Modele Sarafa-Yusuf, a former Special Adviser on Communication to Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, recently declared to contest for the state’s governorship seat in the 2023 elections. The ace sports broadcaster said she is in the race to encourage other women in politics to make their intention known by declaring for various political positions. In this interview with MAYOWA SAMUEL, she spoke more on her reason for throwing her hat in the ring and why money and gender shouldn’t determine who the best candidate is in an election. Excerpts:
You recently declared your intention to run for the office of the governor of Ogun State. What propelled you to make this decision?
First of all, anyone who has something to offer the people should not hesitate to put himself or herself forward to serve. I have always been interested in service. It’s always the duty of journalists to understand the public mood and express it without fear or favour. Being a career of socio-political consciousness in the country, our aim as journalists should be service, like accomplished and celebrated journalists such as the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Baba Olusegun Osoba. For me, I wish to serve our people at the highest level in the state. That’s what propelled me to come out.
Under which political platform do you intend to achieve this ambition?
The All Progressives Congress is our party.
You said you are running to become the governor of Ogun State since Governor Dapo Abiodun has not declared his intention to run for a second term. Will you step down if the governor finally declares his intention to run?
We will cross that bridge when we get there. I didn’t step out to make this declaration flippantly. I didn’t do it without due consideration for all the things that are attached to it. I didn’t do it just to get attention. I’m running because I know I can win, because I know I have something to offer, because I know the time is right. As you said, he has not declared his intention to run.
Politicians by their very nature tend to put words in the mouths of prominent politicians. They’ve been going around saying all sorts but have they really spoken to him about his intention? All of the party leaders that I’ve spoken to say he hasn’t told them that he’s running, and we have three weeks until the primaries given the INEC guidelines. If we are going to follow the INEC timetable, the primaries can actually be held between April 4 and June 5. Everything has to be concluded about primaries and it’s my opinion that if our leader and governor of the state, Prince Dapo Abiodun is running, he would have made his intentions known, if not to everybody, but at least, to the leaders in the party, which is not the case. Nobody knows, or if some people really know, they are not saying anything, which leaves me with the conclusion that he’s probably not running, and if he’s not running, he will be backing someone, and I hope that he backs me because he knows that I’m capable, he knows what stuff I’m made of, he knows I can deliver on my promises. I have the capacity, knowledge, dreams and goodwill to get things done. So, I’m hoping that he backs me in this quest to be governor after him.
“If the administration was doing as well as we thought it would, I wouldn’t stand up and say I want to run for governor and do it better. I would clearly be supporting the administration. That’s not the case. I don’t want to spend time in the past, I want to move forward”
This sort of project demands a lot financially. Do you have the financial war chest to run for an election in Nigeria?
That question always comes up. Every time someone asks me about my intention to run, they say do you have the money to run? I agree that politics is a very expensive game, I’ve seen that. It’s not only money that gets you into office, the money can only go so far. If it was only money, some people would be winning elections back to back because they’ll be feeding people every day, killing cows, buying Ankara, doing all manner of things but the fact that it’s not always these people who win, should tell you something. Power is given by the Almighty God. Quran 3:26 says that Allah holds the power in His hands, He gives it to whom He will, He takes it away from whom He will, He honours whom He will, He debases who He will. Why? Because He can do it. The power is in His hands. So, if He’s going to give you power, if you don’t have money, He will find a way to make it happen. If He’s not going to give you power, no matter how much money you have, you will not get it. I think we should stop emphasizing the use of money in politics; this is one of the things that frightens people and keeps the good people away because when you have ideas and you have something to contribute, but your resources are lean, you will be hesitant to come out, so we are losing out the best people. Everywhere else in the world, when people see a good candidate, they support him or her whether in cash or in kind. They volunteer their time, contribute to campaign funds, give services in kind, cooperators come out to endorse a candidate and they back her or him. I believe that a day will come when that will happen here and I think that time is now because since we started, people have been extending hands of fellowship, hands of help to us.
People are already asking if we can contribute to your campaign. And I say you know what, right now, we need money to do this and we’ll appreciate everything that we get. So, I’m encouraged by the kind of support that we have been getting. When we keep emphasizing money in politics, this is at the very root of the problems that we have in the polity. When a candidate spends N7 billion, as I’ve heard that some people did in the last election to win a governorship race, the first thing he or she will do when he gets there is to get that money back without any doubt. The grassroots people who ask for money to vote, and to back you, the people who say if you don’t give me money, I will vote for another candidate. They should think about it because you really have no moral right after that to ask him to deliver on his promises because he’s already paid you your money. That’s why people who do this, don’t go back to the electorate, they don’t feel that they are answerable to them. They call them but they don’t pick their calls anymore. Why? Because they’ve paid you and they’ve moved on. So, they recoup their investments any which way and those who back them, giving inflated contracts. So, the thing is, we really have to make up our minds how we want to run politics in Nigeria. If you want to collect your money upfront from a politician, I’m afraid, I don’t have that kind of money. What I have is capacity, a willingness to do good, what I want to do is service. I have enough to get by but as I’ve said, I’m encouraged by the goodwill we’ve been getting and the offers of help that we’ve been receiving. I couldn’t be happier, I’m really grateful and I know it’s doable.
You’re from Iperu-Remo, hometown of Governor Abiodun. How popular are you at home?
I can’t be the one to say how popular I am but I have name recognition everywhere I go. I have a lot of goodwill. Most of my life and most of the things I’ve achieved have been based on the relationships I’ve built over the years. In Iperu Remo, my late father, Bayo Osinaike, was a prominent member of that town. He was the de-facto Baba Oba, if you know what I mean. He was well respected and well known. By virtue of my profession, I have relationships with people all across the state, not just in Iperu. So, I’m not worried about that at all, I have a good relationship with my people.
How will you rate Governor Dapo Abiodun’s performance so far?
There is nothing like clerical data or evidence. I don’t want to get into a ‘rofo rofo’ situation. I don’t want to be the one to be criticizing the administration and saying they didn’t do this, they didn’t do that. If the administration was doing as well as we thought it would, I wouldn’t stand up and say I want to run for governor and do it better. I would clearly be supporting the administration. That’s not the case. I don’t want to spend time in the past, I want to move forward.
“I resigned in May 2020 because I realized that the situation wasn’t going the way we thought it would go. I considered myself the keeper of the manifesto because the then candidate, Dapo Abiodun, and I literally wrote the manifesto”
Why did you quit as Governor Abiodun’s Special Adviser on Communications?
I resigned in May 2020 because I realized that the situation wasn’t going the way we thought it would go. I considered myself the keeper of the manifesto because the then candidate, Dapo Abiodun, and I literally wrote the manifesto, this is how we think the government should go when we get into government, this is how we think that we will deal with civil servants, this is how we’ll build capacity, the important areas that we focused on. From the very early days, I realized that things weren’t going in that direction and I offered to resign in May 2020. That resignation was refused, I have a copy of the letter I sent to the SSG. It was refused because, I don’t know, maybe because they felt it wouldn’t look good for people in the administration to start resigning at that time. So, I was prevailed upon to remain and I did my best as an adviser to the governor. You advise, this is what we should be doing next, it’s up to the person you are advising to take that advice on board and implement for the administration to do as you advised. So, I continued to advise the government until I needed to resign a second time, so I could pursue my political ambition but I did my work. I would often be sent things to do, I would speak to His Excellency when I needed to speak to him and advise him and his administration and the people who were working in the Ministry of Information but I was always advising the governor especially because I was Special Adviser to the governor on Information. So, I did my duty as I thought I should and I believe I gave a good account of myself in that regard which was why he refused my offer to resign in 2020.
As a woman running for the number one position in Ogun State, how do you intend to face the challenges of discrimination and intimidation from the male-dominated field of politics in the state?
All my professional life, I’ve often been the only woman in the room. I’ve never been intimidated by men. I’m able to get along with both men and women. I’ve often been respected for my brain, for my relationship building skills. If you remember, I was the first woman sportscaster in Africa. Even then, I got used to being told, can you even do it? So, the challenge was always to do it and do it well and Alhamdulillahi, I have several awards on my wall to prove that I did my job well over the years. When I left NTA in 2003, I went on to become the head of sponsorship for Globacom in West Africa. It was tough work, I learnt how to think big, I learnt that nothing was impossible, I was very well trained by Dr. Mike Adenuga, who was the chairman of the company. He taught us to think big, taught us that nothing was impossible. We were challenged to find solutions to problems, even the most unlikely problems at short notice, so I’ve been very well trained. When I left Globacom, I went on to become Director of Marketing for the American University of Nigeria. My records speak for themselves and I’ve gone on to do my own business and I’ve excelled at that as well. So, I’m not worried about that. I think people should judge me based on my capacity, not my gender. It will be nice for us to have a woman on that seat, it’s about time but that’s not the only reason I’m running. I’m running because I’m capable.
