Encomium
MR. Kehinde Bamigbetan is the chairman of Ejigbo LCDA. He has been the council boss since 2008, serving two terms. Bamigbetan has certainly done well for the LCDA in the last six years that he has been at the helm of affairs in the local council. Now, he wants to go to the House of Representatives in 2015 to represent Oshodi/Isolo Federal Constituency II.
Aside his great achievement at the local council, he believes Ejigbo Constituency should be given the opportunity to represent Oshodi/Isolo Federal Constituency at the National Assembly.
He spoke with ENCOMIUM Weekly more on this and other issues.
What in your opinion is responsible for your party (APC) poor performance in the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State?
The position of those of us who are members of the party is that it is a signal for us to redouble our efforts. As Chief Obafemi Awolowo said, “It is not your falling that matters but your being able to rise up each time you fall.”
The data available from Ekiti State governorship election is very clear. Election was held and the PDP candidate won by about 80,000 votes. 203,000 votes to 120,000 votes, that is the data. There are many ways to process this data. Could it be that the policies of the ruling government of APC was not well administered or it was not well communicated? Because everybody who has commented agreed that the administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi has set a high standard of governance in that state. This high standard involved social adjustment of various segments of the populace. We all know that all adjustments in various programmes requires sacrifices. The extent to which an impacted segment can sacrifice depending on the level of perception of the interest of that segment, particularly how that changing process will benefit them.
For example, the quality of a teacher certainly has a direct relationship with the quality of the students in any educational system. Therefore, when you seek to improve the standard of the teacher so that you can get more qualified students, the whole system will benefit from that process.
How do you now go about achieving that without hurting the ego of the teachers? How do you achieve that without making the teacher feel he is not going to lose his employment?
The communication challenge is very important to the perception. At the end of the day the teacher felt angry that they were being forced to do competency test. That means that in terms of perception it was negative instead of being positive. These are lessons that we have to learn, that in change management, we also need to ensure that it’s a win-win situation.
As a fallout, Edo State government has to slow down on its competence test. Because they realize that they need to repackage it better so that they can carry the teachers along as they improve the educational system. The objective of the competency test is not in doubt. If it has been done it would have been a way for the government to lobby for grants from international organizations. I think that because the governor was in a hurry to deliver, to show the distinction between an APC government and the former PDP government, perhaps some of these communication challenges might have not been given the kind of treatment they deserve. But the key is that there was a vision, that vision was to make a new Ekiti State as an international destination for tourism and to re-affirm its educational excellence.
Two, the argument that the governor is just speaking English and just doing physical infrastructure and not providing stomach infrastructure is more of a problem of perception because it is the roads that provides the routes to commerce. Wherever you have a road you have trading. Whether it is road from the rural areas to the urban areas or the ones within the urban, it opens up commerce and commercial activities automatically increase. People will begin to open up shops there, banks will begin to come there and before you know it trade in that area begins to grow.
The people who are trading will now have more money in their hands to go to market and feed themselves. You can see that for each road alone there is the stomach infrastructure that is already in-built. Each road built by the government is a road to the stomach. That is why I said most of the arguments against the ruling government in Ekiti are perception issues. The government certainly deserve to win.
Don’t also forget that the presence of the military hierarchy was a major intimidating factor in that election. In that kind of semi-rural and semi-urban environment, the presence of the means of coercion of the state on the psyche of the voters is a major determinant of the voting behavior. We cannot run away from that. Money also played a major role in that election. Voters themselves expressed the fact that there was a lot of funds that was going around the place. Because we asked ourselves with all the grand standing that Fayose is doing, how did he lose the senate seat (in 2011), if he was that superb? How come he couldn’t win one-third of the state which is what a senatorial district is? This tells you that there are other extraneous factors that came in, into that election. The mass of uncollected PVC (permanent voters card) what happened to them? The case of people printing ballot papers before the election what happened to that?
When we, of course, concede to the good people of Ekiti State, the rights to choose who they want, we know that election logistics and dynamics tell us that most of the criticism is a matter of perception management. I think basically we are learning from all those things.
But some people are already attributing the loss of APC in Ekiti election to the style of leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. What is your reaction to this?
I don’t think so. The point is that the bigger the head, the bigger the trouble. If Asiwaju is responsible for the success of the progressive movement South-West, it is also automatic that he will share part of the blame. He can’t be claiming credit for the successes and now dunk out of sight when the reverse comes. I think it is fair game. But I also think it is blackmail. Most of what is happening is the PDP orchestrated campaign of calumny. The aim is very clear. They know that if they can get Asiwaju out of the way, demolishing the APC in the South-West will be easier game for them. It is a simple strategic engagement and we understand it.
What are the arguments against Asiwaju?
They say he is not a democrat. We traced the history. In 1999 was there no democratic way of assuming power? There was. Was the party not engaged in democratic means? It was. The problem of having to develop a different means happened because of the violence that followed the intra-party primaries of 2002/2003, because everybody knew this was the party to beat they struggled to get the ticket of the party and in that process followers of the aspirants began to fight themselves even to the point of killing themselves and there was blood letting everywhere.
The party now said we cannot continue to allow things to go on this way. Couldn’t we try another means of choosing our candidates, perhaps we could begin to harmonise. We can begin to persuade people to step down for each other so that conflicts can be reduced.
That was what led to this harmonization option which we had over time. Now, if the party is now solid and people are now yearning for the return of that process, of course, no problem.
We have already started that process. The party local government elections that was recently held was part of that process. All across the state it was democratic. Out of 377 ward chairmen, only 153 came back. That is to show you how democratic it was.
There was not a sit-tight system. Before that, when we were doing 2011 primaries, all the aspirants went for primaries at ACME (the APC secretariat). They were voted for as party candidates. That should let you understand very clearly that the party itself is responding.
Asiwaju as a leader of the party is supporting democratic process. It is in his support of the party democratic process that even in the last party congress in the state, he was not in the country and people voted their mind.
What is your reaction to the allegation against Asiwaju Tinubu that he is selfish by putting his wife down for the senate, his son-in-law for House of Representatives and his daughter as Iyaloja General and so on?
Since 1991 till date which politician who has dominance in his place could not produce people who are in position to contest for political office? Is it Adedibu? Is it Obasanjo? Even Obanikoro, his son contested for House of Assembly and local government chairmanship. What are you talking about? It is a natural progression. Asiwaju Tinubu has been in politics since 1991. He has been in the senate, he has been a governor. He is no longer holding any position, does that now deny his children the right to contest election. If your father was Asiwaju Tinubu and you have passion for politics, will that stop you from contesting for an election? It wouldn’t. The question people should ask is, did they pass through normal process? Were they imposed? If they were imposed by the party, were they also imposed on the electorates? Did they not contest for election? Were they not elected?
Senator Oluremi Tinubu as far as I know went through the primaries and she emerged the candidate of the party. I remember that day, she was at the centre of the primary for the whole day before the result came the next day. After that she went for general election and won. After the election one of the opponents took her to court. Look at the process she went through before she finally emerged as a senator. Is Asiwaju Tinubu the electorate that elected her?
The same thing with his son-in-law. About six candidates contested against him then, he defeated them. Was Asiwaju the INEC officials who made it possible? Did the people not vote for him? They had a choice, they may boycott the election or vote for another candidate. If they (Senator Tinubu and Hon. Ojo) had been defeated, would they still be saying the same thing? They are speaking after the facts.
I keep asking individuals who made this point, if you have been in a profession or vocation for 20 years and your son or daughter says he or she wants to do the same thing, will you make things difficult for him or her? When Chief Oluwole Awolowo, the son of Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory was to run for 
Lagos State House of Assembly, Apapa Constituency, did Awo impose him? Of course, he had the benefit of influence that his father had. That is a natural process. His father had worked for it. He became a member of Lagos State House of Assembly in 1983. Why didn’t they because of that crucify the old man? This is cheap blackmail of the PDP. Their aim is just let us demonise Asiwaju Tinubu, let us take him out. Let us alienate him from the masses whom he had worked for. That way people will no longer love the APC because once you take away Asiwaju out of APC calculation in South-West, then there will be problem for the party. It is a PDP agenda.
What about this rumour of Buhari/Tinubu Muslim/Muslim APC presidential ticket?
There are rumours, there are rumours and there are rumours. But why don’t we wait for the reality. Whether we like it or not the APC will throw open the competition of who becomes its presidential candidate. Why are we second guessing? Why are we in a hurry? If Asiwaju wants to go for presidency he will announce it and then we will be dealing with facts and not fiction.
If we look at this issue, do we want to emphasise the Muslimness of Tinubu or his financial wizardry? Do you want to emphasise his Muslimness or his humility and generousity? Is it the fact that he is a Muslim or the fact that he took Lagos economy and finance to the extent it has become an independent state on its own? Is it his Muslimness that you want to emphasise or the fact he increased the number of states under his control in the South to six? It depends on what you want to emphasise. The opposition will want to emphasise the negative and we have supporters will emphasise the positive ones. That is what campaign is all about. But I think we should de-emphasise the issue of religion in our politics. It has not helped us in anyway.
Recently, your local government was adjudged the best in terms of education. How does that make you feel?
The award is an initiative of state of Maryland of US African Commission. When you are about three months and you get this award on education, I think one will feel happy that his efforts have not been in vain. More than that you feel challenged and you begin to wonder the sustainability of some of your policies, free uniform. For example, we want to make sure that after you have left office, the incoming government will still consider free uniform. So, I want to believe that this is one thing to show that what you have done in the field of education has the support of everybody and that it is well regarded.
What have you done to make sure that some of your policies particularly in the field of education outlive you?
We are trying to make some of the policies into bye law, for example, that pupils in our public primary schools are entitled to a uniform per year and our people will be entitled to free drugs based on available funds have all been made into bye-laws. We have made some of our policies into law which no succeeding government can’t ignore.
What are the other legacies you are leaving behind?
I think trying to get the attention and investment of Lagos State into this local government is a major achievement. From 2011 till date, I must thank His Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) for his compassion and devotion to adding value to work here. We have seen the hands of Lagos State government in a manner that has never occurred in this environment since this local government was created. That is a major plus for us.
Two, of course, is the community mobilization programme that was put in place. From 15 LCDAs (community development associations), we now have 76 LCDAs. That means that neighbourhood associations has been established at third tier of government and they are talking to government. The government has a partnership with them. That is going to make governance easier now, tomorrow and in the future if it is sustained. We have the traders associations, the bricklayers, the mechanics, etc. We are able to plan for them. That is the way our government works. Through the CDA and PMA systems, they provide our access to the people in general and it has helped to get the feedback of the people.
On the essential facilities in the local government health centres. We met three and we have added another three. We now have six health centres, we met eight schools, we have added two new schools. There was no fire service centre, there is a fire service centre now even though we are still waiting for the truck.
There was no court when we came here, we have built our own customary court now and empanel the judges. We are building the first ever jetty to the advantage of waterway traffic, that is almost done and will sure be ready for commissioning. We’ve done roads. The most important thing really is the sense of community. Now, we have been able to put everybody within the consensus basis. We now speak with one voice, because we are able to speak with one voice, the government is responding better to our most important problems.
Now that you have done two terms as Ejigbo LCDA chairman, what is going to be your next line of action, political wise?
I think Ejigbo needs federal presence. The fact that we have fuel depot owned by the federal government here (Ejigbo) makes it a federal town in a way. I think w need to take the advantage of various opportunities at the federal level. The view of most people is that I should be presented for the seat at the House of Representatives. We the people of Ejigbo believe that just as we have supported our brothers in Isolo all along that they too should support us this time. Our party should consider the fact that since 1999, this local government has not been given the opportunity to grab the candidate of the party for the House of Representatives.
With the performance we have recorded here which has endeared the people more to the party, it is a track record that the party needs to use to advantage for its own interest. We believe that the party leadership is listening and they will take the right decision.
