Michael Ayobami Oloyade is the gubernatorial candidate of National Conscience Party NCP, the America trained media practitioner in this interview with Remi Oladoye said the 8 years of Senator Abiola Ajimobi a the governor of Oyo state is a colossal failure. He also reveals how his administration will change the fortune of the people and transform the state if elected as the next governor of the state. Excerpts ;
How will you rate the preparation of the Independent Electoral Commission INEC towards conducting credible and fair election next month ?
Well, there are so many controversies trailing the preparation of INEC for this election, at this point in time on paper I think they are doing well, I am not the one to judge by past antecedent by saying someone is qualify or not, but we have to wait and see what obtains on the election dates and I think there are rooms for recourse if things doesn’t go the way it supposed to be, if we are to be going to be talking about the preparation of the election, nothing yet have said that they are not working fire towards the election, unless there is are security challenges which INEC itself with the security establishment says that won’t be problem.
So from your own observation, there is a perfect arrangement for the conduct of election by the INEC?
I won’t use the world perfect, nothing is perfects, all I am trying to say is that base on what I see and what is going on at this point in time I haven’t seen anything yet to make me feel that the election will not be conducted in a free and fair manner
What about the security agencies?
Well there are always challenges when people are contesting for a political posts, there are people that always like to take the short cut, so the security people will have to up their game to make sure that security are in place for that particular day or days that the election will take place, in the North east, there is a different challenges but I am concerned about Oyo state, everybody have to speak for his own locality. In Oyo state I think at this point in time base on what I see, nothing has happened yet to make me believe that it will not be conducted in a free and fair manner and if things are otherwise my party will voice out to say that we don’t believe In the process.
As a gubernatorial candidate of NCP, how prepare are you for the election
Fully prepared, we have our structures in place, NCP is a party that does not believe that you have to be spending to buy money votes, we go to people and tell them this is what we have in plan for you when we are elected into office, we believe our world is our bond , most people are going out with the intention of buying votes there are so man y stories about people selling their PVC and others but as far as we are concern in NCP all we need to do is reach out to the people tell them what we stand for, in NCP we have two things that other parties do not have , one, we have the interest of the people and we have plans to engage the people to better their lives, those two things we are promises and we are going to reach out to the people and tell them what we are going to do for them when elected into office
And what do you intent to do differently from the past and present government
If I should classified the past 8 years as an interregnum period I will be generous to Senator Ajimobi, it is 8 years of colossal failure, you can work into the street and ask people simple questions , in the last 8 years has the live improved from education, to transportation to health,? in every facet of live we have not improved . We we believe strongly that the reason they have failed was that people have not been duly considered, people should be at the heart of every program, the plans should be for the people, you have to invest in the people, past and present government initiates some of the projects just to steal money, that is not what we believe in, we know what the people want, we know how to move people away from the present state of poverty to a better state of development, we are going to declare a two year marshal plan when we get into office, we are going to turn the whole state to a construction zone, everybody body will partake in it , it’s going to be direct labor, we will employ more people in education, health, transportation, there will be agricultural reform , we are going to engage in all areas to make sure that people are invested in so that they can become more productive and useful for the society
LAUTECH has been in crisis for some time and it is an issue of concern to everybody in the state, how will you resolve LAUTECH crisis and stabilize it if eventually you are elected
One thing to start with, LAUTECH will and must belong to Oyo state alone, I think there are many salt in the soup, this issue of two state owning it is being a problem, we will make an offer to Osun state , an offer that they cannot refuse, it has to belong to Oyo state, we will take it over and make sure the problem is solved , but the issue of two state owning it has failed, there is no point moving forward with the situation, the first thing first is to tackle the issue of joint ownership with another state, it’s in Oyo state we will take the ownership of it
Larger chunk of activities of past governments centers in Ibadan, the state capital, are you going to change the status quo and ensure equal distribution of resources, especially to rural areas if you become the next governor of the state.
Ibadan is not Oyo state, everywhere in this state have what it takes to lift this state up, it is myopic way of looking at things, Ibadan is the engine, no doubt about it but one of the thing that made NCP different is that immediately we are elected into office, we will move the state ministry of Agriculture to Saki, you have to look at what does other part of the state is capable of bringing to the table, the easier way is to make that possible is to improve the conditions of other towns and the lessened the burden on Ibadan. Everybody is coming to Ibadan, we have so much teeming youths in their hundreds of thousands that are jobless, the moment you fixed others area too things will improved, an average human being just want a life that is descent and if you can find a decent living standard in ogbomoso, why not live in Ogbomoso, if Saki is good enough for you why not live there once the basic things needed in life are there. What happens is that Ibadan becomes the magnet that is attracting everybody, In Ibadan we are sitting on gunpowder that might explodes at any time because we are bringing all this people, the jobs are not there, the price of food is going up, transportation is like going to war, health , you pray you don’t get sick because you are going to mortuary, but when you don’t have all this in place In other towns and villages i think there is a problem on Ibadan , the only solution is tackling challenges in other villages and that will actually help Ibadan to offload all this baggage that are taking in and it’s not supposed to be here.
Nigeria political system and hooliganism cannot be separated, to what extent you are going to use “boiz” to achieve your political ambition
If you understand what NCP stand for, it was founded by late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, and there are certain principles here , it is issue oriented. it’s so pedestrian that I have to pay you for your progress, why should I even do that , , NCP doesn’t believe in that, all we need to do is to talk to people. now people have a choice, they either persists in the poverty that exists at the moment or look for a change, the change is who can provide it, our manifesto at NCP is abolition of poverty and how to do it is well laid out, I am yet to see any political party in this country that could come out with a programs that will tackle poverty like NCP, its about the people , people oriented party, so the issue of thuggery and hooligan as far as we are concern does not exist.
You are contesting under NCP, we have parties like APC, PDP with wealthy gubernatorial candidate, are you not worried that they might use their wealth and resources to outsmart you in this game
No let me say this APC PDP, ADC, ZLP to me is one single party they are just different sides of the coins, if you look at the records of the party there is a record of political prostitution with the same people moving from one party to another. Yes they might have resources that they can use but as far as I am concern, money don’t vote , people vote, money does influence, I don’t have problem with that but at the end of the day people entre the poling both and made their choice, so we talk to people what do they want, every man or woman need to ask himself a pertinent question, who do I trust to move my life forward, where do I see myself in four years, what about my children, what about incoming generation, I think its an obligation of everybody to make the right choice but if people decided that they want to continue to remain in the poverty, there is nothing we can do but we have to still be in the political space to let people see the real alternative, the alternative that can take them further in life, we have to present that hopefully they will made the right choice this time around .
