Three days to the August 9 governorship election in Osun State, Comrade Amitolu Shittu, an activist and Director-General of De Raufs Volunteer Group, which is championing the ideals and reelection bid of Governor Rauf Aregbesola is confident that the governor will get another four-year term. He spoke with ADEKUNLE YUSUF.
Long before Governor Rauf Aregbesola declared interest in running for a second term in office, De Raufs has been busy campaigning for his reelection. Why is your group so passionate about having the governor win reelection?
What I want to say on that is very simple. It took us months to study Governor Rauf Aregbesola. During our investigation, we unraveled some information that many people may not be familiar with. I am not saying that he is the best in the world, but among the few that do not attach importance to what we call ephemeral of office, he stands out.
What do you mean by that?
He is not somebody who allows the mentality of the so called public office holders who carry everything on their heads thinking that without them, the generality of the people that they are destined to rule cannot survive. He is one of the few that believe truly in the emancipation of the people by using the instrumentality of office to change their lives for the beter. He is among afew politicians that will not betray the trust of the people – and it is very rare to see politicians that will not tell lies. I am teling you, sincerely speaking, that Aregbesola does not tell lies. And once a leader fails to tell lies, he allows the fear of God to run in his veins.
Once you have God, you have everything. I have tested Rauf Aregbesola. In a week, I spend close to seventy-eight to seventy-nine hours with him. It affords me the opportunity to know him critically and from inside his character and life. Whatever you discussed with him, he will not tell anybody; he maintains what we call secret. Once you discuss anything with him in confidence, he will not discuss it with anybody immediately you leave, including his wife. I am saying this authoritatively. I was with him one night. Somebody was talking to an elderly person trying to cover the governor on some issues. I just heard the governor’s voice saying, “I did not say that. That is not what I told you. Tell people the exact thing I told you. I don’t tell lies and I hate people lying using my name.” But if you ask the governor why he is doing that to the man, he will just tell you that the issue is between the two of them.
Apart from the fact that he is not a liar, he belives so much in God. He has reduced the attraction that people have given to the office of the governor. That means if you have the likes of him as president of this country, things will change. In his character, he has shown to the public that he is just a representative of the people and that it is the people that have power over him; that he is not the lord over the people. He behaves in a way that shows that without the people he canot be there. He brings everyone on board because he does not like division or segregation. Sometimes I don’t feel comfortable about some people around him, people I think are not honest. But he will say he can manage everybody. But immediately Aregbesola discovers you are not honest, he will still manage and tolerate you till you expose yourself. I don’t have temperament for such but he has. There are uncountable qualities this man has that I have never seen in our conventional politicians in my entire life. When Aregbesola is committed to an idea, he puts his life there. That makes him to stand out among our politicians. Even sometimes when he describes himself as a politician, I do tell him that he is not a politician. He will ask me why and I will tell him that a conventional politician will not behave the he behaves.
Aregbesola is also a leader that is ready and in a hurry to fix everything. That is why he wants to give his best in the area of education, thinking for the children of the people. He says he too is a product of public schools, and asks if he is a product of public schools, why should he not use the instrumentality of office to rehabilitate the battered and the destroyed public school system. He says that during his time in school, there was everything in the public school because the public school was competitive. He will say the very best attended the public schools while those that could not cope attended private schools. Today, the reverse is the case. He is also very passionate about reviving the health sector. He says he cannot imagine that many people in the rural areas cannot have access to decent health facilities. While people in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Kaduna, and other cities are living comfortably, they don’t bother to care about the rural dwellers who produce the foods they eat in the cities. When he realised that accidents have become incessant on our roads, he introduced the ambulance system. This is really saving lives – it takes care of the sick and the pregnant women.
And it is in all the senatorial districts, each senatorial distric having nine. Just call them on their number and the ambulance is already there. I know we have ambulances in our hospitals in Nigeria, but what we have here runs twenty-four hours all over the state. Apart from Lagos, where do you have that kind of thing? Since he inaugurated the ambulance system, the rate of mortality through accidents has reduced drastically – I have the hospital statistics. When some journalists had an accident recently the ambulance team gave them first aid and took them to the hospital promptly. We could have lost more than five of them but for the intervention of this great man. Those who are alive today among the victims will give gratitude to God and credit to the government of Aregbesola. Many members of the public who have benefitted from this initiative cannot also forget Rauf Aregbesola. In the past, when an acident happened, many of the victims died in the pool of their blood unattended to.
You can also see that the people are happy with his agricultural revolution. His initiative in the area of agriculture can also be linked with Fidel Castro’s ideology in the area of agriculture in Cuba. Agriculture runs in Cuba. I know what I am talking about, in the forseeable future, this state will be the largest food basket in the whole of the former Western region. With the foundation, the output we are recording in all our farms in the areas of fishery, livestock, etc has increased. Very soon, cocoa will be processed here. There will be no need for any cocoa farmer to travel elsewhere because all the cocoa products will be processed in Ede.
The thinking of Aregbesola is to make Osun the hub of agricultural production for the whole of the West, that we can do it since the climate favours us. He has also made a landmark in the area of social security. He realised that the insecurity problems Nigeria is going through today is as a result of lack of social security. What he is doing in the area of O’Yes is a way of giving social security to Nigerians. With that, the rate of criminality in Osun has reduced drastically – anyone can find out from the police. He has engaged the youth of this generation in socio-economic development of this state. In the area of road construction in the thirty local government areas, he has touched so many areas. Look at the working tools he has given to the police. How will the people not be happy? Where there is security, investors will come. Awolowo immortalised himself in the hearts of the people through his policies. Aregbesola is doing the same thing here. That is why he walks freely on all the streets and towns in Osun. How many state governors can walk freely on the streets of their states?
Going by what you have seen in the course of campaigns, are you confident that the people so appreciate his works that they will vote for him again?
Yes, I am sure of that. Every Friday and Sunday, he makes beggars happy by identifying with them and giving them money. How many governors do that? How many times has President Goodluck Jonathan done that? How many times has the president visited an orphanage? How many times has the president dined and wined with destitutes or the downtrodden masses? How many times has the president invited the poor masses to the government house to share the dinning table with him? Aregbesola has done that on many occassions where people with special needs were invited to government house, organising dinner for them and giving them sense of belonging that they are part of us. His style of governance gives the impression that he does not fancy vanity or luxury at all.
Beyond what you ascribed to the governor, to what extent are you also counting on members of your organization in all the 30 local government areas in the state to win next Saturday poll?
Anytime we hold meetings or rallies, I am always amazed at the way they work. They are very committed. Recently, I tested them to know whether their loyalty and devotion is real or not. I asked each chapter to produce within 24 hours at least five hundred members of our organisation that have voter’s card (he opens his laptop to show the figures). Later, I extended it to 72 hours.
Before 72 hours, they produced more than that. I also did my own – I produced my entire family’s voter’s cards, my mother’s voter’s card, my wife’s voter’s card, my son’s voter’s card. I asked every member of De Raufs in all the 3011 polling units in Osun to do same. They produced all this in less than 72 hours. I was shocked. They gave me more than the figure requested for. To the glory of God, in each polling unit, we can conveniently tell you that we have over 150 members today that have voter’s cards. And we have their records stored permanently in our archive.
That is just our own organisation. Look at other countless organisations that also believe in the ideology of Aregbesola – look at the Oranmiyan, Aregbesola Victory Group, Vanguards, etc who also have their members too. Now let us talk about his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). All these are bloc votes. I can tell you authoritatively that Aregbesola cannot get less than 70 per cent of the votes. Anything less than 70 per cent is fraud. He will get 70 per cent from this exercise while other political parties will share the remaining 30 per cent. I can boldly tell you that the candidate of the Labour Party will have more votes than the PDP’s.
In other words, you are not afraid that violence or militarisation of the poll may suddenly change the game?
That is why I disagree with people who want to take over the state by force. I want to say that doing that will not help democracy in Nigeria. I therefore want to use this medium to advise and warn President Jonathan not to be deceived by the aggressive and over-ambitious politicians; otherwise they will throw Osun into chaos. If they come to Osun and rig election, the people of Osun will react. I know they will roll out their armoured tanks, but they should be ready to kill thousands. Rigging election here will bring sudden death to this democracy. I have been into detention 10 times because of the struggle for democracy.
And if democracy collapses on the head of Jonathan, posterity will never forgive him because anarchy is looming. Why? If you rig election in Osun, there will be crisis. This will trigger more crises elsewhere. It will raise the consciousness of people of Ekiti that have been robbed and kept quiet. Crisis will engulf that state and they may start killing people. In Adamawa where the governor was forcefully removed, it will raise the consciousnes of the people there and they may start challenging the impunity. Similar things may happen in Oyo and Ogun, where Governor Amosun is now feeling that he is unsafe. Same thing in Edo and Imo states. And when the crises engulf the whole nation, it will crumble democracy.
That is why I want Jonathan to look and think critically by not undemining the electoral sovereignty of Osun because it can bring quick death to our democracy. I know politicians don’t think about the welfare and security of the country; they only care for their pocket. That is why I am talking about the implications of rigging Osun election. If they do, what I said will happen. They should also know that nobody has the monopoly of violence; it will consume Mr. President and destroy everything because crisis knows no bounds. I want to appeal to him passionately that taking over Osun should be between life and death. It is a do-or-die affair. But he cannot toy with the life of the people and expect them to fold their arms. The people of Osun know what they have passed through in the last four years; they can sleep with their eyes closed because the state is very peaceful. Anyone who wants to return hooliganism to Osun should be expecting anarchy. His party is telling us that Jonathan wants to revenge for not voting for him in 2011, it will consume him if he dares it. It will consume every consumable democratic structure in Nigeria, and posterity will not forgive any of them.
