Why Mimiko frustrated me out of the Labour Party -Boroffice

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‎Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice represents Ondo North Senatorial District in the National Assembly. In this interview with Deputy Editor, Nation’s Capital, Yomi Odunuga, the former Director-General of the country’s airspace agency and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology recalls the intrigues that almost cost him his seat over a suspicion that he was nursing a gubernatorial ambition. He also speaks on his desire to take over from the incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his relationship with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Excerpts:

How would you describe the transformation from the Director-General of a body like the National Space Research and Development Agency to the slippery political terrain with its
intrigues?

To me, it was very easy. I was serving the nation in the executive arm of government as the Director- General of National Space Research and Development Agency and after
finishing my tenure, there were clamours for me to go into politics by my people. You know I am the Asiwaju of Akokoland and, of course, I thought that it was a noble request from my
people and I should be humble enough to answer the call. Don’t forget that politics is at different levels. I have played university
politics. At the university of Ibadan, I was the secretary of university congregation. I moved on to be the chairman of the business committee of the university senate. So, I have been in politics at that level and if you look at it, national politics is not quite different from other forms of politics, either at student union level, labour union level or at the Senate level. So, it was not very difficult for me to transit from being the Director-
General of a space agency to playing my part in national politics.

You were in the Labour Party when you won the election to the senate, was there any godfather factor in your emergence?

No, I took my time to go into politics. Even when my poster was out as to my political ambition, I was not attached to any
political party. I took my time to study the political parties. When I saw that the Labour Party was a new and progressive
party, I decided to join the party and work with them. I had no godfather. Most of the people that formed Labour Party were
young men. Governor Olusegun Mimiko is a very young man and most of his colleagues are people I interact with or people who were junior to me in age and education and some of them were even my students. So, the issue of godfatherism didn’t come up at all.

Godfatherism can come in two ways: it comes
either in the way of mentoring you or providing you with funds.
In our case, we were even funding the party, so the issue of godfatherism did not even come in at all. I have been fortunate
in the sense that I have related well with my community, with my people and even the ones in Abuja. I have been instrumental to the career development of many people from
my place and the title of Asiwaju of Akoko land was in recognition of my contribution to the development of the community. You know Akoko is made of four local government
areas with about 53 communities. With the Akoko people behind me and knowing full well that, in the history of senatorial elections in the Ondo Senatorial District which I belong to, Akoko only represented the Ondo North Senatorial District only once in the senate whereas in Ose and Owo, those two have
represented Ondo North Senatorial District four times in the senate. So, Akoko people felt that we have four local governments and we have only had one representation whereas
Ose and Owo, just two local governments have had four representations and that it was time we conceded that seat to Akoko people and so the Akoko people were in my support. The Ose people were in support of this philosophy and so it was not too much even though the PDP candidate, Dr. Bode Olajumoke, was from Ose. They gave me massive support and that made
that dream a reality.

If that was the case, at what point did you decide to rebel against a party that you just spoke of in glowing terms? Or were you forced out of the party?

I was not forced out of the Labour Party. I think at a point in time, the governor felt I was ambitious and that I wanted to
become governor and I was too popular. There were gossips, insinuations in the press and I took my time to tell him that
‘look, I am not interested in governorship as at now, and that he should not bother himself but he just wouldn’t believe. You know politicians are very suspicious of one another and certain things started happening and I was not happy to continue to relate to him the way we were relating and I also discovered that I was not safe; my security was becoming suspicious or questionable, so I decided to leave. It’s unfortunate and I don’t
want to go into details of the treatment that was meted out to me. But one example would suffice. On a particular day like that, the governor invited us for a town hall meeting in Akure and I drove down from Abuja to attend that meeting. At the end of the meeting, I decided to pay him a courtesy call before
going back to Abuja. When I got to the gate of the Government House, the Chief Security Adviser said I could not go in and I said, ‘look, you know me’ and he said; “yes, I know but you cannot go in and my decision is final because this is my constituency.”So, I said fine, I want to see the Deputy Governor. I went in and saw the deputy and I told him what happened. He was shocked. While I was narrating it to him, the Director of SSS, one Mr. Adeleke, called me and said, ‘Prof,
where are you?’ I told him I was in Akure and he asked if I could come to Government House; I asked why he wanted me to
come and he said they were aware of what happened at the gate and I said I was not coming. He pleaded with me to come
and I left the deputy governor’s house to the governor’s house.

At the governor’s house, it was just three of us, the director was apologising and I told him not to because he didn’t commit any
offence. I said the CSO was rude to me and I wanted to know
whether he was acting under the instruction of the governor or
he acted on his own. Adeleke kept saying, ‘please it is not
important, just forgive and forget’ and I told him that it was a
simple thing, I said if he was acting on the instruction of the
governor, no offence but he was acting on his own, then I take
it as an offence and he should not apologise on his behalf.
Governor Mimiko kept quiet all through. He did not say a word
and so it occurred to me that he was behind it. He wanted to
disgrace, embarrass me. There were other things that
happened before then and I wanted him to deny this thing that I
am making public. So, at that point, I said to myself, I think this
party does not need me anymore. I went on my own volition to
my leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and told him I wanted
to join the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He asked if I was
sure and I said yes. So, we went to his room, we discussed and
I told him everything that had happened. Although, almost a
year earlier, he had asked me to come to ACN and I said no. So,
that was how I moved to ACN and I don’t regret it.

You moved to the ACN and all hell was let loose. There was a move to remove you from the Senate because you were said to
have flouted the rule as there was no internal crisis in the Labour Party when you decamped. How did you survive that plot?

First, there was internal crisis. There were two factions in Ondo and anybody denying this is not being honest to themselves.
When the issue got to the Senate, the party wrote directly to the President of Senate, Senator David Mark, and he sent it to the
Ethics and Privileges Committee, which was a wrong procedure. They ought to have brought it back to the Senate, somebody will read it from the Senate and from there, it is now
referred to Ethics and Privileges Committee. Mark did not do that. What was going on behind the scene was that Mark had
asked me to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because
Labour Party and PDP were allies. He said ‘you either go back
to Labour Party or you come to PDP.’ I told him I did not come to the Senate on my own, I had a mandate and my mandate
was for me to go to ACN, so I cannot go to the two parties he
mentioned and he said ‘no, no, I have made up my mind.’ Right there in my presence and his chief of staff, he called Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur and said ‘one of my senators will be coming to you. He wants to declare for the PDP.’ So, I laughed and then
the following day, I went to Tukur’s office and when he received me, he said ‘I have been told that you want to come to PDP’
and I said I did not say so. I said the Senate President said I should see him to discuss the matter. I now asked him a question. I said I left Labour Party because there was
factionalisation in the party. Now, which faction of the PDP do I decamp to in Ondo State? Is it Mimiko’s PDP which is called
Gbasigbe or is it Agagu’s PDP? Then he said, ‘don’t worry, we
are going to reconcile everybody and I said, ‘Sir, when you have
reconciled everybody, then I will think of coming back but as at
now, I don’t think I can come.’ So, I left. I think the President of
Senate was expecting me to come and announce at the Senate
the following week that I have decamped to PDP which I didn’t
do. So, I think that angered him and he asked the committee to
bring the report, he presented it and he wanted somebody to
second it, that’s according to the rule of the Senate. Senator
Lanleyin from Oyo State was asked to second but he refused
and said the petition was not properly brought before the
Senate and he was not going to second it. That became an
issue and I think that was the end of the report. There were
underground manoeuvrings but I survived them all. I am happy
that I concluded the tenure. Some opponents were so sure that
I was going to be kicked out of the Senate. There were people
who were rejoicing because they spent a lot of money. My
governor spent a lot of money to get me out of senate but he
did not succeed.

When you wanted to contest for the Senate under the Labour Party, did you consult Governor Mimiko then?

Well, I was new in politics. I didn’t see any reason why I had to
consult him. My people said I should run for the Senate and it’s
my people who will vote for me not the governor and I was not
looking for money. In fact, he was not in support of my
candidacy. He preferred another candidate who was his friend,
Dr. Olu Agunloye.

Before then, Asiwaju had asked me to join the ACN but I told
him I wanted to remain in labour but that I would consider that
option if I find it difficult with the Labour Party. Asiwaju assured
that I was not going to be given the ticket, you know he has
very intelligent mercenary and he knew as at that time that
Mimiko did not want to give me the ticket. It was that day that
Mimiko called me and said I should come to Ondo town that he
wanted to see me. So, I got to Ondo early because Mimiko said
I should be there by 10. By five minutes to 10, I was there and
he said, ‘you know you are my friend, you supported me when I
was contesting; you supported me when I was in court. So, I
have made up my mind that you will get the senate ticket.’ I told
him that I had thought we were going for primaries and that my
friend, Agunloye had been working and he said I should not
worry. He said Dr. Agunloye would go to the House of
Representatives and that he would announce it within the week.
So, I thanked him. I thought it was going to be a long meeting
but by 10.05, we drove back to Akure and that was how the
issue of my senate ticket came about. Well, I am grateful to
him because he saved me a lot of problems and extra spending
during the primaries. So, I thank him for that but then, we are
both helping each other because if I had decided to leave
Labour Party at that point and go to the ACN, I would have won
the election because the Akoko people were behind me and they wanted that seat for Akoko.

At what point did your alleged gubernatorial ambition start
affecting the relationship?

Honestly, I don’t know but I started hearing rumour about the
governor not being happy with me. I said, look, I don’t have any
gubernatorial ambition. If I have it, I will say so but I don’t and I
thought I was very close to him because I attended all his
functions. I thought I was relating with him very well but I
realised I was not in his inner cabinet because I was not part of
the group that formed the party; so, I was mindful of that and I
didn’t want to overstep my bounds. When the rumour became
louder, I had to tell him that I was not after his seat and that
anybody saying it is just saying it to cause confusion between
the two of us and it became very bad.