Engr. Muftau Open Salawu is a man of many parts, a successful businessman, a Civil Engineer from Ogbomoso , he is a graduate of Federal Polytechnic Bida and Harvard University. He is the CEO of Opinior Engineering Company Ltd, a Philanthropist and a politician. He is aspiring to be a member of National Assembly in Ogbomoso Federal constituency 1, that is Oyo North, South and Oriire Federal constituency, in this interview he spoke about his interest in politics , ambition, and expectations in 2019.
You intend to vie for a member of National Assembly, can you tell us your background and experience in politics
My Political experience started from my days at the Federal Polytechnic Bida where I was the president ,National Association of Civil Engineering Student , at that time , I was able to bring a lot of awareness into the association if you want to judge that as a student politician, you judge when you come in to arena and see when you are in or when you are about to leave the arena, then measure what happened when you are coming in and what happened while you are leaving, the election that brought me in we was participated by few people but by the time I was leaving the position ,a lot of people comes in to even contest. its just because of the awareness we have created , projects we embarked on to the extent that e students , lecturers even in other departments knows what we were able to do and that bring consciousness in to us that we are going to be in politics in the future but as God would have it, when we ;left school and we started practicing, I realized that Engineering require more time, and you hardly see or if you want to measure a number of Engineers in politics compare to other profession, that is low and that is why you see some key Engineering Ministries appointment were given to other non Engineer and that one also create an awareness for people like us that has been doing business and have been able to carve niche for ourselves to see that one of the way can do to render services to our community is to be in politics, active one, Before now we’ve been in politics at voting level or mere commenting on political issue, but you can no longer do this at this stage without being actively involved in politics because of what is happening now, you will all agree with me that Nigeria require more of leaders that have integrity and competency, because it’s obvious the decision that could take our country forward will be determine by the level and the quality of representation that we have at the government , what do we mean by representation, it is a core part of your negotiation, your deliberation, your debate and what you bring on board if you don’t have experience, experience when you measure it has to being in all endeavor, people need to bring in their personal experience to influence government , successful business professionals need to come to politics to ensure that the quality of policy that government will make are what is required , when you put a legislature that have never done business before or have experience in politic to make law for us, and that is why we have the kind of law that are not effective to the kind of the nation
Do we say your philantrophical gesture, ICT training, financial assistance to people and other things you have been doing are for political gains.
Not at all, The ICT training happened to be the second one around here and participants were given laptops , in my base in Abuja I have always been involved in mentoring youths, try to assist them in any way that I can because that is just the beauty of life, the joy lies in the number of people I can make happy and not the level of wealth I acquire, in any way you torch many lives as much as you can this is what we have been doing, the ICT is just a segment of idea of what we are trying to do around here what we trying to do is to bring in artisan together, either the trained one or those that doesn’t have ideas before to see if we can mentor them , groom them, give them skills that can make them be on their own. As a matter of fact it’s not because of politics, and when politics now come in and I have to talk about what we’ve done before I rarely remember all this its people around me that remind me of most of this things because I am not doing it because I want them to appreciate , for instance I pass through a community in Ilajue I had to stop and interacted with the people of the community and left years after I went to the same community, they never recognized me because what I did for them was not for politic gain, what we want to do we will continue to do it
You are contesting under which political party
The APC , it’s a wining party, it’s our party I have been a member of APC, as a matter of fact a founding member of APC, I register as a member of the party in 2014, I came down from Abuja to register here, then I never knew I am going to contest for any election, but I just felt that it is time for us to participate in politics .
About five people are also aspiring for that position, what do you think will make you to stand out among other contenders
As a matter of facts I am not counting the numbers of people in the race, that is not my interest I know the party is a law abiding party, the party is going to play by the rule and we are not in the race to make noise, we have people at the grass root, our community knows us, we knows our community, we I am dealing with them by providing the assistant in our own capacity and above all I am qualified, competent and I believe I have the experience to go for such post
Considering the fact that there are factions in APC, do you think your party stand the chance of winning election in 2019 without unity
I believe the leadership of the party are capable of bringing the party together, because right from the national level, the move made by the president , appointing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reconcile the aggrieved party members and coming down to state, we have a governor that is competent, capable nice and he is a politician you can judge by him winning the second term election, it has never happened before, it shows you the quality of our governor, and he is somebody that can bring people together when the time requires, you can see the kind of people that are coming into the party, like our former Governor, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao Akala, so you have people like that around you and begin to wonder if you can win the election , consider it won already
As an Ogbomoso man, Senator Buhari is in APC, Otunba Akala is in APC, and many other bigwigs in politics, and there is agitation for power shift from Ibadan, few weeks ago Senator Buhari declare his intention to contest for the governorship of this state and some people are calling on Otunba Akala to also contest, do you think Ogbomoso stand the chance of producing the next governor of Oyo state
Why not, if you look at the significance of Ogbomoso in politics, it is not just by accident, Ogbomoso is the brain behind the politics of Oyo state, despite the fact that the influence lies in Ibadan , Ogbomoso has always been the joker of the politics in the state , Senator Fatai Buhari is a Senator that has demonstrated a goodwill, trust that people have in him, he has represented the area very well, he has done a kind of empowerment that has never been done before and the governor also commended him for that and if he comes out that he want to contest for governor, I am sure that he is competent, it is left for people to make their choice, I must tell you that 2019 is a period where everybody need to be in politics, get your PVC.
Can you just shed more light on the statement you just said now that Ogbomoso is the brain behind Oyo politics
That is correct even the result of last election 2015 shows that, when the PDP did what they did, at that short period and ogbomoso man left the party you can see the result, and go back to the previous election and see the pattern of voting, I don’t know may be by error of omission or whatever, as far back as 70’s when the map of Nigeria was designed, Ibadan Ogbomoso were the only town on the map, I don’t know if you notice that.
Your are a successful businessman and many people will wonder why do you want to dissipate your energy on politics, a dirty game , why are you going into politics, do you think you can actually manipulate you ways in politics
It’s a question everybody have been asking, that how prepared are you to pay the intrigues of politics , because it’s a dirty game . Fine, politics could be a dirty game but politicians are the one that makes decision that affects our lives, am a business man, they make law being in politics that can kill my business, they may make policy, rule not out of being wicked, but it may be ignorance, because they may not have idea of what the business man goes through, look at this tax law and other things that is generating crisis in Lagos if you have 20 or more houses in Lagos as a business man, you feel it more, but if you are part of those that will decide, you will influence, those are some of the areas where politics is better we need not to fold our arm and watch the so called typical politicians to continue and the whole system is becoming cripple, I started from public primary school, I don’t know anybody who will want to send his or her children to those schools any longer, I don’t know so the right people need to be in politics, it doesn’t matter if everybody says politics is a dirty game you don’t need to get dirty when you come around
Sir you are in APC and you just said that the party will win election in 2019, the recession inflicted hardship on the people more under the APC and that brings people to a conclusion that PDP is a better alternative , and in Oyo state the party leaders are coming together to reunite the party and defeat
APC has nothing to worry about, whoever want to come out should start warming up, the record will definitely judge us, it is true the country is facing a lot of economic problem, but the question still remains that this problem are not just new, they didn’t start under APC government they pile up, the previous government have been ignoring the task, but we have a president that is ready to correct those wrongs, definitely people that have been feeding on corruption will cry, if your life has always been playing by the rule, run your business the way it should be run, you will see that you will not have much problem like the people that are complaining now, most of the people that are complaining now are people that have been feeding on government and because all those chances are blocked that is why they are shouting , but that doesn’t mean that the situation cannot be improved upon, because this government can do more because no matter how brilliant the policy is what the nation feels still matters how the politic that you are trying to come up with torches their family, it is true people are not finding it easy but the norms in this country is always becoming the norms, so if you are not sincere , you cant correct that wrongs because people are use to it, people will criticize you calling you names but stand on your point, we are all suffering it, I don’t know of any oil producing nation importing oil as we are doing now, and we have reduce to understand that this is an international policy, there is a total conspiracy against the nation, but instead of us to think inward and look at how to solve the problem we begin to cry and claim that the people at the helms of affairs are not doing well, no, you should ask yourself, the amount of PMS that is being imported into this country is more that what all the vehicles in the country can use, but as it is coming in it is going out through other means it is not Buhari that will mount the border, it Nigerians like is you and me, , so APC has done very well not because I am a member but from the analysis of what transpired from the beginning of this regime and I can assure you that this government will do more and at the end of the tenure there will be more for us to show
For new entrant that you are in politics ell us your God fathers, and I want to believe that former governor Akala is one of them can you tell us others
You can’t come from Ogbomoso as say Akala is not your Godfather, he is a Godfather by nature, if you look at his political antecedent he is stil be , he was chairman local government deputy governor, the governor and you know the kind of person he is , taba ri erin k a ni a ri eri, Ajanaku Koja Morinkan firi, Akala cant come into your midst and you s ay where is he, is a leader, but as a young entrepreneur, I was able to meet so many people around here that makes me to be the godson of all the political godfather I have relationship with all of them
Is there no political arrangement that could pose as a form of obstacles to your ambition?
The arrangement is normal in politics but what we are saying is that selection should be base on competence, let it be on merit, because the return every community will get will be determine by the quality of their representatives , so if you because of rotation, you take your reserved bench to Abuja, when the result is out
Recently Chief Olusegun Obasanjo wrote an open letter to President Mohammadu Buhari advising him not to contest in 2019 what is your take on that letter as an APC man
Former President Obasanjo have the right to write letter , it is for Buhari to give the letter enough attention, because of the position of the former president , being the most experienced Nigeria in the arena made people to consider the points that he raised In his letter but I am not too concerned about the letter, rather I want people to bring up strong candidate against Buhari rather than asking him not to contest as a president he has the right to contest, you don’t beg him not to contest, if you feel he is not doing well bring up another candidate that can take him out
So what do you see about the coalition movement
There is nothing wrong with the movement, it is interesting, and nothing won’t come out of the coalition because for people to enjoy good dividends of democracy we need to have a good, constructive critics, there is nothing wrong for us to have opposition what is killing our politics is money bag politics. Nobody should be worry about what president Obasanjo put in the letter, energy should be used in bringing up a strong candidate to checkmate Buhari, Buhari should also work in all those areas.
