Olabimtan: Imposition is Unacceptable in Ondo
Former Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Olabimtan is one of the governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State. In a recent chat with journalists, he spoke on the chances of the party in the next governorship
There are agitations on which zone is to produce the next governor in the APC, don’t you think this agenda and ethnic attachments could rob the party of its chance in the 2016 poll? This argument is all over the state. There are some who believe that the slot has moved round the three districts while some propound other theories. But as far as I am concerned, I see Ondo State as one and we have a project and the project is Ondo State. On the issue of zoning, if you look at the APC constitution, there is no written agreement about zoning, but there is a principle agreement as far as zoning is concerned. We have this unwritten agreement in Ondo State that the governorship will be rotated. It is an unwritten agreement, but conventionally, it in practice. The North was the first to be there, it moved to the South and the Central, which is finishing its two term tenure, the first of its kind in the history of the state.
If you have to base it on the principle of equity, principle of fairness and the principle of justice, the Central cannot succeed itself. It now behooves the South and the North. The fact still remains that since this thing has been naturally put there, for equity like I said and for a section not to feel marginalised for a very long time – it is the turn of the North.
The belief from many quarters is that it is only when the governor is from your side that your side can develop, all because we are still myopic in our thinking and not producing statesmen like Pa Ajasin, Agagu and Adebayo Adefarati as our governor. My take is that the next governor should be produced from the Northern senatorial district. That’s my take. Other people have their views but that is my own view.
How about the fear of distrust from the aborigines of the APC against those who newly defected to join the party, especially from the PDP, don’t you think this will eventually tear the APC apart? As for the fear in the APC that those of us who joined cannot be trusted, I want to tell you something; when you want to test the sincerity of a person, it is not only once you do that. It has always been there. For example, those who are good people in ACN, CPC, ANPP and PDP who now joined APC will always be good people and those who are bad people will always be bad people. I think what we need to do is, look at the antecedents of every individual and judge that person on the basis of his antecedents.
All of us have our antecedents, except we want to deceive ourselves. We have to go back into history and examine the past activities of everybody. As far as I am concerned, that fear is unfounded, it cannot hold water because Olabimtan will always be Olabimtan; he cannot be another person. That is the truth of the matter.
What about APC’s penchant for imposing candidates? The fear of imposition – some people have been speculating here and there. I am sure and convinced, this time around, the Ondo people will be allowed to choose their own governor. There will be a level playing field. Those who matter in the party are saying it times without number. If history is anything to rely on, we will know that historically, the people of Ondo State want to choose their own and the moment you don’t allow them to choose their own, they will disappoint you.
Even in disappointing you, what they are choosing may be worse than what you have chosen for them but they will say that is our choice. This is their logic. I believe that this time around by the Grace of God, there will be no imposition; and I am cock sure there will be no imposition.
What about the prolonged crisis within the party? There is no society, where there is no crisis and no organisation without crisis. Inbuilt mechanisms are only put in place to make sure when this crisis comes up, it is resolved. The APC has its own inbuilt mechanism to resolve whatever crises that will surface. In the struggle for power, there are bound to be cleavages, and when there are cleavages, there are bound to be crises.
But as soon as a candidate emerges, if it is a popular candidate, all the cleavage will go down. And if he or she is a candidate, who knows his or her onions, he or she will know how to bring all the aggrieved persons together, build a strong party and a good government. This will not affect us by the Grace of God.
Aside agriculture, what other areas do you think Ondo State can look into to improve the economy of the state and reduce youth unemployment? Ondo State is geographically well located. Our land is good for agriculture; whether arable, cash crops etc. In terms of economy, if you look at the Southern senatorial district, there lies the longest coastline in Nigeria and the only one unexploited. Even smaller ones in Calabar, Warri are over exploited, while the biggest one is unexploited. Some will attribute this to the nearness of Lagos. No!
If you are talking of moving to the hinterland, Ondo State is nearer to the hinterland than Lagos. Therefore, an ideal Ondo State is better situated than the ports in Lagos. The state government cannot do it, the federal government can do it; what pressure are we mounting on the federal government to do it? Before the last administration left, something had been done to some level. We had this Olokola Deep Sea Port, the OKLNG.
The OKLNG has been taken from Olokola and relocated to Warri. Ideally, if that happens in a democracy, the people of Ondo State should protest. Something you have given to us, you have no right to take it away from us with impunity but nobody talked and nobody is talking.
Dangote refinery, which will start work in Epe this year, was supposed to be in that place. The land has been given, something happened along the line, the man took it to Epe and where he took, it is more expensive for him than leaving it here in Ondo State. You would have known the economic effects of these on the state.
Today, they said IGR is nothing to write home about. If we have had that OKLNG sited there, the refinery, the other petrochemical industries that will be sited within that area, I can assure you that from the OKLNG alone, the tax that will accrue to this state is more than the total tax that all the workers of Ondo State will pay.
It is an oil industry and the workers there cannot be less than minimum of 15, 000; and they will be paid salaries as people, who work in the oil industry. The same thing with the Dangote Refinery, if we put these together, the economy of Ondo State would have jump-started. We have many indigenes of this state in America, Europe and Canada, who are very rich and have the technological know-how to establish industries here; we are not attracting them, the reason being that there is no platform for them to exist. You have to provide the platform.
The Ondo people will be allowed to choose their own governor. There will be a level playing field. Those who matter in the party are saying it times without number. If history is anything to rely on, we will know that historically, the people of Ondo State want to choose their own and the moment you don’t allow them to choose their own, they will disappoint you. Even in disappointing you, what they are choosing may be worse than what you have chosen for them but they will say that is our choice. This is their logic