I bear no grudge against Adedibu –Ladoja

 

A former Governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, in this interview with TUNDE ODESOLA, speaks on the corruption allegation levelled against him by Governor Abiola Ajimobi, among sundry issues

You left office about eight years ago, what is it you want to do for the people now that you didn’t do when you were in office the first time?

There have been governments in Oyo State since we left office and one would expect succeeding governments to continue the laudable projects we started but none of them did. The need to seek a re-election is borne out of the desire to put education, health care and social infrastructure in their proper perspectives.

At 70 don’t you feel the age factor could affect your performance?

Age is not a handicap because I am not going there to carry load or to break stones. I am going there to use my intelligence and experience. I was not the only one running the government back then but I got the job done through other people because they knew my goals and I am sure the scenario will happen again. See Ladoke Akintola University of Technology for instance. When I was governor, it was rated as the best state university in 2005 and number three in the whole of Nigeria and I was even taunting the University of Ibadan that we would catch up with them in the next two years but where is LAUTECH today? The university is no more rated. So, these are some of the problems compelling us to come back. Consider the issue of the youths. It is very important because if you don’t take care of the youths and you allow frustration to set in, you would be sitting on a keg of gunpowder. How can a person go to school for six years and fail to come out with a certificate? If it was possible for me to do it in two years, then it is possible again.

You and Governor Abiola Ajimobi are cousins. Have family members called the two of you to settle the difference between you?

It is nothing personal. It is just differences in opinion. When we see, we embrace each other. When his mother died, I was with him at the ceremony with him. When my mother died, he also came. Even when my son died, he came to condole with me. So, what we are talking about is not a personal issue but political. Even when they wanted to impeach him, I said no and I defended him because I know what it means to be impeached. I have been impeached before and I did not want him to go through that trauma and he thanked me for it.

Are you saying the Abiola Ajimobi administration has nothing to show for its stay in power?

What has the administration done? We complained about the cost of the Mokola Bridge. We compared it with the bridge done by Governor Ibikunle Amosun in Ogun Sate and discovered that for every one naira spent by Ogun State, Oyo spent six naira per square metre. Ajimobi’s government is extravagant The terrain of Mokola, Ibadan, is even better than that of Abeokuta because it is a firm ground. We told them that the bridge was substandard. They should have used pile foundation but they used raft foundation and they said they doubted my Engineering degree. We reminded them of my academic result. The question to ask is that why did the governor not say that he is a graduate in his Independent National Electoral Commission form?

Ajimobi said you are corrupt and that you returned to Oyo State government several millions of naira and a vehicle after you were indicted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

You see, in politics you should expect anything because the person who started it, my successor, who was my deputy (Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala) told somebody that he (Alao-Akala) tried to woo me but that I shunned him and then he decided to dent my image. So, they got an ally who was a person that was arraigned by the EFCC. When he decided to cooperate with them, they let him off the hook, turned him against me and made him the prosecution witness. So, we are waiting for the case. We never did any plea bargain, there was nothing like that. So, how can they say we returned money when there was no plea bargain? They published the cheques and none of the cheques could be traced to us because there was no money stolen and no money returned. As I said, in politics you should expect anything. In fact, he (Ajimobi) himself said both of us never attacked each other but that it was our handlers that created the problem. So, may be it is his handlers that are advising him to sink me, his cousin, because he is about to lose an election and we have given him seven days to retract the allegation or meet us in court and we are suing him in his personal name so that after he leaves office, the case will continue. We have sued him for N10bn.

The wife of the President, Patience Jonathan, held a meeting with you and some leaders of the PDP. What was the crux of the meeting?

She came to Ibadan on a Tuesday and told us that people had come to her to tell her that if the three of us (Alao-Akala, Teslim Folarin and I) come together, the election is as good as over. So, she taught me a lesson. She said men don’t look at details but big things. But women look for more details and she tried to make us see things from her own perspective because after all, we were all from the PDP but we were pushed out in 2010 and tried to return in 2012 but were rebuffed. So, there was nothing bad in trying because she is a PDP woman and she has a relationship with all of us. She said if we could come together, we would win the election for the PDP by a landslide.

Is your party in support of President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid?

That is not for me to decide.

But your party has no presidential candidate.

That is true but don’t think that Oyo State is the only place where the Accord Party is. Accord is contesting governorship elections in at least 11 states, so the party will meet and decide which way to go.

A governor once said that to win an election in a state like Lagos, a contestant needs at least N3bn to distribute on election day. Do you have this kind of money to spend?

We don’t need that. In our party, everybody contributes. If politicians say they are spending money, they are spending three quarters of the money among party members. How much did they spend to secure the party’s tickets? How much did they pay the delegates? So, that is where they spend money. As for us, we only spend on advertisements and we don’t even have enough money to buy souvenirs, so people donate them to us. Some donate 100 caps or 1, 000 posters to us and that is what we live on, not N3bn that we will spend.

The defection of members from your party after the primaries is seen as a threat to your ambition.

In 2010/2011, our party did not have independent politicians but it was the party of the masses. Even the top politicians among us left because they thought it was crazy of us to have registered a party two months to the election but when they then discovered that this is the winning party, they started coming. Actually, in Nigeria it is not the politicians that convince the electorate to vote; politicians go to the party loved by the people. Most of the top politicians were in the PDP and the All Peoples Party. So, you have to understand the psyche of your people. Politicians only go to where the people will vote. So, some people came to seek office only to take advantage of the fact that Accord is where the people will vote and they said they committed a lot of money not to us but in their various constituencies. So, when they did not get the tickets, they went to seek greener pastures out of desperation but we don’t even want desperadoes.

You don’t enjoy a smooth relationship with traditional rulers. Or do you?

Yes, I do enjoy a very smooth relationship with traditional rulers across the state. I don’t have any issue with any of them. Don’t forget that I am number seven in line to the current Olubadan and I pray that one of these days I will become the Olubadan. So, I respect traditional rulers, I adore them because they are the custodians of our culture.

The late Chief Lamidi Adedibu supported your former deputy, Alao-Akala, in upstaging you as governor. What is your relationship with the Adedibu family now?

My relationship with the Adedibu family is very cordial. His first son, Abass, the professor, comes to my house anytime he wants. You see, it is you journalists that hyped things and baba allowed himself to be persuaded because it was convenient for him to say he was the ‘Strong man’ of Ibadan politics. I don’t have personal problems with people. I can disagree with you on principles but that doesn’t make us enemies. The areas we agree upon, we will continue with our friendship. I always believe that if I have a superior argument you should accept it because if I have you have a superior argument, I will accept it. So, that has been my life. Everybody is my friend.