A governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo state, Mr Bosun Arebuwa, who is a chartered accountant, speaks with HAKEEM GBADAMOSI the passage of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and the battle for a successor as parties prepare for the conduct of primaries to pick candidates for the September poll, among other issues.
MANY will argue that you lack needed experience?
What experience in politics can be more than being a knowledgeable victim and observer of a failing system? What experience do you need to manage man and resources that I do not have? What experience in appropriately allocating scarce resources to fruitful ends do I not have and if what you mean is the involvement in political thinking and actions, I have also not been found wanting. What I do not have is the experience of being in the open and visible political office as an aspirant, a candidate or an appointee but even at that, I have been a participant in the political evolution of our state, albeit from a private and professional distance. I have however been a member of the PDP from inception. I am a trained accountant. I graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University in Management and Accounting, have practised my trade in the public and private sectors and made a success of my personal practice as an independent chartered accountant. I have reached the peak of that profession as a fellow (FCA) for close to 20 years. I have consulted for local and international business concerns and have a real estate concern that is thriving here and abroad. I am licensed to practice as a chartered accountant and have been doing that successfully for almost 30 years. I have been a successful private farmer, an idea incubator and actualizer and have invested hugely into charitable causes in the area of health, youth empowerment, education and skill acquisition to the glory of God.
All a governor needs is to formulate and articulate, with the support of his party, clear and unambiguous policies, assemble a team of informed, competent, capable and clearheaded professionals to run the vision, motivate and incentivise the workforce to deliver on the goals and targets set; mobilise, inspire and fire the imaginations of the populace to work hard for self and society and generally resonate with the masses for regular feedback on successes and weaknesses.
That kind of governor and governance have been missing particularly in the last seven years in Ondo State. In fact, there seems to have been a pall of darkness under the APC government over our state. We bring light and with light comes freedom, growth and opportunities for personal and collective development hence our slogan “Imole de, okunkun parada.”
There were reports of crisis within your party and uncertainty of its readiness to wrestle for power in the state.
Whatever crisis that existed within the party before is gone for good. Now, we are operating as a united front. It is not that you will not have a few still holding on to the straw, but majority of party members are all in one boat now and we are moving on to speed resque our state from total collapse.
What do you want to do differently, or better still, what do want to achieve by your aspiration?
I want to leave behind a legacy of excellent developments in education, health, youth empowerment, agribusiness, industrial growth and security among others. Now the challenge is this. The APC government in Ondo State has taken us all to the lowest low in the socio economic ladder. They have almost destroyed our health infrastructure, disincentived education through unaccountable actions and decisions, personalised government and government institutions and generally demoralised the populace. We are coming with policies, strategies and actions that will make government more open, more accountable and less expensive to run. We shall be working to entrench a new paradigm of functional and effective education through a combination of modern and nimbler school infrastructural reengineering on the basis of contemporary skill and professional needs.
Are you saying the APC has done nothing in the last seven years?
Get me right. Every government has played its part according to the capacity of the governor and team. For instance, Late Chief Adefarati was of the old school; punctual, modest and unassuming. The late Dr Olusegun Agagu who succeeded him displayed remarkable intellect in policy formulation and brilliance, Dr Olusegun Mimiko was pragmatic, people-oriented and showed clear disposition to socio-democratic ethos and ways and the just departed Oluwarotimi Akeredolu was bold and fearless in matters concerning the Yoruba people when occasion demanded. The truth however, is that of all, the era that will be ending with the next election has been the worst in policy erudition, social transformation and prudency in the management of resources. In all of the past seven years, there has been no clear policy on infant and maternal health, let alone general health. It has been a sleuth of disjointed actions that have taken us back. The APC government in Ondo State has treated health workers with disdain and total disregard hence the mass movement of doctors and nurses out of the employ of our state. The argument that this is a national reality falls flat when viewed against the fact that our own health workers are moving from our health institutions to neighbouring states where they are treated with more dignity and where facilities are more functional. At the apex health institution in Ondo State, diagnostic facilities have all but collapsed. While people were being referred from OAUTH, EKSUTH and the rest to UNIMED and the Trauma Centre before, the opposite is now the case!
In education, our students are being made to pay more in our tertiary institutions with near-zero improvement in infrastructure. At the secondary school level, no tangible improvements and or innovations have been recorded. Our primary schools have returned to the analog era from the progressive era of Mega schools with functional learning tools. And little or nothing is being done to have well-trained and certificated artisans as obtainable in neighbouring states. This drift must stop and that is why we are here.
What do you want to do differently, following your analysis of the problems confronting the state?
I will take from the punctuality, organisation and modesty of the Late Adefarati, take from the intellectual disposition and intelligence of Agagu, draw from the pro-poor, socio-democratic, pragmatic project delivery of Dr Mimiko and the boldness and fearlessness of the late Aketi.
We will speedily make our education more functional, more effective and more needs driven, we will return our state to its rightful place as the go to location in efficient, dependable and affordable health care for her citizens and outsiders alike; We will take bold steps to invite and support industrial initiatives that will benefit the people; create the ambience and enabling environment for our youths to express their ideas and explore their creativity in ICT, biotech and entrepreneural initiatives; We will encourage personal and community family through provision of hugely subsidised seedlings and farm tools, We will encourage large scale farming by partnering with large scale farmers in the area of acquisition of land for food crop and cash crop production. Our government will create produce markets and marketing boards to mop up farm products and minimise wastage and encourage value addition to raw farm goods among others. We shall assemble a team of young, agile, able, capable and God-fearing professionals to run the state as a team with me functioning as a team leader, engaging the people and with the people to rejig, refine and recaliberate as situations and circumstances demand, and at all times keeping the fact in mind that I am an employee of the people and a tool in the hands of God.
In doing so, I will start off by drawing a line between family and the business of governance, draw a huge line between governance and personal pleasure, never lose sight of the fact that government is for all citizens irrespective of location, language and party affiliation, and be accountable in all that I do, knowing that one day I will also be held accountable for my actions, both by God and the people.
How do you hope to finance them considering current economic realities?
Without being immodest, I repeat the fact that I am a trained and certified accountant. What we need to do is to maximally utilise existing resources by efficiently allocating them. Cut wastages, prevent leakages and fraud and be realistic in our lifestyles as people in government. We shall then explore the opportunities that abound in tourism, comparative advantage in agriculture, raw materials for furniture, glass production, textile and the likes. We have the longest coastline in Nigeria, we hope to utilise this for aquaculture and tourism. Along the Araromi Seaside area of our state, we hope to invite the renowned Grand Palladium Resort which will draw tourists and fun lovers from allover the world into our state making Ondo State a tourist destination and with that come new inflow of resources. We shall optimise the possibilities of Idanre hills as a tourist hot spot and will endeavour to identify other tourist attractions from all the LGAs in our state. We shall explore the untapped knowledge economy to compete with India in that sector. We will make our state a hub for training and retraining of medical and health workers which are continually in high demand locally and internationally, encourage the capitalisation of the citizen’s land assets and draw funds into the state’s coffers in the process, among others.
We shall also create ICT hubs and workstations for young ICT experts by providing round the clock electricity, security and internet connections for our youths to access offshore job opportunities that will fetch them needed remuneration and the state resources from rates and taxes among others.
The driving force for me, the impetus to serve, the motivation for my aspiration is to be advance the cause and welfare of the people of Ondo State beyond the current mediocre level it has been taken to by the APC government.
Ondo State is my place of birth, I had part of my education here, I have benefited from her and have contributed to her as one of the biggest tax payers to her. I am, as a matter of fact the third biggest tax payer to Ondo State, even when I have never taken any contract or patronage from her government. I came to the conclusion that not my personal charitable endeavours, not my huge tax commitment to Ondo State, not my nominal involvement in her politics can bring the change I desire and dream for her, hence my decision to contest to be the governor and I have found the PDP as the most dependable vehicle for this aspiration owing to its track record in our state and the dismal performance of the APC in the last seven years.
There seems to have been a lull in your activities since you announced your aspiration not too long ago, is there a reason?
Yes, there was an obvious lull and this ought to be well situated. First, we decided to scale down our activities as a mark of respect to our departed Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN). Irrespective of his many failings as a Governor, he was our governor and so we joined the family and the people in mourning him and slowed down our activities out of respect. Also, we were waiting for the time table of our party, the PDP. Now, the timetable for the primaries is out. So we are good to go full blast. Our activities thus far have been more of personal contacts with leaders across the state, now we are changing gear to meet leaders, stakeholders and members using the structures of the party.