A renowned broadcast professional, an administrator of no mean repute, an elderstateman and a stalwart of the Osun SDP, Dr. Yemi Farounbi is a former Nigerian Ambassador to The Philippines. In this interview, the first of its kind from the stables of Osun Newsroom, the smooth-talking and highly cerebral Ora Igbomina-born political juggernaut talks tough about wide ranging national and local issues, beginning with the security situations in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the proposed electoral amendment bill into law, among other salient national issues. Back home in Osun state, the 1991/92 presidential aspirant on the platform of SDP, Dr Yemi Farounbi, analytically highlights the selling points in Governor Adegboyega Oyetola who he described as a governor after his heart. He iterated factors that will make the entire SDP members and other political parties in Osun give a nod for the continuity of Mr Oyetola in office for another four years. This week’s edition is a must read interview as conducted by the duo of Bukola Aderibigbe and Moshood Suleiman in the first, fresh and vintage edition of your weekly Osunnewsroom.com in 2022. Excerpts:
Osun Newsroom:
Your Excellency, compliments of the season and happy new year 2022.
Dr. Farounbi:
Thank you so much. This is wishing you the best of this new year 2022 and beyond. To God be the glory, the year 2021 is gone and gone for good. It was a year of the good, the bad and many uglies. Thanks to God that we outlived it.
Osun Newsroom:
Specifically, the year was bedevilled with many security challenges here and there.
Dr. Farounbi:
You are correct. We didn’t find it particularly good and easy on the point of security. In the last three years, not even 2021 alone, the security situation in the country has deteriorated beyond the imagination of virtually everybody in Nigeria.
Osun Newsroom:
In your own interpretation of the security situation in the country, what do you think are some of the factors that accounted for the heightening security lapses in Nigeria?
Dr. Farounbi:
Initially, it was Boko Haram, later kidnapping became an industry and thereafter we were exposed to a greater danger from the Islamic State of West Africa and
Islamic State of greater Sahara which believes that none of the West African countries had the right to exist but be part of a radical islamic conglomerate. All these complicated our security situations in Nigeria.
Osun Newsroom:
Why and how, then, did we get it so rough and bad like this?
Dr. Farounbi:
Simply put, we were not ready for the situations and we were caught off guard.
Osun Newsroom:
How do you mean sir?
Dr. Farounbi:
Because our security architecture could not match the situations. We have about 400,000 policemen to take care of over 200 million people . In other words, the policing system in Nigeria was not adequate enough and the arrangement was such that it required extra wisdom to create what today is known as Amotekun in Osun and other South West states in particular because there was no local policing system in place. For instance, in Osun, it required extra wisdom to invite the vigilantes and hunters to help. To put it succinctly, our security problem in Nigeria is a function of external aggression, constitutional inadequacy, personal inadequacy.
Osun Newsroom:
Can we, in all sincerity, get out of this as a country going by how things presently stand in Nigeria?
Dr. Farounbi:
Yes, we can. We must all accept that our problem as Nigerians is not whether you are a Yoruba or Fulani or Igbo or Hausa but that this Islamic State of West Africa has no respect whether for Christians or Muslims who are Nigerians. This can be seen in the mass slaughter of people going on in Sokoto, Zamfara and the Northwest states in Nigeria. Once we recognize that this is a common enemy, then we can get out of it. It is just a matter of time.
Osun Newsroom
Mr President declined emphatically to sign the proposed electoral amendment bill by the National Assembly into law. What does this portend for our democratic journey as a nation?
Dr. Farounbi:
I don’t think it is a problem per se. I expect that the National Assembly will look at what Mr President had rejected devoid of bias. Mark you, he did not reject the entire bill but was not entirely satisfied with making direct primaries compulsory as proposed by the National Assembly.
Osun Newsroom:
What are his reasons?
Dr. Farounbi:
Incidentally, I share his views on this matter. When you make direct primaries compulsory for all political parties in Nigeria and there are many of such political parties on ground, where would they find money to conduct the primaries? Where would INEC find money to supervise the primaries all over Nigeria? Every political party can decide whether or not do direct primaries, but to make it compulsory will amount to over-stretching the resources at hand. That’s the position of President Muhammadu Buhari in this regard. Direct primaries is not a guarantee against manipulation in any electoral contest. It is not a reflection of the true wishes of the people in my own view. So President Muhammadu Buhari was right to have rejected it and I am in full support of his position .
Osun Newsroom:
So, each political party should decide what suits its own situation, and decide whether to adopt direct primaries or not?
Dr. Farounbi:
That exactly is what Mr President is saying and I share his bias and sentiment in this regard like I earlier articulated.
Osun Newsroom:
Wouldn’t the NASS strike by wielding the constitutional big stick at their disposals?
Dr. Farounbi:
They can, because they have the constitutional power to do that if, and only if they can get 2/3 of the entire NASS members. They can then override Mr President. But if they think there’s common sense in what Buhari has said, then they should just amend that part and return the bill for his signature.
Osun Newsroom:
Let’s come back home to Osun. This is an election year in the state, and the governorship election holds on July 22 precisely, as announced by INEC. In both the ruling and opposition parties in Osun, candidates are yet to emerge but they will definitely emerge. Mr Adegboyega Oyetola is the incumbent governor of Osun state and no doubt he is going to seek re- election. What is your candid assessment of the indices that will make Oyetola a man to beat in the next guber election in Osun?
Dr. Farounbi:
Adegboyega Oyetola is my own governor anytime, any day, because he has done so much and so well. I am going to answer this question as an analytical journalist that I am in the course of this interview. During the last election, I led the SDP in the campaign. When we had an inconclusive election, there became the need for SDP to decide whether to support Oyetola’s APC or Adeleke’s PDP and we had meetings with the PDP through Senator Bukola Saraki and partially through the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. We also had another meeting with APC through Governor Kayode Fayemi, and later the then National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole. Eventually, we decided to support the Oyetola’s APC because we had agreement on 5 key issues of urgent importance.
Osun Newsroom:
What were these issues?
Dr. Farounbi:
One, we said we will support them (APC) if they would take another look at the educational programs of the immediate past administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, because we, in SDP, did not like the idea of a single uniform policy of the administration. We did not also like the idea of elementary and middle schools that placed the educational system of Osun outside the National Education System in Nigeria. We did not like the merger of religious with non-religious schools and things like that. This gentleman man of a governor called Oyetola righted all these wrongs based on the agreement we had with him, by fulfilling all the promises made. We also said that the Obas in Osun state told us (in SDP) during our campaigns that they were not involved in governance and we got a promise from Mr Oyetola that this will be corrected and it has been corrected by him. On the part of workers, we also said that regular salaries must be maintained and there’s an evidence to that effect today that it has been fully given the desired attention. No more “Afusa”, an acronym for half salary structure of the immediate past APC in Osun for workers At the meeting, we also agreed that when it comes to pension, pensioners must be paid as and when due. Oyetola agreed and that has been done also. There’s only one thing we agreed on which has not been done, but he made us believe that it will be done as soon as convenient; the issue of backlog of money owed workers during Aregbesola’s administration. We’ve been informed that plans are in the pipeline as soon as possible to get this promise fulfilled. Then, let’s talk of roads which are of primary concern to our programmes in SDP. We found out that the most celebrated roads then had been abandoned:
Gbongan/Osogbo, Osogbo/Ikirun and all of that. We found out that he has fulfilled all the promises made to us in this regard also. So, if a man defines target in terms of quality, quantity and time, and he fulfills those targets, then he is a man worthy to be supported. Oyetola is a man who made promises and got them fulfilled. I must tell you that Oyetola has brought the political temperature of Osun down. This is obvious. There are things he didn’t promise us which to our surprise, he has done. For instance, the Comprehensive health centres in 332 wards were not part of our agreement but part of his pact with the people of the State which has been fulfilled.
Osun Newsroom:
…and we have the about to be completed iconic flyover at Olaiya.
Dr. Farounbi:
Yes, it is a fantastic project. I laugh when people criticize the flyover at Orita Olaiya. I am of the view that leaders at all times must think ahead. I am pleased with what I have seen so far about the iconic flyover at Osogbo. No one knew he could have resources to that effect to engage in such a milestone of a project at this time. I can see the infrastructural upliftment he is delivering. Anybody who wants to convince me the other way round must have to give me his own cardinal programmes of what he wants to do and that he has the credibility that Oyetola has already created in my mind.
Osun Newsroom:
Given all these factors and indices, would you say the coast is clear for Oyetola in July 2022 guber election in Osun state?
Dr. Farounbi:
I don’t know whether that is how to describe it. What I know is that the man has done very well; and given my background as a political leftist, given my background as a diplomat, given my background as a broadcast administrator and manager, Oyetola has every reason to be able to go on another four-year journey of governing Osun state beginning from 2022.
Osun Newsroom:
What is your view about the seeming disagreement between Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s supporters (IleriOluwa Group) and the immediate past governor’s group (The Osun Progressives)?
Dr. Farounbi:
I have a friend called “Ebino Topsy” (real name, Ebenezer Babatope). Both of us always say that politics is about management of conflicts. There will always be conflict because politics is about the struggle of who gets what, when, where and how, and the ability to manage that conflict is what politics is all about. I always say that 24 hours is too long a time in politics because what you saw in the morning, you may not likely see it again in the evening.
Osun Newsroom:
Is that a political parable, Your Excellency?
Dr. Farounbi:
(Smiles). What I am saying is this: in politics, the overriding factor is interest. So I look at the whole thing as adjustment for political jostlings, for the combination for power, for significance, for prominence and at the end of the day they will do what is in their better interest. That is why you will be surprised that people who were at daggers drawn yesterday, you will see them together today taking pounded yam in the same bowl together (laughs).
Osun Newsroom:
Is that another definition of politics?
Dr. Farounbi:
This is politics, because at the end of the day, you don’t want to lose overall power even though you want to gain ascendancy within that power. I believe that common sense will prevail at the end of it all in Osun and this is going to be very soon.
Osun Newsroom:
So the political ground is still wet and the grasses will still be fresh and alive again politically?
Dr. Farounbi:
Politics is based on common interest. There will be alignment and realignment of contending forces soon. There’s no permanent friendship in politics and vice versa but common interest. Very soon, they (the two groups) will define their common interests. Nigeria as a country is like a grass. Sometimes it looks dry, sometimes you think it is burnt but then the rain falls and it picks up again.
Osun Newsroom:
As an elder statesman, if you are to advise the two contending groups, what will you tell them?
Dr. Farounbi:
I will tell them to soft pedal. It is normal to occasionally have disagreements because politics is basically based on common interest all over the world. Therefore, as the situation is in Osun APC, there’s room for an amicable resolution and reconciliation between the two seeming warring groups,The IleriOluwa group, on one hand, and The Osun Progressives (TOP) on the other side of the divide.
