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A former chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State and current Special Adviser to Governor Biodun Oyebanji on Political Matters, Chief Olajide Awe, in this interview by ‘YOMI AYELESO, speaks on the February 25 presidential election, the chances of the APC candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu, among other issues in the polity.
The February 25 general election is just a few weeks away and the presidential candidates have been going around talking to Nigerians on their plans. Are you impressed with the campaigns so far?
I am very impressed with the activities because we have tried as much as possible to cross the t’s and dot our i’s in respect of the election. We have been holding elections and this one coming up on February 25 will not be an exception in terms of what we have put in place to succeed. Don’t forget that in Ekiti State, we just passed through an election, which is still very fresh. Globally, we have seen the efforts our candidate is putting into the election as if it is tomorrow. As we speak, states that remain to be covered for the campaign are very few. In fact, the doubting Thomases are now aggrieved that the amount of energy, political knowledge and sagacity which Bola Ahmed Tinubu is putting into the election is beyond ordinary. We are leaving no stone unturned in terms of talking to our people and mobilising them.
These days, election is devoid of jamboree where people roll out vehicles to impress the voters. I believe we have passed that stage. That was exactly what we demonstrated in June last year during the governorship election. But now you have to meet the people and talk to them. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given us a template and platform by establishing units in ward. Once you have the voters register, you know the number of the people that will vote and, as good politicians, you go to them, let them have the message, tell them that one of us in this locality is contesting.
But many analysts have said that the February 25 poll will either make or mar the nation.
The election will make us, it won’t mar us as a nation. I said earlier that this is another election. There have been elections in the past and there are going to be elections in the future. Some people have been unable to come out of political narrow-mindedness by saying this candidate comes from my area, so I will vote for him. If I don’t vote for him, heaven will fall. No, that is not correct. I am a politician with a signpost and that is APC. That is why I will be talking on the APC candidate. Apart from that, the APC candidate is a big masquerade. Once the umpire, INEC, is ready to conduct free and fair election, we, politicians, will also conduct ourselves in a way that will not mar the election and the nation. There won’t be issues. People are talking about restructuring, I belong to that category. We have a constitution that should restructure this country, which was truncated in 1966 and that is why we are still wallowing since then. If that is what is making people say this election will make or mar Nigeria, the election will make Nigeria because it is when you are inside the house that you can make innovations and renovations. If you believe we have some things that are wrong with our constitution, it is when the progressives are there that we can sit down and reorganise the place. So, to me, we are going to have the election and it is going to make us better than we have been as a nation.
You mentioned the candidate of the APC and the question is: why is he facing a lot of criticisms in the course of the campaigns?
If you have two mango trees in your house and one bears fruits and the other does not, which one will be attacked? It is the one with fruits that will see more people throw stones at it. Bola Tinubu has the attributes of a man who knows what he is doing. Those who don’t know what they are doing will be attacking him. Success, at times, attracts criticism. Butterfly will not go to a tree that is without flower. Any tree that produces enough flower will attract butterfly. That is the case with Tinubu. He has not committed any offence and because he wants to champion the cause of the nation, there will be so many people who will attack him. You have to struggle for power and in the course of doing that, you make enemies. You also make friends. We pray to have more friends than enemies.
Going by the events of recent weeks and the popularity of the leading candidates, many people have said that the presidential election will be won and lost in the Northern states. Do you agree with this assertion?
People are looking at the candidates and not at the parties and it is the parties that produced the candidates. On the day of election, Tinubu’s picture will not be there, it is the APC’s logo. Let us harp more on the party. The only place where we have a bit of deficit , which is understandable anyway, is the South East and it has always been like that. But if you look at the spread of the APC, any candidate that is unanimously adopted in the party will usually carry the day. Look at the Senate and governorship seats, the APC has the numbers. You cannot build something on nothing.
A political party cannot wake up today and score the chunk of the votes. Where will it get them? Let us take the parties on the ground. We all agreed that we were fed up with the PDP’s 16 years of misrule. Look at that party in Ekiti State, a few days to election, you are disowning your candidates in the name of suspension and dissolving the executives and bringing caretakers. They might have known what the result will be on the day of election already. The Labour Party has no elected persons anywhere in the country but who galvanizes the votes on election day? Is it not human beings? There will be so many polling units where they won’t have agents and you know the importance of poll agents. They also don’t have structures.
Somebody who has structures is moving round, even in the North which you mentioned. Tinubu has been there. He is touching everywhere and talking to the people. Politics is not abracadabra, it is real and organic. It is human beings that determine results of elections. The APC has structures everywhere in the country. Localisation of election is important. Remove the party and let’s talk about the candidates and see who is likely to win this election. If we consider political pedigree and what we have done in the past, Tinubu has an edge.
Talking about structures, the governor has running his administration since October with only a few political appointees, which means that the party might not have enough people to drive the mobilisation and campaign at the grassroots. Don’t you think this may affect APC’s chances?
It is a deliberate decision and it will have a positive effect because this time around, it is going to be work and eat. Let everybody go back to their units. If you want a position in this government, go home and garner the votes for the party. We are developing politically. Formerly, after elections, you would go back to your places to relax but now, you monitor the votes to a logical conclusion.
In my Unit 4 in Ward 4 of Ekiti West Local Government Area, the moment I cast my vote, it will reflect it all over the world. The implication of that is that one can easily see that this is Jide Awe’s unit, what has he done there? Election is no longer ‘it is my eyes you see, you don’t know my heart’. Now we see the beyond the eyes. With the use of BIVAS and other electoral devices, there is no hiding place. After the elections, we can put food on the table and see how we can share it. You don’t share a running antelope, you share an antelope that has been killed. If we had distributed positions, people can go home and sleep. But I think it is the decision of the party and the governor has said repeatedly that he wants a small group of people for now for obvious reasons. Let people go and work before eating, not that you will eat before working. I think that at the end of the day, we will have a bountiful harvest in Ekiti State.
How significant is Tinubu’s presidency to Ekiti State?
To whom much is given, much is expected. God is the maker of everything but politically, aside from God, it is Tinubu in Ekiti. He brought us out of political wilderness to a land that flourishes with milk and honey. If you don’t know history, go back to 2006-2010. He led political battles within the four walls of many courts in this country and we triumphed not only in Ekiti but in the whole of the Western region. After the terrible defeat suffered in 2003 by the progressives in the South, he was the only man standing. He used his political sagacity to lift all of us and keep us on our feet. We have every cause to support him to victory in the election. Many people are expecting a lot from Ekiti and we are looking at between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of the votes in the state for Tinubu.
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