Ekungba: Ondo governorship is all about fairness and equity

Chief Jamiu Afolabi Ekungba aspires to govern Ondo State via the November election. He shared some thoughts with MARGARET NWANTOK in this interview.

On how to manage the crowd of aspirants in APC
There are yardsticks of determining what zone produces the last governor, which zone should be next. If for instance, the same zone now produces four or five people, then you have to call the delegates of the party to come and vote and the vote will definitely throw up one person. Whichever of them comes up, if these three people are good, they will be ready to work together to move the state forward, if the system is transparent, open and objective.

On incumbency factor
I know Gov. Segun Mimiko thoroughly; I know that he is sponsoring some of us. This is a man that is not paying salaries, yet is keeping money for the election. I told APC that he is not the type of man you fight with money. What I am also saying is that anyone cannot just say that he is a goner; we must get ready to get a candidate that can defeat him, it is not just any candidate that can defeat Mimiko.

On the right man
We must discuss fairness in politics. Is it true that an Akure man has never been governor? Is Otiko not an Akure man? He was a governor of Ondo State under the military. When you talk about past presidents and head of states, you mention Buhari and Gowon. So why will you mention past governors of the state and not mention Otiko. We have to be truthful about it.

Secondly, when we are talking about division, I tell people that Nigeria as at today doesn’t recognise division. Nigeria as at today recognises senatorial districts, federal constituencies, state constituencies, local governments, wards and unit. So do you now want to disobey the constitution?

Third, in terms of the population of those in Akure, the question is; are the people there in Akure indigenes alone? Are there no people from other states or local governments in that place? That is my argument. Everyone has a right to fight for his locality, but what I have always told Akure people who talk about agenda is that God should help APC and I am picked as the candidate, whoever they bring from Akure and myself will discuss and talk about demonstrable antecedents. I will ask him what he has done for Akure that I have not done better than him, because you must be a citizen of a town by birth and by heart.I have two things I can mention that I have done for Akure, but I won’t mention it now. So he has to tell me how he is a better Akure man than me.

So in terms of Akure agenda, I represent Akure agenda, because what I have done for Akure in my life, I have not done up to that for my home town Owo, in terms of infrastructure and bringing the dividends of wherever I worked to Akure. So, by the time they put in an Akure man and I come up, we will discuss, and we will both tell Akure people what we have done for them and people will be able to judge. That is why I don’t object to Akure agenda, but the truth of the matter is that Akure is in central senatorial district of Ondo State. It will not be fair if a person from the central senatorial district is now governor and you now say Akure should be governor again. Do you want to make Ondo State to be like Kogi State, where a particular group will continue to produce governors?

As I said, I believe in truth and fairness, let the Akoko man be truthful about this matter and let them be fair. It is as simple as that. These are the things that we are telling the delegates and you will see what will happen on the day of the primary. If our leaders can rise to ensure that the election is not monetised, then you will see what the people will do.

Whoever goes into equity must go with clean hands. These are the issues in who becomes governor of Ondo State. It is not like it was in the past. Ondo State is economically prostrate. Mimiko has ruined that state economically. Whoever becomes the governor of that state does not only need his mental, experience and academic strength, but he also needs the help of God. So if you go ahead and win the election by crook and fair, where are you going to get the support of the vote to rule the state?

On whether all is fair in politics
All is not fair. All can’t be fair because, then criminality and injustice will be fair. Politics is about administering human beings to get orderliness in exposing and exploiting their potential. So if that is politics, anything that is unfair does not allow orderliness. That is why Nigeria is in crisis, because we have never allowed orderliness, we have never allowed truthfulness and we have never allowed fairness. And that is why we are in crisis.