Professor of Business and Entrepreneurship from Kwara State, Muritala Awodun, has said it was God that saved a former Governor of the state, Dr Bukola Saraki, whom, he said, dined with the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a short spoon. He also spoke about his ambition for a Senate seat, in this interview with Mansur Aramide

You have been a business economist, an entrepreneurship educator, and a revenue and institutional management consultant, with 36 years of work experience that cut across private and public sectors. How have all these helped you in impacting your society?

I have been privileged to serve in public service, first at the Lagos State University, Ojo between 1999 and 2009, thereafter, at the Kwara State University, Malete between 2009 and 2019 between when I was on leave of absence for four years, to serve the Kwara State Government in the capacity of Executive Chairman of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) from October 2015 to September 2019.

Those 20 years of working in public institutions were preceded by almost 10 years of private sector experience in banking (at GTBANK), other financial institutions, and private business (1990-1999), and another six years of private sector consultancy services so far (from 2019 to date).

With your experiences in these various fields, one would expect you to begin to slow down, but you’re still aspiring for a seat in the Senate.

I am aspiring to represent the people of Kwara South Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for two reasons.

The first is because we lack impactful representation in Kwara South at present, and our people are clamouring for better representation. Also, in line with the underlying zoning arrangements, the Ibolo axis of Offa and Oyun Local Government Areas (LGAs) has spent a total of 12 years at the Senate, so it is the turn of the Igbominas, and I am an Igbomina man from both Irepodun and Isin Local Government Areas of Kwara State.

What we have presently is tantamount to absentee leadership with no positive impact. Our people are suffering in silence in abject poverty and insecurity. There is so much distance between the people and the representatives, with the absence of empathy towards the people and their predicaments.

The people have been exploited and neglected to wallow in their pains, poverty, and penury with no hope in sight. There is a complete disconnect between those representing the people, as they have become the lord and master of the people they are supposed to be representing.

The second perspective has to do with the fact that I am contesting on the platform of PDP, and to me, that is intentional. In Kwara State, the PDP as a party has been there for the people in and out of power. While in power, the PDP made significant impacts on the lives of the people of Kwara State with landmark achievements to point to.

I was a part of the actualisation of the dreams of making Kwara State University a reality. That University is not only standing tall today as a success story but blazing the trail in so many aspects.

I was not only involved as a lecturer in the University from inception in 2009, but was the founding Director of the first Centre for Entrepreneurship in any public university in Nigeria at KWASU in 2009.

I also served as the founding Dean of the School of Business and Governance at KWASU, creating various postgraduate programmes in business, entrepreneurship, accounting, finance, and management (2013-2015).

After this, I was appointed by the state government to assist in reforming the revenue service of the state by bringing to reality the dream of the government of Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed to change the people, process and technology (PPT) of revenue administration in the State. We thus created the KWIRS and, within four years, standardised the revenue administration dynamics of the state, moving the IGR from N7.2b in 2015 to N30b in 2019 (without any increase in taxes) when I completed my tenure. This was another milestone by the PDP Government.

How can you reconcile these achievements with the Otoge Movement that swept the PDP away in 2019?

The Otoge Movement was based on political opportunism, propagandist and character assassination targeted at taking power away at all costs from Dr Bukola Saraki, who had gone to dine and wine with the APC without a long enough spoon, and when they were done using him to achieve their purpose, they descended on destroying him. But you know, he who is with the Lord cannot be destroyed. In Kwara, they ended up destroying themselves, as you can see. The greatest beneficiary of the entire Otoge Movement ended up dealing with all the perpetrators, including the electorate. Today, there is no major actor of the movement that has not fallen out with the major beneficiary. Like the Yoruba say, ‘Olorun kiisi leyin alabosi’. ‘Alabsosi amalowo, alabosi amakole, alabosi amabimo, sugbon atunboton alabosi konidara nigbeyin aiye won.’ The end of the treacherous is never good, no matter how good the beginning is. Just wait for it, because it is the principle of God that never fails. Everybody involved in that movement is full of regrets, whether they admit it or not. Yes, their purpose was achieved because God allowed it to teach all political participants a lesson, and it is only those who have learnt from it that will advance by retracting and retracing their steps.

But you served on the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that produced the Nigeria Tax Acts of June 2025. How do we reconcile this?

We make a lot of mistakes when we mix up politics with governance. This was part of the reason why, when I was the Dean of the School of Business and Governance at KWASU, part of what we created was the Department of Politics and Governance as opposed to the Department of Political Science that you find in other universities. I was at the forefront of distinguishing these things, just like Business and Entrepreneurship Department. Politics is different from governance. We play and practise politics based on parties and their ideological differences, but governance has no political barriers because it serves the interests of every citizen. So, I will give it to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, any day, anytime.

Asiwaju’s ability to differentiate between politics and governance stands out, and his efforts at reforming the fiscal landscape should be given the chance to mature. There are still grey areas, but as far as the rottenness of Nigeria is concerned, there is no messiah anywhere that can fix this country. We all have to join hands together immediately after politics to concentrate on governance, which is what will benefit the people.

Politics only benefits the politicians who prioritise their interests above those of the nation and its people. Whenever and wherever your expertise is required to serve the interests of the people, irrespective of your political alignment, I believe the onus lies on you to render that service if you truly love your country and its people.

What difference would you bring as you aspire to serve the people of Kwara South?

I bring my wealth of experience of 36 years that cuts across both private and public sectors. I bring my community and entrepreneurial orientation, which have been tested and can be trusted. I bring my desire for purposeful leadership with presence that will proffer a collective vision of community development of Kwara South. I bring not just hope for the future but an actionable developmental agenda that will resonate well with the people of Kwara South. I bring an agenda for peace, progress and prosperity for a Kwara South that we all can be proud of.

These are what I bring to the table as I go to serve the people of Kwara South in Kwara State, as their Senator come 2027 under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the special grace of God.

How would you assess governance in Kwara State since the Otoge struggle and the defeat of the Saraki dynasty?

The Saraki dynasty was not defeated but coerced out of power by the powers that be, using all the instrumentalities of the Federal might, negative propaganda (lies) and other political manifestations.

However, since 2019 in Kwara State, there has been ‘no governance’ that could meet the hype of the Otoge Movement that brought in the present administration. This is because worse than what the propagandists accused Saraki of doing has been seen on display in Kwara State, with the government in the pocket of one man. It’s a ‘one-man show’.

During the first four years of the Otoge administration, governance was practically reduced to ‘sole proprietorship’ with the executive arm of government lacking in the capacity to even maintain the administrative standard of the previous administration before them. The legislative arm, made up of mostly first-timers, was and still is a rubber stamp, which is not too different from what exists in most states of Nigeria anyway.

The government, lacking in know-how of governance, wasted the first four years fighting battles, known and unknown, particularly self-inflicted internal wrangling within the Otoge family. The scorecard of the first four years of the administration showed that rather than making progress, governance in Kwara State went to sleep amidst mediocrity.