Former two-time governor of old Bendel State, Dr. Samuel
Osaigbovo Ogbemudia is an elder states man. Many people have been
waiting to hear from him to know his stand on this forth coming election in Edo
state. In this Exclusive Interview with SUNDAY ADEBAYO,
he expresses his belief and assessments of the present Edo state government,
and also analyze the likely outcome of the coming election… Excerpt.
What is your assessment of the present Edo
state government?
Well having been there by qualification, assessing them is
that I have been there before and I know the problems and I understand some of
their approaches taking the totality of what I know, the man, Adams Oshiomole
has performed extremely well and that is why I decided to defend him, and that
is why I give him all my support and that is why whatever he does, I look at it
against the background of the difficulties which myself passed through. So from
the point of view of development, he has done the best he could, but that
doesn’t mean he could not do better maybe because there was not enough money.
For those ones that you think he has not done well,
was it that you were not able to brief him about the major problem of the Benin
people when he came in?
There is no one that he has not done well, there is nothing
I asked him to do that he didn’t do, after looking at the totality of the
problems of what I experienced myself, Oshiomole has done wonderfully well.
Looking at the activities that trailed during
the APC primary that lead to the emergence of Obaseki, do you think the party
is united enough to win this election?
Well I cannot speak on that because I was not at the
primary, secondly I only read about it in the newspaper and perhaps the rumor
here and there by people who attended and those who didn’t attend and there was
great variation between the story being tabled by those who attended and those
who heard it, so we don’t know which one to believe, but my believe is that if
people appreciate goodness in anybody, they should appreciate what Oshiomole
has done in this state because if other previous governors have done as much,
he would have gone higher than he did now. So far as I am concern I think that
people if they look at what Oshiomole has done against the background of what
people did in the past, they will vote for APC.
Now Obaseki promised that if he comes in, he is going to
provide over 200,000 jobs but people were now speculating, asking the question
that when he was the head of economic team in Edo state, he was not able to
provide anything of such. Do you think in your own opinion, looking at the
present governance with your approval of Oshiomole great performance, do you
think Obaseki is up to the task of the promise he is making?
Firstly, Obaseki is not in my view a politician, he is
not a professional politician, he is a technocrat and in his position as
a technocrat, he has information on all the affairs of government, as to whether
he could have done that as technocrat, advising the governor, the ultimate
responsibility for the job to be done is that of the governor, he may have
recommended and the governor did not see it as a priority, so you cannot blame
him, when he comes from what I have had in discussion with him and I was
convinced that he knew where the pendulum was swinging, he knew where he was
going because his objectives were very clear to him and he’s also not
mindful of the fact that while he is looking straight at the objectives, there
are many intervening obstacles, diversional obstacles on the way, and he is
prepared to negotiate them. So it is that ability that gives him credit over
his opponent.
Looking at when you used to be the governor of the old
Bende, bringing together Edo state, Delta state and the couple of other states
that you manage then, Things were going right, there was no much complain about
running the government, but now what is your assessment of the crisis rocking
PDP in Edo state right now?
The only word I’ve always used is mismanagement of victory,
when a political party of substance going to election whether win, victory or
defeat, must set up a committee to access their performance and see where
things went wrong, whether PDP did it or not, I don’t know but not to my
knowledge if they did, that notwithstanding its management of victory was not
and I think too that the people themselves were tired of hearing the same voice
every day, the issue of change came into focus.
Do you think pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu had the political
sagacity to perform better than Oshiomole if he eventually becomes the governor
of Edo state?
Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu is my son, his father was my own
father, so when the man was leaving, he said look after your son for me, pastor
Osagie has tremendous energy unquestionable in credentials that he can use, but
he is on a shaken platform, probably if he was in APC, there would be no
problem, he would by now be celebrating, if he was in another party, probably
he would be celebrating. But first, he had to kill two birds with one stone, he
had to reactivate the reputation of the PDP and then take advantage of it to
ask them to vote for him but he cannot do the two together because correcting
the hills of the past and calling them to order, by the time they finish, the
vote is over. But as a person you can’t beat him, he is a first class fellow
and I will go with him anywhere.
So what you are telling us now is that come this election
which is drawing close by, if past Ize Iyamu Can rectify some loop holes that
you think are the problems of PDP in Edo state, do you think he has a
higher chance of becoming the next governor of Edo state?
If there are two people that he has to do this to, he has to
do this to the elites who at their drinking base, they criticize not himself
but his party, then he have to do it to the population, and those population,
the majority, card bearers who can vote, the elites their voice he will hear so
loud every day, they are minority, so it is not something you can do in
one month or two month if he still remain in PDP correct the hills of the
past, he will be on top but whether he can do everything together before next
two month election is what I don’t know.
Okay recently when the PDP want to have their gathering
at Ogbemudia Stadium, there was an information that the governor
instruct that they don’t have their campaign at that stadium, do you have any
idea ?
No I never heard , the truth is this that as at today the
government is the caretaker and trustee of the stadium, the stadium
belong to the people, so it is for them to say yes, this man coming to the
stadium, will it be in our own benefit or against us? So they take a decision
and that in the decision influences the reply to its letter, that is what
it is. But I believe that when government refuse to allow them to organize at
the stadium, the generality of the people who would normally have gone to the
stadium didn’t feel too good about it, so they might decide to punish
government for it, so you don’t know where the pendulum is swinging but its
important for people like us, it should not have been rejected the refused to
the use of the stadium because that will not add any much value to whatever
they are doing, but by refusing it, it has added value to it.
How can you compare politics in Edo state, the way it is
practiced now and the way it was practiced when you were priviledge to be at
the realms of power?
Yes remember I was the governor at a time when I was a
military officer, I was only on posting by the supreme headquarter to Benin. I
didn’t win any election but when I came back and decided to seek election I won
because I told them to allow me finish the unfinished job and they agreed and I
won so comparing the two, you will find that there is quite monumental
difference.
What is your advice for Edo people in this drawing near
election?
My advice is this, if what they told me in the past and with
my experience that they want development, they don’t want their money to be
spent paying lawyers and going to court every day, then they must pick the
person whose chances are better because every person has a way of accessing ,
for example I had a meeting here yesterday and I said to them, here is a paper
for about 200 people, write down which party you think we should affiliate
with, since we are not in politics, they all wrote down, over 100 voted for one
party, six voted for one, two voted for one. So if you sent such people to the
poll, they will all vote for A, what is in their mind is different, and they
will go there.
How far will you tell us you have gone with Samuel Ogbemudia foundation?
Good, over the years I have been a victim of diabetic and
from tablets, I progress to insulin injection and I started this 1970 and I
started injection 1980 and I didn’t want other people to suffer the same thing
because of lack of information, more importantly the diet that can easily cure
the problem. So I got together experts who are prepared to help, some of them
in America, some in Canada and some in Great Britain. So we set up Ogbemudia foundation
to purely accomplish three things, the first is good governance, the second is
youth empowerment and detect its non-communicable diseases, from the diabetic
information we are putting together and talking to people on what they need to
know. Sometimes I address people and at the end of it, I tell if they have
diabetics. And it is going on gradually. But those who are going to help
me are yet to come.
Since the beginning of the foundation, how much
assistance or donations or help have you received from people that you have
sent letters to or you can call to help curb fight the pulse?
We have not gone out, but the present Delta state government
has been helpful. When he was coming, he brought a cheque of five million to
the foundation, Oshiomole promised to help and am hoping that once the problem
on hand is sorted out, he will do something. There are many people we’ve talk
to, but we have not asked for help, and when I have got all those information
and those visitors have come and put down what they can do, then I will know
what I need and ask people to assist us.
So far will you say you have been receiving response from
people in terms of visitation, and feedbacks?
Oh yes, a lot of people, our doctors go about talking to
people, counseling them on what to use, and what to kind of food to eat because
not everybody can afford insulin of 11,000, to avoid insulin you must
take diet that will perform the same function.
A diversion from the foundation now, if anybody
look at you some people will still think daddy is 70 or 75, but even looking at
your present health condition over the years and the fact that you can no
longer walk and run the way you used to do some years ago, what would you say
you’ve been doing that is making you looks so good like this sir?
Well, credits goes to that lady (pointed at his wife Mrs Yetunde Ogbemudia),
but apart from that, In 1953, I was admitted into hospital and the doctor
diagnosed me of Amoebic dysentery and I spent twenty one days, but when I
had my accident in August 5, 2010, I break my leg and I have to move from one
operation to another, and apart from that leg, well so far am alright, I can
see, I can move about with my walking stick but better than it was a year ago,
so gradually the thing is coming up, because the doctor told me that I am
suffering from incurable disease and when I asked him, he said old age and he
asked me whether I’ve seen anybody who cured old age, I said no then he must
keep off with it.
Looking at how far you have come, when you were born till
now, what would you advice the younger generations who are aiming higher to be
in the position of good health and proper understanding with their creator,
what will be your advice for them?
My advice is simple, when I was a boy, an elder cousin of
mine pass his junior Cambridge, we had a wake keeping to thank God that he was
able to get to that standard, but since then, there have been PHDs, nobody
worries about it, we have made tremendous progress to the young men of today to
be able to catch up and keep himself and family together, he must
educate himself, because education has no age limits, that is the invoice of
continuing education and it means that there is no end. Sometime ago, I
witnessed the graduation of open university in London and one of the graduates
was 94 years old, and when the press asked him at the age of 94, what are you
still doing? He said I have always wanted to be educated. Sometime in 1969, I
was the sole administrator of the Nigerian Airway and I advertised for an
accountant and twenty five thousand people applied and we set up a criteria to
screen the application and we finally came to a hundred and we have to be
looking for criteria to reduce it. But finally out of that hundred, there were
six with master’s degree, there were two with a PHD, so what do you do, do you
leave the PHD and take the first degree. Nigeria should no longer rely on
first degree; they should go further and specialize , when I was the governor,
I told the ministry of education , inform all the student ,anybody who
comes out of the college with good result in WAEC because one boy from AGBOR
had 7As and that’s an automatic scholarship, if you got a first class from a
university degree, you get automatic scholarship to study for higher degree
because the Nigeria of tomorrow is going to be very competitive and
it has started, so the youth must learn to concentrate on their studies, stop
fighting until they have reach the ultimate.
Would you say you are fulfilled in life?
I am fully fulfilled in many ways, first I never thought
that I will ever get here till now. One gentle man brought his insurance paper
to me in 1960, he said it will mature in 1975 it was 15 years away and I said I
wont take because fifteen years is too far , but eventually I was quest to pay
into bank in order to insure myself , on a date in 1975 I received a letter ,
it said your insurance is due, where do you want the money to be paid into, I
regretted not putting more but I never thought I will witness it mature,
two, I never dreamt that one day I will be a governor of a state, Benin state for
that matter. three I never thought when I join the army I will be a general , I
merely go there to go and do my own work and God was kind to me and they
move me forward and fast. I have had children and God has been kind, not one of
them has ever been admitted in the hospital, no one is sick. Where I live, this
house I inherited it from my mother and I live here, I did my governor job from
this very table so what else do I want, all I have gotten didn’t mean anything
to my children because they all live at home but my other colleague were told
to handover the government house within 24 hours to the new governor,
but it didn’t happen to me because I just took my own briefcase and return back
to my house where I operated from.
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