WorldStage– Contrary to claims in some quarters that political opposition in Nigeria is weak and that the country is headed toward a one-party state, a House of Representatives aspirant, Mr. Olugbuyiro Akinola, has declared that opposition is strong but only lacking in planning, failing to do what they’re supposed to, and not putting their house in order.
Speaking in an interview programme on TVC News channel, Akinola who is aspiring to represent Akure North and South Federal Constituency in Ondo State, also stated he’s aspiring to change the narrative of political representation from tokenism to social entrepreneurship, an initiative he says will see constituents moving from being handed ridiculous measure of rice to engagement in acquisition skills that will make them economically productive and less beggarly.
On opposition being described as weak, he said it’s not correct given the head-to-head results of the last general elections which, according to him, showed both opposition parties and the ruling party squaring up almost equally, and described the saying that opposition is weak as just words and noise.
Akinola argued that if oppositions have good planning as the metamorphosed Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who retrieved stolen mandates in Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states through thorough planning and commitment when they were in the opposition, the noise of weak opposition wouldn’t have been strident.
On why parties still need to court to challenge election results despite the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) being seen to give accurate results of votes, he said there’s nothing strange about it and that it’s done all over the world, citing the case of USA Democrats presidential candidate Al-Gore that narrowly lost election to Republican George Bush and instituted litigation to address his dissatisfaction with the result and went as far as to the Supreme Court of the country to challenge it.
With the way INEC is running things now, are we building the confidence to reduce exodus to courts after elections? Is Joash Amupitan taking the right decisions so far? Are we educating Nigerians enough as money is made available to have ample time to prepare for the coming elections? Responding to those questions from hosts of the programme, Akinola said: “Looking at interrogating what the INEC is doing vis-à-vis the African Democratic Congress’ (ADC) issue, we can see that we have a different kind of INEC chairman in office.
“He’s a professor of Law – I’m not speaking for him – and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), he appears to understand the legal issues underpinning the procedure and processes of the political parties, and of course the implications, the obligation of the umpire to obey court orders. Before now, we have people coming out to say institutions, INEC, Police etc do not obey court orders, but now we have a different electoral umpire who says he has received letter from party A, he has received letter from party B and called the media department of INEC to interrogate the issue before they come to a position in order to obey court order.
“There’s no way we can run away from obedience to court orders because the judiciary occupies important position in our democratic process. But if we want what is our interest to be INEC’s interest, it will turn to chaos.”
Speaking on the affairs in his party, the APC, and internal mechanism in place to cater to the interests of members who may lose out in future rivalries ahead of 2027, Akinola said in spite of some dissatisfactions that came with the party’s recent convention as well as those that may arise later the party has internal mechanism for dispute resolution and has always had history of resolving issues among members without it exploding, or things spiraling out of control.
Asked why the party didn’t apply the mechanism in the case of former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who helped in the emplacement of the current administration, Akinola said while the party is desirous of having all players on board, it’s not losing any sleep over El-Rufai because, according to him, as El-Rufai is leaving the party tens of him are coming in from other parties and across states.
He said while he’s not discounting anyone, the former governor didn’t give the party the needed edge in the last general elections since he lost almost all elective positions to opposition parties.
On his ambition on representing his constituency at the House of Representatives, he said he’s coming into the race because he’s impressed by what President Tinubu is doing, particularly in the area of law reform. “It’s key for us and that’s why we’re coming in,” he stated.
Explaining on his ambition further, Akinola said: “For the president to be doing all that’s going on in the country, revenue is key. I’m an expert, I’m a tax expert, a lawyer and economist, and I fell that my constituency deserves a better deal. We’ve had it so long so bad. We’ve not had credible voice in that place. And we feel that the issue of true federalism is not a tokenistic one, it’s a serious matter – resources control.
“We believe that if true federalism is put in place that every part of the system can have a leverage, true fiscal federalism, then we can move ahead. And I’m happy that this is a big bold statement by my party and I am going to be there as a voice to be collaborating with fellow representatives to bring about true federalism.”
Having lost election before he was put to task by hosts of the programme on what difference is it going to be this time, he responded by saying he’s looking at things differently, particularly from tokenistic empowerment, and that he’s instead bringing in social entrepreneurship by which constituents are trained and acquire skill.
He stated he would be doing it in a way that it becomes a permanent project by way of legislation, with people having access to the tools of the skills they acquired.
Asked if his constituency is being carried along in his vision and mission of the social entrepreneurship vision, he answered in affirmation, adding that he’s well known in his constituency because he’s been there, and that being a grass-root politician and having been groomed in the constituency he has no problem getting his plans across.
“We’ve formed a part with the people and put the number of people we can afford on our scholarship programme. We have what is call Stone Water Foundation, under the foundation we’ve been able to produce graduates within the constituency, and this is speaking for us. “So, we are not just blabbing that we just coming into the system, we’ve been part of it, we’ve been loyal members of the party and supported it in all rounds of election. We’re no longer going to be sharing rice but be teaching our people how to fish rather than giving them fish,” Akinola further clarified.
