Interviews
Senator Ladoja and I have no acrimony at all – Ex- Accord party chieftain, Olaniyan.
ENGINEER Raufu Aderemi Olaniyan, a prominent Accord Party chieftain and retired civil servant in Oyo state who recently dumped the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in an interactive session with members of South West Group of Online Publishers (SWEGOP) in Ibadan, talks extensively on Oyo politics, why he joined the ruling party and his relationship with Senator Rashidi Ladoja. Excerpts:
You recently left the Accord Party (AP), where you were a key member to join the All Progressives Congress (APC). There are feelers that you want to be governor; wouldn’t your recent move amount to adding to the already over-bloated number of governorship aspirants in the APC? And let’s also ask what transpired between you and Senator Ladoja that made you leave the party?
Life is a continuum! Nothing is static. I was formerly in Accord Party but now I am in APC. So many people may insinuate different things but the key reason is that my people want me in APC. I was in Accord Party and when I came back, I don’t know how they managed to know, the representatives of APC and their leaders in Oorelope Local Government came to my office. They said ‘we want you in APC’.
It was my first day in office after I came back. They have been able to monitor my trip. I can say I mix freely with people, the leaders of APC used to come to my house. Some of them even accused others of anti-party activities. The Chairman of APC would come to my house with APC branded vehicle and park it in my compound for as long as five hours sometimes. So it is not that I just woke overnight and decided.
When you are in a political system, who do you need? You need your people. So it is not as if it is from the top or anything. It is my people in Oorelope that said ‘we need you in APC.’ All their exco, including the party leaders came. Some people are going home to lobby to join parties and they will say no. I did not lobby. I did what my people wanted; they were the ones that said enough is enough in Accord.
You are asking if my going to APC will swell the number of aspirants. To what? Is it up to 1,000 already? So it doesn’t make any difference. The political space is wide enough for 1,001 aspirants to come out but there will be some yardsticks through which they will be decreasing by elimination.
If you want to look at the aspirants, there is no way three parameters will not be considered, you want to know if that aspirant is sellable, is he a reliable person, is he a credible person, among other parameters. So you can see that if there are 1,001, one will eventually emerge.
You were with Senator Ladoja, you were the de – facto backbone of that party. Now that you are no longer there, the powers that be will not be too happy with you. Maybe you felt they used you or they were not giving you value for what you were doing for them. But now that you are in APC, do you think you won’t be treated the same way?
Let me quickly correct that. I was not the de – facto backbone. As far as I am concerned, I am Mr. Nobody. I didn’t aspire for any position; nobody can say it was because he wanted to be this and he didn’t get it that he left. Like I said earlier, my people said enough is enough in Accord, we need you somewhere else. I remember one day, just after the morning prayer, around 10 minutes past six, four elderly men came to my house. Two of them incidentally were my bosses between 1973 and 1975, they were NTC farmers, I was working with them as a labourer so I still look at them as my bosses. They said ‘we want you in APC, we need somebody to be our arrow head’. That was more than a year ago. My reply then was that when we get to the river, we will know how to cross it.
So it is not that I have any problem with anybody.
Your relationship with Senator Rashidi Ladoja, what is it like now?
It’s okay. In my office, I remember I drove one lady out of the compound because she used a derogatory word against Senator Ladoja. I told the gateman never to allow her enter the compound again. So it is up to that level.
You are swimming in the pool of APC presently, assuming in the near future, you find yourself in the same party with Senator Ladoja, how would you feel?
I have told you Senator Ladoja and I have no acrimony at all. If he enters into this room now, as a younger man, I will prostrate for him.
You are aspiring for the number one seat of this state. What is your driving force? Why do you want to be in that position? And APC seems not to be on ground in your constituency. The last election, it was Labour Party that won, the rerun election, it was Labour Party and you said you joined APC because your people want you to. Isn’t it because they want to use you to achieve certain aims or they want to use your financial strength?
Now you are trying to tell me what to do. Aspiring for the number one position of this state is not for me as a person, I come from a bloc, I come from Oke Ogun. When the chips are down, from time back, whether in the Western Region, Old Oyo, New Oyo, they always say Oke Ogun has abundant resources, abundant land for agriculture, no one ever talks of abundant human resources. So if I see myself as part of that abundant human resource, what stops me?
And anytime they pick any governor, they start looking for who can be deputy governor in Oke Ogun. I can tell you that I have been called severally to be deputy governor, but I will not mention anyone. But I always wondered what for?
Why did you refuse those offers?
I didn’t have time. My people had different responsibilities for me. I have made my mark, without being immodest; I thank God, what am I created for? It is not just to put on agbada but for people to feel me. If not because my religion does not allow trumpeting, and even in Christianity it is taught that when the left hand gives, the right should not know. My people want me, they know me and I am dancing to their tune.
And talking about Labour Party winning the election, the politics of Igboho is more than what you are looking at. Even when Accord did not win the election, the day we met the APC Chairman, he said it, he believed I was a problem to the APC in Oke Ogun. When all their permutation and calculation showed that they were going to get 13, at the end of the day, they might get 9 and when they ask, they will say it is Engineer Olaniyan.
They came during the last election which you spoke about, the party organ moved to Igboho, they stayed for 9 days. I was not in Nigeria, I came back to Nigeria on Thursday, got to Ibadan that night, the following morning, I moved to Igboho. The Chairman told me all the beautiful permutation and arrangement they had made on ground, Olaniyan just came in overnight and scattered it.
The Honourable that eventually won came to my office to thank me. He said he knew that if I had not moved, he wouldn’t have won. We are all in Igboho, and we are all related one way or the other. The last Honourable was assassinated, that alone gave room for sympathy or consolatory votes for that party.
I decamped in Igboho, I registered in Ward 9, the first meeting of that Ward 9, apart from various Accord Party members that registered, we had 15 members of PDP. This is no longer Olaniyan from Accord, Olaniyan has joined APC and I have my supporters all over the state. In Oluyole Local Government, it was massive decamping from Accord to APC. It will happen in North West very soon, it will happen in Saki very soon, I think May 12 or so. It will happen all over the state but we don’t have to make noise. We don’t have to abuse anybody.
You moved from Accord to APC. It is general knowledge that Accord Party does not have tolerance for internal democracy, APC is equally guilty. Won’t you be like an outsider in this system? How do you plan to make it when there are many big names in this contest, especially from Oke Ogun?
When you take your dictionary, try and see the meaning of the word ‘underdog’. There is always an underdog in any setting. Even when you line up football teams in the World Cup, you will find out that there will be an underdog that will spring surprises.
So you are banking on surprise?
Don’t worry. If you are going for a competition, do you want to eliminate yourself?
But your party, APC does not hold primaries, so how do you want to jump from being a member of the party to the candidate? How do you want to challenge the status quo?
You keep saying in APC, in APC, has APC not been producing candidates? They have been producing candidates and they have been winning elections.
There is also this trend in APC that by the time the candidate emerges, it leaves a lot of people disgruntled and leads to an exodus from the party.
Are you a member of APC? (General laughter). There is no way in any political setting where they want to pick a governor, where 92 showed interest, and one person must emerge, internal wrangling is bound to occur but there has to be a mechanism to resolve issues. Through which you will tell members to take it easy. If they have not been taking it easy, they will not be winning.
Ife Grand Resort & Leisure, one of the best hospitality-care centers in Africa, located on an expansive hilltop, adjacent to the Ife-Ibadan Expressway at about 4 km from the heart of the ancient and culturally important city of Ile-Ife, in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria, is the right place to be not only for tourists, fun-seekers, holidaymakers, travellers; but also for government institutions and individuals seeking exciting and memorable experience.
Reuben Abib, the General Manager, of Ife Grand Resort & Leisure, in a chat with Idowu Ayodele, reveals the intrinsic values that set the hospitality center apart from others.
Excerpts:
Why is Ife Grand Resort & Leisure described as the people’s palace?
It is, indeed; the people’s palace! You know not everyone can enter the Enuwa palace of the Ooni of Ife, but Ife Grand Resort & Leisure is the extension of that same palace. Here, at the People’s Palace, everyone can feel and be treated like royalty. We set up on over 328 acres of land, over a hundred rooms with chalets of different categories.
We actually have tree houses as well, very interestingly, they are all air-conditioned, we have Eclipse nightclub, a zoo, African Village, which hosts a Bamboo Restaurant and a local kitchen where guests can visit to witness how local food menus are prepared and served to them in local pots, the Adire Oodua Textile Hub where they make traditional adire clothes (tie-and-dye).
The resort also houses a 200-capacity cinema hall nearing completion and would be commissioned soon, an event centre, a conference hall, an indoor spa centre for manicures and pedicures, swimming pools, restaurants and bar, barbecue, where you can get your catfish, bush meat, palm wine among other facilities. Honestly, there is so much to do here, this is a place to be.
Considering the huge staff strength, both permanent and casual workers, how have you been able to manage and coordinate them for optimal productivity?
We are very much like a family here. So, I see myself like a father figure to all my staff, even a father figure to my customers. We may not always agree on some issues, but the fact is that if you realise you have a relationship that you want it to be extended beyond this present moment, then you have to manage yourself to protect such relationships. There is one Yoruba proverb I owe dearly to my heart is that when a child knows how to wash his hands well, he eats with the elders.
Interestingly, it is something the Yoruba culture has taught me which is the way we treat each other, the respect we give each other, we love each other so much that we bow to each other, in simple greetings, you must adopt humility to succeed. The secret I am trying to bring to the table is that you must love your children even if you must discipline them, binding it together, I think things are working fine here with us.
I am able to manage a diverse group of individuals with unique talents, skills, and abilities.
There are many resorts and hotels in Nigeria, what exactly sets Ife Grand Resort & Leisure apart from others?
We are the source, the cradle of the Yoruba race. The resort itself exemplifies everything that is housed within the Yoruba culture. One of our unique advantages is the pristine rain forest which is just a three-minute walk, and a tropical utopia for leisure seekers and discerning guests who cherish tranquility and communion with nature amid personalised hospitality services.
We are surrounded by nature , both flora and fauna.
We have more than enough facilities, stable security and fantastic personnel that will make your visit to this destination an exciting and memorable experience. In addition to everything you can do here, we are just a few minutes away from the 401 historical and religious sites in Ile Ife, so if you want to see culture first hand, this is the best place to be. There is so much to do here, so much to learn, there is no way even once in a lifetime you can take everything away. We are just a few weeks to Olojo festival, literally there is always a festival in Ile-Ife.
If you really want to get in touch with yourself and your culture, Ile-Ife is the only place to do that, this is the source.
How affordable is Ife Grand Resort & Leisure?
We are the most affordable four-star resort in Nigeria, I can assure you of that. This is the people’s palace, we want it accessible and affordable for all, the reason we deliberately splashed the prices by half. Can you imagine a standard room for N10,000 in a four-star resort?
Having spent some quality and eventful years in Africa, particularly Southwest Nigeria, how would you describe the Yoruba culture?
I am an African American. Growing up in Canada and the US, they will be telling us that our culture is dead. In 2017, when I met the Ooni of Ife and I saw living culture, I saw the culture of the Emeses, the culture of the cult, I saw the culture of the Yoruba people, prostrating before this amazing King, and I was touched to the soul. I am actually a born orphan, and one thing about orphans is that not only that people adopt us, we also adopt people. I must say that I have adopted Yoruba because it resonates with me – the history, the culture, proverbs, and wisdom of the Yoruba people, is something that I feel it is within my soul and it is wonderful.
Likewise, I spent 11 years in the Gambian and I already spent over 5 years in Nigeria, I can always see that for we the repatriated Africans, it is actually easy to find our home here and this is very welcoming. Thank you for sharing your culture with me.
Alhaji Muritadha Adeyemi Adeniji is a leading player in the Cocoa and cashew business in Nigeria. Therefore his insight into the challenges and prospects of the agro-industrial sector cannot be faulted. His company, Starlink Global & Ideal Limited, provides a wide spectrum of marketing and financial services for the procurement and export of Agricultural Produce and Commodities to both local and international markets.
SGI agricultural produce also includes raw cocoa beans, raw cashew nuts, shea nuts, and natural sesame seeds. SGI today has grown tremendously and is well represented in all cocoa-producing zones of Nigeria.
In this interview with online news editors, he bares his mind, among other issues, on the status of cocoa production in Nigeria, even as he expressed his fear about the future of the crop. Excepts
Sir, Nigerians are concerned about the dwindling production of cocoa in Nigeria, because the crop used to be a major contributor to the economic development of the country most especially in the western region in the 60, and 70s. Do you share their fear?
I appreciate your concern about the future of Cocoa in Nigeria. Unfortunately, we used to be number 2 between the period 1968 and 1975. Up to 1992, Nigeria still struggled to be between number 3 and 4 but we are now number 7. Ivory Coast as of 2013, the country was producing 1,000,000 tonnes. Today, Ivory Coast produces 2000400 tonnes. They have doubled their production and have even added more within that period. Looking at the same time, Ghana used to produce 750000 tonnes but they are now producing 950000 tonnes. Cameroon used to produce 350000 tonnes they are still on the 350000 tonnes. Indonesia used to produce 450000 tonnes, they are now producing 280000 tonnes.
They have had a reduction in their production. Nigeria used to produce 250000 tonnes, they are now on 300000 tonnes. Brazil produces 320000 tonnes. All other countries of the world produce the rest of the tonnes.
The total need for Cocoa in the world is 4million tonnes in a year. 75% of the production is done by Ivory Coast and Ghana, which is why they went into a collaboration to ask for Liquid Income Preferential from the chocolate makers. I am the first Nigerian and African to be a member of the Federation of Cocoa and Commerce (FCC), which is responsible for regulating the Cocoa economy in the world. This gives me insight into the problems and solutions to Cocoa production.
When we talk about Nigeria, it’s not only about Cocoa but the quality of leadership has been the problem. When we have leaders that only think about 4 or 8 years in office and do not have a long term plan. This is criminal and injustice to the people they are leading. We must have a well structured country, that has immediate, short and long-term plans. Developed countries of the world have all these plans with strong institutions that Nigeria is lacking.
Unfortunately, corruption has killed almost everything in Nigeria. I don’t like politics and I won’t be one of them. Take a look at the time of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was an Ijebu man, what was Cocoa production like in Ijebu then? He institutionalized Cocoa production across the Southwest. He had a big Cocoa farm, not for himself but for the country in the present-day Edo State. Things need to change. The law of diminishing return is taking effect on the Cocoa trees as some are now 100 years while some are 75 years. If they are cut down how many years would it take for us to have the new ones? What incentives are being given to the youths as motivation to engage in farming?
What have they been doing in Ivory Coast that Nigerian government has not been doing?
In Ivory Coast, the government allocates 2.5 hectares of land to the youth to engage in farm production. Nigeria’s government needs to create a medium for large farm sites and put necessary social infrastructures to make life bearable for the people. West Africa produces almost 75% of Cocoa in the world, all other countries cannot. We are blessed in this part of the world. For instance, in Indonesia, natural disasters destroy the farms. The government should start to have long-term plans. This is one of the reasons we are faced with the challenge of insecurity such as banditry, kidnapping, and others. We need to face the reality of how to navigate the perennial problems. Unemployment is directly proportional to poverty, banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism.
So how can we get it right?
For Nigeria to get it right in Cocoa production, the government needs to remove what is known as Land Use Act. The people should be allowed to have access to land. This is one of the major problems of agriculture in Nigeria. Physical planning is very key. We are very lucky, Nigeria has the largest arable land in the whole of Africa. You can see the incursion of foreigners into the country, Chinese, Indians, and others are buying lands in large quantities and they are collecting documents from the government, we need to be careful about that. We are talking about colonization, what is going to happen would be worse than colonization. We should learn from the apartheid in South Africa and Palestine because the major cause of what is happening in Palestine, Zambia, and Zimbabwe is land. This is also evident in Kaduna and Jos.
No government agency or parastatal in Nigeria is working, corruption has destroyed all of them. We are not investing in technologies that will improve our agricultural system. We need huge investment in technologies in our institutes for us to have alternatives. The kind our fertilizers we use on our farms are the ones killing our soil.
The government should create an enabling environment supported by reasonable laws that wouldn’t be broken. So many people are interested in agriculture but they are being discouraged by the lack of enabling environment.
I want to call on the government to have a well-structured system, long term plans and be proactive in the needs of the citizens, especially the youths. We don’t have accurate data in Nigeria, we only have estimates.
The Nigerian government has been talking about diversification of the economy, especially in agro-industrial sector, in your own opinion do you think they are walking the talk?
As a stakeholder, I have constructively criticized the government to challenge them on the necessary things to be done. Nigeria is retrogressing at a fast pace, something needs to be done. The chocolate factory needs 24 hours electricity, are we having this in Nigeria? A factory cannot be successfully run in an unpredictable place like Nigeria. Look at the price of diesel which used to be N350 which is now N800. So many companies are folding up in Nigeria not because they are fraudulent, it is because they operate in a very harsh economic environment.
How did you get into this business?
I was a biochemistry lecturer at the University for 11 months. Religion discrimination and politics in the institution made me leave lecturing job. There was a terrible gang-up as I was the only Muslim, I didn’t see myself developing quickly in such an environment. When I left, I secured another job in Union Trust before the death of my Managing Director which made me leave there after 11 months.
I never wanted to do this business because I have experienced different things in this business. I had so many crises in the Cocoa business. Although, it is my father’s business. Hunger and desperation forced me to stay in the Cocoa business.
How long did it take you to build Starlink Global & Ideal Limited?
We started in 1999. Today, we are the largest exporter of Cocoa, Cashew, and palm oil in Nigeria. In the last 10 years, the growth has been wonderful. We are now into processing, we have just bought the largest and multi-million processing plant in Nigeria.
At SGI, we have 452 direct workers and about 900 appendages. We see the human being as the most important asset. We have warehouses in about 16 states. I motivate my staff for maximum production with sustainable empowerment. Most of them are now self-independent
Chief Mutalubi Adebayo Ojo read Mass Communication at the University of Lagos, he later proceeded to the University of Ibadan to study Law. He equally served as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under late Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State.
Last Tuesday, he appeared on Ayekooto On Radio, a magazine programme anchored by Olayinka Agboola live on a private radio station in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State. Read some of his submissions:
On one of your Social Media profile pages, you wrote that laws must be used as tools of social engineering, for economic development and poverty eradication. Why did you think along this line sir?
Lawyers are called legal luminaries all over the world especially in a democracy to lighten paths and ways of their fellow citizens so that they can see through and will not fall or slip from their ways. Law is an object to develop the country and engineer development and tackle poverty.
Today, as we are speaking, do you consider yourself to be a full fledge politician?
I must not pretend about that. I am a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). I formally joined the party very recently during the revalidation exercise. When I was in government under our late leader, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, I was not a card-carrying member of the party.
What was it like when you were the Chief Lawmaker in Oyo State?
It was all about service to humanity, contributing your quotas to your community, state and society at large. All of us cannot be satisfied to remain in our comfort zones because if it is something we are going to eat together with our family and how to educate our children, we do not have such problems. Let us think of others who are less privileged and who do not have the same opportunity like us. In life there are basic amenities of life such as food, shelter and education and health. Let us strive to make life more meaningful to people, I believe that any aspiration to be in government and public service should be geared towards service. As a commissioner, I served to the best of my ability.
States are at war with Government on the issue of the Value Added Tax collection (VAT). What is your opinion?
I have a very different view and I have expressed it at different fora before. Value Added Tax (VAT) is not listed specifically in the exclusive list. We have already had in place a VAT act – since the era of the military. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has been collecting it from individuals, company without any level of protest from any level of government. It will be wrong for any state now to enact another VAT law like Lagos and Rivers have done. We already have a federal act which has covered the field and that will be inconsistent with any law that is happening now.
During the second republic, we had a similar case between Attorney General of Ogun State and Aberuaba which was litigated up to the Supreme court that it was stated that Ogun State could not enact sales tax.
Also, during Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State, there was this law that was enacted by Lagos state government on hospitality and consumption tax. It happened that Eko Hotel took the state government to court that they could not be paying the same tax when they were already paying same to the federal government and they won the case.
Now, as a lawyer and politician, you know the way things are in Nigeria today – insecurity and economic woes, where did we get it wrong?
Leadership is the major problem facing Nigeria. Our current president, Muhammadu Buhari has failed and has disappointed many people. He has failed woefully and the party, APC has lost its goodwill that brought it to power in 2015.
But some observers said Jugdes/Lawyers, Policemen and Journalists are mainly responsible for the situation Nigeria has found itself..
I do not agree with that assumptions that Lawyers, Judges, Police and Journalists are responsible for Nigeria’s problems today. We have all failed. We cannot have a better country if we do not have a good family unit. A good community cannot exist if there is a bad local government and state. We have lost it all and all sectors are affected. We are the problems and if people in the country agree to change and do the right things then Nigeria will be better.
What do you think is the difference between APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
There is no difference between the two parties. Our political parties are not ideology-based. They are just platforms through which one can get elected to serve. There is nothing like progressives’ party in my understanding. Both parties are bereft of ideologies.
So, what is the way forward sir?
We cannot keep complaining that because politics is a dirty game. It is dirty because majority of the people participating in it presently are dirty. We must not leave it to charlatans, we must all participate in it to improve the system.
What is your stake on the ongoing agitation for Yoruba nation?
Looking at the rate at which we are going in this country, unless Nigeria is restructured, we may disintegrate. Things are not at ease and we have never been divided like this before. The Hausas are seeing themselves as different from the Fulanis. There is nothing like one north again, even the Hausas and the Fulanis are even more divided than the south. We need to sit down and find solutions to the myriad of problems we are facing.
Independence of Yoruba Nation is just one of the valid options to be used to solve Nigeria’s problems.
Before you go, do you wish to send a message to fellow politicians?
Let us all resolve to do the right thing at the right time. Let us be selfless and put the interest of the country at heart first and let us love Nigeria above our personal interest.
I will also counsel Nigerians not to cut corners and to do the right things always.
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