Why Adebutu is most qualified to be next governor of Ogun State -Taiwo

Hon Waliu Taiwo, former Commissioner for works in Ogun State is the Director General of Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation. Taiwo is confident that Adebutu who is the member of the House of Representatives, representing Ikenne/Shagamu/Remo North, is the most qualified to emerge the next governor of Ogun State. He emphasised that time is ripe for the state to be ruled by a home grown politician and that Adebutu, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Partyu (PDP), has all requisite credential for the job. He spoke with journalists on this and several other issues. PATRICK OKOHUE reports.

You are the Director General of the Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation for the Ogun State governorship election, but there is a clamour by the Aworis and Yewas, which is Ogun West to take over the leadership of the state in 2019 and you are from there. So, why are you aligning with Ogun East?
Thank you for that question. I want to say that I am one of the leaders that are committed to Ogun West for governor and I have demonstrated that in the past. You would allow me to go down memory lane to when the thing started.

When I was elected as a member of the Ogun State House of Assembly in 1992, there was an alliance between Ogun West and Ogun Central for governorship. I tried to unite our people with the Egbas.

We were 30 members in the house then, we had four from Yewa, two from us and Ifo was part of our senatorial district. The whole thing started when we wanted to do senatorial election.

We have three senatorial districts in the state, one from the east, no matter who you are, you would be an Ijebu man, one from central, no matter who you are, you would be an Egba man.

But the case of Ogun West is different, because we have Ifo, who we can say are Egbas as part of us. After taken the senatorial district from the central, they wanted to take the one from the west.

That was why I had to align with the Egbados then. Then we brought Senator Otegbola out. We went round to convince our people that the only slot for the Eguns, Inagos, Ohori and Awori, an Egba man wanted to take it. I rallied the people of Awori, Egun and Yewa.

That was how Senator Otegbola emerged before that republic was aborted by the late Gen. Sanni Abacha. Since then, I have been taking care of the interest of Ogun West. I remember we had a meeting amongst the Yewas and Aworis and we aligned with the Egbas. Our caucus was headed by Chief Kola Olomide. When the Ijebus came, they aligned with us.

During the first term of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as President, we in the west were of the opinion that the west should have the next governorship slot in the state in 2003 and we went to Aso Rock to meet Obasanjo, I was part of the team.

When we got there, we told Obasanjo what we wanted. Jubril Martins Kuye was there. Obasanjo said that they would appeal to the Ijebus and Egbas not to take part in the election.

He said that the worse scenario is for a Remo man to emerge. We were able to decode this and we said that let’s support a Remo man, we can still afford to wait for eight years.

The Ijebus started with Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, the Egbas had Chief Olusegun Osoba. We thought it should be our turn, but they said there is still Remo.

We said let the Remo have the slot and we had an agreement with former Governor Gbenga Daniel that he would give us the Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Works and that he would support us when he is going.

In fairness to him, he fulfilled his promise and I was appointed as the Commissioner for Works. As OGD was finishing his second term, the leaders picked Gboyega Nasir Isiaka aka GNI, but to our surprise, Gen. Tunji Olurin (rtd.), who had been contacted to be the governorship candidate as he is from the area, and who had said he was not interested, suddenly said he was going to contest.

We were taken aback, we thought it was a joke, so he went into the election with us and there was only one person from Egba, who eventually won the election.

That time, the Ijebus supported us financially and voted for our party. Then, again, during the 2015 general elections, the same thing happened.

The 2011 election was the brightest chance we had, I was the senatorial candidate from the west then from the PDP. We didn’t know how Olurin and Senator Kashamu Buruji came together. They came with a court injunction, which was why we started the PPN.

Then, the Action Congress of Nigeria had 61,000 votes, the PDP had 59,000 and I with three weeks old in the PPN before the election had 45,000 votes. Had it been that there were no divisions, we would have won easily.

So, I put the blame on the Yewas for their misfortune. Olurin is matured enough, he had been a governor before, so he should have known that they wanted to use him against the interest of his people. I think it is what they had in mind that they did. He should know the implications.

In 2015, Senator Ibikunle Amosun was picked by the Egbas because he was the only one. Then, GNI was picked by the PDP with the support of Chief Adebutu Kessinghton. Adebutu supported GNI as the candidate of the PDP morally and financially, he was the one that picked him out of the three candidates from Ogun West.

After former President Goodluck Jonathan lost his election, there was no money coming from Abuja again. We had a little money, it was Adebutu that sent money to us a day to the general election to support the interest of Ogun West, it is not all about GNI. The Ijebus voted for us then. They delivered their senator and two House of Representatives members.

So, the Ijebus didn’t contest the first and second term, they said they could not wait again, do you now blame them for our stupidity. We could not see beyond our nose, we allowed them to use us against ourselves.

So, when they said they would not support again, I would not blame them at all. It appears we are not ready for it.

I am not saying Ogun West cannot be governor, what we are saying to the people agitating now is that instead of abusing people like us that have tried, they should come and tell us their ideas, they should come and tell us what they know if the project is possible.

They need to convince me, I need to be persuaded, so that is why we are supporting Ogun East because they have supported us twice and we failed ourselves twice.

Again, any political analyst should know that any election involving Ogun West and Ogun East, we are disadvantaged. We are disadvantaged because we have five local governments and they have nine and before five could overtake nine it would take time.

It is when they want to cheat us that they would say one is Remo and one is Ijebu, they can always come together as one and take common decision. Ijebu is Ijebu, which is why we are supporting them.

What they are saying is that when Gbenga Daniel was there, he developed Ijebu and that the current governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun is there, he is developing Ogun Central. So they said that if an Ogun West person gets there he would develop the area. Is this not true?
There is nothing wrong in that but before you can say that you must get to the office first. We are still struggling to get power and you are already telling them what you want to use the power for, get there first before you use the power.

If I know that because you have done this for us I will also do this for you, then I will not support you. This is the problem with the people of Ogun West, instead of them to keep quiet.

Until you get there, get the power before you know what to do. Keep quiet first, they continue to make mistakes, I read a lot of them on the social media. It is on record that we were able to get deputy governor for Ogun West.

If they had gotten it right, when we had Otegbeye and Odebiyi, we would have got there. But over 20 years later, we got the deputy governor. We almost got the governorship, but they supported Olurin, they should have told him to step down then. Look at it, how many candidates are from Ogun West.

Since I know the history of democracy in Ogun West, I can tell you we are not doing it well. During the time of the late Olabisi Onabanjo, two people came out from Ogun West, during Osoba time, about seven people contested against him, during the time of OGD, they contested, they also contested against Amosun because they don’t listen.

Instead of them to rally round others and wait for their own time. You sit down and think manna would come from heaven. These are the realities.

What qualities did you see in Hon. Ladi Adebutu before you supported him?
People may not know the kind of person he is until you get close to him. He read chemistry. Enough of imported governors, this is a man that has been living among us.

While his siblings live in Lekki, Banana Island and Ikoyi in Lagos State, he has always been living in Iperu in Ogun State. He is a man that understands. He consults a lot. I don’t know what people call technocrat, as I am, I studied electrical engineering, are you saying I am not a technocrat? I have been in politics for decades.

We have lawyers and doctors that have been in politics for many years, are you saying they are not technocrats. We want a home grown politician that understands what we are talking about. Ladi has been in politics since 1992.

He is a member of the House of Representatives; he has been using his money to help the people. These are the qualities I see in him. He is someone that has people that we can take his case to. He is a responsible man. When you are discussing with him, he would assume he doesn’t have any knowledge, yet he is very intelligent.

What are his chances since there are other aspirants within the party?
Who are the other aspirants in the PDP. I don’t know them, if you say GNI, I have not seen the signs that he is serious. When Hon. Adebutu told me he wanted to start campaign immediately after they were sworn-in in 2015, I was surprised.

I thought he was talking about the 2015 election as if they took Amosun to court. If you want to contest for governorship position you must have structures. He told me that it was a marathon race.

When the convention was coming, the congress and all that, a lot of things happened, we had court cases. Kashamu Buruju started from the state, now he is in the federal. Already, we have a structure that Ladi Adebutu sponsored.

Despite this, the party is open to everybody. After the last convention, he said that we should separate Ladi Adebutu from the party, which is why we established the Ladi Adebutu Campaign Organisation of which I am the Managing Director.

Let the party have its own and anybody that wants to contest is free. But up till now, we have not seen anybody coming out. If you have something you can come out.

I can now see the wisdom in starting early. But if you don’t have the resources it is not easy. Instead of this man to get tired, every time he is getting stronger and stronger.

It is clear that the APC has taken over in the South West and in Nigeria, so how possible will it be for the PDP to now win in Ogun State in 2019?
When we started during the first term of former President Obasanjo it was Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the South West, by his second term, it was the PDP. While Jonathan was still in power, ACN took over, so what makes you believe that the PDP would not take over the South West in 2019.

We as enlightened people in the South West know exactly what we are doing. If it has happened before it can happen again. Now the APC is there, they have not been able to fulfill all their promises.

When I lost election in 2015, I felt bad, but now I am happy that Jonathan lost the election. If he had won the election, people would have said that petrol would have been N25 now, then they would have said pupils would have been fed in the schools and that there would have been five million jobs.

Now they are there, what have they done. A corrupt government gave us GSM, built roads and so many things. An incorruptible government that said they have blocked all the loopholes, what are they doing with the money they recovered.

Fowler said he collected so many trillions, we are selling fuel, the budget of this year, N8.6 Trillion, they say they are going to borrow to finance it. Former President Jonathan did not borrow for all those years.

The highest budget of Jonathan was about N4.6 Trillion. Tell me a project they start and complete, the Kaduna-Abuja rail they commissioned was about 95% completed before Jonathan left.

Tell me what they are doing with all those money they are realising with all these hardships. What they made us to believe is not happening, they used to blame the PDP then.

Former President Barack Obama of the United States of America took over during recession in the country, he did not complain about George Bush and the country was out of recession quickly.

They are still paying fuel subsidy without budgeting for it. See the killings by Fulani herdsmen and the man cannot even make any serious statement about that.

The Boko Haram members kidnapped Chibok Girls then and this government negotiated the release of about 100 girls with Two Million Euros, now they have taken 110 girls back, will you negotiate back.

They killed so many people in Benue, he didn’t go there, his son had an accident and a whole minister of state was at the airport to welcome him.

What about the innocent people that were killed, a pregnant woman was killed and I saw a small boy killed. 110 girls were kidnapped in Dapchi and yet the President and about 20 Governors went to Kano for a wedding and they were dancing.

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The Ijebus didn’t contest the first and second term, they said they could not wait again, do you now blame them for our stupidity. We could not see beyond our nose, we allowed them to use us against ourselves. So, when they said they would not support again, I would not blame them at all. It appears we are not ready for it. I am not saying Ogun West cannot be governor, what we are saying to the people agitating now is that instead of abusing people like us that have tried, they should come and tell us their ideas