Dr. Taofeek Olayinka Ayinde is a governorship aspirant in Osun State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He spoke with reporters in Osogbo, the state capital, on his ambition, the challenges of governance, restructuring and other issues. Excerpts:
There has been agitation for the restructuring of the country. What is your view?
In Nigeria, restructuring has become the language of people outside the corridors of power, and it means different things to many. To some, it is true federalism, to some it’s to bring back regional governments, to some it’s resource control, to some it means self determination while to some it’s even secession. Majority of the youths are even confused about the whole things. To me, although the structure we presently have may not be adequate or perfect. But, if we must restructure, then we need more of mental restructuring than physical which is more of heinous tasks and challenging to every citizens of the country and in addition to this, we need more of reorganisation than restructuring in this country.
If just 20 percent of the people in government and elites who had benefited in one way or the other from this country are faithful, honest or loyal and are working to give or build rather than working to get or share this country the remaining 80 percent will be happy and prosperous, and we will still have our problems but, shouts of restructuring may not be part of them. In a nut shell, we need more of patriots than advocates of restructuring.
Do you think the country has made meaningful progress?
Nigeria has made meaningful progress in the sense that the country has been able to survive so many challenges; such as political turbulence, civil war, religious and ethnic rivalries, economics ups and downs and even social disorders and yet the country is still strong and reliable in the committee of nations. There were so many things to count from three regions federal republic to thirty six states federal republic with an enviable federal capital territory, uncommon individual characters and achievements, though with weak infrastructures and institutions which may be largely ascribed to the so called Nigerian factors or corruption. Let us define and tackle these factors and block leakages, due to sabotages, stealing, social and economic corruptions, then every Nigerians will begin to see remarkable and meaningful progress. Because in Nigeria today hungry man is an angry man, the reason why an average Nigerians could not easily see any meaningful progress so far in Nigeria.
How would you access Buhari’s government after 2 years in the mantle of leadership?
We all know Buhari promised to tackle security, corruption and revamp economics. In terms of the security, the government has been able to curtail it to appreciable level especially on those heavily challenged areas. In terms of corruptions, the government has boldly confront it which has started yielding results though with no clear conviction but, the performance to me is satisfactory. In terms of revamping the economy, with recent announcement that the economy is out of recession means that the government is also performing satisfactorily. My assessment of Buhari’s government for now is good. Although the performance is generally below expectations as is always being for every governments in Nigeria.
Nigerians expect government to rechannel looted fund to the economy. What is your view?
In line with the practice of accountability and transparency, I strongly support these views. Even in the defense of the integrity of the government, but I know that all due and necessary processes must be followed. Maybe this is what is hindering the government from doing so. The government needs to do something urgently about this.
Will parliamentary government bring prosperity to the country?
I don’t think so because prosperity of countries does not depend the system of government, prosperity of any country depend on how much sacrifice and commitment every citizen can render or give into nation building. How much productive are the masses and the government in terms of their choices and policies. How much responsive is the government to welfare and security of the people and how much attention given to the environment. These are the basic responsibilities of government irrespective of the system. Therefore returning to Parliamentary government would not bring prosperity if we remained the same as people and in practice which could be described as lazy.
How did you think diversification of Nigerian economy would impact on the masses?
Over the years Nigeria economy is largely dependent on petroleum products, whereas there are so many other resources that can be fully explored to drive the economy. The land is arable and the people especially the non elites are very hardworking and productive. Diversification of the economy would greatly create jobs for uncountable number of youths and will generate productive activities across the entire country.There is no part of the country that is not blessed with one resource or the other. GNP and GDP will increase and more investors would be influenced to invest in the country. We must diversify the economy.
How can we checkmate the alarming rate of insecurity in the country?
As we all know, the highest percentage of our population in Nigeria are the youths, especially those below the age of forty. Majority of them are either unemployed or underemployed. They were left idle without being planned or prepared for by the government. They were left wandering to make ends meet without any social and welfare packages from the government at least to give them hope of a better future. In order to cleverly engage themselves some of them took to crime in order to get rich as quickly as possible, so what we are witnessing today as kidnapping, ritual killings, insurgents and various criminal agitations are as a result of unemployment of our youths and they say idle hands are devil’s workshops. Therefore in order to checkmate the alarming rate of insecurity across the federation the government must urgently provide palliative measures and programmes to possibly and fully engage our teeming and vibrant youths productively nationwide. If this is done quickly then we’ll begin to see the energies of our youths being channeled to nation building and the violent crime will begin to nosedive into extinction.
How would you access the performances of EFCC and ICPC under the Buhari regime?
Under Buhari regime EFCC, has performed creditably well by confronting political thieves and corrupt individuals, they have at least touched the so called untouchables among us. These actions had led to the removal of Nigeria’s name from the list of the most corrupt nations in the world. Although no clearly well executed conviction which we all know as corruption fighting back. To me EFCC’s performance is satisfactory. For ICPC I could not vividly express myself on their performance maybe because their cases are more civil than criminal or numbers of petitions received by them are not as sensitive as those written to EFCC. ICPC’s performance is relatively hard for me to assess.
How can religious bigotry, corruption and ethnicity be curb in the country?
What we grow up to know as religious bigotry, corruptions and ethnicity as problem of Nigeria has being the way of our elders that is being kept permanently as negotiating tools in the sharing of the so called national cake. These had been largely used to polarize the country and further confused the youths who should ordinarily grow up to know little or nothing about them, but unfortunately the youths are more vigorously involved in the practice now. The pragmatic way out is a kind of social engineering which would be to practically isolate the youths from the ways of the elders possibly through our education and information systems. If we can upgrade our education and information systems with strong civic education and national norms and values, then the youths would see the ways of our elders as archaic and not honourable path to follow in the act of nation building. They would see the country genuinely as their own which must be jealously guided and protected.
Are you comfortable with the bicameral legislature in the country?
Government should not be run on impulse, to solve problem of headache should not be to cut the head because no condition is permanent, therefore the challenges we are facing today should be opportunities for us to work harder so as to maintain our standards and systems prosperously and keep them working. If you have four children and suddenly you start facing the challenges of catering for them, the solution shouldn’t be killing some to safe some; the solution should be to look for better alternatives to make life better for all. In a nut shell, I don’t support the view.
