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Veteran Olawale Okunniyi is a governorship aspirant in Ogun State on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC). A delegate at the recently concluded national conference, Okunniyi also acts as the spokesperson for the Pro National Conference (PRONACO). In 2011, he contested as the governorship candidate for Congress for Progressive change (CPC) in Ogun State. In this interview with WALE ABIODUN, Okunniyi bares his mind on various issues including his gubernatorial ambition, crisis within the party in the state, assessment of the current administration, his developmental agenda and issues raised at the just concluded national conference.
How prepared are you for Ogun State 2015 governorship election?
I am very much prepared for Ogun State 2015 governorship election. Consultations and campaign are in top gear. I already have my structure in place in all the wards, local government areas and in the three senatorial districts of the state. Our branded campaign vehicles are also on ground in the three senatorial districts. You will recall that I contested for governorship in 2011 on the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Despite the short time for mobilization and campaign at that time, I was still able to make a good impact in that election. But now, I am contesting on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC). Our leader in Ogun APC is Aremo Olusegun Osoba, whose political philosophy and understanding tally with mine. I am prepared for the race, we have been rolling out the campaign materials, and we have appointed our coordinators in all the 20 local government areas. Things have turned out well for us and our structure is bubbling with activities. Our campaign slogan is Esoji 2015, meaning Ogun indigenes should wake up concerning 2015 gubernatorial election. Today, we enjoy tremendous grass root support to actualize our aspiration to govern Ogun. People have seen what I have done in national conference, and they have seen what I have done in PRONACO. So people are convinced that we can effect a positive change in Ogun State if given the mandate. People have seen my passion for the restructuring of the Nigerian state. I have gained a lot, working with well meaning and revered Nigerians leaders like late Chief Anthony Enahoro, Professor Wole Soyinka, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Prof Ben Nwabueze, the Afenifere leadership among others. I have a whole lot of experience from these respectable leaders. I have also worked with progressive political machineries in the country, through which I have been able to shape my political experience. There are certain things I think I have that others don’t have in terms of struggles that I have waged in the past. Every community in Ogun State is presently involved in our governorship project, and resources are already rolling in from various quarters, because our people have already taken this aspiration as theirs. In Nigeria, we, unfortunately, play the politics of highest bidder, where, if you don’t have the capital, you might not likely have the showing. We thank God that people are supportive, friends and associates are supportive and campaign funds are rolling in for us to prosecute this agenda. We have resources to carry out the campaign and educate the people ideologically. We believe that our campaign must be ideologically based.  By the grace of God, we are the next governor of Ogun State. We have various developmental agenda in our blue print, but we are going to have collective governance where the people in Ogun State will be adequately involved. From the first day, we are going to carry people along. We will carry every community along. We will go to every community and ask for their needs; that is, their priorities. This will help to know when and where government needs to come to their aid. We are also going to do a lot of direct labour, but we are going to monitor it properly and modernize it. For the first time, people are going to see the peoples’ government in action. Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has attempted to do something in that direction, based on his background. We are going to put into practice what we have learnt and what we have advocated for over the years. People are going to see a change and our government is going to be a model one. It is going to surpass what people have seen during the era of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I know that the structure is faulty and that is why I am among the people that are trying to restructure Nigeria, so that Nigeria will not collapse on our head. There will be no unemployment in Ogun State again. The era of poverty will be over in Ogun State. My aspiration is to effect positive changes in Ogun State. I know that I can think outside the box. Arising from the resolutions of the national confab, we are going to ensure that for the first time, Ogun people have their own constitution and that constitution will determine how our government will be run.
Don’t you think the present political differences between Aremo Olusegun Osoba and Governor Ibikunle Amosun might work against the success of APC at the poll?
Well, there are people who have been making efforts to resolve the matter, I think that is ongoing. Even at that, there are opportunities for political alignment, realignment and coalition. I am an expert in coalition building, if you look at my profile and my role in Networking the PRONACO coalition, Project Nigeria, Mega Summit Movement and so on. All these are coalitions buildings, where I was able to bring people together from different parties. We had the coalition of about 34 parties which was initiated through me by Chief Enahoro. I think I have mustered enough capacity to bring about the coalition in Ogun State concerning 2015 election. In 2011, despite the fact that the time was short for mobilization and campaign, I was still able to bring out a tangible coalition to power my campaign. I am not bothered about any crisis within the party. The issue is that, we want to achieve our objective, which is, we want to become the peoples’ governor of Ogun State. We want to bring out a new life and the prosperity of our people. We must get the structure of government to be able to do that and that is our goal. What we need to do is to get the people of like-minds together and form a platform, but in any case I am not opposed to people trying to resolve any political differences within the party (APC). If it is resolved, fine for us, we will all go to primary election. I am not afraid of anybody or any so called power of incumbency. The moment I am convinced of something I go for it. We know that nothing will affect our agenda. When it is dawn on us that there is no resolution we take our decision.
Are you saying that the current government in Ogun State is not performing up to the expectations of masses of people in the state?
I think the government is stretched to the limit but their best is not just impressive enough to me and the people of Ogun State. We think that we can do better than what obtains now. I am coming out to bring about a model for the people of Ogun State. Late Chief Bisi Onabanjo tried his best, there are rooms for improvement. We think improvement will come through us. We are not supposed to be static; we believe that things should always improve for the people of Ogun State.
As a delegate of the recent concluded national conference, what is your assessment of the conference?
The national conference has helped to create a new template for Nigeria to move forward and it has also helped to create a process to resolve political conflicts in the country. The conference has produced a process that can give the people the ownership of the country. For me, I think it is the first step in resolving Nigeria’s problems by producing the constitution for the Nigerian people. My advice to Mr. President is to implement the resolutions of the conference in order to make the nation stable and stop the blood- letting and militancy that is going on in the country. The process has started and we have started well with the convocation of the national conference for the development of this nation.
What federating unit did you represent at the conference?
I did not represent any particular federating unit. I represented a pan Nigeria platform. I was among the advocates for national conference through Pro National Conference (PRONACO). I worked closely with late Anthony Enahoro, Professor Wole Soyinka and other well meaning Nigerians. Over the years I have become an expert on the convocation of a people’s national conference. So I represented a serious pan-Nigerian platform at the conference.
Don’t you think this conference might go the way of the previous ones?
I think if we implement the recommendations of the conference it will not go the way of the previous ones. Also if we consider the efforts and consensus we reached on this conference, it may not go the way of the previous ones. What is left now is to ensure that people buy in into the conference resolutions. For instance, some recommendations are still being misunderstood by the people. Like in the area of local government, some people think that we called for the abolition of local government, no; that was not the case. What we recommended is that local government should now be the business of the state, instead of being the affair of federal government. The recognised levels of federation will be the states and the centre. What we have recommended is that the federating units and actual owners of the union should be in control of their local affairs and that the federal government. The major players in the Nigerian federation are the states, which are the federating unit. So i think we need to do a lot of advocacy, enlightenment and popularization of the conference’s recommendation before we move to referendum.
Some stakeholders are calling for the referendum to adopt the recommendations of the conference, what is your view on this?
The national assembly by the provisions of the 1999 constitution can only amend the existing constitution; it has no right to make a new constitution. It is only the people of Nigeria that can give a legitimate constitution to the country. It is an aberration to ask the national assembly to give the country a new constitution. Government or any of its organs cannot give the people a constitution, government can only make laws. Even if constitutional initiative is coming from an arm of government, it must still go to a referendum. The people must endorse it before it becomes a constitution. But I think Nigeria should adopt indirect referendum, which some of us have consistently canvassed because of the peculiarity of our own politics. We play a kind of politics where money rules. So we need to guide against a situation where money bag politicians will not have their way to buy the people over. Most of our people are impoverished and you know referendum is an issue of “Yes or No”. So that people will not be tempted to be ticking No, No, and if the Nos surpasses the Yes, it means that the whole exercise is thrown out. That is the reason I am canvassing indirect referendum. Furthermore, the people that are to endorse these recommendations should also be given time to study the resolutions; we need to do a lot of campaigns and enlightenment. Mass media campaign and mobilization should be initiated by government. Some of us are ready to help in that direction. We need to popularize the resolutions of national conference among Nigerians. After the campaigns and popularization of the resolutions, people can then go ahead and elect their representatives from their constituencies. These elected representatives will go and formally endorse the constitution on behalf of their peoples. These elected representatives for the purpose of endorsing the constitution will form an Electoral College or what we call a constituent assembly. These people would have to look at the draft constitution thoroughly and approve it by voting Yes or No on the recommendations. These representatives, having campaigned to be elected by the people, will be deemed credible to endorse the draft constitution on behalf of their people. Delegates may range from 400 to 500 in numbers. This will be easier than when you ask every Nigeria to go and endorse the constitution. Due to the kind of politics we play in Nigeria, the people might just be railroaded into voting ‘No’ to the entire draft constitution even if those resolutions are in their interest and beneficial to the nation. This is why we need what I call indirect referendum of an electoral college to endorse a new constitution for Nigeria.