Former Secretary to Ekiti State Government and High Commissioner to Canada Ambassador Dare Bejide spoke with reporters on his ambition to rule the state.
What is your vision for Ekiti State?
My vision for the people of Ekiti State is to reduce poverty by promoting economic development through job creation, job retention, self-employment and to create an enabling environment where an average Ekiti man will be ready to contribute his own quota to the development of the state. I believe agriculture is very important. If you promote agriculture, you are likely to provide food security. In other words, the people will be able to feed themselves and also feed others too. You are also likely to attract young people into farming because those who are farming now are getting old. And, if we are not careful, nobody will be ready to farm again.
How can agriculture be promoted?
My plan is to encourage farmers to be on the farms. We would encourage them to farm in groups, not only to feed the people, but to also produce raw materials for industries so that we can attract investments to the state. We will also make farming more attractive. You will realize that at a particular period during the year when the farmers are harvesting their crops, there is no technology for preservation and the crops are sold at ridiculous prices. At another time, they won’t have anything to sell because they are still planting their crops. That will stop as soon as I am elected as governor. What I will do is to make government the buyers of last resort. We will encourage farmers to produce as much as possible, and if they are unable to sell, we will buy from them at competitive prices and store them so that they (farmers) can remain in the farms for 12 months. We shall offer credit facilities to farmer to enable them have enough funds for farming. In addition ,we shall make farming more attractive to young people by creating farm estates
On education, which the state is noted for, how do you really want to improve on what is the ground now?
Education is very important. That is why the state is called the Fountain of Knowledge. The experience of the last few years has not been palatable going by the results of examinations bodies like NECO, WAEC and JAMB as regards our children.
We will promote compulsory basic education and provide g mid-day meals for our kids. We shall upgrade facilities to enhance qualitative and functional education .
Our government will embark on diversification of curricular so as to place emphasis on integrated skills to make education more meaningful in the state. We would encourage the teachers to do well. Our government will encourage and motivate the school inspectors.
At the level of secondary schools, we believe in the boarding schools and we would also make it compulsory that, at least, there is a boarding school in each of the local government. We are going to strengthen the school enterprise project by introducing the theoretical aspects of the program in all schools to promote skill acquisition and functional education. Functional in the sense that we would let people know that government cannot employ everybody. So, you must acquire one type of skill or the other while in school. The problem is that everybody looks on to government for employment. However, it is not possible, or done anywhere in the world. Even in advanced countries, it is not more than 10 per cent of the people that are employed by the government. But if you acquire additional skill, you will not only employ yourself but also create employment for others.
Can your party beat the APC, which wields the power of incumbency?
The power of incumbency has always been there. It was there during the time of the AD and they lost. As I said earlier on, it is difficult to manage success, particularly for those who have not lived with the people sufficiently enough to understand the sensitivity of the people. The power of incumbency has its own negative and positive effects. The positive side is that, if you are an incumbent and you do well, it has the potential of giving you more votes to come back again. But, if you don’t do well, it is a minus and has the potential of throwing you out of power for non-performance.
And how do you see the performance of INEC, so far?
The INEC has done considerably well going by our past experience. But again, it is not for INEC alone to ensure credible election. The politicians must also learn to be transparent in whatever they do. If you are talking about electoral fraud, it is difficult for the INEC officials alone to alter the result of an election without inducement by politicians. INEC officials will not bring thugs to the voting centers. So, the issue is that politicians must endeavor to play the game according to the rules. Once we play the game according to the rules, we won’t have any problem about INEC officials
What is your advice for the political class and the electorate, ahead of the governorship race?
For the political class, they should learn to play the game by the rules. Whether they are 20 or 30 of us contesting for the governorship, only one person will eventually emerge. We should appreciate from day one that we are going into this contest with the understanding that only one person will emerge as winner . Once we have this in mind, the issue of desperation becomes irrelevant. But, if a man feels he must win by all means, he will do a lot of terrible things to win. So, I will advise politicians to have it at the back of their mind that, in going to a contest, it is possible for one to win or not to win. I will also advise politicians, particularly my colleagues, that whosoever emerges should also embrace the losers. The idea of winner takes all should be a thing of the past. Once the loser knows that he is a stakeholder in the polity, he won’t be desperate; he will be willing to cooperate with the winner.
For the electorates, they should think less of what they want to take from the man who wants to contest. They should think of the man who can deliver; they should think of the politicians that they know very well, and familiar with. They should ignore emergency politicians because they will abandon them whether they win or lose. If they believe that all they need is to take money from whoever is contesting, they should know that at the end of the day, they would also pay the price at the appropriate time.
