Tag: KOGI

Segun Olulade from Epe Constituency 2 in the Lagos State House of Assembly was the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Publicity, Strategy and Security between 2011 and 2015. Olulade, who is now the Chairman, House Committee on Health, spoke on his vision and Kogi State political dilemma when he hosted members of the Lagos State House of Assembly Correspondents Association (LAHACA) at a dinner in the Renaissance Hotel, Alausa, Ikeja. Okoeki Oziegbe was there 

As the Chairman of the House Committee on Health, what are you doing to attract the attention of the state government to the deplorable situation in our public hospitals? Also, an NGO recently led a protest to the House over this issue; what have been your efforts on this since then?

You would recall that the first statement I issued as the Chairman of the Health Committee had to do with efficiency in our health centres and our hospitals. Now, it would not be business as usual in the sector. We thank God for the governor of Lagos State and the state government for the new budget because it would provide us infrastructure that would enhance health services in Lagos State. There is the health insurance scheme, where we will have some sorts of funds to enhance infrastructure and healthcare services in Lagos State. There is the health insurance scheme, where we will have some sorts of funds to enhance infrastructure and healthcare services. However, I just came in as the Chairman of the Health Committee and I only got the names of my committee members today, I cannot have a one-man show, which is why we have not been as active as expected before now. But, we will swing into action soon and visit some of the hospitals in the state and those, who are not serious about being health providers should find their way out of the sector.

We have called the State Commissioner for Health; we have listened to the NGO that led the protest and we are calling on other stakeholders to assist us; we are working on the issues raised in the protest. January 2016 would be devoted to things like this because we would be busy with the budget.

What areas are you focusing as the Chairman of the Health Committee?

I want my name to be written in gold, when healthcare service is mentioned in Lagos State and Nigeria. The former Director of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Control (NAFDAC), the late Professor Dora Akunyili, became popular based on her activities on drug control. I would look at the issue of children so as to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates. I would look at the services being rendered by our health workers. I want them to show care that we have known for like Eleniyan Care. I would look at the control of HIV/AIDS, diabetes, cancer and others. These are what lead to deaths of people everyday and we would all work together to reduce or eliminate these.

What is your relationship with the state Commissioner for Health?

We will have a family in the healthcare sector in the state, we will relate with one another on the issue of health in the state. Our personal interest would not affect the issue of healthcare in the state.

We know you are close to Faleke, what is the update on the issue affecting the Kogi State Governorship election as it relates to Hon. James Abiodun Faleke?

Hon. James Abiodun Faleke has gone to the tribunal on the issue, so let us wait for the outcome of the matter. I wish we get to the Supreme Court so that we can rest the case. Even if he is called upon to be the Governor of Kogi State today, we will still have to go to court to deepen our democracy. This is necessary so that somebody would not come up with something that would destroy our democracy tomorrow because the word ‘inconclusive’ has become the order of the day today; so that the people would not use ‘inconclusive’ in any matter that should have been declared ‘conclusive.’ For Faleke, the party, All Progressives Congress (APC) and for our democracy, we must go to court. The matter must get to the Supreme Court for proper interpretation. If we had to use the criteria they used for the Kogi State Governorship Election for the last general elections in the country, a lot of us would not be in the state or National Assembly today, many would not have been governors today and even the senators, members of the House of Representatives, and the President of the country would not have been in office today. What they are saying is that where unlawful votes are cancelled, a winner would not emerge. We must go to court and make sure that the election is declared conclusive.

So, why are you hosting members of LAHACA tonight?

I decided to host you to thank you all for your support over the years. I must confess that you made my job so easy and my brand so popular that I wish I had the capacity and capability to do more. I thank you for your support for me as the Chairman of the Lagos state House of Assembly Committee on Information and Publicity from 2011 to 2015. I want to thank the former LAHACA Chairman, Mr. Okoeki Oziegbe because he was the one I met on ground. I thank you for all that you did for me and the Assembly because you have projected the Assembly in a way that is very uncommon in this part of the world.

Hon. Abdullahi Bello, a former Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly and one time Acting Governor of the state, currently represents the Okene/Ogorimagongo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives. In this encounter with James Anzania, he spoke on the challenges of Kogi State politics after the death of former governor Audu Abubakar.

You were close to Prince  Abubakar Audu, the late governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election in Kogi State, what would you say about the acrimony that arose from his death?

In all democratic experience or dispensation, we are bound to witness dissenting opinions as to how issues or matters should be handled. First and foremost, let me express our pain, both pain and gratitude to Almighty God, the pain being that we lost a gem, we lost a father, we lost a role model and we lost a leader, Prince Abubakar Audu, who has vehemently vowed to reclaim the state and put the state on the path of justice, fairness and progress, then, we give gratitude to God too, for his life well spent. Prince Abubakar Audu of blessed memory spent a very good life; he was a workaholic, a much disciplined father to all of us, and we cherish the few moments we had with him before his demise. On the area of acrimony, in politics or in democracy, people are always exposed to issue of choice and once you have contention as to what one should pick, whether A, B or C, definitely there will be conflicting demand; so what we saw after the death of our leader was a normal thing. I will stop at that for now.

What steps has the party leadership taken to bring the contending sides together, particularly Alhaji Yahaya Bello and Hon. James Abiodun Faleke?

My friend, my brother, Hon. Faleke, has not officially written to withdraw his name from INEC as the deputy governor. The party that nominated his principal who died immediately after the election has not officially notified INEC of the intention of withdrawing Faleke as the running mate, so in the eyes of the law for now, we have a deputy governor and a governor at this election and after the election. On the issue of acrimony, we should show understanding, we that live in Kogi State since the creation of the state, and have played major political activities in the state; we all know what we are experiencing and what we are going through as a people, most particularly those of us from central and west senatorial districts put together. Before now, we were living with hope that one day our brothers of the eastern flank will concede power and say, ok, both the people of central and west senatorial districts should go and produce a governor of the state, so the question that comes to our mind and we are asking, as to the current decision of the party, is that had it been that it is like that and we were given the choice to come and produce a governor, we would have been fighting each other to the extent that the Igalas will take it back. Is that what we would have done? Now that divine intervention came, where the position of number one and number two position is even placed in central and west, it’s very shameful and sad that the Igalas will see us fighting over the position of who becomes number one, to the extent that even that number one and number two are gone.

If the party feels that this is the best option to secure our victory, so be it. It depends on how the legal experts within the party believe that whatever we need to do now, we do it in such a way that whatever decision that we need to take, it’s such decision to secure the victory of the party, because we are not unaware of battles ahead; other parties may want to go to tribunal, if they go to tribunal, what will be the outcome? So, the party needs to take a decision, not political decision, decision based on the Constitution and the Electoral Act, and in doing so, we urge party members to make sacrifice and people  are talking of injustice. Yes, when you define this injustice, there is no effort or sacrifice that would be made by any of us that can equal what Prince Abubakar Audu has put on the line to make this issue to be discussed. We must remember that somebody’s life is gone, a highly valued life is gone; the life of our leader is gone, for this matter to even come to the table for discussion. If Prince Abubakar Audu had not died, if God had not taken him away from us, this issue of who becomes the governor or who becomes the deputy governor, from central and west would not have arisen. So, it’s on this premise that we appeal to everybody, to look at the situation now and in the future.

There is a lot for us tomorrow if we work together as one team and the party must not die because of the personal ambition of all of us. And, the erroneous belief in some quarters, that Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu is behind this, is behind that, I don’t believe in it. Faleke is an indigene of Kogi State, and he has his own reputation, he has his own feelings, he has his own understanding. So, we will continue to appeal for understanding from everyone.

There was protest around Itobe, Ofu Local Government Area, following Audu’s death and the nomination of Yahaya Bello as his replacement, their grouse being that the situation throws up a scenario where the governor will be Ebira (Kogi Central), Speaker and Chief Judge. What is your take on this?

All these observations will be ironed out as soon as the government settles down. What the agitators are saying is that we will have it in future, not that we will have it now. And, sincerely, how things are done, you can’t have the governor coming from my zone, the Speaker from my zone; there are some that is statutory; the issue of Chief Judge is civil service matter, but then, politically, we will sit down to see how those other issues can be resolved, so that there will be sense of fairness and equity in the state. We are a people of justice; you are talking of Yahaya Bello, he is Fairplus, that’s to show that the governor will be guided by fairness.

What happened now is what we know will happen, because there is no way power will be in one place permanently. It will move, either by the way God brings it or even by consent. It will happen. Look at the history of America’s political democracy. Whoever thought hundred years ago or even 30 years ago, that a black man from Kenya will govern America, as huge as America’s democracy? So, these are just inevitable, changes are inevitable, it will happen and as it happened, the lesson there was quick for the Igalas, because the pain you expressed now, the agitation, the rioting in Itobe, immediately after the death of Prince Abubakar Audu, if it was that mood that the Igalas were still in, they wouldn’t have voted APC again. So, that’s to show you that the real people of Kogi, they are in support of this power shift that has taken place, but it is left to see how we use this occasion to bring this state together as one people.