•I’m not ambitious to be gov
By Dapo Akinrefon
Dr Aderemi Oseni, the lawmaker representing Ibarapa East/Ido Federal Constituency, is the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA.
In this interview, the Convener of the Remi Oseni Committee of Friends, speaks among other things on the rift within the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Oyo State, the need for power shift in the state and the deplorable state of roads in the country.
Amid the rift in the APC in Oyo State, you set up the Remi Oseni Committee of Friends, ROCOF. Does this suggest a lack of confidence in your party?
This is not so in any way. ROCOF is not a rival to APC. And it can never be. Rather, it is an initiative that will complement what our party is doing in Oyo State. The vision transcends Oyo State, though it started there. It is a movement we are using to mobilise support for the reelection of President Tinubu in 2027 and as well for my own political aspiration. Its membership transcends one political party, religious group or ethnic nationality.
It is a movement of likeminds that resolve to mobilise support for President Tinubu and I. The reason is not far-fetched. The task ahead is huge. We cannot leave it to our great party alone. To achieve at least 75% voter turnout in 2027, we need to deploy diverse approaches to mobilise popular support for all our candidates. In most cases, many candidates don’t really succeed during elections. This happens because most people are induced to vote against the popular and right candidate. Some party members will collect money from different candidates and engage in anti-party activities.
They work for another candidate while on another party’s campaign train for an election. But when you have a movement like ROCOF that mobilises people for a definite cause; educate them properly and encourage them to perform their civic duty, the outcome of the process will be different and outstanding. We are bringing together people who believe the success of their candidate during and after elections are their priorities. This is basically what we are doing with ROCOF in Oyo State and beyond on the performance of the APC during the last bye-election.
First, let me educate you a little about the last by-election in the Ibadan North. Our party did not understand that they were running a by-election. As you all know, a by-election is not a conventional election. It is not like the general election. It is an election where you will be contesting with the ruling party in the state or the opposition party. It depends on who you are. Like us, we were contesting as the opposition party. But my party did not understand that aspect. I think this is the first challenge we had in that by-election.
Also, if you want to fight against the ruling party in a state like Oyo State and win such an election, the strategy you deploy should be carefully designed to achieve the desired purpose.
It should not be a strategy that was hurriedly put together. I think we got it wrong in this area. Already, we have learnt our lessons. We have also gone to the drawing board in preparation for the general election. I believe our approach to the 2027 elections will be different.
How are you and other party leaders building the Oyo APC ahead of 2027 general elections?
I am happy that everyone knows fundamental mistakes have been made. But how do we get out of where we are now? Like I said earlier, we have returned to the drawing board already. It has become our collective responsibility to work out how we can bring the Oyo APC back on track. We have realised our mistakes, particularly before and during the just concluded by-election. In that process, we managed to poll 8,312 votes compared to 18,404 scored by the PDP. This outcome does not really represent the standing of APC in Oyo State. It only reveals the weakness of our approach to the by-election. The good thing is that all of us are now working hard together to bring the APC back on track.
With the founding of ROCOF and other initiatives you have taken to mobilise support for President Tinubu, where exactly does your interest lie with respect to 2027? Put differently, what is your next political aspiration?
I’m not overly ambitious. My primary interest is to see the Oyo APC back on track, first and foremost. That is what I am working for along with other leaders of our party. Once we resolve it and the party is positioned for a landslide in all political contests, then other things will fall in place automatically. To the glory of God, I’m a minister of God.
If I’m privileged, I will serve wholeheartedly. If I’m not privileged, the decision of my party prevails. That does not mean I will quit my party. This suggests that my aspiration to serve is a do-or-die one. But when desirability is not available, availability becomes desirable. That is the reason I chose to present myself to support the country as a nation.
Are you interested in the Office of the Governor of Oyo State given the pivotal role you are playing to unite the leaders of Oyo APC?
This question means you have been following what I have been saying all this time. In life, if you want to be great, you must finance greatness. If you are not ready to finance it, there is no way you can be great. What I am doing currently is to position myself for higher responsibility. It is to present myself for my party and let them know that when there are challenges, it is not that we do not have what it takes to win the election.
All they need to do is to look inward and search the right candidates for all available political offices, whether executive office or legislative. That is what I mean by when desirability is not available, availability will become desirable. As it is now, what I have built for my party now through ROCOF is enough for us to win any election any day. That is my own way of helping the Oyo APC apart from peace initiatives we are taking to put the party back on the path to victory. Already, we have over 200,000 members. All of them with identity cards. What I’m doing is to tell people that governance is not an exclusive club. Governance is more than desiring an office, neither is it a birthright.
Ibadan, which falls to Oyo South, has consistently been producing governors in Oyo State except on one or two occasions. Why is Ibadan always against zoning the governorship office to Oyo Central or Oyo North?
Honestly, this is one of the questions people have been asking me in recent times. For me, that is grace. You cannot fight grace in life. It is not the responsibility of the Ibadan people to produce governors from Ibarapa or Oke Ogun. It is the responsibility of the elders of the state to come together; meet the people of Ibarapa, Ibadan and Okeogun as well as work out an understanding on how to rotate Office of the Governor among the zones.
It is possible, but we have to be deliberate and decisive about such an arrangement. With a clear understanding among the elders of the state, we can rotate it zone by zone.
Look at the Niger Delta, for instance. It is not the business of Nigeria for somebody to be located in Bayelsa or River State.
If we are making noise in Ibadan that they are not sharing oil derivation with us, then you will understand where I’m coming from. That is about grace. All oil funds they are receiving on a regular basis were by way of grace. I have given more than enough advice on how Okeogun or Ibarapa can produce governors in Oyo State.
If I were the Governor of Oyo State, I would be the one who could hand power over to somebody in Okeogun. If Governor Seyi Makinde has already planned to hand over somebody from Okeogun or Ibarapa, you do not need to change that narrative. It is his mental decision. If I’m the one in charge, I will meet with all the notable Ibadan indigents. I will convene a summit where I will educate them on the need to allow other senatorial districts to produce governors. When I finish my tenure, I am going to hand over power.
You will negotiate it with them. You will discuss with them. You will now invite all the leaders from Okeogun. You arrive at a decision. The decision reached at the meeting will inform you of the way the incumbent administration will spread your projects. I think that is a possibility.
Do you think such an understanding can be brokered with the population of Ibadan?
The probability is very high if we bring all elders on boards and no attempt is made to reduce governance to sectional politics. One of the ways this can be done is, other zones – Ibadan, Okeogun, Ogbomosho, and Ibarapa – will organise a summit and decide to present a candidate who will contest for the Office of the Governor. This is irrespective of the party to which the person may belong. Also, they will agree that there is no zone that will accept that their son should be deputy to any candidate. Once this happens, all the political parties will narrow their candidates to one zone. When the election comes, they can decide as a zone that irrespective of the number of votes that come from Ibadan, they will vote for the candidate that their zone has presented for the contest.
If you look at the way our election is, Ibadan has about 40 percent of the total results. Okeogun has about 30% of the total votes. You must understand that they vote in blocks. This is due to the communal lifestyle where everyone relates peacefully. If you come to my federal constituency, there is a ward that 90% of the people there are non-indigenes. I have an idea of this due to my grassroots knowledge.
Most federal roads in the South are in deplorable conditions. What are you doing to ensure that FERMA rehabilitates all these roads?
We have gone beyond that stage. Barely five months ago, there was a committee meeting that went viral. I was then concerned about the activities of the Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi. Before I ran for election, I had traveled around the federation because of my profession. There is no part of the federation I have not traveled to. Before now, if you traveled from Sagamu to Benin, you would cause the federal government.
From Benin to Asaba, you would do the same thing. From Onitsha to Enugu, you would think that we did not have any government in place. From Calabar to Uyo, you would ask whether we are in this country together. From Ibadan to Ife, you have to prepare for medication when you get to Ilesha. From Ibadan to Oyo, it was nothing to write home about. From Oyo to Ogbomoso, it was then the same story. These are the problems we inherited. That was why I was concerned about the state of federal roads.
As the Chairman of FERMA, I needed a road map for these roads to be fixed. We did not cause it. It was not the problem that our government caused. But immediately we took over, my thinking was that we should be diplomatic. We place emphasis on the rehabilitation of new roads rather than new ones. If I want to start the reconstruction of a 100-kilometer road to a 200-kilometer road, it will require at least two years to complete it. It means the government will not be able to fix all federal roads within four years. If I am the Minister of Works, I understand the strategy to adopt, which will bring results immediately.
In this situation, how best can the president address the deplorable conditions of federal roads nationwide?
The best approach is to meet with the President and request for intervention funds to fix all deplorable federal roads across the federation. While we are rehabilitating existing federal roads, the implementation of legacy projects will still continue. We need a strategic roadmap that is very clear and objective because the people are concerned about the conditions of federal roads.
It is not the problem of President Tinubu to go and fix those roads directly. He has appointed the works minister to handle that assignment, and I believe he has been responsive. Good enough, the works minister is a certified civil engineer.
He has been solving the problem for the president. You do not need to start the reconstruction of all federal roads simultaneously. What you need to do is to start from Lagos and structure how people can get to Abuja seamlessly. After the journey, people will praise the president for efficient utilisation of taxpayers’ money. We do not reconstruct federal roads that are less busy at the expense of those that have high vehicular movements. For instance, 80% of commuters ply Lagos-Abuja and Lagos-Onitsha routes.
Once we fix key federal roads with high vehicular movements, everyone will sing the praises of the president after six months. Then, we can move to other roads. For me, we must sustain the aggressive rehabilitation of existing roads to ensure that they are motorable for the masses. Don’t reconstruct them first because we cannot complete them at record times. But we should make them functional. This is my position, and it has nothing to do with me. This is basically what I have been advocating for many months. I am passionate about it because the minister can approach President Tinubu and explain the need to make existing federal roads more functional. I know the president, being an unrepentant progressive, will promptly provide much-needed interventions. While the minister is focused on fixing existing roads, he should provide Nigerians daily or weekly briefings on the progress on federal road rehabilitation. If the works minister does this, there will not be any criticism against the legacy projects. That was my message during the meeting of the House Committee on FERMA.
Has anything changed since your engagement with the Minister of Works over the condition of federal roads?
Except one wants to be deceitful, there is a clear difference between what we had then and what we have now. It was good that I engaged him with every sense of humility and patriotism. I think the engagement made him realise that his strategy was not helping the government enough. I think he retraced his footprints, and there was a major departure from the way they were managing federal roads before then and now.
Can you spotlight the efforts being done by the FERMA across the federation to assist commuters to reduce travel time?
I’m on top of the game. Things have really changed. I do not know where the Office of the Minister is but as a concerned citizen who wants the best for Nigeria and who daily prays for the success of President Tinubu, I can tell you that work has improved on road maintenance and rehabilitation.
Four weeks ago, China gave us so much equipment for the maintenance and rehabilitation of federal roads. The equipment will really assist the FERMA to fast-track road maintenance across the federation. If you look at the Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode axis now, major construction work is ongoing to ease vehicular movement. Also, rehabilitation is progressing on the Benin-Warri route.
In fact, the reconstruction of Ife-Ibadan expressway has already been awarded, and its rehabilitation will take off very soon.
When will the rehabilitation start?
I may not be able to give a specific date for the commencement because I don’t control the budgets. Similarly, the Federal Government has awarded the Ibadan-Oyo, and Ogbomosho-Oyo routes. The Calabar-Uyo road is already being awarded. Work is equally ongoing on this corridor. I can tell you that there is a major departure from what we used to have.
The problems with the Oyo APC are centred on one person. From my findings, it is the Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu. With such an individual, do you think your peace initiative can yield good outcomes?
This question is personal. I will not like to respond to it. I can only say that with the recent development after the last by-election, I think each one knows that some things need to be done much more professionally than the way it was previously handled. The minister is my brother, and we are working together for the rebirth of Oyo State.
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