Ondo has all it takes to be viable, says Adegbonmire

Prince Adeniyi Adegbonmire (SAN) is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State. He said the passion to improve the lot of the people of the State has spurred him to contesting for the office of governor. SEYE OLUMIDE reports.

Motivation to run for Ondo governorship race
Apart from Lagos State, the richest Southwestern state in terms of mineral resources, human capital and opportunities is Ondo. The state has no basis not being able to pay salaries if its resources are being properly harnessed. Unfortunately, that has not been done and my attitude to it is that government must be run like a business. Government business does not make profit, because if you go into governance with the aim of making profit then you are never going to do anything but you must run it like a business; in other words in effective and efficient manner in the sense that every five kobo that you put, there is a goal to be achieved.

For example, I have looked at Ondo State; what have we done in the last six, seven years? We have taken money from FAC because we are an oil producing state, so we rely heavily on derivation. That is what we have been spending. What is the IGR of Ondo State? It can’t even pay salaries. But does Ondo State have the potential to do so? The answer is yes. We have got oil, we got bitumen, we have got cocoa, we got timber, we got cashew, we got cassava; name any cash crop, it grows in Ondo State.

So, why has anybody not sat down to say how do I generate enough IGR so that at least from your IGR you are able to pay your salaries? And what comes from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAC) is for development purposes and that is what Lagos State is doing! What you should be doing is to sit back and look for opportunities to increase revenue.

My party ticket
Even if in the APC we have 100 aspirants, there will just be one candidate. The reason APC have so many is because it is the platform that offers an alternative. For me, there are only two parties that can present candidates in Ondo State and they are the PDP and the APC. The only platform that is open is the APC, so you have people coming to it. My duty is to sell myself to the delegates that I have what it takes to win victory for the party.

I am in the APC not because of any personal gains but because I believe in the ideology that the APC preaches for which I have always subscribed to. Then I bring youth into governance. And like I said, governance must be run like an efficient company, but one that is not geared towards making profit and it is only people of my age think government should be run that way.

Zoning arrangement in the APC
On the issue of zoning, my party has said several times that there will be no zoning, that everybody should go into the primary, move to the field to go and campaign. This issue of zoning, I have always said it is a latter day introduction into the political space of Ondo State. If there were zoning in Ondo State some of the people who were governors would not have been governors. Even if there are people to agitate it should be the South and the Central, but I don’t believe in that. My party said no zoning. Let the best person win!

Why I will win APC primary
Like I said before, I bring youth, I don’t have baggage and I come from an exceedingly respected political family. My father was a politician from 1952. You ask people who have interacted with me as a lawyer, I am straightforward and I am very honest, even if I say it myself. I have also gone round the state and I don’t know of any aspirant that is not taking Adeniyi Adegbonmire seriously.

My godfather figure in APC
My godfather is God himself because with God all things are possible. That is my answer to that.

My relationship with APC leadership
I am sure you followed the Republican primary in the USA. They say Donald Trump is the presumed party candidate, the party leaders say we don’t want him and they have been working against him openly.

Any aspirant that says he is disengaging himself from the party leadership is not a party man and it is a dangerous trend because where you have a governor that doesn’t believe in party supremacy, it would be difficult to pull back such governor when errors are being committed. So I subscribe to party leadership.

Chances of APC defeating the PDP in Ondo
I wouldn’t want to say the election is already a walkover for the APC, No! What is certain is that going by the current political trends in Ondo State, I am confident that whosoever becomes the APC candidate would win the governorship election.