A former member of the Federal House of Representatives who represented Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency II between 1999 and 2003, Hon. Gbolahan Okuneye, in this interview with Damilola Kushimo, spoke extensively about his time in office and current politics in Isolo LCDA. Excerpts:
You were elected to represent the people of Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency 2 under Alliance for Democracy (AD) but you later defected to seek reelection under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), what led to that sir?
Defection is a regular matter in politics. It is because of the general ignorance of the populace that defection is regarded as a big issue. We all started from Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the party eventually metamorphosed from AD to Action Congress (AC), AC to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and ACN to All Progressives Congress (APC). But at that time, we defected because we had some little issue with those running the party. Just as AD moved to AC to ACN and APC, they are the same basic reasons, it is because of discontent that members moved from AD in 1999 to APC today.
Why did you join PDP in particular?
I moved because I was unhappy with the situation of the party, discontent. The party was being run as a one-man-show at that particular time unlike now that it is fairly democratised. That time It was not democratised.
Why did you think you lost your reelection bid in PDP?
PDP was not popular in Isolo at that time and since I am not a bread and butter politician, I had no objection contesting and losing. It is a bread and butter politician that insists they must win every match. I’m a sports person, I believe in losing today and winning tomorrow, winning today losing tomorrow. So, it didn’t affect me in any way. I’m a sports person, till tomorrow morning I still play my table tennis. I did n’t buy those trophies.
What inspired your move back to AC?
I moved back to APC due to pressures from loyalists and co-members who felt I should have stayed with them. I had to harken to their request hence, I had to move back. I moved back in the year 2004 or 2005. I can’t remember but since then, I’ve just been a leader in the party. I didn’t contest again and that’s because by the time I left for PDP specific members of the party had penetrated the system and gotten themselves embedded with the leaderships and their stock-in-trade at that time was to blackmail me because they felt defection was a big deal. But lo and behold, all of them have now detected from ACN to APC. Is that not defection? They started as AD to AC to ACN and then to APC.
So, that’s why some of them amuse me when they mention defection although stock-in-trade is to use some of us as guinea pigs to scoring favours from leadership up there and that’s okay by me. I have no objection. I’ve never lived solely on politicking while they live on politics. I have other things I do every day. I can live without politics. I’ve been living without politics. By the grace of God, I’m comfortable without politics, politics is not my only life.
Which caucus do you belong to in APC?
Caucuses and groupings are issues that have brought untold hardships to members of the party. Caucuses and groupings were being employed by party members to attract positions to themselves without being actively involved in the real politics. Most of the beneficiaries of caucuses and groupings are people who are never core politicians. They are just loyalists of specific leaders in the party who believe that they can get official positions by aligning themselves to specific leaders. Unfortunately in the year 2020, the party came out with a proclamation cancelling all caucuses hence, caucuses are no more in the party. The party itself realised the dangers caucuses were posing and that is why caucuses have to be cancelled.
Here in Isolo, do you think it has been cancelled in real sense because, as it used to be in the party, elective offices and other positions in the party are being zoned to caucuses? Do you think such practice will not be used for the forthcoming local council polls?
No, caucuses have been cancelled. Party offices were zoned to caucuses when caucuses were existing and caucuses have been cancelled now and the council chairmanship and other leadership positions are to be decided by the leadership of the party which has always been the best way until caucuses came. It was caucuses that created problem in the party anyway. But the party in its wisdom has cancelled caucuses and that’s the current situation.
Sir, what is your assessment of the current council administration led by Hon. Shamsudeen Olaleye?
Well, as a former officeholder, I know it is not possible to please every resident or every constituent. As an officeholder, whether it is chairman, reps member, senator, governor or president or councillor, you can only do the much you can do while in office. Some people will be satisfied while some other will not. If you attempt to satisfy 100 per cent of the populace, you’ll only injure yourself. The incumbent chairman has done his best, his tenure is coming to an end very soon, we only hope that the incoming chairman, if at all it’s going to happen, will improve on his situation. The man has done his best in all areas as far as I’m concerned. His best in the areas of education, infrastructure, health.
As I always say, he will have some people who will say he hasn’t done his best. These are the people who are just beneficiaries of the system. Most of them have never in their lives contested for ordinary councillorship election but they benefit from the system because they are blind loyalists of specific leaders. It is those people that you’ll hear complaining that the chairman has not done well but for me, as a person who has contested before, who knows what it is to go round the vicinity to campaign to people, I know he has done his best.
What do you mean by ‘If at all it’s going to happen?’
I mean if there will be election. Because, of course, nobody knows tomorrow. There’s so much insecurity in the country, there is Covid, there are so many things that can disturb the process. Who knew two years ago that a situation will arise that will warrant the closure of schools, bars, churches, mosques? Nobody knew but here we are, stuck in various problems that will warrant the closure of these places. We are only hoping and praying that with the rising wave of Covid-19 the government will not feel the need to lockdown totally. Like in the developed world, many countries have been locked down, justifiably. So, planning for election will be based on the situation on ground at that particular time. Maybe the cases might have risen massively that the government will feel the need to postpone, only God knows. Holding an election is a matter of all other things remaining equal but as we speak today, you know that all other things are not equal in the country as it is in some other parts of the world.
What is your opinion on the capabilities of all aspirants jostling to succeed the outgoing chairman?
Some of them have visited me and they are all eminently qualified. I’ve not seen any of them that is more educated than the other, they all went to school although in the course of the campaign one or two of them may be brandishing some certificates, degrees or whatever, it is when the party verifies their claims that we know their real qualifications. I’ve interviewed some of them and I don’t see any difference in their academic qualifications.
Some of them are green in politics, I’ve never met one or two of them in our various meetings in Isolo but some of them are active participants in Isolo politics. So far so good, it is too early to take a position on what will eventually happen, we are still watching the situation.
What is your advice to them?
My advice is that they should go on campaigning and I strongly advise that none of them should go about blackmailing another about educational qualification because it has come to my knowledge that some of them are are saying others are not qualified academically.
They should remember that the constitution is very clear on educational qualification. It is so tolerant of academic qualification of aspirants for public offices. A misconception of the public is that you must pass your school cert which is your West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) before you can run for the office, that’s very wrong. That is a misconception from the members of the public. The constitution does not even state that you must pass WASSCE, it just states that you must have been registered as a student in JSS 1 in a secondary school to qualify. In fact, it further states that if you have primary school education backed with evidence of having worked in specific places, you’re qualified as a president but in the course of campaigning, some aspirants who cannot even defend their certificates will be claiming that other aspirants do not have a degree.
So, the truth is that the people that have visited me are all eminently qualified as far as I am concerned and as far as the constitution of the country state. What you’ll discover is that people should not otherwise vie for public office because they have one degree or the other without the appropriate political experience because they want to cheat the system by emphasizing on the degree they hold. In the course of talking to people about politics, you’ll hear some Nigerians talking about technocrats, it is just a deception. When they mention technocrats in the politics they are trying to distinguish themselves from other members of the party who have laboured for the party but who do not have degrees.
For example, when you are talking about technocrats where do you place people like Professor Osinbajo, he’s a politician, people like Dr. Mamora are politician. There are many people like that who have their vocations but they are not regarded as technocrats but as politicians. Even Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is an accountant but he rarely uses the word accountant, he’s a politician. Only those who want to cheat the system place emphasis on the fact that they are accountant, lawyer or doctor.
What will you say were your achievements while in office between 1999 and 2003?
Well, when I was in the House of Reps the more I was able to do was to procure specific infrastructural matters to Isolo Constituency. I am the one that procured that post office you have at Iyana-Isolo. That’s one of my projects but, unfortunately, the digital age has not negatively impacted on the usage of the post office because many people no longer use Post Office.
I procured a water project in all the five wards of Isolo at that time, that was before Isolo was further divided to seven wards. I was also able to procure equipment for some indigenes of Isolo.
Of course, the misconception of the members of the public and lawmakers is that they must do this or do that. Our only work is lawmaking, it is only when necessary that we muster our influence to procure specific projects in our community and these projects are given to every member of the house of reps subject to availability of funds for such projects. It is such project that the public knows as constituency project and it is funded depending on availability of funds by the national assembly. At that time when we were there, the volume of constituency projects given were very meagre compared to what we have now hence, we were not able to do much.