Benedict Olugboyega Alabi (BOA), former Deputy Governor of Osun State, is among the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants. He spoke on his aspiration and plans for the State of Living Springs. Excerpts by Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU
How did your party feel loosing the 2022 governorship election?
The election wasn’t what it was expected to be. On a good day, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola won that election hands down.
There were crisis in APC before that election. There was the Aregbesola versus Oyetola fight. What was the cause of that fight?
Well, they are both my bosses. Two of them were my bosses. They worked together for eight years and they have been friends before that time. In life, like we always say, even the tongue and the mouth have their crisis sometimes when one bites themselves. I don’t know the cause of that.
You spearheaded the Osun State Education Policy Review, restored the 3-3-4 education structure, reintroduced school uniforms snd returned schools to the original names and status. This was the reversal of Aregbesola’s core education policy and you spearheaded it.
After making a policy, you re-examine and reappraise it and if you see that it is not in tune with the time, what do you do? What we did was to strengthen the educational system in Osun State. We saw some flaws that could be redeemed and we said, let us reappraise and we reappraised. Not that we are trying to remove anybody’s policy. Like some people said we want to remove his hand. No, we were not removing anybody’s hand. We reviewed! We appraised the policy and the committee concluded by saying ‘this is what we should do.’ This committee comprises of high networked Nigerians who are education elites across Nigeria. People who have seen it and believed this is what it should be. And people’s opinions from schools, teachers and all stakeholders and the opinion came to be: “let’s do abcd…” One person cannot be bigger than the people. Osun State has 5 million people.
That cooperation is what changed that policy, it is not individual. More so, it is not targeted to any individual, if it is targeted towards an individual, I would not be involved.
You dismantled a policy that was made for eight years by your political leader?
The word “destroy or dismantle” is not the appropriate word to be used. We reviewed and it called for reversal of some policies.
Did you carry him along?
Definitely, he was aware. And if he had an objection to it, he would have come out to say: No, I don’t want this to be done.
He had objections to it, you could see that through his followers. He wasn’t happy.
As a leader, you take hard decisions. It is about body language not about what the followers are saying. It is about what is good for your people. That should be your driving factor. The Obas were saying, we want our names restored, that is our glory. Remember that President Goodluck Jonathan wanted to rename University of Lagos to MKO Abiola, was he allowed? People spoke out against it that they don’t want it reversed. In the same vein, that decision wasn’t our decision. A committee was set-up comprising people from all over the country, not only from Osun State. People appraised it and came with the decisions. We took the decisions to the streets to feel the pulse and people said that was what they wanted.
But some people will be surprised that Oyetola was Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff. So, he must have been part of the decisions that Aregbesola took. So, becoming Governor and reversing those decisions was perhaps like saying: Aregbesola did not do well.
No! We all make errors. We all reappraise what we want to do. If we said this is what we think we happen and discovered that it is not working, you don’t stay with a dead dog, that is already gone. If you believe that leaving that dog and having another one will give you more security to your home, go ahead and do that. So, it wasn’t about individual and I am sure that Governor Aregbesola, if he goes back to his own drawing board, he will know that it wasn’t targeted towards him. If it was targeted towards him, I am telling you that I won’t be part of it.
But it led to crisis?
Yes, it led to crisis
And that crisis led to the loss of the 2022 election?
Maybe it contributed. It couldn’t have been the sole contributor to losing an election. What I am making you to realise is that leaders take firm decisions. Leaders take decisions on the interest of their people. That is one of the reasons for objecting to the statement that maybe we were naive. No, we are not naive. APC is not desperate to rule. APC wants to rule because we believe that we will do better. So, it is about service. What we are saying is that we want to serve our people and our intention is to serve the people and not individuals.
Who nominated you as deputy to Oyetola?
Firstly, I contested in the primary election with Oyetola. After the primary, I was in my sitting room in Lagos when I was called and told ‘okay, we are giving you the deputy governor position. Are you interested?’ And I said, I was interested. And I was told, ‘be in Osun tomorrow.’ And I was in Osun the following day. The politics that was played behind that, I wasn’t privy to it. All I knew was that I contested in that election.
I also know that when Governor Oyetola has clinged the party’s candidacy, there was an agitation for Osun West and I am from Osun West. I was contesting then for Osun Governorship. So, the slot for Deputy Governorship was solicited for Osun West to provide Deputy Governor. So, the wisdom of the leaders from Osun West with the incumbent Governor, Oyetola himself. That was how they chose me. Among those that contested for governorship position in Osun State, we were 27 people that came from Osun West. I started earlier than anybody. I started my campaign on the 26th of September 2016. That means I ran for two years because then I wanted to be known more. I wanted people to know who I am, I wanted to be part of the society and community. I think maybe they love the way I ran my campaign.
What was it like working with Oyetola?
It was good. Oyetola is a technocrat. I am also a technocrat in my own way. We have similar background. I also know that his intention is to grow Osun State. When I was chosen as the Deputy Governor, our first discussion was that ‘let us work together to put Osun in the international community of nations and that serving is a privilege’ and that was important because it was like we are writing our CV. What do you want from a man than that and that is exactly what he did. He put all his life and resources to ensure that we drive the state together to a level it was before a new government came in.
As Deputy Governor, you were not relegated to the background?
No, I was doing what I was supposed to do. One thing is that as a Deputy Governor, you have your statutory duties. You are alternate to the Governor but you have your statutory duties. Once you are allowed to perform your statutory duties, what else do you want? I was by the law the head of the boundary commission. That is major job given to the Deputy Governor and also when the Governor is not around, you act on his capacity. When he travelled, I have acted on his capacity as a substantiate to the governor.
Is it beautiful to be a deputy to a governor in Nigeria?
It might not be the best because we need to enlarge the scope of the Deputy Governor in terms of statutory responsibilities, that is the only thing I see missing.
So sometimes, the deputy governor is not busy?
You are not busy because you don’t want to be busy. To say for instance, I am not the one heading the Ministry of Agriculture but when I saw the lapses in agriculture, I called all stakeholders in agriculture sector — the banks, farmers and machine equipments owners — I said let’s have a meeting on how to ensure that our people have food security and our farmers grow in their trade. If I wanted to say I am not in charge of Agriculture and I see that the governor is very busy and I stay back, I would have been idle.
When I noticed that we need to have a paper in the health sector, I invited everybody in the health sector to my office for a parley meeting. I talked to all of them and enquired: what are your challenges? What are the things you want to do? Because the law also said you will act as an advisor to the governor. So, to act in advisory capacity to a Governor that is serving 5 million people is enough job. Because that means you have to look out for each policy, appraise it and also give opinion. Whether the governor will take it or not, your duty is to advise. And to advise, you must be informed. And to be informed, it needs a lot of background works.
So, I was not an idle Deputy Governor, I was very busy. The Governor also gave me the opportunity to represent him in many meetings. Federal executive meetings in Abuja, I did represent him there. State functions where he couldn’t be, I represented him there. When I was Deputy Governor, I was losing weight because of the workload. It was a 24/7 work done even at Night.
