Dr. Felix Ohunyeye, a Brigadier-General, spoke with SANNI ONOGU on his governorship ambition in Ondo State
What is your agenda for the people of Ondo state?
We have developed a 12-point agenda and the entire paradigm shift that we will bring to Ondo State is tagged with the acronym “AGES”, where A stands for all-around security, absolute security, G for growth and good governance and E for empowerment. Now to achieve the dream of AGES in Ondo state, I have conducted a critical look at the major pillars and areas of growth, which are cardinal pillars of growth within the state and these include security, education and infrastructure. We have agriculture, and we have healthcare and health services. Now, let’s start with security. In Ondo State, if you had listened carefully, there was this belief that Ondo State had done very well in areas of security and of course, this is where we have to give credit to our beloved late governor, may God bless him in heaven, Arakurin Rotimi Akeredolu, who introduced or was one of the people that developed the concept of Amotekun. Indeed, Amotekun has done extremely very well and the outfit is still up to its assigned tasks. They have been able to stamp out all manner of criminalities within Ondo state; of course, there are still a lot of areas to be addressed concerning Amotekun. Now, with my military background and experience am going to look at the areas of their operational blueprints to see how we can refocus and make it more efficient. We are going to look at the scale of their equipment to make sure that they are sufficient. We are going to look at the training and manpower development. We are going to look at their logistics, especially mobility and these are very crucial things. Other than this, on security, I must forge a unique collaboration between all the security agencies within the state.
In the area of infrastructure, regrettably, there is no dual carriage lane that enters Akure, the state capital; whether we are coming from Ore to Akure, you are coming from Ilesha to Akure, or from Ekiti to Akure, all those roads are single-lanes. Of course, they will say there is no money, but there must be an arrangement for us to build all these roads. If it means getting partnerships and strategic alliances for such roads to be built, we have to look at it.
If you go to education, of course, it is a light of any nation. When you look at the United Nations development goals, educational development is one of the key areas of attention. In Ondo State right now, we need to refocus our attention on education. I remember in those days when you talked about Ondo State, one of the things we pride ourselves on is being one, two and three in order of hierarchy in terms of educational development. But, right now, it is arguable that this may not be so. We need to go back to the drawing board to look at what we have to do. In this wise, we want to pick the classrooms. Are they conducive? Our students, do they have chairs, benches or tables to sit down on and write? What about the teachers? Do they have the complete teaching facilities? What about the use of IT in the schools? Have we introduced modern IT techniques to drive and aid learning, to multiply learning within our education sector? What about the teachers’ training? Are they well trained? Do they have the capacity? Is their remuneration and welfare, good enough? If it is not good enough, these things will have to be addressed.
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What are your chances of securing the APC ticket, given that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is also interested in the ticket?
In life, there is no uphill task and to make it more clearly defined, the task of ruling a state within the context of the Nigerian polity is simply a function of what the political parties decide. I am a member of the All Progressives Congress. I am a very loyal party man. I believe in the party structure. I believe in leadership. Where the party says they want individuals to come and contest, I have presented myself because that’s exactly what the party wants. And I believe it’s my right, which the party had guaranteed. If tomorrow my party, APC, says, okay, everybody withdraws, we want to carry Aiyedatiwa as the consensus candidate, it behoves me as a loyal party man who believes in the hierarchy to obey the instruction. So what we are doing right now is within the ambit of the allowable by our political party. I believe if any other person can win as a governor, certainly I’m equally almost more qualified to be the governor of the state. It is not left for me to determine this. The party and the people are going to vote to determine who is best suited for governing the state.
What is your assessment of President Tinubu’s tenure so far?
I will assess the government certainly not as a party man, but rather as a Nigerian and of course, a financial and management expert. If you want to develop Nigeria, what is the major problem? Nigeria is currently a consuming nation. What do I mean by that? Production is undermined, it’s reduced to the barest minimum and that is a starting point. If we look at the focus of the government, the emphasis has been on how we improve productivity. How do we generate foreign reserves to shore up our balance of payment position? How do we reduce unnecessary consumption? How do we douse the incidences of unwarranted fuel subsidy that cannot be explained? And lucky enough, our President and our father, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, on 29th May 2023, when he took over, one of the first policy statements he made was the cancellation of the fuel subsidy. And that was the beginning of the economic rise and growth of this nation. Yes, I agree that people are going through some hard times in terms of the increase in the price of fuel, but I can assure you in a very short time, most of these difficulties will go down because there will be sufficient savings to be ploughed to investments that can generate employment, that can generate additional income for the government, that can reduce poverty, that can improve the standard of living, that can make things better for the populace. There is no doubt, if you look at recent reforms in the financial sectors, you look at all-around reforms everywhere, there is no doubt that it’s certain that in a matter of short time, the condition of living of the people will surely improve. I’m convinced by the economic indices that everything will improve. Even though given now that we have some difficulties, things will surely get better with the government programmes, the plan to bring in mass transit buses that are powered by gas, the recent operationalisation of the Dangote Refinery and of course, the expected restart of Port Harcourt and Warri refineries. These are very encouraging things that I can tell you that are going to make life much much better for the people and there is no doubt that the government is going to do very well if you look at the footprint of the economic policies, either micro or macro from what we can see currently.
What has been your relationship with your constituents over the years?
Let me tell you and it’s not only peculiar to me, every officer in the Army, right from the day you are commissioned as a second lieutenant to the day you are leaving as a general, if God permits, are surely leaders in their communities. On every important issue within those communities, you are consulted and I can assure you, you may not have the financial strength to contribute but notwithstanding, there are several areas in which you can help your people. There are contacts you can use to get employment for the people. There are contacts you can use to galvanize your friends in the civil sector, to come in and put in their money to support the people. There are several areas in which a leader must show leadership. You are not only serving the country, but you are equally serving your people and that is just the situation for every Nigerian military officer. In my case, I’ve engaged with my people in the last 15 to 20 years, in all respects. We have come in, even with the little, to interface, to give scholarships, no matter how little. We have come in to proffer advice. We have come in to talk to the government, to help people to do one thing or the other. We have put in our experience in giving mentorship, to do training and we have done. Little wonder when I left the service, my people welcomed me back home with a grand reception; it’s one of its kind, not common and that is a reflection of what I was to them and how they looked at me in getting involved in their lives throughout my entire service years. And it’s quite encouraging. But by and large, I would encourage officers that while they are in service, they are called to serve the nation purely, but notwithstanding, they should have a listening ear to their community because in no distant time, they will return to that home and be reintegrated into the community and that would determine what happens to them even for over 20 years or more of their life. So by and large, I believe I have interfaced with my people as much as reasonably allowed by the military law, rules and etiquette and we have done that with every sense of decorum.
In your view, how has the military performed in the fight against insurgency?
If you look at history closely, if you look at nations all over the world that had a history of insurgency; it has been very difficult, if not impossible, to defeat them. Perhaps, maybe Sri Lanka, which had issues with Tamil Tiger insurgents, we can say that largely they have been able to defeat Tamil Tiger but notwithstanding there are still pockets of killings and bombings here and there. Having said that, the Nigerian military, I can assure you, is one of the best in the world. Not because I am part of it, but because you ask me why am I saying that. I say that because we have gone out for operations and courses with other officers from even America, from the UK and I can assure you, that our level of development, our training, and our competence is always top-notch, always very, very high. Yes, we can say that the military is part of the Nigerian society. The Nigerian nation is going through a lot. Several developmental and growth issues are currently being encountered and the military is not immune or insulated from all these issues. In terms of fighting power, yes, since 2014, we have seen a progressive enhancement in the fighting power of the military. The successive governments have done very well. The military has been re-oriented. They have been re-equipped. The subordination to civil authority has improved and we now know that the military has remained extremely very professional. Yes, Boko Haram in the Northeast, as you have been hearing, has been technically defeated. But like every insurgency or insurgent group the world over, even though they are defeated, they will still have some remnants or resistance that will continue. But I can assure you Boko Haram is almost completely gone and in due course, in a short distance time, the military will stamp them out of this country.