It took quite some efforts to have him agree to talk. But when Senator Ayodele Arise eventually spoke with Sam Akpe and Ayo Esan in Abuja last week, he was as blunt and combative as ever. The focus was principally on the Ekiti governorship election, won by his party, the All Progressives Congress. He spoke on how and why the election was won and lost; and how President Buhari is grappling with the security issues in the country, among others. Excerpts:
A lot of people were surprised at the outcome of the election in Ekiti State. Were you?
No.
It was orchestrated that the sitting governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the PDP would win the election. Why did the table turn against them?
You have chosen the right word, ‘orchestrated.’ He managed to manipulate the people, the youth in particular, by deceiving them largely that he was working for their interests. He started first by the concept of stomach infrastructure and there was no infrastructure built in anybody’s stomach. He used that as an avenue to defraud the people of Ekiti and he started by making all manner of noises about how popular he is in Ekiti, just to confuse the larger population of the country, mostly those who live in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Abuja, Enugu, and all the big cities, who really do not know the enormity of what Ayo Fayose was perpetrating in Ekiti. Every good step that his predecessor took in office to ensure that there was some level of sense of governance, to touch the lives of the poor and the youth and the elderly, Fayose stopped all of them.
Fayose has overstayed his relevance in Ekiti; that is a fact. And those of us who worked to put him there have said enough is enough, and we worked to remove him. However narrow the margin is, everybody held on to his locality to deliver and we delivered
Give us some examples
For example, when Fayemi was governor, he employed 10,000 youth and he was paying them N20,000 every month, as peace corps, to do some work of orderliness and be out of the anti-social behaviour. Ayo Fayose came and cancelled it. When Fayemi was in government, he was paying the elderly, those women above 65 years who had no means of livelihood, largely illiterate, uneducated people as a form of social security statement; just to say government cares about you, and is interested in your welfare. He was paying them N5,000 monthly. However, that might sound very little, but imagine that money not coming from anywhere. So the people appreciated it. Fayose came and cancelled it. When Fayemi was the governor, he mandated every local government chairman to tar at least 5km road within the local government, they did that. When Fayose came, he was only doing bogus projects so that he could make as much money as possible.
So the people felt zero governance from his government. He created bridges on land where there was no water and he sunk N17bn into it in Ado. When Fayemi was in government, he promoted teachers, increased their salaries three times in his four years in government. He went beyond that; when he was in government, he did not owe teachers or any staff any outstanding salaries.
So, what Fayose has been feeding to the public has all been lies that he is popular but he was silent on the punishment he was bringing on the people. Some category of people are owed six months salaries; some are owed two months. And to add insult to injury, because of politics, Ayo said he wanted to hire 2,000 employees in Ekiti, so he made them to come with their voter’s cards to obtain forms. He collected the information on their voter cards and their voter cards number. He knew he had no job to offer them because, for somebody who cannot pay salaries for six months, how would he increase the number of employees? At the end of the day, he ended up sending N2,000 each to those ‘boys’ so they could vote. The truth is that Fayose stood no chance of winning against our candidate. And he succeeded in driving away everybody that assisted him to be governor.
It is believed you were close to him before now. How would you describe his personality?
I would not say I was really close to him. The former President (Goodluck Jonathan) and the former Senate President (David Mark) told me to go and work with him; and it was on the premise that I would get my Senate seat back. And I pointed out to the then President that this man, Ayo Fayose, cannot be trusted; and that anything you want to do with him should be put in an agreement because I was the chairman of the reconciliation committee, and that was the general opinion of all the aspirants that I was told to reconcile. Beyond that, everything that he has done or he did as governor, believe me, he was just an unfortunate governor.
Fayose has said that what you call victory is a stolen mandate, which he will get back at the tribunal. Do you nurse any fear concerning his threat to go to court?
Nobody should take Fayose seriously. He is a clown. That some people still believe him is a surprise. His pedigree is that of a used car salesman. When they call someone a used car sales person in America, the Americans know the meaning. They are the worst people because they would never tell you this is what is wrong with the car. They will try to turn back the mileage and scratch off the date of manufacturing. These are the characters we call used cars sales persons. Ayo Fayose has been using his marketing skills in selling used cars to sell dummy to Ekiti people and the rest of the country.
Your party is at the federal level and many believe that the President is not doing enough to curtail killings in the country. Don’t you think this may affect APC’s chances in the next election?
Well, the truth of the matter is that the killings are very unfortunate. Very unfortunate, and I am sure Mr. President is very pained on the killings. Nobody wants to sit down and read that 70 people or 100 people have been killed. It is a bad situation. That is worrisome to Mr. President and Nigerians as a whole. This is not an issue of voting for A or B; at least, it is on record how Buhari has been able to decimate the Boko Haram sufficiently. That they still have incursion is because it is so difficult to fight a guerrilla war. If we are in a battleground and we are facing the enemy, I know the country will know what to do; but fighting somebody who will not tell you where they are and move all over the bush, it will take a lot of strategies, and intelligence work by the military to deal with the situation. Sure, every now and then, we hold security meetings and I believe at the end of the day, what we will all achieve is peace for this land. So it is the responsibility of everybody who knows where these criminals are to ensure that they do not destroy our country. So for me, it is a challenge, which I think the government is working hard to curtail.
Let’s look at this critically: four years ago, a PDP government was at the centre and PDP won the Ekiti governorship election. In 2018, APC government is at the centre and APC has won Ekiti governorship election. There is something curious about this beyond the popularity or acceptability of the candidates in the elections…
Now, I want to say there have been several elections since Buhari became the President. I am sure you remembered Anambra election took place. The government at the centre is APC; the government in Anambra is APGA. So there has been no manipulation of election since Buhari became the President of this country. And security was equally provided in Anambra. So there is no relationship. Fayose has overstayed his relevance in Ekiti; that is a fact. And those of us who worked to put him there have said enough is enough and we worked to remove him. However narrow the margin is, everybody held on to his locality to deliver and we delivered. So when you now look at Ado, where he had a home run the other time, it became impossible for him to have a home-run this time. Don’t forget, Senator Babafemi Ojudu is from Ado; he has his own strong presence there. Senator Raji Rasaki is from Ado; she worked for Fayose in the 2014 election. In this last one, he worked against him. Don’t forget that the deputy to Fayemi is from Ado. She was the former chairman of Ado Local Government. She is a high chief in Ado and she is running a school in Ado, where many of the children, many Ado youth, attend. Those who could not afford the school fees were given free education. So, by far, Bisi Egbeyemi is very popular; a known name. All these factors, combined, ensured that Fayose had no home run. Even though he is from that local government area; he is not from that town. He can’t boast of 5,000 votes where he comes from. When people don’t realise all these facts, they begin to say somebody has manipulated the election. How could Fayose have won this election?
Does what happened in Ekiti election represent what will happen generally in the 2019 election? Does it signal victory for APC in 2019?
Let me tell you one thing: if we are a serious country and we really desire development in this country, and we really desire an upright leadership, that is, not thinking of what will go into personal pockets, the people will not vote for any other party except APC.
Nobody should take Fayose seriously. He is a clown. That some people still believe him is a surprise. His pedigree is that of a used car salesman. When they call someone a used car sales person in America, the Americans know the meaning. They are the worst people because they would never tell you this is what is wrong with the car
That is because you are a member of the APC…
Yes, it is because I am a member of APC and because of the fact that on a scaIe…look at the achievements, the silent achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari. Today, I was just watching television, there is a train plying Abuja, a first class train that has all the qualities that we see abroad. It is now working in Abuja. That is a government that understands responsibility. Today, the billions that we saved from importation of rice or the money we used to waste on importing rice, have been reduced significantly; moreso that we have money to do other things. Now, it is possible for government to be in place and be doing fictitious projects to embezzle all these monies, but we still will not know, but a large percentage of the population will be feeling it. It is not a perfect government yet, but this government is driving towards improving the lives of the citizens. Now, we are building rail lines, from Port Harcourt, all the way to Kano, down to Lagos. We have signed a contract with General Electric; that job is progressing. If we now say, all of a sudden, we are now in a hurry and those who had stolen so much money will now come back… in fact, the kind of money they stole from the last government is so mind-boggling that I felt disappointed, totally disappointed because if people were stealing so much money, what business did I have in such a party? Let me tell you, I am not a crazy person in my decision in politics. My own position is that I am sad because my own children cannot live here. And I lured them to come home. They didn’t want to come because they were all born in the United States and they went to school there. If this country were developing even at the pace of South Africa, or if every city in Nigeria looks like Abuja, why would anybody say he doesn’t want to live here? We have kidnapping, we have herdsmen problem, and we have Boko Haram. We have all manners of challenges because we neglected our people for so long.
There is this argument that the APC is only riding high on the projects initiated by the last administration, particularly in the area of rail system and agriculture. The belief is that this government has not initiated any of such projects and completed it.
What I want to say is that when you initiate a project, in my adage, they say ‘ibere kii se onise, afeni to ba foriti dopin’ meaning, starting something is not so important but completion matters. To start a project does not mean you will finish it. We see the roads that have been under construction for 15 years in this country and those projects were never completed under the PDP governments. So the fact that you have mentioned on paper does not mean you are going to do it. Let’s look at our foreign reserves at the time this government took over, we were in twenty something billion dollars. Today, we are over 40. And we have not been selling crude oil now at 100 dollars per barrel under Buhari. But we experienced that severally under the PDP government.
And you were a member of PDP…
I was a member of the PDP, when I went to the Senate and in all my discussions in the Senate, you will know that I have not changed either in character or content. I am still myself. What I believe in is what I believe in. And if you are looking at it or you interviewed all the companies I supervised, it would be difficult for them to say Senator Arise came to do oversight function and was asking for money. It would not happen but some people have formed their own character before getting into a particular place. And many of these we didn’t know. It is now that we are beginning to hear and we begin to wonder how it is possible for somebody to actually steal billions of dollars. When they said they were initiated, I would say a person like my friend, who is now President of the African Development Bank, Akinwunmi, has always been an upright person.
What is your reaction to the national honour conferred on the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola? Some people said the President wants to use it to get the votes of the South West.
For whatever reasons that he did it, it is a very commendable action by Mr President. If people say it is because of politics, we have been having politics since 1999. Why did those people in government earlier not do it? At every point, there are challenges on the incumbent, so it is not as if Buhari is the most challenged at this time. For me, merely thinking of it and carrying it out is a sign of strength of character and I think it is highly commendable. I don’t know whether that will sway or that will be the reason why the South West will vote for him, I don’t think so. Why the South West will vote for him is that we are sufficiently enlightened to understand that even when you start constructing a road, you may not finish it in four years, talk less of policy shift, to change a paradigm. I believe this president deserves another four years for us to even see the difference. Let him stay 50 per cent of the period the PDP spent in power and we will now be able to see the difference, and I believe the difference will be very significant.
Is it true that you are planning to return to the Senate?
I have not discussed with my governor- elect. He is my leader now. I have to share with him first before I will say I want to run or not. I didn’t make that one a priority. My priority was for him to win first. Then we will now sit down and ask him. If he feels he has a better-qualified person than myself, that will be his judgment and I will abide by it. If he says, yes, I think you will represent us well, then I will be looking forward to returning to the Senate.
