Chief Femi Odufowokan is the immediate past chairman of the Ijebu North East Local Government, Ogun State. In this interview, he speaks about Ogun politics, his experience in office and the Yewa/Awori quest for the state’s leadership. Excerpts:
ow has life been, after leaving office as a council chairman?
It has been very interesting, but there has been no vacuum. I resumed in my law office the following day our tenure as LG chairman expired. That was Friday, July 24th 2015. I started again where I stopped before going into the local government office. My usual practice in my law office on most Fridays, when I am not in court, is to do research into new areas in law, particularly going through the law reports on newly- decided cases. Of course I had a lot of law reports that had piled up for about two or three years to go through. Also I had to see files and the level of work done by my colleagues in the office. That same day, I regularised my board membership of few companies I relinquished when I was elected as local government chairman. Aside, I was able to do my routine activities such as my work out (exercise) in the morning and evening. This was not regular or I was not doing it for sometimes while I was in office as LG Chairman. Also I received less telephone calls, I started receiving about twenty per cent of the calls I was receiving on my official lines while I was local government Chairman. Then I am free and focused on my private life than when I was in office. These and many more make it interesting.
How was the experience as a local government chairman?
Yes, it was a wide experience for me. It was a kind of consolidation of my public service experience. Don’t forget I was briefly a caretaker chairman of the same LG about ten years earlier, but the intensity of activities was not much because of the duration I was in office then. This time around, I was able to see, in practical terms, human relations, human resources, financial propriety and impropriety and of course, issues in governmental architectures in Nigeria at a very close range. These experiences have shaped my views on some issues generally.
Are you interested in running for any office in 2019?
For now, I don’t know. My style in running for political office or any other office for that matter is a little different. I don’t just wake up one day and say I am vying for this position or the other. It is my people around me, be it politics or even traditional chieftaincy titles, that say they want me for this position or the other. Mostly when that is said, it is also subject to critical consideration and then I talk to God about it, so if God sanctions it, I throw my hat into the ring.
In Ogun State, there is this agitation that the next Governor should come from Yewa/Awori zone; since nobody has ever occupied the post of governorship of the state from the zone since the creation of the state. Do you support this view?
Personally, I am not a zoning politician. Yes, some people will tell you we have two divisions, some will also say four divisions, while some will tell you three senatorial districts. They are all right in terms of categorisations or classifications. While some take it from historical angle, some are looking at it from the current constitutional arrangement. There is a constant fact in all these: nobody has occupied the position of a governor form Yewa axis. There is no area, zone or senatorial district that does not have competent people in abundance, and constitutionally there is no zone or senatorial district that is not entitled to be the next governor of Ogun State. Political competency and capability are not the same, which is why Yewa/Awori Zone, otherwise called Ogun West Senatorial District is likely to be lucky this time around as they are closer to governorship than ever before with a particular aspirant. When I said political capability, it includes general acceptability across the state and ability to convince other areas within the state for support.
Which of the governorship aspirants from Ogun West District are you referring to?
I know and I can talk about only one aspirant, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola popularly called YAYI. He is the only aspirant that consulted me. I think he has not declared formally but he is still doing consultation. In his interaction with me, I got to know his political philosophy, his personal outlook to life, his professional inclination. Above all, he was able to diagnose my local government. If somebody is consulting with me and he is telling me the major problems in my local government and those one to be prioritised, I think I have to give such person closer attention. His consultation is similar to that of Chief Segun Osoba in 1999. It was at consultation/campaign time that he told me that he would construct our main road from Erunwon to Ijebu Igbo. He not only did that, but did electrification of seventeen towns and other projects in my L.G. Apart from Senator Solomon Adeola’s physical interaction with me, I have watched five television broadcasts of his contributions on the floor of the senate and I did analysis of his submission and I was left with no doubt about the quality of his intellect and his idea of political economy. When I even tried to do some status enquiries and checks on Senator Solomon Adeola’s consultation, I discovered that twelve of my colleagues that we served as local government chairmen out of twenty of us are with him. Similarly, about 200 of 236 councillors that serve with us in the state are with him ditto some immediate past state legislators, commissioners and advisers.
What was reported in the dailies is that the governor said those that have consulted with him may not be governor as they lack leadership qualities; is your candidate one of them and if he is one of them, why are you and others that served in his administration still with him?
Let me start by telling you that I am not the spokesperson for the governor. Secondly I doubt if Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola is one of those His Excellency, Governor Amosun was referring to, if at all he said that. Personally, I do not take what is reported in the dailies hook, line and stinker. Assuming without necessarily conceding that he said so, he is entitled to his own opinion like any other person, but what I know for sure is in Senator Amosun’s saying to the effect that whatever we say, God owns the final say. Also Tony Agenmonman, the present President of National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), said in his book “Excellence is not by luck”, that “any position taken by a man, regardless of status, knowledge or expertise has a certain degree of probability with regard to the outcome. It is in this senses that we are considered finite beings- not God”. And lastly, why those of us that served in Senator Amosun’s Government during his first term are with Senator Solomon Adeola; personally I do not believe in rumour. I have not heard it from the governor that he is not favorably disposed to Senator Solomon Adeola’s candidacy. Secondly, if I establish that the governor is not favorably disposed to senator Adeola’s candidacy, I have told you earlier that everyone is entitled to his own opinion and choices. Serving in one administration or the other does not prevent people from taking decisions about who to support for subsequent elections. The idea of democratic tenure is to enable the operators review their policies and even political relationship that is what is called re-alignment in political parlance.
But there is insinuation that your candidate is not from Yewa, but from Lagos?
I have heard that too and I have been hearing such since the time I joined politics, and I will continue to hear such stories until our nation’s democracy get matured. When such insinuation was made, Senator Solomon Adeola family tree was published. He is from Ago Ishaga Pahayi in Ilaro. Those who are alleging that he’s not from Yewa did not bother to investigate the authenticity of their claims. From my experience, it is usually the candidate to beat that politicians, mostly opponents, insinuate or raised doubt as to where they come from or claim are not from the zone they perceive that the next office holder should come from. Have you not heard about it even in traditional title or kingship tussles, when all sort of stories emanate from opponents about the leading contenders not being an indigene or settler of a particular ruling house or town? It is the extension of that practice that politicians bring up when their candidates are losing ground to the leading candidate. I read one of such antagonist that claimed that Senator Adeola built a mansion in Ilaro about five years ago because he wanted to contest for senatorial seat from Yewa zone. Even such antagonist has confirmed that he has a house in Ilaro, Yewa, but he failed to investigate his family root. I know as a fact that over sixty percent of Southwest political office holders be it governor, senators, House of Representatives members, commissioners, ministers are based in Lagos. You tell me anybody that has been governor in Ogun State that was not based in Lagos before becoming governor? None.
