Showing posts with label FROM DR. AGUNLOYE. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2016
Monday, October 24, 2016
See Why Ondo people prefer Agunloye to other candidates
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olu Agunloye, has described the support enjoyed by the party as a sign of people’s yearning for good governance.
He said the popular support from the people was encouraging and impressive.
Agunloye enjoined the people to translate the love they have for the party into votes, as the SDP was ahead of others still struggling to put their houses and structures in order.
Speaking to supporters at the Agunloye Campaign Organisation Office in Akure, the SDP candidate said the party demonstrated the value of leadership, internal democracy, tolerance, human management and political maturity with the peace that permeate its campaign and political action daily.
According to him, SDP is forging ahead in its grassroots mobilisation.
Agunloye encouraged the people to pray fervently to achieve the task ahead and transform the state’s economy.
He reminded the people that their vote is the power to reject poor governance and ineffective leadership, which brought along abject poverty to the people.
The SDP candidate promised that the people’s vote will count and warned against accepting any inducement.
He advised the supporters to remain active and vote for SDP on November 26.
Agunloye’s running mate Erelu Modupe Akindele Martins thanked the people for their support and determination to vote for SDP.
Erelu Martins said women empowerment and prompt payment of workers would be prioritised when SDP is voted into power.
Ondo election: SDP on rescue, rebuilding mission —Olu Agunloye
Dr Olu Agunloye, a former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and former federal minister, is the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the November governorship election in Ondo State. In this interview by Deputy Editor DAPO FALADE, he speaks on burning national issues, concluding that SDP is out to rescue and rebuild state.
There are many parties in Nigeria today, why did you, at this point in time, choose to be with SDP?
First, let me say that the political landscape is very fluid in Nigeria. Some attempts by [former military President Ibrahim] Babangida to streamline them failed, somehow. At the moment, we have a situation where there are so many political parties and people go very easily from one party to the other. Even those who had already been elected, they still take the liberty to go from one party to another, not worrying about what happened to those who elected them.
I have studied the political landscape very well and carefully and I have also had what I will call the advantage of being in a couple of them and I have found out that, for us to make a meaningful impact in the development of Ondo State, we will have to look at two things. One, what happens to internal democracy within the party and who owns the party and what are the characteristics of the proprietors of the parties?
I looked at that and I came to the conclusion that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where I was before, would not fly because the interests in the party are not exactly something that is line with the development of Ondo State. The same thing I could say about the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Given the popularity of PDP and APC, how do you think it will be able to compete favourably with the two political parties in the governorship election in Ondo State?
Well, to me, I feel undaunted because the issue is not about popularity; the issue is entirely about the economy and there is no doubt about that in my mind. The popularity of Party A and Party B had not led to us to anywhere. In fact, if you want to say, you can say correctly that there is no difference between PDP and APC. The way they blame each other is the same and the going from one party to the other is the same. Today, they say Mr A is a thief and that EFCC or the police should go and arrest him. The following morning, he leaves PDP and joins APC and you don’t get to hear that (the allegation) again.
Then, whatever it is, however popular they are, how influential that they are, however rich that they are, they had led this country to its boils and the country is about to be held on its knees. So, now we are talking about rescue and building. It is clear that the popular parties are not able to do this because if they are able to do this, why didn’t they do it before now? What are they going to do new now, having caused these particular problems? The reserves have been spent; even at the federal level, Party A is having fiscal measures that are in conflict with the monetary measures.
So, there are issues and the most important one is the issue of budget; padding of budget is still being done under a party that is supposed to bring sanity into the system. To show you the confusion within the party, even the party itself had tried to submit a budget which is similar to the same one they want to build change upon. So, if we say change, everything must change. I was extremely disappointed to see that the Federal Government came up with one year budget instead of three or five-year budget. That is the kind of situation that we are talking about. They are popular people; they are influential people; they are big politicians but they have ruined the system. We now need statesmen, not politicians, who will come and pull the country out of the ruins and start rebuilding it. The time to come in to do that is now because when you wait a little bit more, the system can become uncontrollable.
Some issues are very fundamental to the average Nigerian, including economy, security and job opportunities. How did you intend to tackle all these if you become the governor?
There are three problems. The first one is economy, the second one is economy and the third one is economy; so there is only one issue. It is the absence and the breakdown of the economy that brings about insecurity, that serves to bring about unemployment. In fact, unemployment or absence of job security leads to actual insecurity.
What we believe is that we will need to talk specifically about Ondo State because the level of crisis has become so large in Nigeria and the states. The question is, ‘why am I comfortable and confident that this can be solved in Ondo State?’ This is because it is not the same for other states. Some states, I will not mention them, if you ask me to come and become the governor there now, I may decline. This is because I may look at it and say that they are not workable. But in Ondo State, it is workable and the reason for this is that Ondo State is the hub of the South-West; it is surrounded by six other states and both the Atlantic and the Lagoon and each one has its own advantages. We also have the longest coastline in Nigeria.
We have looked at all of this and we have summarised it in such a way that we have the challenges of crisis or problems of Ondo State and we called it just challenges at the moment. Then, there are big opportunities also in the state and we are combining those two to look for solutions. In looking for solutions, we are concluding that since the problems are economic, the solution must be economic. We must come up with an economic plan that is simple, correct, appropriate and doable. We have divided this into three areas. The first one we call Appropriate Debt Management Programme; second, to revive, rebuild and pump up the local economy and three, Discreet Welfare Programme.
Ondo is known as the Sunshine State, if you become the governor, how soon should the people expect to see the sunshine?
You also made that mistake. I have heard people saying, ‘let the sun shine again so that the sun can shine’ and you too have asked same question. The truth is that the sun has never ceased shining in Ondo State. The problem has always been that the government has never harnessed all the energy from the sun and has never equitably distributed the ones they have taken. That fact we must get right.
Our programme is both short and medium-term and that is why we said, once we get there, we will start to do debt management so that we can start to pay monies that are owed. It is sinful, it is criminal to have workers work and you don’t pay them and they are not allowed to do any other thing. If you find them doing another thing, they can terminate their appointments. But now that they have put all their lives in their jobs, you are not paying them. The fact that we will go into a programme of two to three years is the revamping of the economy. If we are going to put a light rail, for instance, it will not happen in 10 days.
The primaries of the three major political parties have thrown up three big personalities, made up of yourself, Rotimi Akeredolu of APC and Tayo Jegede of PDP, what do you think you have that will give you an edge over them when you come before the electorate in November?
Well, I reckon that people expect me to say something. The question here is that we need to go beyond what we have known governance to be. We now need a governor who will be a manager of people; we need a governor who will be a manager of plans and policies; we need a governor who will be a manager of programmes. When you look at that, it put me well ahead of them in the areas of my competence and my training and my experience where I worked; what kind of work I did before. It puts me ahead of them in terms of my credibility.
I am one person that served as minister in the Ministry of Defence (Navy), minister in the Ministry of Power and Steel and, as of that time, I had no junior minister under me. I served FRSC for seven years; I served e-Government for seven years. If anybody says there is a blemish there, it is a lie; it is just not there. That is why when you look at it, a guy is saying, ‘I am spending N500million on primary. I have N5billion for my election’, ask him, where did he get this money from? None of them has served in government circle longer than I have served or at a level higher than I have served.
So, we are talking about trustworthiness and integrity. Together with all those qualities-I am competent, I am credible and as well I am compassionate and I have integrity. Then, you cannot pull experience from anywhere; you must to through it. I have served as a Special Adviser to an Attorney General of the Federation. Even though I am not a lawyer, I was responsible for what has now become known as the Law of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2000. They have been trying to do it before I came but I told [the late Chief Bola] Ige one simple thing: that we can publish this thing; that the publishing in the hard copy is not the problem. I publish it in the CD and if you want to, you just go and print it and that was exactly what I did. We computerised where they did the Drafting. I told them I will sell the vehicles of the ministry [Federal Ministry of Justice] to buy computers and network the entire place. The point is that I have had experience in different areas.
I remember I represented Nigeria at one conference in Italy and the whole theme of it was how to stop drug addicts, drug dealers, criminals from getting into government and that if they do, they will kill that government. That is what is happening all over the place now: suddenly, they put Drs at the front of their names and you will not know which doctor went to school or which doctor didn’t go to school.
I believe that I also have the political experience. Some of these people in Ondo State have never voted in the state. They were just lawyers somewhere in Yola and suddenly became a commissioner in Ondo State and the next moment, they want to be the next governor of the state. The issues here goes very deep into understanding what really is the problem of the state, how to go about the solutions and knowing that this is inclusive: we will need to get from here to there. In fact, for us, we say, ‘come, let us do it together. It is time to rebuild; it is time to rescue Ondo State’.
SDP will win Ondo Governorship poll - Agunloye
Dr. Olu Agunloye, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ondo State has expressed optimism that the party would win convincingly in the forthcoming gubernatorial election of the state schedule for November 26 of this year.
Agunloye stated at the weekend when overwhelming top grassroots politicians from Ijare, in Ifedore Local Government Area rolled out drums and joined the party in support for the coming governorship election. He said apart from winning the governorship election, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) remains the ‘best alternative’ platform that could proffer solution to the present predicament and misfortunes of the people in the state.
According to him, the party would also be willing to provide an alternative option for politicians and their supporters who were frustrated in both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
Agunloye, who disclosed that his political aspiration to become the next governor of the “Sunshine State” was not based on regional sentiment said that he saw a beacon of hope in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the forthcoming guber poll.
The former Minister of Power and Steel further assured that when elected his government would work together with the people to reap the dividends of democracy, noting that there would be an end to poverty.
“As you have come out today to identify with us, I promised not disappoint you. We shall do it together and reap the benefits together”, Agunloye said. He further affirmed that the leaders SDP were true progressives that would put the interest of the people first above other personal interest and solicited for more prayers from the people.
The State Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr. Wunmi Oladele, while welcoming the defectors said that it was a season of harvest of new members in the state. He assured the new decampees that their names would be inscribed into the superlist of members of the SDP ahead of the election.
He urged the new members to rally and garner both financial and political support for the party in preparation for the race to the Alagbaka government seat. “I want to implore you to start working and mobilising support for our party because in this coming November election our target is that SDP will have ninety eight percentage of votes” Oladele said.
One of the defectors, Prince Gbolahan Adefemi Judge, appreciated the leaders of the party for accepting them and promised to support the leaders in ensuing the party wins the election.
He added that the manifesto of the party, where it was stated that empowering the poor masses would be of utmost importance in the government of the SDP, made many of them to pitch their tent for the best alternative.
“We decided to join you today in order to take care of our poor masses and also to ensure that our abandoned women in the society, most especially the traders, among them are fully empowered.
“We can’t also wait to join the members and leaders of the SDP in riding the white horse to the Alagbaka government house which is the seat of power in the state come November 26th”, he said. A leader of the SDP in Ijare, Comrade Odunayo Oyebode, said that more people had been reaching out to the leaders of the ward executives in the community with a view of joining the party judging by the rising profile of Dr. Olu Agunloye among all the political aspirants.
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