Femi Olaore is a United Kingdom-based Chartered Accountant and a notable chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Oyo State. He eyed the Oyo South senatorial district position on the platform of the APC in the last election, but later dumped the idea. In this interview with DGossip247 in Ibadan, he bares his mind on some political issues in the country
Your party, APC, is currently facing economic crisis in the state owing to unpaid accumulated workers’ salaries running to about five months. Similar experience is being recorded at the federal level. Do you see the party overcoming this problem soon?
First, let me start from the state level. For the first time in the history of Oyo State, we have a phlegmatic active governor who has shown that hard work is the magic to achievement. What you are seeing now is not inability to pay salaries, but we are all aware that in the last six months, the allocations to most of APC states have been cut. A state that should be given over N2.6 billion is now given N1.3billion which has caused a cumulative setback for the past six months.
They cannot pay their workers. That is what they are facing now. Under a new government, when allocation returns to normal, surely all these arrears will be paid. I don’t see that much as a challenge to someone who has been able to manage public services for several years. As for the federal concern, the President has intervened and I am hopeful the recent bailout step will pay off eventually.
President Muhammadu Buhari has inherited a huge debt running into several billions of dollars, and the power sector is comatose. What hope do you think Nigerians have in this new administration?
We have the right man in the saddle – a man who has unquestionable integrity; a man that keeps to his word; a man who shares the pains of the masses and who is ready to offer himself to address this problem. For someone who has been a Head of State to be talking about one million naira in his bank account speaks volumes. You will see that you cannot compare this man with others who have had the choice to run the affairs of the country.
This is the kind of man that the country needs at this stage. President Buhari is a man who puts his eyes off little things that can distract him.
So, that is why I am very convinced that surrounding himself with the right people will be the first thing we should expect. He is such a robust person that is unlikely to be intimidated by names that are not backed by achievements.
He is not likely to recycle former governors, directors who have not performed well and who have contributed to the problems we have now. He will not just be persuaded by religious or ethnics background. He stated clearly that confidence, uprightness and steadfastness in party affairs were key to the cardinal point of what people must possess apart from the fact that they are going to go through a proper screening procedure to know those people who have the interest of the people at heart.
People say Buhari may be a nice man but he is surrounded by people who may not allow him to work. How do you react to that?
President Buhari must stand his ground and must be fair no matter their financial contributions towards his emergence. Buhari has learnt overtime to adjust himself to the dictates of the people so that the aspiration of people will not be dashed. What Buhari will do is using his rich broad nature to cut across those various groups that have good materials.
In 2011, I remember as a member of CPC then, Buhari gave an instruction not to take anything more than a million naira donation from any government so as not to be tied to them in discharging our duties.
So far, so good, he has made it clear to most of those who surrounded him that they have done it for the goodwill of Nigeria. They have done it to show that yes, this country matters to them. So, he owns them nothing in terms of payback by giving them any juicy post.
No, he has made it clear to them right from the outset. If you want to help, do it as your contribution and that is the platform of the people like the former governor of Adamawa State. People like Rochas Okorocha have brought in so much; person like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done so much.
Yes they even have to give up their personal ambitions. So they know what it takes. They will not want to truncate their efforts because they know that people see them as a corporative team.
People of the South-South and South-East are nursing the fear that due to the way they voted against Buhari, he will exclude them from the scheme of things.
I want to reassure my brothers from the South-East and South-South regions that Buhari will not exclude them. He must not forget his background and anyone who has come close to all the forces.
As they come, they match everybody together. And as a senior officer and a military general, no section that offers itself for good use will be left out. He is not going to give position or engage the person that will affect the turnaround of the economy in a negative way. In fact, he was the first to reassure the Catholic Bishop of South-South and South-East that anyone who is confident enough is welcome despite the fact that they did not vote for him. As I said earlier, he is a man of few words. Every bit of the word he says is like it echoes deep down in him.
He will include them, and they will have good positions. But, they must be prepared to deliver and subscribe to service with integrity. This is not a situation where people pay billions and billions of naira to buy ministerial slot.
Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu contributed immensely to the victory of President Buhari, but many of his political opponents keep saying that he would not give the President breathing space because of the huge investment he had made in the party. With the way things are unfolding at the National Assembly level, don’t you think he may be sidelined while the President surrounds himself with his own kinsmen?
I want to say that such thought is the handiwork of the people we call political jobbers. Their own preoccupation normally is how to create tension and keep themselves relevant. Their business is to create chaos.
They are not the sort of progress -conscious people. They are the people who are concerned about their own personal bread and butter. The first and the one thing Buhari continues to acknowledge is Senator Tinubu. Not only did he put his financial resources, he put in much high political ingenuity. Buhari is not going to sideline Tinubu or anybody who has been at the forefront of this challenge. The only thing that Buhari might emphasise is that four to five parties came together to form APC because some of these parties were minority example in some places.
It was not a function of hazard that he came on board. They were not able enough to get something given to them. When it came in Oyo State, there was CPC, ANNP but there were other minority parties like DPA .
So, what he will say is that if these people have been committed to bringing this structure, they saw the vision, they key into the vision. Then we must know that this traditional people, no matter their level we cannot kick them off. Buhari himself will say let’s take these people on board; let’s include them; let’s employ them so that it is not just a narrow thing.
By so doing, the effect of coming together that gave us the victory can give the words to those who have made it possible. That is the only thing I know. He will not sideline them. In fact we will continue to draw from Tinubu’s ingenuity. We want more people with ingenuity.
President Buhari who is known for his anti-corruption stance said he will not probe the immediate past administration despite glaring financial mismanagement. Don’t you think that this will erode the confidence of Nigerians as regards his zero tolerance for corruption?
I want to come from the standpoint of the work involved in all these probe and resources. Buhari is not known for corruption. The average probe takes about four to six weeks to complete and it involves so many investigations both left, right and centre. It will necessitate getting volumes and volumes of books to be produced.
By the time he now spends about N200million on probe, and the man needs to address other issues, that will mean that he will have to take his time and start from the problem at hand. When people are being probed, they start causing a lot of questions and to the system, it will add to the problem.
So what he will focus on is what has been done in the past. Let us see the recommendations, let’s see if we can actualize them so that the money that has been spent is not spent again the 2nd or third time.
Any area that has been touched in the past that is significant might be touched later about two to three years of this administration. First, I will suggest that no area of the economy is forgotten and the corruption is not tolerated in any area. But he will not go out and start this from day one. And added to that, he can’t afford now using good men to start running probe.
I don’t see that as a priority for him now but for all the probes that came before this administration under whatever government: first coming under Obasanjo, second coming up under President Umaru Yar’ Adua and the various ones under Jonathan while he was acting president, all those probes that have been done in those times, that were actually implemented or not, I hope the probe will be implemented now. But I don’t see Buhari closing his eyes to indiscipline.
What is your feeling about Governor Abiola Ajimobi breaking the second term jinx in the state?
I am very happy. I feel elated. I am happy for the people of our state because for the first time, they have got what they have been looking for. The idea that they don’t serve governor twice came out of high level of civilisation in Oyo State. Remember Oyo State and Ibadan the capital of South-West, most of what happened in Nigeria under the Western region, it was still the same place. The people have eyes for good thing, they want the best and until they get the best, they will not be satisfied. So, this is the time they have something that is real. Let us be fair to the man: this is the first time you see a governor that takes government as a real business and not just a place where you go to socialise.
You politicians in the APC are happy that Ajimobi has come back, but workers including pensioners in the state are crying because of their unpaid salaries…
As someone who has concern for workers, I really share their pains. But what I want to do is appeal to them not take it as if it is an Ajimobi problem. From all over, it has become clear that many states in the last administration were disadvantaged states of which Oyo State is one. The past government did that to deter their performance. So, it was deliberate that they were cutting down and holding back funds and Oyo State is dependent for now mainly on the allocation from federal. Internally generated revenue is less than 10 per cent.
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