Agbaakin Olayinka Ganiu Odufuwa, popularly known as OGO Remo, is a legal icon and former Special Adviser to former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun. The versatile grassroots politician is jostling to replace the late Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Representatives, late Mrs. Adewunmi Onanuga (Ijaiya). In this interview with TIMOTHY AGBOR, Odufuwa speaks on why he is vying to represent Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo North Federal Constituency, his plan for the people of Ogun East and other sundry issues. Excerpts:
As one of the people jostling to represent Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, what motivated you into running for the seat?
Well, this is not my first time running for that position. In 2007, I was the candidate of Alliance for Democracy. That was when the PDP tsunami swept other parties away in the South West. So, I was rigged out.
In 2015, I was equally the candidate of the APC and one way or the other, the rest is history; PDP candidate was announced as the winner, the former gubernatorial candidate in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu was declared the winner. Since then, one other person, Mrs. Adewumi Onanuga, of blessed memory, came in in 2019 and she was elected and she was re-elected in 2023 before her death recently. The position is vacant now and I said, having run for the position before, it is time for me to vie for the spot again.
Before now, the whole Constituency has not been well represented and I saw a lot of lacuna and areas where I can come in to assist. So, I said with good representation, I should be able to put forward the demands and needs of my people; so that was why I was running and I still have that passion.
A lot of things need to be done, particularly for youth empowerment. Late Onanuga did a lot of good jobs, a lot of projects and I say now, I can take over from where she stopped and I can even better what she has done.
She did well in fairness to her. But, I think I can still do better. It can only get better and that is why I am running now.
In the area of infrastructure, there is a deficit, in the area of education, we still have a lot of people who are out of school, their parents don’t have the wherewithal to send them to school, and those who are out of school don’t even have employment.
I have said it several times at several fora that not all graduates will do a white-collar job. We need to retrain our graduates to do other things and become employers of labour rather than seeking for non-existing employment and that is one of the reasons I want to go to the House of Representatives.
I want to bring them vocational training; if possible, in schools where students can be trained to become artisans, there is so much money there. We go to Benin Republic to get plumbers, tilers to Nigeria to come and work. There are no good plumbers around in Nigeria. The fact that you are a graduate doesn’t mean you will have a white-collar job. There are lots of things that need to be done, we need to change the orientation of our youths and let them believe that they can become employers of labour even when they have graduated without seeking employment from the federal or state government.
“I am confident that President Tinubu will get a second term ticket. He hasn’t spent four years there but we have been able to see the effects of what he is trying to do”
What are your selling points and the strides you have achieved that you think would make your constituents consider you as their representative?
Since 2011 during Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s government, I was the Special Adviser on Forestry Matters, I did well. If you to go Ogun State now, the Reviewed Forestry Law, I was part and parcel of those who enacted that law to safeguard our forest reserves, and if you ask anybody, they will tell you that when I came in, I sanitized the forest reserves and all other businesses associated to the forest.
In 2015, I became the Special Adviser on Agriculture; my impact was also felt there. If you go to the Ministry in Ogun State and ask about me, they will tell you that was the best Adviser we have ever had in this Ministry. Besides that, I have always given scholarships in my area, in fact, that was what brought me into politics in the first place. While I was outside doing my legal practice, there was so many indigent students who come around for assistance and I said why not start a scholarship scheme and that was how I started giving scholarships to indigent students in secondary schools and universities; even up till now, I have about 10 to 15 that I am still funding even when I am out of government.
I provide leadership to the youths and that is why the youths in my Constituency are rooting for me, they see me as their mentor and they are my mentees. Even when the issue of cultism was ravaging the area, my voice was heard very loud and clear and I made it known that cultism is not part of our culture, you shouldn’t indulge in it.
I have brought people out of such vices and I have empowered a lot. Even our women, I have empowered most of them and I am always around to contribute in solving any problem that arises in the Constituency.
I have bought transformers for some areas that are in need of it and there are several people I have assisted. Unfortunately, as a Muslim, I don’t count what I do for people, except for this political aspiration, I don’t count it. The religion says if you do something for the right hand, the left hand must not know. But, for political reasons, we have to reel them out for people to know. My people know I have always been with them.
In 2019, I was the Campaign Director of Governor Dapo Abiodun for the Remo Federal Constituency. We won the election convincingly in the three local governments, after which I was appointed as a Senior Consultant to His Excellency, Governor Dapo Abiodun between 2019 and 2023.
Do you think people would still consider voting your part APC and you in the face of the hardship confronting them?
I have always been a progressive all my life. I started politics from the SDP to AD, to AC, ACN, and to the present APC.
Nigeria has been mortgaged long before now, what President Bola Tinubu has come to do is to see how he can salvage the situation. We were living in debts believing that we were in affluence and that is how it is now. If it doesn’t get bad, it cannot become good again. When President Tinubu came in, the noise was that we are hungry; now, things are getting better and stabilising.
In those days, we were strengthening individuals instead of institutions and President Tinubu has come in now to strengthen the institution. Nigeria was the only country then where one litre of fuel is cheaper than a bottle of beer. I have been to many parts of the world and I have never seen something like that. At that time, a litre of fuel was being sold for N187 when a bottle of beer was N400 to N500. We were living on borrowed times.
President Tinubu has come to stabilise institutions, he has allowed the markets to determine prices and with time, the fuel price will go down.
On the issue of hunger, former President Muhammadu Buhari, I stand to be corrected; maybe because he is a Fulani man, he did not handle the situation properly.
He allowed the Fulani and the herdsmen to drive our people away from the farms and when there were no people on the farms, how would they produce food?
A lot of people were afraid of going to their farms, they abandoned the farm but now, you can see that that influence has reduced. You cannot hear about cattle rustlers or herdsmen killing people now, people now know there is law; if you break the law, you go for it. Things are gradually coming back, the price of pepper has come down and even onions.
The price will continue to crash because now, it is the market that determines the price, not individuals. It is when you have scarcity that the demand will push up the price. People now go to the farms and produce foods and take to the markets. Things will stabilise.
The mistake we made was that institutions were not strengthened and that is why you see some individuals becoming richer, but now, there is a change of guard and things are beginning to change.
For a long time, no refinery was working in Nigeria. We were importing fuel, but now, we have the Kaduna Refinery, and it is about 60 per cent completed now. The others are working and even Dangote Refinery is working.
We hardly import fuel again to Nigeria and that is why the price is crashing. There were some cabals that gained from people’s suffering, those people have been crushed. I just pray that President Tinubu should be given a second term so that we can lay a strong foundation for our institution to thrive, rather than individuals who are stealing our money.
So, I believe with my pedigree and what I have done for my people, they know that at any time, any day, I can always win election in my Constituency because I am a man of the people, I am the candidate to beat in the election, and my people are craving for me. So, by the grace of God, if an election is conducted anytime, I can always win the election for APC.
You sounded convinced about President Bola Tinubu winning a second term?
I am confident that President Tinubu will get a second term ticket. He hasn’t spent four years there but we have been able to see the effects of what he is trying to do. APC will win the second term. Since President Tinubu came to power, how many times have you heard that a Minister stole N200 billion, or that snake swallowed N400 million, there is sanity. I am not saying we are 100 percent good but we are better than the government he succeeded even though it was an APC government. There is stability everywhere now.
Although it is not over until it is over, we still have some bottlenecks, we still have some little problems, but I think President Tinubu has succeeded in stabilising the economy and security has been boosted, unlike before that Boko Haram will go to a Church and kill a lot of worshippers; it is rare to hear that Boko Haram go to Mosques and burn them down. They are being decimated and once there is peace, development will come up.
No development happens where there is insecurity and that is one of the areas where President Tinubu has succeeded. There is adequate security, although it is not 100 per cent, but at least, we can sleep with our two eyes closed now. What has been destroyed for over 25 years cannot be fixed in four years. It takes time; unfortunately, we are very impatient people in Nigeria. It takes years to destroy things and it takes several other years to repair them and President Tinubu is trying to stabilise things and once he is through, the government will be able to run on auto-drive and everybody will feel a sense of belonging.
People say Ogun State is mostly in the news for negative incidents such as ritual killings, cultism, gangsterism and other voices. How would you tackle this if you are elected to represent the people of your Constituency in the green chamber?
We are not called the Gateway State for nothing, we are called Gateway State because our state is connected to so many states in Nigeria. Our proximity to Lagos, Oyo, and other states has been attracting some of these vices. Most of the criminals that are driven away from Lagos, Oyo and all the rest, find Ogun State as a place where they can hibernate.
Thank God the present Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, is doing his best to ensure that the criminals are flushed away from the system. But, another thing that can bring succour in that area is when we take our youths off the streets.
An idle hand is the devil’s workshop. There are so many graduates who haven’t got anything to do but if you take them off the streets, they will know that they can become employers of labour and even become the President of Nigeria.
We have to give them that orientation, they will leave crime. Nobody was born with a criminal tendency; it is by association, youthful exuberance that causes all these things.
When I get to the House of Representatives and represent my Constituency by the grace of God, my plan is to establish a vocational centre, bring in all these graduates into that school, let them train on the job they like and before you know it, the level of crime would have been reduced.
These vices are not peculiar to Ogun State, they happen in Oyo, Lagos and other states too. And in the last few years, the crimes have reduced because the governor is doing his best to ensure that all these things are nipped in the bud.
Besides, we are too close to the border, our borders are very porous and a lot of all these criminals are not Nigerians. Some of them come from Benin Republic, some come from Chad and they penetrate Ogun State. I can tell you that the majority of Okada riders in Lagos and Ogun States are not Nigerians.
Even the security men in Lagos and Ogun are from Niger and Chad, but because we have a porous border, they enter freely. These are the people that precipitate crimes in Nigeria. I want to uproot all these challenges from the root and not from the surface. I have done it before when I was in government during Senator Ibikunle Amosun era and I am going to do it again.
I have my blueprint and I am not saying it is going to be done within a year, but gradually, we will take them off the streets and the crime rate will reduce.
Soon, INEC will roll out plans on the by-election in your Constituency, how much confidence do you have in the commission to deliver a credible and transparent election?
I think Prof. Attahiru Jega, former INEC chairman, has done a lot to reduce the rate of rigging, ballot snatching before he left. And I think the current chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has improved on them. I have confidence in INEC and they have all the personnel to make the election credible.
A lot of changes have been made in INEC and those changes are translating to credible elections. We can’t have a perfect election but at least, let the closeness have resemblance to a perfect election.
Some have argued that we do not need a bicameral legislature and that it is high time the nation embraced a unicameral or part time lawmaking system. What is your take?
First and foremost, we are running a Federal Government and secondly, I have been an advocate of unicameral legislature. That is one set of legislation at the National Assembly. But, be that as it may, it won’t happen just like that in a day. It will take time. There has been agitation that the budget for the National Assembly is too bogus for us to sustain it, and I think if we go to a national conference, that will be limited. I am looking for a situation where the three regions will be given much more independence to run as regional governments. If that is done, then we don’t need a bicameral legislature.
Each of the regional governments will only run a legislative house. The current National Assembly is eating deep so much into the pocket of Nigeria. The money we are spending on the National Assembly is enough to run all the states altogether. But, there is nothing anybody can do for now. As it is, we have to continue to agitate until the Federal Government is able to amend the constitution and give independence to the six geopolitical zones and make them regional governments so that the centre will be very small and unattractive.
The reason why we always want to go to the Federal Government is because there is so much happening at the federal level. But if the power is whittled down to regional and local levels, you will see that the federal level will be unattractive and the National Assembly power will be whittled down.
Nigeria is too big to be run from Abuja. The Commissioner of Police in Ogun State cannot act on the order of the governor except he takes orders from the Inspector General of Police.
If you look at the development we recorded in the South West, it was done at the time of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo when we were running regional governments. I am not saying those that are there are not doing anything but what we have there now are just cosmetics development. The O’odua Investment, the Western Board, the WNBC, the first radio station, television station in Africa, all those things happened during the regional government when they had power to generate revenue, control their resources and send tax to the Federal Government.
But these days, we are competing with ourselves, we are not complementing ourselves. We need to go regional. Most of our states are not viable; we don’t need too many states to run Nigeria. Let us merge those that are not viable with the viable ones and we will develop.
“I want my people to vote for me and choose me as their representative and they will not have cause to regret. I have been with them for years and they know me”
So, contrary to the proposal of the House of Representatives, you are saying Nigeria doesn’t need more states?
Yes, I think we don’t need more states. It is not feasible to create more states. Even the money we are sharing now is not enough for the current states; why are we creating more states? We are only creating more problems. Give autonomy, independence to geo-political zones to develop at their pace and see Nigeria transform faster.
As a legal practitioner, how much advantage do you think your law profession will have on your duties as representative if elected?
My legal practice will be a plus if I am elected to represent my people. Formulating and presenting bills will not be a problem. And part of my job as a lawyer is to be able to persuade people to buy into my idea, getting those bills passed will not be a problem for me.
I have been trained as a draftsman and as a lawyer who advocates and getting the support of the people will not be difficult for me. My people will have a round peg in a round hole if they send me to the National Assembly.
If you are elected, is that a goodbye to law practice like we see in other politicians who abandon their primary professions and jobs and face politics squarely?
Let me remind you that I was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1989 and I have been in practice since that time till now, despite my foray into politics. I have never left my practice. I have a flourishing chamber and I have about eight lawyers there and other supporting staff. I am only the Head of the Chamber. If I am out of the chamber, it will continue to function. I ran for election in 2007 and I returned to my chamber. I am a professional in politics, I am not a professional politician. So, politics is just a vocation to me, law is my profession and I will remain a lawyer till death. I am in politics to help and support my people.
I want my people to vote for me and choose me as their representative and they will not have cause to regret. I have been with them for years and they know me. They know that I am committed to their welfare, they know that I am committed to making life easy for them, they know I will give them the best of representation, I am not given to frivolities, I don’t indulge in what is not beneficial to my people and I am a man of impeccable integrity. I pray that the good Lord will grant them the wisdom to give me that mandate to represent
them.
