Senator Olufemi Lanlehin ‘took a bow’
from the defunct Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) and is now representing
the Accord Party in the Red Chamber. He
speaks with newsmen on next year’s
election in the state, the chances of
Accord, among other issues. DARE
ADEKANMBI brings excerpts:
AT what point did you decide to pitch
tent with the Accord Party?
There are two levels of reasons why I left
the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN). But I will first like to say that all
the political parties in Nigeria are the
same. There is no major difference
between party A, B or C. The only
difference lies in the content- the people
in the parties. That is why you find a
crisscross of political actors moving from
one to the other, looking for who they can
work with. So, what matters in Nigeria’s
political space are the people in parties
and not the parties as an entity. For
instance, what is the ideological base of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or
the All Progressives Congress (APC), or
even my party, Accord? They all have
manifestoes that profess to deliver the
goods. But people have read manifestoes
and party programmes times and times
again, that they have come to know them
by heart.
The only important thing now is who can
deliver. It is just like you want to go into
business. There are some people you go
into business with and you will not need
to write anything down concerning
agreement because their word is always
their bond. When you give such people
your share, they won’t cheat you and they
will deliver. But there are some people
you will need to keep volumes and
volumes of documents when you are
doing business with them. How you shake
hands, you will write it down; the time
you meet and how you vote-either by
show of hand or otherwise- you must
write everything down. But despite all the
huge volumes of documents that you
have kept, your partner still won’t fulfill
his part of the bargain.
So, one has come to learn that one needs
to work with the people one can trust,
who can say something and will follow
through. I have realised that at this stage
of my political career, I must associate
with people who the masses trust and
see as one of them. I must associate with
somebody who has some empathy for the
masses and who does not talk down at
the masses but shares in their
aspirations, goal and pain. It is not about
awarding contracts to build roads.
Anybody can do that.
Why Accord Party?
In my own humble opinion, in Nigeria
today, there is no major difference among
all the parties, when it comes to ideology.
Essentially, what we have is a situation
where like-minds sit together and
strategise towards the acquisition political
power for the purpose of rendering service
to the people. I have learned that the
party to which I hitherto belonged and
that has transformed into the APC in
conjunction with others, has members
that I have found very difficult to work
with. And every politics is local, no matter
how high-sounding a person’s ideological
commitment is. At the end of the day,
what matters is what your people want,
how acceptable they in that party and
what the people of the state think about
the party.
From all investigations carried out by me
and from all the opinion poll done by me,
it is the wish of people both in the ACN of
old and the people of Oyo South
Senatorial district to join a party that has
people with whom I can work and a party
that can serve the state well.
There are complaints over militarisation
of election in the country. What’s your
take on it?
I am so happy with the new system the
Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) has introduced. If
they like, let them bring one million
soldiers, as long as it is going to give us
free and fair election, so be it. Let people
make their choices and decide what their
priorities are and not this hype we see all
over. There are some people who are
masters of hype, propaganda. They will
shout and shout and you will think water
is water by the time they paint it for you.
A particular system of security was used
for an election, they lost and complained.
The same system was adopted in another
election, they still complained. So, what
system do we use? We should be thankful
to Professor Attahiru Jega and we appeal
to him to extend the time for registration
of voters and distribution of the
permanent voter cards.
From what we know and what we can
see, I can assure you that the current
governor of Oyo State is on his way out
of office. The citizens of the state have
been harassed, humiliated and turned out
of their shops and brutalised. We told the
governor that this was not acceptable
because the people voted the party in and
should be treated with decency. What is
the point in planting flowers when people
are hungry? We are not the people’s
masters but their servants. The people
require the minimum comfort for them to
thrive and this has not been forthcoming.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi has always
believed I am after his office, right from
the word go. And I have told him several
times that I am not an ambitious person,
even in Accord Party, I might not contest.
Once there are people who can do the job
and I am satisfied that I have the
confidence of the person who will do the
job, I am okay. So, it is not compulsory
that I am in any office. But, he did not
believe me. He believed I should be
harassed and hounded and he tags
anybody that is associated with me. If I
am not wanted in a place, I had better
take a bow. So, I took a bow from the
ACN.
The national conference has just ended
with far-reaching recommendations
made. Against the background of the
fears being expressed in certain quarters,
if the report is presented to the National
Assembly, what are you lawmakers going
to do with it?
What the National Assembly will do with
the outcome of the conference is
dependent on what the president submits
to us. Incidentally, the whole process was
not stated in the enabling fiat but one
wants to believe that the report will be
acted upon because the report was put
together by a conglomerate of very
eminent, distinguished and passionate
Nigerians who have the love of the
country at heart. Irrespective of the fact
that they were hand-chosen and not
elected, the best brains were in that
conference and they went the whole hog.
So, it is the person who set up the
conference that will determine what to do
with the report. Usually in such
circumstances, he will set up a small
committee to look at that report and
come out with what to do. There are
some of the recommendations that could
be implemented through executive action,
but those that are very fundamental and
cannot be done by the executive will be
sent to us.
The National Assembly is peopled by very
patriotic and very knowledgeable
Nigerians who are going to look very
closely into the report, if presented to us,
and come up with necessary amendments
to the constitution. Let me tell you that
there is an ongoing process of amending
the constitution at the National Assembly
to make it in tune with the wishes and
desires of Nigerians. But, there is nothing
that can be done to the report without it
coming to the National Assembly.
The extant Electoral Act is said to be
choking campaign and a revision of it has
been canvassed to give more room for the
electorate to know the candidates, parties
and programmes by making campaign to
start, at least six months to the general
election.
It is a yes and no situation because the
Act gives the parties a schedule of
activities for primaries and campaign. But
Nigerians know one another. In the olden
days, the parties were supreme. A party
formulated its programme from A to Z.
So, a candidate did not need a penny to
stand for election. The parties looked for
people who would stand for elections on
their platform. They ensured they did not
choose somebody who would disgrace
them and let them down.This was why
the level of corruption then was very
minimal. A certain percentage, I think
about 20 per cent, of what elected
officials got was given to the party.
But now, somebody just comes into a
party and he goes about with millions or
even sometimes billions of naira and tries
to confuse and deceive the electorate. So,
I believe we should go back to the old
system whereby community-based
choices (for candidates) are made. It is
the American system that is fuelled by
money. In our won little community, we
know who is who. Since it is the logos of
parties that are on the ballot, it means it
is the parties that the people vote for.
Community-based choice approach will
prevent a situation where a fraud and
never-do-well will tell us he is a saint or
savior.
What’s your future political aspiration
now that you are in Accord? Are you
going to run as governor as you did in
the defunct ACN or seek a return to the
Senate?
What I will do is dependent on what my
party says I should do. But essentially, my
concern now is to ensure that I help in
making stronger, the groundswell and the
swelling support the Accord Party is
getting from across the state; contribute
my own quota to the total acceptance of
the party in my senatorial district.
When that is achieved and we are totally
on the ground, then the party determines
what I will do and what capacity I will be
called upon to serve..... http://www.tribune.com.ng/interviews/item/14880-ajimobi-on-his-way-out-of-government-senator-lanlehin/14880-ajimobi-on-his-way-out-of-government-senator-lanlehin

Lanlein don't worry, we'll deal with U̶̲̥̅̊ later!

Lets go man. Cant wait to kick out dis man frm agodi with our votes

Of course the governor is on his way out.He awarded road contract but inflated the figure.Imagine the 6.3km road he awarded in ogbomosho and about 5.6bn was spent on the project.If u see d road in less than six months of its completion,u wl curse the contractors and the government of the day cos the road is now a death trap

Even though I see Ajimobi as the best governor Oyo state has ever had since '99, he remains the least performing governor of all the ACN(APC SW) governors, when one compares the resources Oyo has with his performance.

His performance is below average. Too bad I don't see his oppositions (Ladoja of Accord party & Akala of the PDP) as better options.