An All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant for the November 16 gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Engr. Ifedayo Oyedele, in an interview with journalists in Abuja declared that he is the most qualified candidate to lead Ondo State, even has he moved for a consensus arrangement.
Read the full interview bellow:
My name is Ifeoluwa Oyedele, I am an engineer by profession. I am from Igodanlisa in Okitipupa local government area of Ondo state. As you are all aware, I am aspiring to be the next governor of Ondo state, on the platform of All Progressive Congress. I am a foundation member of APC. I was a member of the Board of Trustee of the Defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and by that reasoning, I was a member of the APC merger committee where I was fortunate to be the one who designed the logo of the new party.
How did that happened?
This is because I was already prepared for all those things that should take place in the merger of the CPC, ACN in 2010. I have two different designs, a lot of people didn’t know at the time that both the defunct ACN and CPC had agreed to a merger as at 2010, but unfortunately, due to the provision of the Electoral Act, it was impossible for us to complete the process before the election which was originally billed to take place in February. Then we would have needed to submit our application as separates parties to INEC. When we get the ratification from INEC, we would have to organised various conventions of both party, and that would take publication on newspapers for 21 working days. After the various conventions are ratified as merger, then we come to pact together as a party and present our ratification to INEC. Then we proposed the then ACN and CPC as All Progressive Congress (APC) as a party. INEC would have 90 days to respond.
New PDP?
This is the time to correct one impression; New PDP came in after we have merged together. There were people made up of the then Governor Amaechi, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki and one or two other people, who were determined to leave PDP at that time. Those are the people called New PDP. They came to joined us after we had formed the APC at the time. That was what happened. They were never part of the formation of the APC, let’s set the record straight.
That was what happened when you saw that in the distribution of the offices at the national level at the time, the New PDP was not represented. I am not saying this to disparage them and their contributions at the time; I only digress on that issue on the fact that we have formed the party before they came.
The truth of the matter was I was in that process before we even started the merger talk. I had designed many logos, and I must admit that it was because of the leadership role and the desire to have the APC win the first round of the election after the merger that made him, Asiwaju, to ask me to work towards ensuring that what we have as the present APC logo is accepted at the merger. There were many other designs, but it was because Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu is a strategist of no mean qualification. He knew then that after the merger, the first round of the election then was Ekiti, Osun, Edo and Ondo state. Those states were in the hands of ACN; Fayemi, Aregbesola, Oshiomole and Akeredolu respectively. So he wanted a logo that people in those states would easily recognised as the logo of the party. So Asiwaju thinks ahead and look ahead. We agreed to work together as compatriots in the Merger Committee to get other people’s consent to use the present logo as the acceptance logo.
History would record that I am the one who design the logo of the largest political party today. In that process, I am a member of the constitution drafting sub-committee in the merger committee.
I also became a member of the Constitution Review Committee.
Also I was the first coordinator of the CPC in Ondo state as at the time the former president Buhari, then refers as the General was an aspirant in APC. When he emerged the candidate of the party, I was also the State Coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo presidential Campaign organization in Ondo state. I have been on several committees and I have served this party meritoriously as the Chairman of the Oyo state Congress committee and the Chairman of the membership registration of Kebbi State; I was a member of three to four Presidential Campaign Council, I served in various committees. I was also the Secretary of the Ondo state Presidential Campaign Council in 2019.
In 2023, I was the leading aspirant of the governorship seat in Ondo state. But after the intervention of the party hierarchy in the state, I decided to step down for the then APC governor in Ondo state, now late Odunayo Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, my brother and my friend of many years. I have to step down for him at the APC primary in 2020.
Again, I was nominated by the then President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2022, to serve as the National Secretary of the party, again I was persuaded through horse trading to again step down for the unity of the party for another candidate in 2022. Governors from different states have to trade-in.
So here I am today as a leading contender for the number one seat of Ondo state.
What made you the leading contender?
Is it because I have been a foundation member of the party? No, it is beyond that, Ondo state is in dare need of a leader; a leader who can annex the various resources that we have. What do I mean by resources, mineral resources? No, I am talking about Human Resources. That’s the greatest resource any person, organization or a team or a committee should have, Human Resources. We need to put forward our best team. We need to put forward our best candidate.
And you think you are that best candidate?
Yes, I looked at the crops of what we have, and when we talk about quality, we need to talk about comportment and character. Am I competent? I went to the best school in the land from when the local authority primary schools were the best in the land, I went to seven primary schools, starting from Okitipupa, to Ikoya, Ode-Aye to Akotogbo. I know the terrain of Ondo state. I went to another one in Oyo, Ebenezer African Church Primary School; it was the leading primary school in the whole of the Western Region at the time. Fortunately, I was admitted to the Government College Ibadan, which in my time in 1971, was rated one of the best secondary school in the world. From there, I work progressively for going to polytechnic Ibadan. For my A Level to another prelim, then to the Nigeria’s fore-most University of first choice, University of Lagos, which today, I am President worldwide of the Alumni Association. In terms of education, I have had the best of education. In terms of work experience, I started my career as engineer, Oyo state Ministry of Works. This marks me out as a man of excellent and distinction leaving Ondo state to work with the Oyo state government. It was because of my performance during the general election of 1983; somebody spotted the way I carried out my responsibility, and reported the situation to the then Governor of Oyo state. I was given a meritorious appointment immediately after my youth service to work with the Oyo state Ministry of works in 1983. I worked there till 1997. I handled various state project as at the time Oyo state comprising of both Oyo and Osun etc.
I later established my own company and so on.
Are you threatened by the presence of the likes of the incumbent Governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa, Oluwole Oke, Olusola Oke, Jimoh Ibrahim and co and secondly, if you are given the ticket, what are the immediate things that you will like to achieve in your first hundred days in office?
There is a Yoruba song that says, “gbogbo igi lo n be n’igbo, ka to fi iroko joba”, in the animal kingdom, the lion is the leader. Have you ever seen the lion threatened by even the size of the elephant? No, I am not threatened by them. When you look at achievements, when you look at pedigree, when you look at the experience, where they have worked, you will ask yourself, where are all of this people worked before? What experience do they have? What is their vision? Their vision is to become the governor. Though, some of them are experienced, but when you do a comparative analysis, the difference is very clear and enough. So, how can I be threatened by them? How can I be threatened by somebody who has not worked in two, three places that we would have mention or point to? Those who monitored strides in the last eight years, it is not just happenstance that I am awarded Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers; Fellow of the society of Nigerian Electrical Engineer, Fellow of the society of Power Engineering, and Fellow of the Academy of the Engineering.
For you to be a Fellow of Academy of Engineering, there are criteria; you must have written papers, attain certain level academically. You look at people who are in that genre, and then you will know that it is not tea-party. So I am not threatened by anyone.
Your second question; I don’t want to talk about 100 days, the problem confronting Ondo State is beyond 100 days, and it is not make-belief that we are not coming to face things, there are deep rooted problems that only a man of vision, a man who has network, who command respect can solve.
So I am not coming to paper Ondo state. I want to talk about education. Today, is Ondo state number one? We need to restore Ondo state back to its number one status in Education, in ensuring that our primary schools produce children who can earn scholarship and compete with anybody, anywhere in the world. We need to make sure that secondary schools can produce meaningful students, and how can we do it in the circumstances that we are in. Go to our secondary schools, it is PTA that employ teachers to work in our secondary schools, and they pay then ten to fifteen thousand naira.
So the question is, Mr Governor, how are you going to fund the vision of teachers in all these secondary schools? How will it be possible to recalls those retired teachers who are not tired, including those young men who have finished their NYSC but jobless? How can I give them something of at least fifty thousand naira or something commensurate to work in their locality.
I can assured you that I can have what to call shared facilities in hundred days. For example, if you are in Okitipupa, within the proximity of Methodist High School, Stella Maris College and Ofedepe Comprehensive High School, there are three secondary schools within the same vicinity. All of them is about 200 meters apart. I am going to establish a standard Chemistry laboratory in one school, a Biology laboratory in another and Physics laboratory in another, and ask students, especially the final year students to go round and share these facilities. So within a hundred days, every child will have access to a computer lab, every child will have access to standard Physics laboratory.
When we talk about Security, within 100 days, I can design a robust close circuit security system that will be attractive and willing to work with the established federal structure, even before we achieve State Police by making sure they have facilities. The Director of State Department in Ondo State, how many vehicles do they have? Am going to buy brand new Toyota vehicles for them in 100 days? No! But in 100 hundred days, I can repair all their broken vehicles and make it available to them. I can ensure that Police and their men are mobile and can do their work. I can ensure that every Police man in strategic location can be properly kitted even with bulletproof vest. That is not rocket science to make sure that security men are mobile.
So it is the primary duty of a governor to ensure the safety and wellbeing of his people and that s why I am contesting.
I can ensure that in first six months, Ondo state can have three digits communication facilities. I can also encourage the citizens to believe in the security apparatus, so that they become part of the security architecture of the state. That will not take me a hundred days to do.
So this is our strategy, and it is not rocket science. I am not going to lie. Those who knows me knows that I am a man of unquestionable integrity. So I am not going to say that in 100 days, we are going to build dual-carriage away across the state, but I can assure you that in one hundred days, we would sign a contract to secure the state. I am not one of those who will say, give me ten percent of the share before you can come and build the sea-port in Ondo state. No, I am not going to be that type of a governor because God has blessed me to a point where I am not going to add one single extra house, except I complete the one I am building in the village so that I can live among my people. I am not going to be the governor who will live in the US, UK, China etc, I am beyond all that. You will see a governor whose children are not bleaches. I have a family that everyone will be proud of.
So as we are matching to improve facilities, it is not going to be rocket science for me within 100 days, for instance to provide a maternity ward section of Okitipupa General Hospital for instance like I will do in all the General Hospital and provides simple things like incubators such as Solars, Water System, and Incubators to them. I promise you that within 100 days, we would achieve that while we are looking ahead to greater thing that Ondo state has regular water supply, power supply, which is something that I have designed that no one can questioned my ability in that direction.
So none of the other candidate can do what I can do in power sector. In nine months, Ondo state will be the first state to achieve 24/7 power supply in Nigeria. You will wonder, how? I have Omotoso there. I have 130kva station in Akure, owned by two states that is almost completed. I will clear the minor issue causing the delay. I will work hand in hand with TCN and the people of my state. The environmental cleanup will be my priority within my first 100 days. I have plan to ensure industrialisation of Ondo state, by reawakening the MSME system in the state.
Let me also tell you one of the mechanisms that I am going to put in place. Producing products that will be exportable within six months, I have tested thus and it is working. You will encourage younger ones to produce little-little things such as vegetables, flowers for export. Everybody would be planting kenaf. Secondary school students would be planting kenaf and have enough money to go to school. We are going to encourage giant companies and work on ease-of doing business in Ondo state, that it will be possible for giant companies to bring in their investments into the state.
You are one of those who declared for governorship so late, what kept you to this point, or are you being sponsored by any of the candidates?
Reasons as I said earlier, It was because I was doing my consultation, I was prepared. I was also trying to see the array of people that will be vying for the ticket, so that I can have my responses to each and every one of them. I have put all of them in one basket. I can assure you that, virtually all of them have called me since Friday to say what are you up to. It is also like a strategy on my part. It is like a good football manager, that introduces his best player 15 minutes to go.
I am going to be a governor who will interact with all cadres of the people. I am a grassroots person. Before I came into politics in my Ayeka-Igbodigo/ Igodan/Ogumo constituency, ACN/APC never won any election in those area, but through my interaction with the people at the grassroots, we started by winning my unit, winning my ward and now my local government. How many time did Akeredolu and co went there to win election in those areas? Go to Akoko and test me. My strength is the people who are on the field, who are real politicians.
In fact, we would be the first state to conduct a free and fair local government election; this is because we are not threatened by the competence of the people who work with me and the governed. I will be the first governor who will have a very competent deputy governor, competence commissioners to work with us, not for me. This is because that is what we need. My deputy governor will have portfolio.
This is my manifestoes, and it covers all of the areas; from governance, to judiciary and in four major sellable environments such as: economic development, infrastructure development, social development and security. When we talk about my vision for the state, we talk about Governance, Security, Judiciary, regional integration, Local Government administration.
We talk about education, social development and security, water, health, women affairs, sport and youth development. Others are people with disability, art and culture and tourism etc. These are well prepared for in our manifestoes. Infrastructure, power, affordable housing, transportation, information technology, all of these is available to build up a circular economy. Talk about sustainable economy; environmental, waste management, afforestation, rural and urban migration.
These was not produced today; it was produced many years ago.
So, I am not one of those people who are not prepared. In the year 2015, I prepared my vision for Ondo state. In 2020, I revised it to ensure it is up to date. In the year 2023, I assembled the best and private citizens to update it. I am best prepared compared to any of the candidate. None of them is well prepared as I am.
