In Osun politics, Mr Dotun Babayemi is not a greenhorn being a key driver in design, development and implementation of electronic election monitoring platform for 2014 governorship election in the state. In this interview by TUNDE BUSARI, he speaks on the All Progressives Congress (APC) to which he belongs and its future. Excerpts
With your background in technology solution, how do you assess the card reader used in the 2015 general elections as regards inadequacies recorded in its use?
Talking of technology, in the strict sense of it, is talking of dynamism. It is indeed talking of progressive changes. In other words, technology is not static. Hence the need to clarify that those challenges which occurred when the card reader was first used in 2015 elections have reduced significantly in the subsequent elections. We witnessed situations whereby we had to revert to the old manual format. But I am happy to make a reference to what happened in Anambra governorship elections held recently. The challenges are fading away and before the 2019 elections we would have covered appreciable ground in mastering the use of the device.
It is alleged that your party lacks internal democracy; that only the leadership determines who takes what. Isn’t this allegation a liability?
Our party was built on certain particular principle and that principle we have kept consistently over generations, one of those consistent policies is to ensure that we take counsel and we leverage on the experience and wisdom of our elders. What that does not take away from us is the democratic credential of our party. I will go back to 2015, the primary for the presidential election that we had under the APC was televised live. That does not mean we still not take counsel as appropriate from our elders because we don’t encourage imposition in our party but we respect wisdom. For every election there must be multiple candidates and we have a process in our party that due process is followed for people to come and have their cases reviewed. We are a democratic party. It may not be that obvious.
Given the outcry by the civil servants over salaries, allegation of capital flight and debt against Osun State Government, don’t you see these forces combining to work against your party in 2018 elections?
My response is No. We have to put things on the table. If you have an X amount of money and 80% of it is spent on salaries, it then makes it difficult to do all those other things you need to do. In the first term, the challenges of fall in oil prices and little money coming from federal allocation made government to run or operate on debt. Part of the debt that Osun owes today has been accrued since 1991. We carry over debt from old Oyo State; some of these debts are still being paid today. Government is a continuum and the debt that people are talking about did not start with Aregbesola administration. A lot of it was carried over. From my assessment, I will give this administration a significant pass mark. The focus of any government cannot only be for salaries you are going to pay today for the people working but also for the future. Osun is an agrarian society; we should be able to move forward beyond federal allocation. Can we focus on agriculture? To focus on agriculture you need good roads. Look at the proposed cargo airport, if we are able to supply West Africa, not only Nigeria, some of our products from here, it would go a significant extent in increasing our internal revenue generation. So, part of the challenge that we have as citizen is being able to deal with issues associated with money. Some of theprogrammes that government has to do and focus on must be for the future so that the future of generation yet unborn is guaranteed. When the late Chief ObafemiAwolowo was constructing the Liberty Stadium, setting up the WNTVand offering free education, people called him a mad man. But today, we are all beneficiaries and grateful.
Specifically, what is the future of your party in the state?
The future of APC is very bright because we are the progressives; we are the party of the people. We are the party that put our people first. We don’t have factions in APC; we tell ourselves home truth. We have differences in opinion, still we are strong and focus. What you are probably calling factions are people that have benefited from the ideologies of the progressives as it was in the First Republic, but that have moved from the focus of the people to personal interest. Wherever you put personal interest above other things, the tendency is that there is element of failure. So, as a party, we are strong, our leadership is very strong. We are focused. Whatever issues we have within the party, we resolve them.