Dr. Adebayo Orire is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State. He spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on his ambition and other partisan issues. Excerpts:
What is your assessment of the political situation in Ekiti State?
Ekiti State is 21 years old and we are happy we have the state. But, if you look around, you will see what you would not have thought you will see in Ekiti in terms of negativity and retrogression in Ekiti land. One would have expected that a small state like Ekiti to have become more economically buoyant, politically stable, socially attractive, and commercially viable. But, what we are seeing now is social degradation, economic stagnation, political instability and rascality, and some negative indices of growth factors, like as we speak, there no single production industry in Ekiti, apart from ABUAD farm, there is no single farm in Ekiti that can feed one thousand people.
So, some of those indices would have been maximally low so that we would have to witness more progress in the state, look at politics, we have the highest turnover of governors and rulers and each defacto government that comes and goes without leaving much behind. It has rather resorted in capital flight. We have imported governors, imported commissioners, imported political leaders and where they live is where their accounts are and you cannot even access the volume of money that comes into the state in form of loans in your banks because they don’t really stay so the state is left poorer than it was in those days. If your think of socials, our morals are lower than it was twenty years.
You could see insecurity here and there than those days when Ekiti was a safe haven for everybody; peaceful, loving. But what is heartwarming about Ekiti now is that is a state with a lot of potentials, human resources are superbly abundant, the weather is very good, the climate is very good, the land is expansive and fertile, mineral resources are there in abundant, agrarian opportunities abound, industrial opportunities abound, the land is really still virgin and is just waiting for the right person to come and develop her.
Who is that right person that you think that do the magic?
The magic lies in somebody like me. I have been in Ekiti since 1980, I know the terrain, I know what they like, I know what they lack I know what will make Ekiti buoyant socially and industrially, and in every facet of life. The issue is that I am based here, because I have been here I have been practicing my profession here for years, I have done a lot of businesses here, ranging from stone quarry, I have gone into agriculture, I have gone into transportation, I have gone into trading and commercial exploits. I have gone into medical practice, I have gone into mineral exploitation; so I know a lot we can do in Ekiti that can make her buoyant in two years. I know what we can plant in Omuo, I know what we can plant in Efon, I know what we can do in Ado Ekiti that are just all waiting to be exploited. Twelve years back when I wanted to contest for Governorship, I told the people that I am going to do 100 industries in four years, as we speak there is no single industry in Ekiti.
I was going to replant 100 million cocoa seedlings in four years 50 million palm trees in four years and as we speak, there is no single farmer that we can say can boast of 30 thousand cocoa seedlings in Ekiti. Ekiti cocoa was used to be one of the major cocoa that we used to build Cocoa House in Ibadan, and up till now there is no single irrigation farming in Ekiti in large quantity, we usually import tomatoes from the North during the dry season, this is saddling, and these are the things we can put in proper shape and make everybody happy in Ekiti.
What do you think has been responsible for the past leaders inability to put things in proper shape in the state?
The truth is that they were all Ekiti people but they never lived in Ekiti, so they never knew the real needs of the people, imagine somebody who came to do roads and forget the future of agriculture in Ekiti State, truly he had worked, yes but that is his focus because that is the only thing he sees whenever he comes round over the weekends in the state. He only he sees the roads he never went to the farms, he never knew how yams he ate in the hotels came about.
So, there is no way such a person can get the priorities right, everybody had come to do one thing or the other that are good, high fluting, white elephant. Everybody had tried, but you cannot give what is not in you or what you don’t have. Whatever you don’t have passion about cannot come up in your projects as priority, so it is me that stays here that knows the priorities, because I have a business here I know what we will do that will fetch people the money to come and patronize my business.
I know, majority of people in Ekiti apart from civil servants are farmers and traders, so we have to really point this out, I know how to open up the economy of Ekiti by heavy agrarian pursuit and industrialization, and these are what a lot of people will not see when they come from outside.
For instance, like somebody doing the overhead bridge in Ado Ekiti now, that is what he sees because he stays in Ibadan, and he wanted a Mokola experience in Ado Ekiti. Do you get what I am saying now, so, a lot of things will just come to your mind because of your association, because of where you grew up, where you stayed, your economy, these things will rub in on you, on your perception of the need of people, if they had stayed in Ekiti, all their lives they will knows the priority they will know the first thing first, and life itself is about prioritisation. You know, everybody needs to enjoy but everybody needs to work, but the person that enjoy first will go poor, but the person that works first and earns money will go richer, and still enjoy. So prioritisation has been the problem we have in Ekiti, and that is because we had not had the luck of fielding grounded home based politician.
Secondly, you have to put people of integrity in position, and you cannot know of somebody‘s integrity without living with him.
We have packaged leaders. They were packaged for us as highly educated people, as people of high integrity, people of high volubility, and so on, but you cannot package your system. However, they tried their best, but it is not possible to give out what you don’t have, but we have to really go into details of what have the person has done with his personal life. Is he a success in his profession? Does he have a charitable heart?, the kind heart, the attachment to the land, without all these things your ruler ship will be on the surface, and you will not be able to get the real hold on the goodness you want to dish to the people. When you do things that people need, these things will speak for themselves and will announce you and put you in their minds, like realistic and pragmatic person.
You are a medical practitioner and a cleric, could you to juxtapose how these qualities will come to bear on Ekiti politics?
If you really want to do politics, and you are really serious, then you need to have a kind heart that is attached to the welfare of the people of the land that will develop the health of the people that you want to rule, and so my medical inclination and my religious standing will actually make me a more kind Governor who will see everything as service divinely ordained to make people and their lives most comfortable. What I am saying is that as a medical doctor, I have the intelligent, I have education, I know what an average Ekiti could afford, I know what they lack, I know what an average Ekiti can afford for treatment.
So, they are an extension of me, I pity them, in fact, some people cannot afford treatment, some people cannot even afford food, and as a Pastor and Reverend fellow, I know how they feel, I am part and parcel of these people, so those two qualities has actually informed my passion for Ekiti people.
For instance, you could see some somebody who could not afford money when he comes to your hospital, somebody you operate upon and will stay up to like two weeks before he gets money, these are things that actually gingered my interest in wanting to put solace into the heart of the people.
In this part of the country I know everything that one needs to do to put smiles on the face of everybody in Ekiti, and I know that everything we need to grow Ekiti to great success abound in the state, if we continue to break the rocks that we have in Ekiti, we will make money.
If we continue to do irrigation with our streams, we will grow enough vegetation and arable products that we can export. I know that we can generate power from wind, from sun, from waters, and even from refuse dumps, because I am here, I am practicing my medicine here, I practice my clergy work here, and because I started politics here, I know the needs of my people. I know the things that can make my people happy, I know what can make the people grow, I know what can feed them and make them rich. So, all the three are synergistic, and complementary to each other.
