What is your view on the victory of Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) at the
presidential poll?
I wish him good luck and hope that he is the right
man to make Nigeria better. He is not starting
afresh because Buhari is not a new comer in
government. We have seen him before and we
know him as a disciplined person. We believe he
will be able to put some sanity where necessary.
What kind of people would you advise him to
accommodate in his government?
The President-electshould accommodate only
people of like mind who can help his mission when
he gets there. He should make sure that he works
with people who will make him achieve his
objectives as a president.
The president is free in his choice of cabinet
members. He is not bound to pick politicians alone
or people from just one political party to run the
government with him. His objectives are to redress
Nigeria, bring peace and development better than
what we have now. The only way he can do it is to
provide employment for the youths because that is
the major developmental challenge. A lot of youths
are out of the universities without being gainfully
employed. It is necessary to address that.
Another major challenge to our nation’s growth is
the issue of power. If he can make electricity
stable, it will enhance development. Many
companies have packed out of Nigeria because
they cannot have access to stable electricity.
Maybe Buhari can move faster in terms of power
and the companies would come back to Nigeria.
Will it not be asking too much from Buhari if we
expect him to tackle the problem of electricity in
four years?
It is possible to tackle the problems associated with
power in four years. The power ministry has a lot of
information with it. They know what to do exactly.
We have been talking about coal power generation
system, hydro-electricity system, solar-powered
electricity and other forms of power generation. If
Nigeria moves straight and confronts the problems
facing power generation immediately now, it should
be able to solve them in four years.
Don’t you envisage a major financial challenge for
the next government because of the dwindling
income being generated from oil?
Our problem does not come from how much we
generate from oil but what we spend the money on.
Why is Nigeria spending so much on food
importation? If we are serious in this country, we
should produce our food here and export for
foreign-exchange generation. With this, we can
create a lot of jobs and solve employment problem.
Our problem is not too much money or too little
money but wastefulness.

Where do you think history will place President Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria?
I commend him because he fought well for re-election. When the game was up,
he acted as a statesman. Have you ever seen a presidential
candidate in Nigeria since 1999 who lost an election and did not head to the
election tribunal? In 1999,
Alliance for Democracy and the All Nigeria Peoples
Party presented Olu Falae against Olusegun
Obasanjo. Falae lost and went to the tribunal.
In 2003, 2007 and 2011, Buhari headed to the
tribunal to challenge his loss to the Peoples
Democratic Party’s presidential candidates. Hence,
Jonathan is the first to congratulate his successor-
to-be. I am sure that there are reasons for
Jonathan to go to the tribunal. In a situation where
we had 1.9m votes without anyone of them void or
nullified being credited to a person, how do you
explain that?
There are reasons that everything did not go well
during the election but Jonathan just accommodated
peace by accepting the loss so that Nigeria can
move forward. He should be commended for
showing us in Nigeria that we can do things
differently.
Some have advocated for the Chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof.
Attahiru Jega, to be placed on the same page as
Jonathan. Do you think Jega is worthy of
statesmanship status?
I don’t think so because Jonathan is bigger than
Jega in all standards. What has Jega done?
He conducted an election which was fraudulent by all
standards. It’s just that people are saying that we
should just accept the elections. It was not credible.
In many places, voters did not get the Permanent
Voter Cards. The number of PVCs that were not
given was enough to change the course of the
election. Are you saying that Jega has done a good
job?
He had the opportunity of mapping the
constituencies with the 2006 census. We conduct a
census every 10 years with a view to using it for
national planning. He did not do it. In Oyo State,
constitution supports that we have 40 seats in the
House of Assembly but he did not obey the court
order and the constitution. We have 32 seats and
the state challenged it and got a ruling which Jega
ignored. Please, do not compare Jonathan to Jega,
Jonathan is far bigger in personality.
During the elections, we had polling units and wards
where accredited voters were not up to 50 per cent
of registered voters and less even voted.
Do you think the total votes cast during the election were
enough to say that the people trooped out to vote?
If we have 50 per cent of voters coming out to vote,
then we can celebrate an average turnout.

The
election in Oyo State recorded 40 per cent voters’
turnout. When we start to review the elections, a lot
of things will be revealed to the public. How many
eligible voters had PVCs? That is where things went
wrong. Many of the PVCs were stolen by people
who denied others of exercising their rights to vote.
How many card readers were used? These were
the problems during the elections. Jega should not
be congratulated for conducting free and fair
elections. In Nigeria, we are not sincere with
ourselves. We want to take advantage of every
situation and make a lot of noise about it.
Do we have to restructure the INEC to solve these
problems?
I don’t know if the array of professors we have
appointed as INEC chairmen is what the
commission needs to perform better. The fact that
the chairmen are professors made them behave
arrogantly in some cases. It does not show that a
professor is a better manager. We should look for
people who know what the job is all about. The
ability to manage is what is important in the
position. You can find a non-professor who will do
the work better.
I would have preferred a chairman who will give
INEC in the states the right to print the cards in their
states, buy the card making machines for them and
supervise the process using the State Security
Service to check fraud. When the process is
complete, he can come out and announce his
election timetable. We should solve local problems
locally. We don’t know how many cards are
outstanding now. INEC did not compare the cards
received with the number of registered voters.
In Afijio Local Government of Oyo State, one-third of
the cards were not received by eligible voters who
registered. It is not compulsory that a professor
must head INEC because they have no knowledge
of what is happening at the grass roots. They are
far from reality on the ground.
When are you going to the tribunal
with evidence to
support your claims of rigging in the Oyo State.
governorship election?
We have about 20 days before the allotted time
expires for the filing of petitions. We will do so at the
appropriate time.
Are you optimistic of victory at the tribunal?.
If we are not optimistic, we will not be doing it. Take
a tour of the state and look at the people’s mood.
Go to Oyo, Iseyin and everywhere else in the state.
The people are mourning because they are saying
that we did not vote for him (Governor Abiola
Ajimobi). I don’t know where he got the votes. That
is what we are going to ask the tribunal to find out.

Ladoja is very right on this, an election where underages allowed to vote in northern part of the country

Doesn't this man know the way to the tribunal?

Ladoja is an Agbaya....
He knows nothing about politics..
How would 3 strong opposition
candidates Akala, Teslim n Ladoja,
unseat an incumbent governor?
Dirty old fool.

Well, to the winners It was a free,fair and credible election......but to some of those that were dfeated it was fraudulent

Abeg wetin Una take say kill chinch for Una house?

Ladoja I want to remind u that ogogoro has been banned in ondo state.