All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives aspirant Comrade Bola Ajumuda spoke with Musa Odoshimokhe on his ambition, the marginalisation of the Ilaje/Ese-Odo Constituency and other partisan issues.
What is your assessment of the Mimiko Administration in Ondo State?
I will not dwell so much on the government of the Labour Party in Ondo State. It is fast becoming a phenomenon that the government is moving out of the consciousness of our people. Right from its inception, we knew the man will do no good. Today, our people are getting to know better, most of the prophetic comments that we had passed about his performance. As it is today, governance has reduced in terms of the welfare, providing materials, and assuring our people of the future. The government has totally failed the people; when we look at it from every facet, as it is, the economy of Ondo State remains at the pedestrian level. We have lost quite a number of our values in term of agricultural development. There is no single industry, our youths are jobless and roaming the streets. You cannot guarantee the people’s subsistence in spite of the fact that this is a state that has the longest coastline with almost 76 kilometers length, in the whole of Nigeria and yet there is no evidence of maritime economy. Cocoa and wood which are the commodity business are gone. So, there is nothing that is going on as it relates to governance. The governor is battling seriously to get his budget fiscal plan approved by the legislative arm. Even the budget of last year has not worked quite alright. What we are indeed waiting for is 2015 and I can assure you we will raid the state of this nuisance value.
Government says these people are ghost workers and that it is cleaning up the system…
When a system has collapse, it continues to adduce fault to one thing or the other. Constitutionally, government has a responsibility to engage it citizens. There could be no ghost workers, the claims are faulty. We have three tiers of government and honestly, the local government does not need to go cap in hand to the governor to take permission to employ her citizenry where they have capacity to do so. If it pleases a local government it can take the decision, if that is the consensus of opinion. To say that 80 percent of our allocation will go to salary overhead is certainly not the business of the state. The claims of the Ondo State government that these people were wrongly employed by the administrators of the caretaker committee that was put in place by the state government, honestly is not tenable. And there should be not biding for it. It went on to say the process of recruitment is even in error. That does not mean that the state should come and disengage its workforce. What it needs to do, is to perfect the process. We must appreciate the fact that these are citizens of the state. They have a right to be employed. Even the governor himself is still not on the balance sheet of the state.
You mean government ‘s excuses cannot be justified?
The only excuse they gave is that those who recruited them in the local government did not follow due process. If they did not follow due process, government should teach them how to follow due process without unnecessarily disengaging the people. How much on the average is government paying them? Some of them earn N20,000, N30,000 etc. These are peanuts compare to what the political warlords take doing nothing at the state level. I think what the governor is looking for is that because he is on his way out, he is now looking for opportunity to steal public fund. This he wants to do by downsizing the workforce at the local government level. This is a criminal abuse of the constitution.
Why are you contesting for the vacant Ilaje Ese-Odo Constituency seat in the House of Representatives?
As it is presently constituted, I have expressed my desire to vie for the position to provide leadership for our people. To give them effective representation, Ilaje Ese-Odo Federal Constituency, which is the baseline of crude oil and gas in the entire Yoruba land. Today, the place still remain marginalized, if you go round the length and breadth of the place there is no single evidence of governance, no evidence of leadership. Up till now, the place which is the heart beat of oil is not lit up. It is not connected by portable water and basic essentialities of life. It is as good as we are not part of this country and yet this is the goose that lays the golden eggs. There is the need to move out of this position. Contracts were awarded and budgeted for. Approved by the parliament was given and up till today, these jobs are not done. As we are talking now, there is a contract of the first road that is supposed to connect Odo-ugbo with Abeotolo to Owoye, Owoye is the end point to Benin River. So, we demanded for a road that will connect us from Ugbo to Abeotolo and that would have cut across the entire Ugbo but as it is this contract was budgeted for and was approved by the House of Representatives.
Do you think the contractor was properly mobilised?
The contract was awarded to a company and was mobilised but up till today nothing has been done. It is over one year now and there is no evidence that contract was awarded in respect of the roads. The contract was award under the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the House of Representatives has oversight responsibilities over that agency. Now, we need to send somebody who has the articulation, who of course, has the fact and vocal stamina to ensure that these things are done. This is why some of us are going there to make the necessary change. Lot of infrastructures that are abandoned are still begging for revival. Before the late Governor Segun Agagu left since 1999, the first road that could link the Riverine area was designed and conceptualized by Chief Adebayo Adefarasin. It was inherited by the Agagu administration, the project if completed would make movement from Igbokoda to Aiyetoro easy but the project stopped midway.
Since government is a continuum, why should the project be stalled?
Since Mimiko came to power, in fact, the road is the most terrible place. He has totally abandoned it. And what we are saying is, if you give us the opportunity, we will leverage on our own relationship and network of contact, to ensure that this and other projects that are begging for attention are properly integrated. For instance nothing stops Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) from working on these roads. There is nothing bad if the NDDC takes up such responsibilities, if the state government has not deemed it fit to look in that direction. We need to be there, up till today, in Ese-odo, Oparamo 1 and Oparamo 2 they remain disconnected. What about the Eastwest roads, today its appear the presidency is playing politics with all these things. You need somebody who has the drive, somebody who has the knowledge to drive the story that will speed up performance.
These are the basic reasons we are looking for. And I say to people that some of us today, if you look at the floor of the House, we have lots of friends there. And I say with all emphasis, the right people to be there are those with these credentials. And I can assure you when taken from this perspective, we will get result. Look at the mayhem taking place in Rivers State, the impunity that is going on there is nothing to write about. We must ensure that we do not allow PDP to continue to abuse our constitution and continue to debase the rule of law.
