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Opeyemi Bamidele, a member of the House of Representatives, has been in the news lately due to the reported schism between him and the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. He spoke on this and many other sundry issues recently in an interactive session with journalists.
What is your reaction to statements credited to senators from your state about Ekiti politics?
Among other things I chose to react to two conclusions made by Senator Ojudu, the first one has to do with the state of the nation and the allusion that it will take God himself to come down and solve the problem. I want to say that I found that hypocritical and disservice to the people of Ekiti Central Senatorial district who elected him into office. For the record I want to say again, that I ran for the senatorial race in Ekiti and for the record I want to say again that by the grace of God and the support of the people, I won the primary of the party. Again for the record, I want to say that in the overriding interest of ACN and the appeal made by the national leadership of the party and again as a Christian who believe that it is God who makes Kings and Princesses and he has his own timing for everyone of us, I chose to be the good Boy of the party, unfortunately a lot of people were assuming that I will always choose to be the good boy. But in 2011 I chose to be the good boy of the party and conceded it, not to Babafemi Ojudu, but to the national leadership of the party because I won that mandate and I gave it back to the leadership of the party to hand it over to Babafemi Ojudu. And this interview will be the third major statement that will be issued. Sometimes around July last year, Mr. Ojudu through the PM News issued a statement alluding to the fact that he wanted to set the record straight regarding the central senatorial election 2011 and said a lot of things, people called me, those who voted for me felt aggrieved; everybody expected me to react, till today I refused to react and I am sure that must have been the things that gave him the courage to also say what he had to say about me two weeks ago. But today my position is that if he had served as a journalist for almost three decades and had served as Managing Editor of one of the respected news magazines in this country before being elected as senator, one would expect you have an idea of what you are going to do in the Senate and have an idea of what is wrong with Nigeria, because you don’t want to give me the impression that you are running a public office without having an idea of what you are going to do there or without an idea of what was wrong with Nigeria; that is the first thing, also I want to say that I am personally amused by the style Senator Ojudu has adopted, all the issues he raised in his interviews I believed, were issues that he could use the floor of the Senate to address. If you are elected as senator, and in one and a half years you cannot be found to have spoken two times. And if you are elected as a senator and in 21 months all you have is one motion to your credit on NSCDC, which is to be debated by the Senate. If in 21 months you have not been able to state any categorical position and there is no policy statement that can be credited to you and you are using pages of newspapers to condemn everything being done in the Senate, condemn the leadership of the Senate, condemn the presidency and conclude that only God himself would have to come down to solve the problems of Nigeria, I feel that is disservice to the nation and to the people who elected him and as far as I am concerned, the Senate rules are clear, they provide for point of order; the rule says a point of order must be heard at all times.
Are you in good terms with the governor and the party hierarchy?
I am in consultation with the party hierarchy and I meet with the governor from time to time. Do I have to visit the Governor? If I find myself in the state house for instance, it depends on what we called visit. Whatever takes me there… if the governor calls for a meeting I will attend; if the party calls for meeting I will attend and in the course of it the governor might be there, you know.as much as possible I try to avoid personality…. I try to take personalities out of this issue, so that issues don’t get compounded, so that the whole thing doesn’t look like it is a personality clash.
When last did the governor call you?
The only meeting that I remember not attending was when I was away in South Africa and the governor met with the National Assembly caucus. This was last month actually, this February, and the meeting was in Abuja and of course the governor himself knew I was in South Africa, that is the only meeting that I can remember and everybody knew where I was.
What about speculation that you planned to contest the governorship under another platform?
I am glad you use the word speculation and I think the speculation has become open. I just said in the course of this interview that some people paid for posters announcing that I was running for governorship on the platform of Labour Party. They are trying to make it open, again I emphasize that whatever I am running for is going to be under the platform of the ACN, ACN of today, if tomorrow we get registered as APC, on the platform of APC, I am saying that again the leaders of our party are committed to internal democracy.
Let me put to you directly. Would you support Fayemi for second term?
I will put it this way, if this is actually an attempt to put me in a spot, I’d say it is a good one, the question you are asking is as good as asking Dr. Fayemi a similar question like you did sometimes. I would say that Governor Fayemi is my person and all the other five governors elected on the platform of ACN are my persons. Because you asked the governor a question specifically about me and he told you that Opeyemi is my person and I am also confirming to you that Governor Fayemi and all the other governors elected on the platform of the ACN are my persons, that is what I would say to that. As far as I am concerned the issue of second term is much more fundamental than what people are talking about, I will not talk about second term of someone just one year into office or two year into office. I will not celebrate achievements at a time that I am supposed to join other leaders of the party and other elected representatives of the people to be encouraging the administration to do more work as far as I am concerned let everybody continue to do the best that they can.
Keeping it Real and Simple.
