Joseph: Revenue Allocations Must Go Directly to LGs to Ensure Grassroots Devt,

Chief Joseph Adewole Gbenga, popularly known as Obanla, is an educationist, unionist and senatorial aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Kwara South senatorial district. He spoke with Hammed Shittu in Ilorin recently on his ambition, the APC led government in the state, the planned new salary for political office holders, local government autonomy, insecurity, among others. Excerpts:

As an educationist and businessman, what prompted you into muddy water of politics?

Even, when I was in service of the Kwara State government, I was a politician because I had my interest and I have been participating actively in politics. So, immediately I retired, I felt that you cannot blame the government if you cannot participate in it. And if you see them doing it wrong, and you become part of them, you can at least effect a change. So, you cannot just be a spectator outside and start seeing faults. I felt my involvement in politics will bring about a lot of positive changes. And, you know, I have the love of my people in mind, as well. And I believe that those in the saddle are not doing it as it is expected of them. We have been taught in the school that democracy is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. So, if it is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, I have interest in participating in the government of my people so as to assist my people and to bring more dividends of democracy to the doorsteps of the people of the state. My involvement in politics is also to address the infrastructural deficits in my senatorial district and to bring economic growth to their doorsteps.

There are many political parties in Nigeria, why PDP?

Yes, thank you very much. PDP, from my own personal assessment, PDP has been the best of the political parties. If you look at PDP from the beginning, it has been the only consistent party. It is the only party that has not been metamorphosing into this party or that party. It has become a well-stabilised party. And if you are consistent, the fact that in my state, PDP did not win in 2019, does not take me out of the party. I love the party. And if you look at the performance of PDP, there is no other party that can compete with PDP. There is a saying in Yoruba that, “Àpapọ̀ òpè ló ma ń pa ọ̀ta”, When people that are opposition join hands together, that is why they are able to work as a team and look at it now, are they being able to do it better than the PDP? No. What we have as APC was not APC before. Do you know that? They came together to gang against the PDP before they won PDP in 2015 at the national level and 2019 in our own state, Kwara. It does not mean they are better than PDP. And since PDP relinquished power to them, I have not seen anything better. I have not seen anything tangible done. There were no complaints during the PDP government as we now experience. So, to me, PDP has put in the best in government. So, I have love for PDP and I remain in PDP and I will continue to remain in PDP.

What are those things you would like to do differently if given chance to represent the people of Kwara south senatorial district?

Yes, I have a belief. For example, in my capacity, I’m aspiring to become a senator in my senatorial district. And my principle is this, I believe that when you are an elected member of any of the federal positions, either the House of Reps or the Senate, there are three things that I expect, that I will focus on. One, is to see that what belongs to my senatorial district comes to them. What is due to take care of my senatorial district will have to come to my senatorial district. For example, if you look at it, we have the constituency allowance. The constituency allowance to the senatorial districts are into billions. If that is the case, I’ve not seen what is being done with this constituency allowance. If you look at the federal government presence as well, that’s another thing. Bring what is due to the constituency to the constituency. Secondly, the federal presence, there should be federal presence. I’m looking at a way of bringing federal presence to my own constituency. We don’t have much in my own constituency. Federal College of Education, federal health institutions, federal agricultural facilities, these are the reasons why we have sent our representatives to the National Assembly. Look at our roads, even our federal roads are not in good order. I believe I cannot be there and we leave our roads like that. Whatever it will cost me, I think it is my responsibility. Another thing is the issue of security. Day in, day out, everybody is crying. Take, for instance, Kwara South, which is my senatorial district, there is a lot of problems here and there. Kidnapping, banditry, killings among others. Every day, they kidnap people and they collect ransom. I felt whoever is voted for should have a lot of concern for the electorate. Elected members that have government funds within their reach to settle this problem should come together and see what they can do, to at least, sustain the security of the electorate in that community. Look at areas like Babanla, Omu Aran, Ekiti local and governments, everywhere is being affected by kidnapping. It is not a matter of intervals. It has become so constant. Almost every week, we experience kidnapping. As a representative of my people, I think I should be able to do something about that. Another thing is that as a representative of my people, I should be able to lobby. Bring employment opportunities for our youth empowerment. Empower them for skill acquisition. They should be able to be given the opportunity to acquire skills and be self-reliant so that they can even live on their own and not depending on governments. These are some of the issues that gingered me to come up and see what I can do for my people.

How prepared is your party, PDP, ahead of the next general election in the state?

I think, let alone that PDP is not in government at the national level, otherwise, I think PDP is the most prepared party. Presently, they have had series of meetings. They have put in place reconciliatory committees to reconcile people. And from the look of things, the timetable for every congress is already out. So if you look at it very well, you will see that PDP is getting ready for the forthcoming elections. Aspirants are already coming out. And at the national level, I’m assuring you that very soon, you will see that PDP will come out in a very big way to win the 2027 election.

What is your assessment of the present APC government in Kwara state on the development efforts made so far?

People in the APC government in Kwara state are doing their best. It is only that the best is not enough for the people. In all areas, I’m seeing that there are more to be done. Most especially in the area of security. Like I’ve said, the government is not taking the bull by the horn. So we have expected that a lot of things should have been done. In those days, during the government of PDP, there used to be security meetings that involved virtually all stakeholders. And that addressed a lot of things. Prevention is better than cure, they say but this government is not even, from my own perspective, taking the bull by the horn. I don’t see them doing things to prevent occurrence of this insecurity in other areas. Not only that, even when it happens, we have seen the reluctance of the governor to even visit areas of the happenings where people are kidnapped, where people are killed, where even Emirs or Obas run for their dear lives. Their communities have been emptied, people have run away from their communities. I don’t see the present government addressing this situation as expected. Well, it is what you have that you give. You cannot give what you don’t have. With PDP in government, we have all the tactics. We have what it takes. We know how to do it. I see APC coming in as people who are not experienced and even prepared for the governance of the state. With the experience of PDP, we wouldn’t have had all this type of menace in our area. I am assuring you that very soon, when the government of PDP takes over, the situation will change.

Supreme Court has granted local governments autonomy. In your view, what is delaying the implementation?

Well, I will not be able to tell you vividly what is happening. But we have all seen that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is in support of this autonomy. He has even taken the case to the Minister for Justice, Attorney General. He has even taken the matter to court and it has been pronounced that autonomy should start. Funds should go directly to the local governments. It now remains in the hands of the state governors to effect the law. And I am not an insider, I will not be able to tell you what is happening but I can only tell you that my own governor, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, is the chairman of governors in Nigeria. And as a result of that, he is in the best place to tell us why this is not in action. I believe that whoever is delaying the autonomy of the local governments is doing a lot of havoc. The urban areas, the urban cities are the only areas benefiting from the present government. And the federal government should come up to see that the money they are releasing gets to the grassroots.. There was a time when we were told the amount of billions of naira that came to the state governments, that goes to the local governments but these money doesn’t get to the grassroots, doesn’t get to the local governments and to the interior of these local governments. You see that everywhere is in shambles. No roads, no water, no electricity, nothing. And I believe if the autonomy is allowed to work, things would have been better. Even this insecurity that we are all crying about, it is not only in Kwara South. Even Kwara North is also crying over this insecurity. The menace is there, it’s everywhere. If the local government chairmen are allowed to be in possession of the funds, as the federal government has announced, I think they will address a lot of problems at the grassroots. Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is the chairman of the governors’ forum, if he wants his local government chairmen to work, he would have supported the autonomy of the local government, and that would have affected the whole country. He would have given support to this autonomy. But without autonomy, even if any local government election takes place, the chairmen would just be advisers to the government. They are not local government chairmen. Because there is no division of labour, there is no separation of power. The local government chairmen cannot operate without taking directives from the state government. And that is not what is in the constitution.

What is your view about the recent move to increase salary of political office holders in the country?

I don’t think elected politicians need more salary. Instead, I’m expecting that we should focus on the civil servants. We have already heard that senators are getting millions of naira. House of Representatives are getting millions of naira. So also House of Assembly and all of them. The civil servants that carry out this job are left to suffer. They are suffering. Even the N70,000 minimum wage is nothing to write home about. If you go to a roadside bukataria to feed now, there is no way you will not spend N2,000 to N3,000 to feed. Even if civil servants are given N200,000 as salary, it’s not enough to feed. And the government, with the permission or let me say with the confirmation of these elected politicians, only pegged minimum wage at N70,000. How then are they expecting that their own salaries, that are in millions, should be increased? There is no justice in it. We keep saying the economy of this country is bad. We want it improved. Then is that how to improve the economy? By syphoning away a good percentage of the funds in the economy? I’m not in support of any increase in the salaries of politicians at this time. The area that brings about a problem in this country is underpayment of our civil servants. If I have my way, if I’m given the opportunity to speak where my speech will be heard, it is because of this underpayment that led to a lot of this menace, armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry. It’s because most of these people don’t have good jobs. Let me tell you, no bandit will come from the external without an internal involvement. Before somebody comes to your community to exhibit banditry, it means he must have gotten a connection. And why is it easy for them to get this connection? It’s because there’s hunger everywhere. Even in those days, we believed that civil servants were well-to-do. Nowadays, the poorest set of people are the civil servants because they are grossly underpaid. So instead of thinking of increasing the salaries of our political office holders, I think the government should see to increase our civil servants’ salaries. That’s the way I look at it. It is not even ideal to come up with the topic of increasing. On what ground?

Your opponents refer to you as local political aspirant. What do you say to that?

Yes, I am a local aspirant. I believe the problem we have in politics is that we don’t deal with our domestic politicians. We believe in importing people from London and Abuja to come and contest. Those that don’t even know us. Those with attitude to spend millions and when they come down they don’t have any feelings for the inhabitants of the community. Rather, what they are after is to cart away people’s money and go to London to have their holidays. But I am an indigenous dweller. I’m with the community. I live with them, I’ve served 35 years, moving from one town and village to the other. I know the feelings of my people, I know what is lacking, I know areas that need development, we know each other and they can call me anytime. Let me be frank, it is better to make use of local politicians, people who live and dwell with the community are those that should be elected. There’s no way I will go to Abuja and forget what is happening at home, it’s not possible. I’m not used to what is happening in London and other places but I’m used to what is happening in Kwara South, in Kwara State and in Nigeria most especially at the grassroots level. I know their problems and I will never get there and forget about them. Call me a local politician, I love it.