Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele is the Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Legislative Budget and Research. In this interview with AYODELE OJO, he speaks on the opposition to his governorship ambition in Ekiti and the need for budget law in Nigeria. He also chides Senator Babafemi Ojudu for his comments on the state of the nation. Excerpts:

How do you see the statement credited to Senator Babafemi Ojudu that it will take God’s intervention to solve Nigeria’s problems?

Of all he said, I chose to react to two conclusions. The first has to do with the state of the nation and the allusion that it would take God himself to come down and solve the Nigeria’s problem. I want to say that I found that hypocritical and disservice to the people of Ekiti Central who elected him into office. For the record I want to say again, that I ran for the senatorial race in Ekiti and by the grace of God and the support of the people, I won the primaries of the party. Again for the record, I want to say that in the overriding interest of ACN and the appeal made by the national leadership of the party, I chose to be the good boy of the party and conceded the ticket not to Babafemi Ojudu but to the national leadership of the party.

I am personally amused by the style Senator Ojudu has adopted. All the issues he raised in his interview I believed were issues that he could use the floor of the Senate to address. If you are elected as senator and in one and a half years you cannot be found to have spoken two times and if you are elected as a senator and in 21 months all you have is one motion to your credit on NSCDC which is to be debated by the Senate. If in 21 months you have not been able to state any categorical position and there is no policy statement that can be credited to you and you are using the pages of newspapers to condemn everything being done in the Senate, condemn the leadership of the Senate, condemn the Presidency and conclude that only God himself would have to come down to solve the problem of Nigeria, I feel that is disservice to the nation and to the people who elected him and as far as I am concerned, the Senate rules are clear, they provide for point of order; the rule says a point of order must be heard at all times.

Another issue Ojudu raised was that all the members of the National Assembly from Ekiti except you have endorsed Governor Fayemi for a second term. Why are you not endorsing the governor?

As far as I am concerned, the issue is not whether or not the two senators and five other House of Representatives members from Ekiti have endorsed Dr. Fayemi for a second term. I consider it extremely unfortunate that in the last one year, people have tried to make the possibility or otherwise of Governor Fayemi spending a second term in office as an issue. I feel they have been unfair to the nation and Ekiti State and I also don’t think they are doing Dr. Fayemi any good. We had his one year anniversary in office on the October 16, 2011 and some characters from that ceremony had begun to distribute leaflets and souvenirs announcing the second term bid of the governor. I thought it was immoral. I have no apology if my being objective to this style has attracted the wrath of some people. For me, there has to be a clear line of demarcation between governance and politics. Politics has to do with our own narrow, sometimes selfish political or ideological interest while governance has to do with overriding public interest, regardless of political, ideological, religious or ethnic affiliations. And I feel that there should be a time for politics.

You cannot convince me that one year into office, you can spend the next two or three years making rigorous issues and campaign about second term. If you do that, you will mislead the governor and create a bad image for the administration. That is my own position on Ekiti and I have no doubt and I want to say it for the record that I have no objection to anybody endorsing Governor Fayemi for a second term but I am convinced that one million endorsement from Senator Ojudu cannot translate to an additional vote for any aspirant. I am talking of a senator who was elected on a senatorial district that comprises five local governments – the general election results are there; I scored 47,000 votes to go to the House from two local governments and Senator Ojudu scored 57,000 to go to the Senate out of five local governments.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/why-im-running-for-ekiti-governorship-bamidele/