We’ve managed our conflicts, our worst season is over —Oluosla Eleka, Ekiti PDP governorship candidate

Deputy governor of Ekiti State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the July 14 governorship election in the state, Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka, speaks about his candidature and some of the things he has in store for Ekiti people if elected as governor. SAM NWAOKO brings excerpts from the interview.

What is being heard around is that the main opposition in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), seems set to deploy what has come to be known as federal might in combating your party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the coming election. How prepared are you for this epic battle?

Yes, there may be federal might, but we must always remember that God is the Almighty. The power of the people is greater than the power of those who are in government. The voice of the people is the voice of God and He will show His power in the Ekiti election come July 14.

Another area where you’ve been taken on is that you’re a greenhorn in politics. It is also the thinking among some people in the state that if you win this election, the government will be the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob. How do you react to these?

There is life in greenness. If you want to pick between two things, especially when you want to relate with life, everybody will prefer the green environment because there is life in greenness. But for anybody to describe me as a greenhorn in politics, it is a gross underestimation of my capability and my exposure. There’s always a micro-scale and there’s always a macro-scale level of involvement in anything you’re doing in life. Before coming down here, I have these academic and pastoral backgrounds. I’m a pastor and I’m also a professional builder; a registered builder who has seen it all at the local, state and national levels, by the grace of Almighty God. And if you’re talking of politics, the elements of politics are the same everywhere, at every level. The only difference is that when you get to the larger society, it becomes more involving. The principles are just the same.

So, I have been part of politics at my professional level. I have contested elections under the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIoB); I was victorious twice as the Research and Development Secretary. We were able to link up with people; we campaigned throughout the 36 states. We formed teams and that helped us a lot. Even in the family, there’s politics. Among the father, mother and the children, there is politics. Even in the church of God, there is politics. So, to me, describing me as a greenhorn is just a way of getting something to say by the opposition. The people saying this know that Akinwumi Ambode, Babatunde Fashola and even Adams Oshiomhole never had experience before becoming governors. They did not even have the kind of experience I’ve had as a deputy governor, where I’ve represented my governor at different times and interacted with different governors. Yet, they were elected governors and they served meritoriously.

I’m a professor by the grace of Almighty God and if somebody is a professor; assuming I have had no exposure at all in politics and I have had the opportunity of staying three and a half years under a professor of grass roots politics in the person of Dr Peter Ayodele Fayose. Learning under him, you can imagine the magnitude of knowledge I would have acquired in the course of being mentored by him. How many years did Jesus Christ spend with his disciples? By the time he was leaving and with the acquaintance with Him, they were able to turn the whole world around. So, with my sound academic background, with my intellectual capacity, to the glory of God, with my exposure and the learning process I have undergone through my mentor and leader, Dr Fayose, I’m well prepared to take up this position of the governor of Ekiti State. Then, don’t forget that in that politics, nobody is an island into himself. You team up with people. I have a very good team that surrounds me. Also don’t forget, I belong to the Oshokomole political family. It doesn’t matter what anybody says; whether they want to say I’m a stooge or not, that is their own headache. Even to have a child, it takes the father and mother to copulate before a child is born. You have to start from somewhere and I have learnt a lot from the Oshoko School of Politics and I’m good to go.

From your experiences as an academic and now a candidate, you would have looked at Ekiti from different prisms. What have you found as those things Ekiti would need to improve and which you have in mind as your target, if elected as governor?

We popularly acknowledge education as our heritage in Ekiti, so I will dwell on that. In Ekiti State, we pride ourselves as the “Fountain of Knowledge”. We have done a lot in ensuring that the standard of education is improved in Ekiti State in this present administration. I had the opportunity of leading a team to the United States of America on a learning visit. There, we were able to understudy schools, especially in relation to technical education. When we came back, we made our presentations to Mr Governor and said, if Ekiti State is going to move forward, there’s the need for us to transform our Government Technical Colleges into what I called Entrepreneurial Skill Acquisition Centres.

I want to dwell on this technical education aspect. Already, the contract for this skill acquisition centre has been awarded. We have five technical colleges in the state; we are starting with the first one, the Government Technical College (GTC) in the state capital, Ado Ekiti. This will cost us over N1.8billion. Why are we doing this? I personally understudied the situation on ground and I found that so many students don’t have that encouragement to go to technical colleges. GTCs are now seen as a place where dropouts of secondary schools will have to go so that they can find a place in the society. I felt this should not be so. So, one of my agenda is to improve on what we have on ground and part of that vision is what we are already implementing in this administration, which we are going to carry into the next administration, when I’m going to be the governor by the grace of Almighty God.

Currently, the staff strength is very low; the student population is not encouraging; the infrastructures are decaying; the laboratories are archaic; no modern equipment in the workshops and so on. When you look at all these, I felt that there’s the need for us to make a change. And don’t forget that we have five GTCs. I championed the drive for this, knowing full well that, by the grace of God, there will be continuity in governance and we will be able to continue from where we stopped in this administration.

As I’m talking to you, the rehabilitation, renovation, designing and redesigning and construction of existing workshops are about to start. We are going to have 48 workshops in all the five technical colleges; 76 classrooms will be rehabilitated and renovated to modern standard; 14 science robotics and coding laboratories, which is not common in this country; we are going to have a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics); five administrative buildings and five multi-purpose halls and, of course, these are apart from the landscaping. We are going to have four demonstration farms, one hatchery and in addition to these, we are going to make provision for state-of-the-art equipment. We have almost 15 different kinds of trades that would be included in the curriculum. And the whole project will involve review of the curriculum and including writing and supply of textbooks to the colleges, based on the international curriculum for technical education; recruitment of over 150 teachers and then, continuous training to improve the capacity of the teachers so that they can handle the state of the art equipment that would be installed. We are targeting for the next five years, five thousand students. You may be wondering how we are going to do this?

We are going to do it in phases because we are going to encourage and motivate the young ones to come there because going to technical colleges does not mean that you are an inferior student. There are two components to this: between the hours of 8am to 2pm, the centres would be open to the full-time students and then between the hours of 4pm to 7pm, we make the place open to the youth and adults outside there who want to learn one vocational skill or the other, in line with what we have outlined. In other words, we are going to have adult literacy programme with training and capacity for more than 10,000 adults and youths and artisans. Any artisan, who wants to learn more how to make use of the modern tools and equipment, will be allowed. Of course, they would pay. This would help us utilise the capacity of what we are putting in place fully. It would also provide opportunity for the youths to learn and acquire one skill or the other so that they will not remain jobless. In addition, we are also planning what we call an industrial park, a business-related merchant enterprise in the GTC, Ado Ekiti. We already have the design; contract has been awarded and I believe that, in the next two to three weeks, the contractor would move in. The project will not be completed before the expiration of this administration. That’s why we are talking about continuity. I’m going to continue with this; it’s my vision which is fully supported by my governor. This is just one out of so many.

One of the hindrances the state government, which you are part of, faces is funding. How are you planning to fund this, considering the fact that your government has insisted that debts have nearly crippled the state?

This is important because without funding, we may not be able to achieve all these. In addition to the transformation of the technical colleges to skills acquisition and entrepreneurial centres, usually and definitely, we will need grants and we are very sure that, by the grace of God, we are going to get the support of the World Bank to enable us to complete all the five technical colleges. But the World Bank must see us as being serious and so, we need to start something. So, we are going to key into some of the available grants so that we will be able to complete the other projects. Let me however say that it is very important to go into how we found ourselves in this very precarious situation.

It is because of the mismanagement of the resources of this state by the previous administration under Dr Kayode Fayemi. Based on facts and data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation; state government and research by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), a document emanated. In 2011, when Fayemi was there, the net federal allocation — we are not talking about excess crude that accrues to them and the likes — was N40.5billion because the economy was buoyant that time. In 2012, it was N39.8billion; in 2013, N44.3billion and 2014, N40.1 billion. Don’t forget that in 2014, we came in in October when the previous administration had more or less taken, at least, nine allocations before we came in. What that means was that the minimum for Fayemi during his administration was N39.8billion in 2012.

When we came in, in 2015 it was N28.2 billion, it began to drop. In 2016, it was terribly low, N18.8billion. Don’t forget, I said net FAAC allocation. 2017, it was N25.6billion. So, if you compare, what we have received between 2015 and 2017 is nothing compared to what Fayemi took. Now we should ask ourselves why it was reducing. How did we find ourselves in this situation? The Fayemi administration plunged Ekiti State into serious debts by borrowing beyond its capacity. That is why, starting from 2015, all the loans that Fayemi took, commercial loans, the bonds and the rest like that were now being deducted from our allocation. This is exactly why we are having challenges, even with the payment of salaries. You can imagine the previous administration receiving net FAAC allocation (by net, we mean that all the deductions had been made) to the tune of N39.8billion minimum in 2012, while ours was as low as N18.8 billion in 2016. It was quite terrible.

Definitely there are challenges. And while they were here, they said they were generating N600million as internally-generated revenue (IGR) per month. If the average of N600million IGR was being generated as claimed by the Fayemi administration, it would amount to N7.2billion. But the fact before us shows that IGR in 2011 under Fayemi administration was N2.5billion, from these same sources. In 2012, it was N3.8billion; N2.3billion in 2013 and in 2014, it was N3.5billion. Even in our administration, we are even doing better because in 2015 we had N3.3billion; N2.9billion in 2016 and N3.8billion in 2017. That means we are able to do better under Fayose administration with the IGR and our goal is to improve on our IGR generation. But there’s no way we can do that if Ekiti State still remains a civil servant state. There is a need for transformation; there is a need for Ekiti State to encourage investors to come in. We need establishment of industries; we need to encourage people to come in, either through politicking or lobbying. There is nothing wrong if CocaCola can bring a plant here, or if any of these breweries can come. Then, we need to encourage the establishment of cottage industries; all these are essential. Apart from the fact that they would also provide employment for our youths, there is no way this would also not generate income for us after some time.

Then, all these cottage industries, would they be able to thrive without power? That is why we are looking in the direction of independent power projects. We are already in talks with some power providers, receiving proposals from them. With these, industries can tap power from the independent producers because we can’t rely on this present power generation in Nigeria. So, we believe it is going to work for us. When we have this in place, after one or two years, we are going to witness a turnaround in the fortunes of Ekiti State.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies are considered very critical to the success of any election. In view of this, what is your message to them at this time?

Well, they are not created to mar elections. They are creations supported by enabling laws; they are created to engender the development of Nigeria. So, they are not created to mar elections, but rather to ensure the success of elections. I will therefore want them to please and please abide by the ethics behind their establishment. INEC is expected to remain impartial, to remain neutral and it should not forget that anything otherwise is like jeopardising the future of Nigerians; it is like working against the destiny of Nigerians; it is like selling Nigeria to political fraudsters. So, I want to appeal that INEC and the security agencies should do their jobs normally within laid down rules and regulations.

One of the major challenges of your administration is payment of salaries and you are thinking of continuing after the expiration of this administration. There are rumours in the social media that Governor Fayose said he would pay salaries a day after the election. What assurance do you have for Ekiti workers?

I want to disabuse the minds of Ekiti people of the propaganda that Governor Fayose will pay salary after the election. My governor has never said that anywhere. That is APC propaganda and APC is noted for spreading false and unfounded propaganda. People should ignore them. What we have been saying is that, yes, we acknowledge the fact that we are facing challenges of paying salaries, but it is not our making. It is as a result of the debts incurred by the previous administration. And you know government is a continuum; we cannot say because they incurred debts, we have to fold our arms and not do anything. We are trying our best with the available resources. But if they are now trying to use salaries to campaign, they should also be reminded of who plunged the state into this debt.

Our allocations is reducing because of the loans taken by the previous administration, but we believe that, by the grace of God-because we are all spiritual beings and all matters, even government are first settled in the spiritual realm-so we have the faith in the Almighty God that, as my governor has been saying, before the expiration of this administration, not a day after election, that we are not going to remain debtors of salaries. We believe in God to give us a way out to settle all outstanding salaries. Our people should remember that Governor Fayose, during his first term, never owed salaries. In fact, he met backlog of salaries and he settled everything. When we came in, we were able to manage for about one and a half years to manage to pay salaries regularly by asking for moratorium from banks. But there is a limit to which you can stretch banks and so, we have no choice than to start paying the interest and at the same time paying back what has been incurred by the previous administration.

To enable us to be able to sustain the economy, not only Ekiti State, but virtually all the states, the Debt Management Office (DMO) and the Ministry of Finance had to suggest that there is the need to reschedule the loans. That is why today, payment of some of the loans secured during the Fayemi administration will be finished by 2022 and another one by 2036. So you can imagine the number of years the destiny of Ekiti State has been mortgaged into debt paying. But Ekiti people should be rest assured that the welfare of Ekiti people is at the centre of our hearts. We are not going to sack anybody. Remember one APC governor from the North recently said that they had agreed that they would sack teachers after the 2019 elections. So, that means that they would be pretending to love the people and after the elections, you will sack them. It shows wickedness which is the hallmark of the APC government at all levels. We may owe, but we are not going to sack. Rather, we would ensure that we find a way to pay our workers.

You are going to fly the flag of PDP and from the feelers out there, people are said to be leaving your party in large numbers. What is your party doing to pacify aggrieved members and those who have said they will not support continuity?

In every organisation, there are bound to be conflicts. Conflict resolution is part of management; it is part of the things a leader is expected to confront. In PDP, by the grace of God, we have been able to manage our internal conflicts and our worst season is over. Our leaders are talking. There are different reasons for being aggrieved, but the leadership of the party is taking the appropriate, proactive steps to reach out to our people who are aggrieved. So many people are already being placated and are coming back, even in Ekiti State. They are coming back. Beside that, people from other parties are coming because they know that the candidature of Olusola Eleka is sellable to the people of Ekiti State. They don’t want anybody who will come and plunge them into another sea of debts. They want people who would be able to continue with the transformation that is going on in Ekiti State. So, PDP is intact and we are making progress by the grace of God.

One of the things that endear the people of the state to your boss is the way he demystified the Office of the Governor by relating freely with the citizens. How do you hope to continue in this culture, being a different entity?

As a lecturer, I was relating with students. If you go and get information about me from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, there was a time I was given the Best Lecturer Award in my department because I made myself accessible to my students. Their problems were my problems and their challenges were my challenges. So, I don’t have visiting hours as such, even though there was time placed on my door. Any time students visited and I had there, I attended to them. So, I’m a people-oriented person. I enjoy people-oriented policies. You should remember that I’m also a pastor. As a pastor, you’ll learn to relate with the high and the low. More so, I am a children and youth pastor, I trained as a child evangelist, graduating into youth ministry. So I relate with adults and with youths and children.

I may be under the tutelage of Oshoko, but that style is not new to me. To me, that’s the way it should be. How can you say a governor will not be seen by the people he is governing? Some governors will sit in their bullet-proof cars and wind up and some people would hardly recognise who their governor is. It is not done. You have to come down from the high level and talk to the people and relate with them. I buy oranges and other fruits myself as the deputy governor; I could send people to do that for me. People should not forget that, one day, you are going to leave that position and you are still going back to these same sets of people. They are the ones that voted you in, so you should continue to relate with them, not just during election, but during governance and afterwards. That is why when people criticise our stomach infrastructure, that we allow people to queue up and we give them rice and little money, they forget that there is a biblical principle that says that the poor will always remain with us in the society. The concept of stomach infrastructure is a right concept. Everybody cannot be professors, lawyers or doctors and so on. There will always be the poor and you have to find a way to fill the gap for the less privileged.

And that has not removed the empowering the youths. For instance, the state government has, in collaboration with the national FADAMA office has ensured that over 300 Ekiti youths benefit from the FADAMA Graduate Unemployed Youth and Women Support Programme. Not only that, so many of them have been given opportunities and government has been standing in for them as guarantors for loans from Bank of Industry and the Nigerian Agricultural Bank.  The okada people are wonderful people too. When some governors said they would ban okada, we said no, that we can rather reform them and so many of the youths, especially the graduates among them, can gradually be pulled out to get them engaged in some other areas. These are some of the plans we have for them in this forthcoming administration under Eleka, by the grace of the Almighty God.

Talking about teachers, I am a teacher myself. Don’t call me a friend of teachers; I am a teacher myself and I am one of them. When I visit schools for intervention classes, I have had cause to teach students myself, to ask them questions, shake hands and relate with them. So, I am at home with my people.

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