Rep. Opeyemi Bamidele, former national president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, senior special assistant to the governor of Lagos State and presently chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research in this interview reviews the developments in the polity giving reasons why he is passionately in support of the presidential aspiration of General Muhammadu Buhari. Excerpts:
By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
This election is a major test case for those of you who say you want to rescue Ekiti State. How can this be done given the disposition of the incumbent governor?
There are two sets of elections and for the presidential election, there is no doubting the fact that a lot of Ekiti people are excited about the Buhari-Osinbajo project and I don’t think that Ekiti is an exception. I think that has to do with the general desire of the majority of Nigerians for real change. I see a lot of things happening. Buhari has a lot of goodwill on the streets and what we need to do is for all of us to be on ground and annex this goodwill and especially work hard within the next one week to see that we are able to properly harness the goodwill on the streets. Beyond that, for the April 11 election, that is the House of Assembly elections, these are local elections, the character of each candidate will count. PDP is parading all manners of people.
I don’t want to talk down on the personality of anyone, but what we have been able to do is to ensure that we look for people with the strength of character and I am sure all of these will count in the local elections, where people know themselves very, well, they know their history, their antecedents and you cannot just bring anybody.
One is surprised that you did not go with your one time ally, Governor Mimiko to support President Jonathan. Why did you choose Buhari?
There is nothing personal in all of these? I also want to add that every politics is local. First a lot of things will have to be determined by what is the thinking of your own people. If you describe yourself as a leader within a community and you are taking decisions that will isolate you from the generality of your people or moving against the general tide of your people. Majority of the people in Ekiti State desire a change like majority of Nigerians do.
In taking the decision to move out, the question was which political party could we move to. If I wanted to go to PDP, believe me, I would have opted to join PDP. I got invitation from PDP, I was approached several times and several people met with me, including the president of this country. And for me it was a matter of honour, he also wants to build his own party, but my intention was not to join the PDP. I wasn’t looking for greener pasture and I wanted to remain within the progressives’ family. For me, the Labour Party, believed to be a party of workers was the closest to which I could go.
Bamidele
For Governor Mimiko as the leader of Labour Party, it was really a pleasure to work with him. I mean he also stood up for the party in Ekiti and for all of us. But when he decided he was going to join PDP, and again you must give it to him, he came from PDP and I don’t think anyone would begrudge him for going back to his political family but I made it clear that there was no way I was going to proceed to join PDP and unfortunately, a lot of people thought that because I had a political disagreement with Governor Fayemi, they believed that I was actually out on a fight to finish with my own political family and the leadership including the likes of Asiwaju Tinubu. No, that was not the situation.
Why am I talking about the Buhari Osinbajo project? One, I am convinced that there is a need for new ideas in this country. Nigeria needs new ideas. I chair the House committee on Legislative Budget and Research. I am very concerned about the economy of Nigeria. The more you know about this country, especially the state of our economy, the more scaring you will become. There are a lot of things that Nigerians do not even know.
I give you a practical example. I told my committee to carry out a research and all I needed was for them to take the budget of this country in the last four years and extract how much was budgeted for the procurement of generators and diesel by agencies of the Federal Government. Yes, a lot of Nigerians say we have too many agencies and they say, 427. And I was asking somebody, where did you pick up the figure of 427 Federal Government agencies because he was saying that they were too many and we needed to prune them down.
And he was saying, everybody says 427. And I said, I am telling you authoritatively, that the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs under the Appropriation Act, to which we voted money, is 708. It has grown from less than 400 to 708 in the last four years. So, the government is becoming bigger everyday and I am concerned that today, we have on the floor of parliament, a 2015 proposal that has 84% going for recurrent expenditure, consumables and we have only 16% going for capital expenditure. Which economy can grow that way? When you don’t spend money on capital projects, you cannot stimulate the economy because it is through capital expenditure that an economy can create jobs, that you can build the real sector of the economy.
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
We calculated how much was being spent on the procurement of generators and diesel by the 708 MDAs and we came up with a very staggering figure: over N360 billion has been spent on the procurement of generators and diesel over the last four years. We went beyond that to all the 36 states of the federation and then to the 774 local government areas and saw that over N1.1 trillion had been spent on the procurement of generators and diesel. So, how much do we need to fix the energy sector.
So, there is no way I can be going to an election and allow myself to be brought down by the sentiments of who is my friend? Who is a Christian? Who is a Moslem?
So, for me it is more of the economy. We need new ideas to grow this economy and everybody is talking about corruption. So, who deals with it? I have nothing against President Jonathan, he is a gentleman as far as I am concerned. But what manner of people are advising this administration?
What manner of people are in charge of this economy? And to what extent can I assure myself that President Jonathan would be in control of these people in the next four years. I am a member of the House committee that is investigating oil theft and I know the kind of revelation that has been coming out and that is another issue. Part of the reason that the speaker is stepping that down until after the election is that we don’t want anyone to think that they are trying to use it as a campaign instrument. Nigeria is bleeding at an unimaginable level and I cannot know all of this and have the moral conscience to say that the sustenance of this order. Definitely, I am convinced that there is a need for a change, a change that must be quick and a change that not only must be based on manifestoes written by consultants, but a change that also must be driven by people that can give us some measure of confidence.
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