Mr Eze Okechukwu, team leader, said the study tour was a pre-condition for students of the academy, to enable them get acquainted with all parts of Nigeria before proceeding on foreign service.

    He commended Akeredolu for several projects, which he had undertaken in less than two and a half years in office.

    According to him, the participants were going back with various positive impression about the State Government’ commitment to good governance and the conducive nature of Ondo State.

  • Akeredolu, Adekoya, Falana, others for conference

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Mrs Funke Adekoya (SAN) and former West African Bar Association (WABA) President Femi Falana (SAN) are among dignitaries expected at the 2019 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Legal Practice (SLP) conference.

    Also expected at the event include former dean, Faculty of Law University of Lagos, Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo, Mr C. A.  Candid-Johnson (SAN) and Dr. Babatunde Ajibade (SAN).

    It will hold in Akure, Ondo State from May 7-8. The theme is: Value added legal practice.

    Conference planning committee chairman Mr.  Ayodele Akintunde (SAN) told The Nation that participants will share their views on the future of legal services in Nigeria.

    He said they will also speak on opportunities and threats, how the legal profession should adapt to the changing landscape, how legal practitioners can improve the quality of their services, attract clients and boost their revenues.

    “Panel discussions will critically examine issues around justice reform, and how to improve service delivery in the justice sector to enhance the value of legal practice. The conference will examine several topical issues in legal practice today, and give practical solutions

    “On the first day, there will be dinner and participants will be treated to cultural displays by various cultural troupes from Ondo and Ekiti states, in addition to the presentations.

    “On the second day, a visit will be organised to the Idanre Hills, where participants can enjoy good scenery of the hills, which is one of the most beautiful natural landscapes in Nigeria,” he said.

    Akintunde said golf enthusiasts will also have the opportunity to play on one of the most beautiful golf courses in Nigeria, the Smoking Hills Golf course located at the outskirts of Ilara Mokin.

    “Like last year, registration for this year’s Annual Conference will be online and members and non-members of the NBA Section on Legal Practice can go to the website: www.nba-slp.org to register.

    “The website is very user friendly. Once you get on the website, follow the link, fill the online form and make payment. The website also has a link to enable non-members join or register and be part of the NBA Section on Legal Practice conference.

    “We welcome new members, and assure that there are lots of benefits for members of the SLP, including discounts on conference registration fees.

    “The array of eminent panelists invited to the 2019 NBA-SLP Annual Conference will highlight strategic solutions and discussions taking place within the legal industry to improve legal services in Nigeria.

    “The Conference will provide participants with an opportunity to enjoy Ondo State, its culture and people, and visit tourist destinations in the state.

    “The conference is accredited by the Nigerian Bar Association, and CLE points will be awarded to participants. The conference promises to be a memorable one,” Akintunde added.

  • Assembly hails Akeredolu over industrial projects

    THE Ondo State House of Assembly at the weekend hailed Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for his vision to turn around the state positively, especially in the area of industrialisation.

    Its Speaker, Bamidele Oleyelogun, spoke during a working tour of the lawmakers to the Ondo-Linyi Industrial hub at Ore, comprising different factories.

    These include thread spinning factory, the fabrics producing factory, the paper pulp mill and the ethanol plant among others – some of which are already employing youth.

    Oleyelogun said: “For years now, industrialisation and creation of employment in Ondo State had been in comatose, with youth unemployment escalating, while Internal Revenue Generation (IGR) was very low.

    “Amazingly, the government of Akeredolu is performing extremely well in revenue generation and performing well by creating employment. He has created lots of employment for our youths roaming the streets aimlessly.

    “This development is combating idleness and under-utilisation of human and natural resources, as well as creating more income for the growth and development.”

    The Speaker added: “Little wonder the state rank tops in the group of states with a dramatic upward shift in IGR, compared to previous years.

    “Visibly, it is deducible that the economy of this immediate environment has changed and there is a positive short and long run transformation in all spheres of the community.

  • Akeredolu greets Christians on Easter celebration

    Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has rejoiced with Christians across the country on the successful celebration of this year’s Easter.

    He urged the Christian community to continue to trust and believe the words of God which enjoins them to love one another.

    In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Segun Ajiboye, the governor noted that Easter, which is celebrated in remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, preaches love and the hope of everlasting life, and he therefore asks Christians to continue to have hope and faith in the nation’s leaders’ capacities to develop the country.

    While urging the Christian community to be diligent and steadfast in their worship of God, Akeredolu equally asked them not to forget to make moderation their watchword during the celebrations.