2 weeks Ago By Admin2
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the November 16, 2024 gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi lost in all the 18 local government areas of the state. Senator Nicholas Tofowomo, a chieftain of PDP, who represented Ondo South in the 9th Assembly, in this interview with BOLU-OLU ESHO , states that the election was lost before it was held. The former Commissioner also speaks on the security situation in the state, among others.
Excerpts: How has it been after you left the senate? Yes, whatever you do in life, give glory to God. I had an opportunity to be a senator, and spent four years there. I’m the first person in the history of Ile-Oluji to go to the Senate and spend four years there.
The past two, spent three months, senate elect, another one spent eight months. I love my community. My plan was that, leaving the Senate, I should come back home.
I was lucky I didn’t decamp. If I had decamped, we wouldn’t be sitting like this today. When Senator Akinyelure was decamping, he asked me to join him, but I refused.
If I had joined him, I would still be in Abuja, looking for an appointment. He has left for two years now, no appointment, but because he has money, he’s managing very well. But I don’t have money.
I wouldn’t have been able to manage. I just decided to say no, let me come back home. I sold my house in Abuja and came back home.
I went to Professor Adegeye, I said I want to be doing fishing on a large scale. He gave me an address. I reached out to the man and we started it.
As of today, I’m a fish farmer. I’m paying salaries to 20 people. I have 50 plots we are using for fishing in two places.
I’m doing well. I am producing fish feed now which is floating. The only one in the state, because most of the people buy fish feeds from Osun, Oyo, Kogi States and so on.
I’m producing fish feeds called Octagon Fish Feeds. We’re producing every day. We want to start producing juveniles now, where we will hatch.
So, all the structure is fenced there and my staff are living inside the compound there. Some people are saying that you are not active in the party again since you lost the ticket? No, I’m not staying away. What happened is this.
When we had the governorship primary election, because that was the most important thing since I’ve left the Senate. God is my witness. I called Agboola Ajayi and I congratulated him.
And I said, this is my party, I’m not going anywhere. Let us work together. He sidelined me.
For four months, he didn’t talk to me. I will not go and be begging him. I’m older than him.
I’m more qualified than him. I went to four universities. I’m from a very good home.
I was a commissioner for six years and a senator. He may be a deputy governor. You have one election.
You should come. How do we go about it? Four months, he didn’t get in touch with me. I addressed a press conference.
I said, this is me. I said, I’m not supporting anybody. And they said, what about PDP? I said, the PDP man contesting did not reach out to me.
I’m not angry. So, when he saw the interview, he made a move. He came to Ile-Oluji.
He apologized. I said, it’s okay. That is good.
Now, where is your campaign template? Let me see, so that we can work together. I told him that when I was Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s commissioner, when we won elections, we didn’t dance around the town. No.
Mimiko would call all of us. We would set up committees, they would give us mandates. We would bring all those reports together.
Some of us would go to the hotel for three, four days to look at this and come up with a blueprint and we use it and we win the election. I said, that is what you should have done. I said, that committee, you refused to set it up.
Even the committee you set up did not function. I said, these things would not work. He said he would send the template to me.
Maybe he will send it tomorrow. He did not get in touch with me. He divided my town into two.
So, those people that are not with me, they are for him. Instead of him to come and say, ah, no, this is our senator here, we cannot split this community. At the end of the day, the way he treated me here is the way he treated people all over the 18 local governments.
Then I said, you cannot split this party. I cannot come and beg you. In Ondo South here, I had 82,000 votes.
You set up a campaign committee in my hometown, the campaign committee should have been carried out in my house here as their leader. They did it behind my back. I was not part of it.
So, when they were short of money, they came to me, I said no. I don’t do things like that. They didn’t carry me along; they wanted me to come and beg.
It’s true, I didn’t participate in that campaign. There was once when I complained to Chief Eddy Olafeso. I said I’m not happy.
He said they would make corrections. They didn’t make any corrections. There was a day I followed him (Agboola Ajayi) to Ikare-Akoko, the style they were using, it was clear that they could not win.
People were decamping every day. Those people that were decamping, they don’t have substance. How can you win? It’s because he did not allow people like us to sit down.
That was why Mimiko left the party. Mimiko left the party with over 100 leaders. When they were compiling the election committee list.
They compiled 215 names. They put Mimiko’s name in number 78, they put me at 139. Someone that joined the party a week ago, they put him on top of Mimiko.
So, they messed up and I’m sure it must have made Mimiko angry. They treated us like lepers. Then I protested, I said look, these people that you have mentioned before us, they met us in the party.
This is not right. People started leaving because he was not ready to win. If you want to win an election, you listen to people.
You will amend all that need amendments and let all of us sit down as a family. He didn’t allow us to participate and God is my witness. Yes, I have contested elections and I have lost.
I have also contested elections and I have won. When I was working to become a senator, in my hometown, there was no good support. I went to Okitipupa and I started living there.
I gathered everybody, I said I don’t have money, but this is my programme. I gave my programme to someone and the person said this programme, I hope they didn’t write it for you. Let me ask you questions.
He asked me about seven questions. He sent N1million to me. And when that money came, I put it in the committee’s fund and we ran the election and we won.
I said I have experience, don’t throw us away. He threw us away and we were looking at him and he lost. I didn’t decamp to another party.
During the period, the governor of this state came to Ile-Oluji for a function, he faced me, he said are you not going to work for me? I said I will work for you. Do they expect me to say I would not work for you, or you will fail? I’m a Yoruba person, well brought up. I have to show maturity, I have to show decency.
That is how it works. It is just like an Oba, if you are contesting an election, when you go to an Oba, the Oba will pray for you and he will say you will win. But definitely one person will win.
He will not say go away. I’m in that situation. I’ve been the Otunba of this town for more than 25 years now.
Does that mean you worked against the party? No, I did not. God is my witness. I did not work against the party.
I stood my ground. I stayed at home. If there’s any evidence, let them bring out evidence where I attended a campaign for All Progressives Congress (APC), where I went to attend any meeting to say please vote for APC.
We are all human beings, if they have any evidence, let them put it on the table. I didn’t work against the party. It is even immoral to work against your party.
The new government is just starting, what is your advice to him? Let me tell you something. The present governor is my friend. I do call him, occasionally he picks, occasionally he doesn’t pick, it doesn’t matter to me.
He should have risen above party politics. He should have identified scholars, people that have brains, about 20, let them give him a development plan for Ondo State. Ondo State doesn’t have a development plan.
Look, let me tell you one thing, when I became a commissioner, my brain was working fast but because of some people around the governor, they never liked me. That was why Mimiko did not listen to me and they all paid the price. I went to the governor (Mimiko).
I said, excuse me sir, Akure needs a drainage plan. Let us do it so that all the water, all the small waters will flow into the Ala River. I said on the way to my house when there is rain, everywhere is flooded and so on.
He said, go away. If there is a master plan in Akure, it would have been better. Akure is already junk.
Look at Alagbaka, which was supposed to be like our Lekki, when you go through it, you just laugh. Look at Arakale. Arakale is owned by Igbos.
When they were reconstructing that road, the government should have bought all those houses and turned them into the Arakale Economic Corridor. It will be owned by the Ondo State government, and our people will be using it. But when you break down a house, you give them half money, when they collect the half money, they just sell the rest to the Igbos and the Igbos will buy the whole place and put up their structure.
Arakale is gone forever. This governor is my personal friend, he should identify with people like us. He should consult us, tell us, “I want us to develop a development plan for Ondo State and I want all of us to talk and these are the areas I have interest in”.
Agriculture, education, health. He can identify five things. His agriculture will be local government-driven.
We have 18 local government areas. We can have 18 plantations. If we have 18 plantations, unemployment will wipe off.
Look at Ile-Oluji, we are good with cocoa. Let him go and acquire 10 square miles of cocoa through the local government. Create employment for 2,000 people.
Awolowo did it in Oda. That is for cocoa. Plant cassava so that we will be using that cassava.
Cassava can be used to produce alcohol. Yes, we can even be producing garri. Look at Okitipupa oil palm, and improve it.
Most of those palm trees are old. For the past 10 years, I’ve not bought plantains because I have them in my compound. There was a day I packed some to the market, we made like N43,000.
So, Ondo State can have plantain plantation, or even banana plantation. There is a country called the Bahamas. Bahamas are relying on bananas.
They have about 20 square miles of banana. They created employment for about 10,000 people. In the morning, you will see them.
I saw it on the television. Then, I took a plane and visited the Bahamas. I opened my mouth.
What they do is that every night, they export bananas to London. Because whatever they produce like this, they will box it, wrap it, put it into the cargo. In the morning, the plane is in London.
They sell, earn their foreign exchange from bananas. We can do it in Nigeria. In Nigeria, there are many Nigerians abroad.
In my hometown, there are more than 10,000 Ile-Oluji people in Indianapolis. We can be exporting bananas, even plantain and yam. We can grow yam, 10 square miles of yam.
When the yam is harvested, we put it together, transport it to London. Write to the British Embassy, they’ll come and inspect what we do here and it’ll create jobs. Those are the things we would have put together for the government on agriculture.
On education, we look at our education sector. We create a health programme that will marry with education. For instance, we have 203 wards.
Create 203 ward doctors so that every ward will have a doctor. What we will do is that, if you are 18 years and above, if you’re not a student, go and register with the doctor for free registration. Just show your tax clearance, they’ll register you.
Nobody should go to hospital directly unless there is a serious accident. You’re free to be attended to by the ward doctor four times in a year. Some people have high blood pressure, they will say it’s a witch that is running after them, but when you go to the doctor, he’ll examine your body and tell you what is wrong.
He’ll diagnose the drugs to buy. When you are using it and they’re not working, he’ll refer you to the hospital. These are the things we have been telling the governor, he’s not as exposed as us.
When I went to Lagos, I learnt a lot. If you look at Bolorunduro, it is not developing, Ondo East Local Government Area is not developing because there are no houses there. In the morning, you will see people in front of my house at Customs Junction, Akure, going to Bolorunduro to work.
I recommended rural houses. Let us use mud to build 10 every year, in four years we would have got 40 houses. Those civil servants will be living there and that place will attract a market.
These are the things that we can tell the governor. Don’t look at the party, call experts, let them draw a blueprint and master plan for him. When he is leaving, he will hand it over to the next governor.
Ondo State has resources. Ilaje has the longest sea shore in Nigeria, nothing is happening there. They will bring a troller from Mauritania to come and catch our fish in Ilaje, take it away, turn it into sardines and sell it to us.
I told the governor that I have a bill on the Institute of Fish Industry, let us look at it. He is trying his best but he should take it beyond that. Look at Araromi, Araromi alone can turn around the tourism of Ondo State.
He is the governor from my senatorial district, he should listen to people because the vote they gave him is the best in the history of Ondo State. He won all the 18 local governments. Now let’s look at the security situation in the state, what can you say about it? You know the security situation, everybody knows it’s bad.
That is why I have police in my house because they can come here and kidnap me. But how many people can afford that? The point is this, when Amotekun was introduced, some people were criticizing Akeredolu, I didn’t criticize him. I congratulated him.
The governor should empower Amotekun. Increase the number of Amotekun officers, increase the ammunition, make them visible everywhere, equip them. For instance, let every local government have 300 Amotekun.
Anywhere you go, you see Amotekun officers everywhere. Everybody will be silent. The governor is doing something now that I like.
He’s putting solar lights everywhere. The solar lights are also for security. For instance, in the night now, if everywhere is bright, thieves will not come.
Thieves always come when it’s dark. Let us rebuild that Amotekun. Amotekun will turn things around because Amotekun is our local police and those people who are employed are indigenes, they know their people.
So, Amotekun is there, it’s just for you to build on it. He has security funds, if he spends N200 million on Amotekun, you will see that crime will disappear. These things we can do, it’s because we are not ready to develop.
When you want to improve on security, transportation is part of it. Look at Okada (commercial motorcyclists). Okada riders in the past, they were just using it to steal.
When I started registering them, crime reduced. There was an incident when they stole a lady’s bag, she went to the police station and told them she had the number of the person. The Commissioner of Police wrote to me and we gave him all the details of that number.
They went to the house of the person and arrested him and sent him to prison..
