I am a priest of the Anglican Church and for that, I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If I am able to do all things through Christ that strengthens me, I will be able to do all those things God has given me the privilege to be part of. I run with the philosophy that I have only one life and when that life is over, I will only be remembered by things that I have been able to do in that one life. So, that is why I try as much as possible to do all those things together. I am a priest; I am a teacher, registered by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN). I am an architect, registered by the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria, I am also an estate surveyor and valuer registered by the Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria. I am also a politician, and as a politician, I am the chairman of Afenifere in Osun State. I ran in 2022 for the governorship of Osun State on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Now, I’m running to be the senator representing the Osun Central Senatorial District on the same platform of the SDP.
What prompted your entry into politics – and your remaining in it with parties like PDP, ADC, NDP and APC, considering the general belief that clerical duties and partisan politics are a bad mix, especially with the brand of politics played in Nigeria?
My father, Venerable Julius Ladunjoye Omigbodun, was an Anglican priest; the Ashipa Ataoja of Osogbo, which would mean like the Prime Minister and the third in rank to the Ataoja; the founding Principal of Osogbo Grammar School and at the same time, he was a founding member of the Action Group (Egbe Afenifere). He emerged the first chairman of Osogbo District Council at the same time he was the first principal of Osogbo Grammar School. So, I am coming from somewhere. It runs in the family and I give God the glory for that. So, I was born into politics because I grew up knowing my father having served as chairman of Osogbo District Council in 1950, so politics was part of home training for us. It was during his time that electricity got to Osogbo for the first time, that pipeborne water got to Osogbo for the first time, that a tarred road got to Osogbo for the first time. So, if I was born by somebody who was so much involved in politics, and who spoke and worked so much for community development, it was just natural for me to also go into all of these.
One other thing I am always proud of about my father and the record he left behind, is the fact that it was the effort that people like himself made that culminated much later into the creation of Osun State. Osun State was created in 1991 quite alright, but as far back as 8th of October, 1950 my father, being the only graduate from Osun as at that time, was called upon by five revered traditional rulers – Oba Samuel Adeola Adenle, the Ataoja of Osogbo then; Oba Moses Oyinlola, the Olokuku (whose son later became the governor of Osun State); Oba Adeyemi of Ikirun; Oba Sanusi Araoye, the Olobu of Ilobu of that time; and the Timi of Ede, Oba John Laoye. He was the only one among them who was not a traditional ruler, but for the fact that he was a graduate, he was invited to join them. They wrote a letter to Sir John Stuart MacPherson, who was governor of Nigeria then but later became Governor-General. The government that controlled Osun as of that time was based in Ibadan and they were the people who fought for the creation of Osun Division, which became the foundation for the agitation for the creation of Osun State.
I went into all these explanations is to show that I come from a family where politics and sustainable development are issues that you must learn by default and therefore be involved in by expectation. So, that is why I went into politics despite the fact that I am a priest just like my father.
Your pedigree notwithstanding, we didn’t hear so much from your party, the SDP during the last governorship election in Osun State. It was more of Accord, APC, ADC. Who did you support during the governorship election?
Not much was heard about the SDP during the governorship election because the party had issues with having its candidate recognised by the INEC and put on the ballot. The ballot paper for that election had to be reproduced, because they had produced ballot papers without the inclusion of Social Democratic Party (SDP). This affected the candidacy of whom we presented, and we fought to have our logo indicated as one of the participating parties in the election. Eventually, we got out candidate recognised by INEC after a court verdict, just a few days before the elections. So, there was no way we could have had any better showing than we had. We still tried our best to rally round and to make sure that whatever it would end up being will still had a presence on the ballot and participated in the election.
The general election is the next battle. You want to represent Osun Central in the Senate. You have listed restructuring as your top priority, and making basic social rights enforceable. These are the principles of Afenifere. President Bola Tinubu is somehow affiliated to Afenifere. Is there then a link in all of these?
What we require is good governance. The Yoruba say if a man sees a snake and it ended up being killed by a woman, what matters is that the snake is killed. Anybody who believes in restructuring is okay by me. I put it as the number one, but a Yoruba proverb says eating roasted dog meat is savoury, but what would you eat while waiting for the roast? So, restructuring is the ultimate, and we know it will take time. But we would caucus with any other political party or representatives of other parts of Nigeria that also believes in restructuring. While recognising restructuring is the ultimate, there are still a few other issues in my six-point priorities which include making certain aspects of the existing constitution justiciable or we will seek to make them justiciable. In particular, I mentioned in my manifesto issues in Chapter Two of our constitution. This is in line with the constitution of the SDP. Out of all those issues in Chapter Two of the constitution, I am most particular about Section 18(3)b of the Nigerian constitution. Paraphrasing that provision, there the constitution says that as far as it is possible, there would be free education in Nigeria up to first degree level.
Many people don’t recognise that that provision is in the constitution. Why nobody has done anything about it to make sure that undergraduates of universities and students of polytechnics enjoy at least free tuition, is because of the proviso that says ‘as far as it be possible’. So, anybody in government today will say it is still not yet possible. I believe it is possible in Nigeria. That is the situation in Ghana right now. Ghana has tuition-free education up to first degree level, so why can’t we have that in Nigeria? That is one of the things I am going to passionately push, so that we at least amend that portion even while pursuing the entirety of restructuring; that portion should be done away with, as far as it is possible, it should be mandatory, it should be what everybody enjoys, it should be justiciable and any government that will not do it should find itself answering questions from the courts of the land. We have to make education free. It is possible.
I was in the University of Ife between 1980 and 1985 when I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in architecture and as far as I remember, I was paying only N4 union dues and N75 for accommodation. I can’t remember paying tuition fee. Even my feeding was somewhat being subsidised because I was having breakfast for 30 kobo. I was having lunch and dinner for 50kobo, respectively, and even with that lunch, on Sunday afternoon, I will get a quarter ration of healthy chicken and ice cream to go with it. Other days of the week, I would have fresh orange or mango juice and for all my breakfast at 30kobo, there was unlimited tea or cocoa drink and it was free. You could drink that until everybody was sent away from the cafeteria. That was at the time when the military was just handing over to the civilians. Why can’t we afford that today? And most of the people in government today are people that enjoyed all the things I am telling you that we enjoyed between 1980 and 1985.
Isn’t the NELFUND, one of those star achievements of the Bola Tinubu administration, an opportunity to return to those days you were in Ife? Making basic social rights enforceable is also top on your agenda. Is the government doing what you expect regarding that sir?
I will say a capital no. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his book, ‘The People’s Republic’, wrote that any government that would give students loan rather than free education is cruel. I believe that even till today, that contention is still valid because we can afford to actually have free education. NELFUND claims to have spent about N355 billion. I believe that must be a slip of the tongue by the CEO of the NELFUND because when he was speaking on television, he said about 100 million students have benefitted. That must be a slip of the tongue because we do not have up to 5 million students in all the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. I think the student population is just about 4.2-4.3 million, and that includes all universities, all polytechnics, all monotechnics, all colleges, including colleges of education. I also tried to find out what most public universities, especially those owned by the Federal Government, would take, I think each of them takes between N150,000 and N350,000 for each of their students per session. So, I put it at an average of N250,000 per student. Then let’s put the number of students at a round figure of 5 million, and that gives N1.25 trillion. So, what is the difference between your N355 billion, which is a loan that you know you cannot have more than 5 percent recovery at best in the nearest future, and which is selective? The CEO owned up that they do not have any special means of determining indigent students, that it is just a matter of anybody that applies and if you are lucky, you get it. So, why should we have this haphazard and funny selective way of making education easier for people, knowing at the back of your mind that the recovery is going to be impossible because we do not have records that are digital enough for us to trace such people?
We also do not have jobs waiting for these people. Even in the Western world, these people have to wait for jobs and when they are not forthcoming, some of them get depressed. In Nigeria, the addresses of the beneficiaries are not geo-located digitally. So, if I disappear into my Olobado Family compound in Osogbo, nobody can trace me. What happened to initiatives like People’s Bank under somebody as brilliant and dedicated as Tai Solarin? It failed because there was no way they could have had any recovery. So, rather than pretending and going on a venture which we ordinarily know would fail, and spending as much as N355 billion on a failed project, why don’t you have tuition-free education and dedicate N1.25 trillion every year?
Where would they get all this fund? If they could get N355 billion from those who looted this country at one time or the other, then make sure that there is no further looting. Make sure that all those funds you put into the expensive lifestyle of parliamentarians are reviewed such that you let life be easier for the people. By the time you are able to provide free education up to tertiary level – at least first degree or higher diploma, you would have done something that would have substituted removing fuel subsidy. I am not against removal of fuel subsidy; I believe it ought to have been removed. Perhaps the only thing they could have done is to make sure that Nigerians had enough funds to be able to cope with the new prices of things around them. But right now, that is not what we have; what we have is that only people in government have a lot of funds that they have stolen from our common patrimony. Otherwise, where did the APC get the N110 billion with which they prosecuted the election in Osun, according to the accusations of Accord; and where did Accord itself get the N70 billion for the prosecution of the same election, according to the accusations of the APC? These are things that could have ordinarily gone into tuition-free education in the country.
So the youths of this country are being cheated by the people in government right now, and by extension, the workers of this country too are being cheated because by the time you removed the fuel subsidy and the minimum wage was between N30,000 and N35,000 in most states of the federation, including the Federal Government. At the removal of the subsidy, most prices went up by five times. Even allocations to states also went up but they remained where it was. They forgot that everybody buys from the same market and so those in federal and state governments are stealing Nigeria dry now. The only time you see them manifest that those monies exist is during elections, when they buy the future and the conscience of the people. That is why the people of Nigeria must stop voting those who have stolen their resources. Take the money from them and vote for people with good vision that can lead us out of the vicious cycle of poverty that they persistently want us to remain in.
The senatorial candidates you are vying against in Accord or PDP, and APC are both from Osogbo just like you too are from Osogbo. Don’t you think, by that fact, you are giving advantage to candidates from other towns in your district?
That is why the issue should be about who is the best candidate. The issue should be about what the candidate has to offer. The issue should be about whether the candidate knows what he is going to the Senate to do. I have a manifesto. I am also waiting for my co-contestants to also come up with their own manifesto. I am waiting for them to indicate what they want to do with the function that is expected of them in the Senate. A senator has three major responsibilities. He is supposed to be a representative of his people, secondly, he is supposed to be a lawmaker and thirdly he is supposed to provide oversight functions. So, beyond coming from Osogbo and belonging to a political party, we have to let the people understand that we need to weigh each candidate and find out how prepared each of us would be to be a proper senator. For somebody to be a good representative of the people, he must be able to understand and manifest very good communication skills. You must understand your people and find out their needs; you must be able to understand Yoruba language very well as spoken by the people of Osun Central, and you must also understand their body language so that you will understand how to represent them. You must also be competent in the English language because that is the language of communication on the floor of the Senate. So, the question should be: Are all these candidates able to deliver all of these? Do all the candidates have a base in Osogbo enough to understand what the people would want them to do? Can all of these candidates get to the floor of the Senate and speak as many sentences as may be required for them to represent their people and explain the desires of their people in good English? It is no more the matter of who is a son of Osogbo, it is who is competent enough to represent the people, to be a lawmaker and to represent the people on account of background education. It is not a matter of making some money having been in government before, so let me now use part of the money to buy votes and just go and sit down somewhere and not be able to function properly because one is not well-equipped to function in the office of the senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
You are the chairman of Afenifere in Osun State and top on the group’s agenda is restructuring of the country. Do you see President Tinubu pushing for the restructuring of Nigeria the way Afenifere would have wanted it?
He has not done that. If he would do that, then the issue of state police should have been long settled. If he would do that, he would not be part of those that will be using so much power that now resides in the presidency to suspend a governor and the entire legislature of Rivers State. If he would do that, he will not be part of those that are appointed from Abuja regional directors, chairmen and boards for regional development commissions. Development should be organic, it should start from the base, not from the top. And if he would do that, he would not be the one that would sponsor that thing they called local government autonomy lawsuit. They call it Supreme Court pronouncement; I call it a decree because anything that the Supreme Court says ends up becoming alternative law. But everything the Supreme Court said about the local government is against the letter and the spirit of the constitution. Section 162 of the constitution shows that everything the Supreme Court said is against the fact that houses of assembly of states should be able to legislate on what happens in local governments. Local governments anywhere in the world are not third tiers of government, they are just administrative units. States should be able to determine how many local governments they want and how they want to go about their administration. So, to now say that the federal government will bypass the federating unit in the state to be dealing directly with the local government is like a grandfather taking care of the children when their father is alive but is invalid.
Those are not in the spirit of restructuring. A proper restructuring will let there be devolution of power. Governors of states and their respective assemblies will be independent of the pronouncement of the federal government hiding under Section 45 or Section 135 of the constitution to say that they are removing a governor and nobody has successfully challenged that action. I am sorry for us in Nigeria if that is restructuring. That is why I gave the roasted dog meat analogy. Right now, everyone wants something from the Federal Government because that is the book. So, I will also attract federal presence to my constituency while we work on restructuring as a long-term goal. It should be the other way round. The other way round is that there should be resource control and the federating units’ level to be able to take care of certain things. Look at California in the USA which competes with China and other countries. The California Harbour, for instance, is controlled by a body that is equivalent to a local government in Nigeria. Months ago, our president went to England and one of the things he went there to do was to negotiate loans for Apapa Wharf and I said what kind of nonsense is this? Even Lagos State is not involved in Apapa Wharf, everything is the Federal Government. There is something wrong somewhere. The restructuring that we want is devolution of powers, the federating units should take care of what they have like we had in the Oliver Lyttleton Constitution of 1954. In that constitution, the federating units controlled about 65 percent of the resources. That was why Chief Obafemi Awolowo was able to build the University of Ife, the first television station in Africa. We could develop that much because we had a smart Chief Awolowo who had enough resources at his disposal and he was able to grant this free education that I am agitating for now.
So, the resource control that we want is to return power and resources to the people; state police. All those 68 items on the exclusive legislative list should be reduced to just about eight as it is done in the USA that we copied. In the First Republic in the Oliver Lyttleton constitution, each region was entitled to have its own high commission in other regions of the world. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was so smart that he had a high commission in the United Kingdom at that time, and the address of the high commission in the UK at that time is today the address of the high commission of the entirety of Nigeria in the United Kingdom. So, we need to return to those days of the Oliver Littleton constitution of 1954 or the Independence constitution of 1960 or the Republican constitution of 1963. We need to do away with the evil that the military brought upon us. With the military gone shouldn’t we go back to the restructuring that we have been talking about?
Apart from making money, what are the other main reasons for your interest in the Senate?
I am not interested in going to the Senate to make money. I am not a rich man, but I am able to feed myself. I don’t have any more children in school, all my children have graduated and, to the glory of God, are doing well. So, I only need to take care of myself, my wife and all my adopted children which is just by choice and God’s helping me to do that. So, I do not need to steal money. I have enough resources to grant scholarships to children already, so why should I go to steal anybody’s money? However, a lot of people are going there to see how much more they can steal from there because these are people that may not be able to adequately represent the people who they claim they want to go and represent. If you cannot speak fluent English, what are you going to be saying on the floor of the Senate?
When I look at the billboard of the man who is there right now, I would have expected him to explain what he had done. These are the legislations that I sponsored, these are the oversight functions that I was involved in, and this is the way I represented you well. But no, what he posted there are ‘I built three solar lamps’, ‘I built a community hall’, and I felt these things can also be derived from anybody who goes to the Senate, but these should not be the primary things you will now list as your achievements. So, for people who are passionate about good governance and sustainable development like me, GokeOmigbodun, it is not about going there to make money. Maybe for others who are used to stealing money, that is why they are vying to go to the Senate. Certainly, not me.