The deputy governorship candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), in the November 16 governorship poll in Ondo State, Rotimi Adeyemi, in this interview with ADEWALE MOMOH, spoke on chances of his party, the election, and emerging local council autonomy.

How will you react to the impression that NNPP is not popular in the South-West, especially in Ondo State, to win any election?
Many of us are myopic about history, and more often than not, we forget what happens. In this state, before Dr Olusegun Mimiko became the governor, the parties we heard about in those days were AD, ACN, and PDP. There was no party like Labour Party (LP). But when Dr Mimiko felt cheated and decided to try his opportunity elsewhere, he pulled out of PDP, and today history can justify his decision. He won and had his two terms as the governor of the state.

What I’m trying to say is that, thank God NNPP is not a party that just came yesterday. It has been in existence for a long time, and today we have an incumbent governor and ex-governors in our fold, senators, House of Representatives members, and local council chairmen, among others.

When Mimiko was contesting, LP did not have structure anywhere, and they won. And going by last year’s presidential election, when Peter Obi came and said he wanted to be a presidential candidate of LP, what they told him was that there was no structure, but he surprised them in Lagos State, which is the home state of the current President of Nigeria. So, what are they talking about? NNPP is a household name and has a state like Kano.

We are saying that in this state, people have not been taking cognisance of NNPP, but we are bringing it into the limelight with Hon. Gbenga Edema and Rotimi Adeyemi, and they will see how the wonder will flow.

Are you saying your party is strong enough to spring surprises in the forthcoming election?
You are saying the obvious. I told you of a party that came from nowhere and won the election. Two things stand for the party, the pedigree of those who carried the governorship flag of LP then, and that is the same thing we are having in NNPP. Whether you like it or not, the standard-bearer of NNPP, Hon Gbenga Edema, is a household name in Ondo State. Some people have not even met him one-on-one, but they have heard about him, whether when he was in the legislature, OSOPADEC chairman, or in the NDDC.

Following him is his deputy, who just retired from the service of Ondo State. I can tell you to go to any local government in the state and any ward where there is a health facility and mention Rotimi Adeyemi. It is a household name. So, it is a combination of good pedigree from the political frame and a grassroots mobiliser, Rotimi Adeyemi, who has been so involved in grassroots politics of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE).

To ice the cake, I am from Akure, and they have neglected us in the permutation of elections in this state. Let us go back to the last election of 2020 and look at the voting pattern. You will see that Akure South alone had over 50,000 voters. That is, those who were accredited and voted at the last governorship election. Ifedore has about 25,000 voters, and Akure North has over 22,000. When these three are put together, it is about 100,000.

In Ondo State today, for any candidate to win the governorship election, all you need is about 300,000 votes, because if you go to other local governments, Idanre has about 15,000; the four local government areas in Akoko do not match up with what Akure has. I studied in Idanre. All who are in politics in Idanre today are my colleagues and my contemporaries, and many of them are even rooting for me. By the time we aggregate all these, you can see how good NNPP is in Ondo State. I can assure you that come February 2025, we will be in the Government House. However, the election will not be decided by the popularity of the party or money but the pedigree of the candidates.

As a former member of NULGE, do you think the Supreme Court judgment is good enough to make local council governance better?
We thank God for the judgment of the Supreme Court. It is a noble decision from the apex court, and it has actually come to corroborate what we believe in NNPP, that local government autonomy is sacrosanct to the development at grassroots level.

We are happy with the judgment, and it will form a cornerstone of our administration because it is one of our cardinal points. We are going to grant full autonomy to our local governments, and we will allow them to operate freely. We will not involve or indulge in pilfering their finances. We will also support them to achieve more because if people at the grassroots are happy and have means of livelihood, it will be better for the development of a state and the nation.

We are glad that the Supreme Court has given us the ground to leverage and work on.

What will you say about the decision of the Ondo State government that went ahead to inaugurate transition committees for the 18 local councils and 33 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) despite court judgment against it?
It is quite unfortunate that our learned silk Olukayode Ajulo (SAN) can come out and say it is the constitutional right of a governor to dance on a judgment of the State High Court. The Ondo State High Court 2, presided over by Justice Adebusuoye, gave a judgment that the 33 LCDAs are illegal, and by virtue of the instrument that brought them into being, it was set outside in the state, so it is invalid. So, anything done by any government that is against the judgment amounts to contempt of court.

The Ondo State government was aware that the Supreme Court would give judgment the very day they announced the transition committees for those councils and LCDAs.  I don’t expect the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney-General of the state to wrongly advise the state on that matter, it is unfortunate. If the Ondo State government had not joined issues with the judgment, we could say fine, but they have joined, so we don’t know the right they are talking about now. Section 7 of the Constitution is sacrosanct. I don’t know where Ajulo got his.

Going by the bill before the National Assembly seeking establishment of an electoral body for elections in local councils, do you think this is the way to go?
The National Assembly has taken a step further by sending a bill that has gone through the first reading that they should create a National Local Government Electoral Commission (NLGEC). By the time it goes through the second and third readings and is signed into law, this body will now be responsible for conducting elections in the local governments.

The truth is that if state governments are allowed to continue to conduct elections for local government in their states, it is as good as ratifying their candidates because they have been suppressing and oppressing the opposition parties.

Don’t you think local council chairmen will fairly manage allocations that will be sent to them directly?
The truth about it is that when we have a well organised local government, at the beginning of the year, they have what we call a budget, which covers what they intend to do for the year. Every kobo that comes to the local government has been adequately appropriated for in the budget. They know the expected amount they are expecting from the state, their own internally generated revenue (IGR), and other support services that will come. So, all this money is put in the estimate.

If the budget is implemented as expected, there won’t be room for embezzlement and misappropriation. We have local government auditors, both internal and external, that look into the books of the local government to ensure that councils follow their budget as approved. But when there are issues, they will tell them to come and explain where the money has gone. And if they suspect corruption, the House of Assembly can also question them. So, the checks and balances are there.

Considering the fact that elections in Nigeria are expensive, do you think NNPP has the financial muscle to favourably compete with other parties in this election?
Money is not the ultimate, it is the individual that will put the money to use. NNPP has productive money, not electoral money. Productive money is the money that we need to mobilise, sensitise, educate, and bring people’s consciousness to their voting power. That is, their tomorrow is determined by their fingertips. If they wish to mortgage their tomorrow for another person who will offer them N10,000, which will not last them three or four days, it is left to them.

Often, they don’t know the implication. What we are doing is to educate them that they should not mortgage the future of their children and our development. Our cornerstone is that everybody should be educated.
When we get to government, education shall be free from primary to state-owned universities because being educated is a right.

What will you do differently as deputy governor if your party wins the election on November 16?
The first thing I will do differently is that I will give my principal, Hon Gbenga Edema, 100 per cent loyalty because his success is our success. We have seven cardinal objectives that we are out to sell to our people for total transformation of the state.