Gov. Abiodun remains a breath of fresh air, he deserves another term — Salako, Convener, W2W4DA Support Movement

Dr Isiaq Kunle Salako is a reputable politician from Ogun West who had in the recent past served as Commissioner for Agriculture, Housing as well as Health in the State. The public health trained physician is currently the Chairman, Ogun State Hospitals Management Board as well as the brain behind West to West for Dapo Abiodun Movement (W2W4DA) . In this interview by Bankole Taiwo, Dr Salako speaks on varied topical issues touching on the second term bid of Gov. Abiodun and the imperatives of having Sen Adeola Yayi as the next Senator representing Ogun West come 2023, among others. Excerpts:

Tell us about W2W4DA; what does this group seeks to achieve?

Primarily, this group that is made up of people of likeminds, politicians and non-politicians  across the Ogun West Senatorial District seeks two objectives. One is to ensure the election of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly called Yayi as the next Senator representing Ogun West come 2023 while the other objective is to mobilise for the success of Gov Dapo Abiodun’s second term bid.

What difference will the coming of Sen Adeola bring to the people of Ogun West given the so much fever in the air over his aspiration?

You see, politics is like going to war: though it is not fought with guns and other weapons, it is a contest and when you are going for a contest, I think it is just right to mobilise all your assets, all your resources from all over the world to win. It’s like you want to play the World Cup and let’s assume that Ronaldo is a Nigerian, we will surely be doing ourselves a lot of disservice if we fail to draft him into the team because we have seen what wonders he has been doing with the game elsewhere. The same thing with Sen. Adeola, we have seen great wonders he has been doing with public office in Lagos State and being our son here from Ogun West, he has come back to join the contest. It wasn’t that he was imposed on the people, no! He joined the race and the people overwhelmingly voted for him during the primary of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). He is the people’s choice and our party’s candidate for Ogun West senatorial district for 2023 elections. Sen. Yayi is someone we know to have gotten the experience having served two terms as lawmaker at the Lagos State House of Assembly, served a term at the House of Representatives and currently on his second term in office as the Senator representing Lagos West. He has equally performed excellently and served the people well within these political offices. He is a man with broad-based network both within and outside the country. His type is quite uncommon; he has the voice; the experience is there too. In a nutshell, Sen. Adeola Olamilekan is a rare asset that is poised to change for good the political fortunes of Ogun West nay Ogun State.

Why has there been this thick opposition left, right and centre against his decision to represent Ogun West come 2023?

It would have been abnormal if there were no oppositions; it is expected because it is a contest in which many other people are also interested. So, those who feel that they may be edged out might want to ruffle feathers, moreover when the winning candidate is a shining light. There is really no cause for alarm; many people are now coming to terms with the reality of having Sen. Adeola as the next Senator of Ogun West come 2023 because here is a man that was overwhelmingly voted for during the primary and he is really loved by the people. There is also no truth in the report that the Yewa Obas imposed him, no! Sen. Adeola was picked by the party delegates in accordance to the rules and if the traditional rulers who are equally major stakeholders decided to give him their support, then the Senator must be doing something right that others are not doing.

Why is your movement so particular about the re-election of Gov Abiodun?

Yes, the second leg of our movement’s objective is to ensure that Gov. Dapo Abiodun continues his good works beyond 2023. We are doing this because we have seen him to be a breath of fresh air in the politics of Ogun State. In the immediate past, what we saw was government of myself, my family and handful cronies; but Gov. Abiodun has been inclusive, bringing everyone on board to chart the way forward for the State. The governor has also ensured that projects are evenly and reasonably distributed unlike in the immediate past when projects were concentrated in one or two local governments in the State. We have a governor who came on board having respect for the institutions, the traditional, religious institutions, the youths, the elderly and the likes. He has a well thought out plan. He is not the type who will wake up one day and start demolishing houses. In all of this, we feel that we are having a breath of fresh air that deserves to be encouraged and supported to do more for the people. We also saw in the governor someone who respects Ogun West in its entirety.

There have always been cry of marginalisation by Ogun W under the government of Gov. Abiodun?

Well, the issue of Ogun  across the three senatorial districts of the State will  know for sure that Ogun West is marginalised. It is an age long problem of 47 years; it’s been there since the creation of the State. So, if a problem had been there for such a long time, you would not expect someone to come and change things under three years. I believe that there is still a lot to be done for us in Ogun West. In fact, my take is for the government to declare state of emergency on the critical infrastructure like our roads, schools, etc. I believe that Gov. Dapo Abiodun is doing much better, but there is still room for improvement. Yes, we really appreciate what the governor is doing, but being a child that has been neglected for too long,  malnourishment has set in and we need special attention. We sincerely hope and plead that the governor will do much more. We deserve a more concentrated attention.

The governor is doing the critical Atan-Lusada-Agbara road that had been so applauded by many people; working on the long abandoned Ilaro-Owode Yewa road; working on some other township roads around Ado-Odo/Ota and other places. The governor really deserves to be commended, but we want much more.

The immediate past governor of the state, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun was recently reported to have said that Gov. Abiodun never won 2019 election, that the election was rigged to favour him, what is your take on this?

I think it is really, really unfortunate for a person of Sen. Ibikunle Amosun standing, a two-term governor, a serving senator to have uttered such statement. It is something that had passed through the established institutions of the Country. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) conducted the election and declared Prince Dapo Abiodun as the winner, his people weren’t satisfied, they went to the tribunal, the tribunal upheld the victory of the governor, not satisfied yet, they went to the Appeal Court, Gov. Abiodun was declared the winner up to our apex court, the Supreme Court, the verdict remain same. I think anyone who respects Nigeria and its institutions would have accepted the result or what does a person disputing the result at this stage wants to achieve? Is it that he wants to undermine the integrity of these highly revered institutions or what? Is he trying to make people lose confidence in these established institutions? As a matter of fact, when I first heard the news, I said the former governor must have been misquoted until I saw the video clip, no! That was unbecoming of the status of Sen. Amosun. I am sure that by now, deep down inside of him, he must have been feeling that he ought not to have made such statement and should be looking for a way to apologise.

How confident are you of the victory of Abiodun in 2023 giving the growing opposition?

Well, the history of second term bid in the State has always been challenging like we witnessed during the time of Chief Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and Sen. Amosun, but because Gov. Abiodun has done pretty well, I mean very well, he will by God’s grace scale the hurdle. The people of the State are solidly behind him too.

What is the success story of Hospital Management Board under this administration?

I became the Chairman of this board over two years ago and I have also served as the Commissioner for Health in the State in the past. So, I can say I have a fair knowledge of how the public health sector in the State runs. I think under the government of Prince Dapo Abiodun, the Hospital Management Board which is in charge of secondary healthcare has done very well. For example, on recruitment of personnel he has done well. When I was the Commissioner for Health, there was never a time I got the mandate for the recruitment of 20 Consultants in one fell swoop, but Gov. Abiodun gave us that mandate. We have also recruited a whole gamut of other personnel like doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and so on. We also got approval for employment of lower cadre staff like the health attendant and gardners. In fact, there are some of these health attendants who have been working as temporary staff for six – eight years on the salaries of N10,000 per month that we were able to covert to permanent employment with this approval.

On renovation of healthcare facilities, the state hospital at Ilaro, Odeda and Ibiade in Ogun Waterside local government are currently wearing new look. If you go to state hospitals at Idi Iroko, Ijaye, Abeokuta, Oba Ademola, and so on, it’s a new picture. The hospitals were not only renovated, they were also stocked with new equipment. Only about two months ago, we procured dental chairs that were distributed to five secondary healthcare facilities in the State. These are used for all dental procedures and they are very expensive. Recently, we also got theatre lights for three general hospitals. Even in the larger health sector, the governor has done well. He promised to renovate one health centre per ward and he has done more than half. This administration inherited just five ambulances, but now each local government of Ogun State can boast of at least one state of art ambulance that can respond to medical emergency cases. There is no doubt in my mind that this administration has giving the health sector a new lease of life.

In 2023, what should Nigerians do right in the face of bad leadership being our major challenge?

Yes, we have problem with leadership because leadership shows direction, but beyond this is the greater problem with the structure of the country. There is something that is fundamentally wrong with this structure. How come that since 1999 when this democracy started, people that we usually hail and think that they are the Messiah while going into office are almost stoned when leaving the office? With due respect, it is the same with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, and President Muhammadu Buhari, even our governors – something is fundamentally wrong somewhere. I don’t know of any country that practices a system where you have 10 children who go to work, at the end of the month, the father collects the different salaries of these children, put everything together and then share it based on some unverifiable indices. This kills hard-work, innovation, ingenuity, because you already know that whatever is brought on board will be shared anyway, so, why do you have to kill yourself? We have to drop this structure. The best days of Nigeria was when we were running true federalism; the days of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnmadi Azikwe, Amadu Bello. Then, the federating units put up so much hard work because they knew that they have control over whatever they generate and can use such to develop their regions. I believe that the next crop of leaders will need to work seriously on this. We should stop deceiving ourselves, the structure we currently operate is not working, the failure is obvious to all.

What is your take on Ogun West for governor?

As a politician, one of my highest desires is to have someone from Ogun West as the governor of the State. It’s a project that is long overdue since 47 years ago when the State was created. In fact, it is an indictment on all of us, the politicians from Ogun West that we have been unable to produce a governor. So, I want this to happen as soon as possible. However, like I earlier said, politics is like going to war, you have to be strategic about it, it needs tactics, timing; you have got to be discerning too because if you don’t time it well, you will be defeated. And if you go to war and keep on losing battles upon battles, you are likely to demoralise your soldiers and you are on your way to losing the entire war. There was this research that I carried out about a year ago which I called contextual and statistical analysis of Ogun West governorship race since 1979 and I found out that there are eight factors that determine if you will become governor of Ogun State or not. And out of these eight factors, you must have at least five to guarantee you becoming the governor of the state. So, anytime we want to go for the governorship in Ogun West, we have to sit back and see if we have at least five of these eight factors or else we will go out, lose again and further demoralise our people. So, based on this, I don’t think 2023 is a good timing, we need to still bid our time. For 2023, we should support Gov. Dapo Abiodun for another term and this is like what everyone (mostly political gladiators) is saying in Ogun West.