Hon. Abimbola daramola, representing Oye/Ikole Ekiti North Federal Constituency of Ekiti state. He is known for his fearless stance on issues. During the oil subsidy saga, he moved a motion to investigate claims by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON)that 140.9 billion Naira (about US$1 billion), owed by Zenon Petroleum and Gas Limited and Forte Oil Plc as a result of fuel subsidy scam had been paid . Daramola is a strong grassroot politician who understands Ekiti politics inside out. He is the chief strategist for Governor Kayode Fayemi re-election. In this exclusive interview with The Complete News, Daramola bares speaks on the next month governorship election in the state,excerpt:
The governorship election in the state is less than a month. What are the chances of Governor Kayode Fayemi returning back to the government house?
The current struggle between Governor Kayode Fayemi and Hon Opeyemi Bamidele and Ayo Fayose as regards the governorship contest is a case of corporate aspiration versus personal aspiration and I have looked at history, I have never seen where personal ambition has overridden a corporate aspiration. This is basically a case of the Ekiti people because we are not talking about Governor Fayemi as the head of Fayemi’s family or Hon Opeyemi Bamidele as the head of Bamidele’s family. We talking about a 3million people. You will expect that the 3million Ekiti people will be inclined in the direction where the corporate destiny is protected.
What do you mean by corporate aspiration and personal ambition I what to believe you are alluding to Hon Opeyemi Bamidele and other aspirants?
If someone wants to run for a governor and all he can say is that Governor Fayemi has offended him and people have asked him, tell us what the governor did and he has not been able to articulate atleast to the Nigeria people what the governor has done for him.
Cut in.. But he said he was aggrieved because the party did not provide level playing ground for aspirants
Who told him not to contest? Wait a minute, has the party set a modality for primaries before he preempted the party and defected to another party .Then what are we talking about
But the leadership of the party had already endorsed the governor for the second term
That was the perception. If we are going to send two children on an errand, and one had been sent the message before and performed very well and brought a feedback. Another one said let me go and deliver the same message and people say why not allow the person who had delivered satisfactorily before to deliver this again because he now has a prime understanding of the course. This is a journey this one had walked before but you have never walked on that part and so there is no time for trial by error. I mean, if you have a car and you are taking your car to mechanic A and he has done wonderfully well, fixing all the problems and another mechanic shows up and says try me, he has not worked on any vehicle before would you entrust you car to him?.
But Opeyemi has several years of experience in public service, remember he served as commissioner for many years in Lagos and now a serving member of the House of Representatives.
Wait a minute, are we sending someone into the House of Representatives?. Are we talking about a commissioner here, or you want to equate the position of a governor to that of a commissioner.
They are all public service experiences but in different capacities.
You cannot expect someone who has been driving keke Marwa (tricycle) to now say I will jump into a trailer. Definitely they are driving something but not the same thing.
This person you referred to as “Tricycle rider” ( Bamidele) in your analogy claimed that he brought the “trailer driver” (Fayemi) into politics:
God has not created anybody who is not dependent. God has not created an almighty man. Even if that happened, who made Opeyemi Bamidele? Who is he without Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. If you write a book about him and it is twenty chapters Asiwaju will take nothing less than 80% of Bamidele’s adult life.
But Bamidele has publicly declared that he has no issue with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and that nobody should ever create enmity between him and his politically benefactor.
If he is not having any issue with Asiwaju and when the former governor along other leaders came to Ekiti on the 25th of July, 2013 and said if he Opeyemi said I am the one supporting him now I have come to Ekiti to tell him to leave it.
If a man has been good to you for more than 80% of your life and have sharpened your life, you need to listen to him when he talks to you. Remove the asiwaju’s factor from the life of MOB and let see where he would be.He will be another lawyer on the street of New York. Does that not speak of the nature of MOB, Asiwaju has been gratuitous to him than what he claimed to have done for the Governor Kayode Fayemi.
In the last general elections, the same leaders of the party prevailed on him to shelf his senatorial ambition for someone else
Is he looking for senatorial position now, answer me.
I said then, because you just alluded to the fact that Michael Opeyemi Bamidele appears too ambition
I didn’t say he is over ambitious. Ambition is legal. He is entitled to his ambition. Nobody should fault any man with ambition. But it should be made of a standard stuff. He has a personal ambition and but what we have at hand now is a corporate aspiration. I am a member of House of Representatives for
God’s sake and I have keyed into that aspiration. The current Ekiti is not the Ekiti Fayemi inherited.
When a man gives 25,000 senior citizens N5,000 per month, no government has done that in Nigeria.
Ikogosi Warm Springs, one of the Ekiti’s flagship tourist resource centre had laid prostrate for 22 years Fayemi resuscitated it.
Over 10,000 young Ekiti people receive N20,000 per month as volunteer corps, 1,012 kilometers done in three and half years. Tell me if Ope becomes governor of Ekiti today, would he bring money from his pocket to do all those things.
May be he believes he can still do better than what the governor has done
Let wait and see. Everybody has said that show us what you want to do differently all he said was that I believe in prophecy and Fayemi has offended me.
Opeyemi should list the number of people supporting his ambition and we will compare it with the number of Ekiti who are in support of the corporate aspiration. There is a bigger picture, which is the interest of over 3million people.
It is greater than Kayode Fayemi , Opeyemi Bamidele, Ayo Fayose and other contenders. When an ambition runs against the corporate aspiration of the majority it is offensive. For instance there are six members of House of Representative in Ekiti including him and three senators. Why is it that he has not been able to win any of us to his side if is ambition is noble?.
Perhaps, may be you and your colleagues did not support him because you are seeking re-election in 2015.
Well, that remains a conjuncture, what is certain about 2015. Tomorrow is in the hand of God, no man can play the role of God. Who knows if Fayemi will be alive, God forbids, in 2015 before he will now make me to return to the House.
Don’t let us arrogate the power we don’t have to ourselves. This is not a proxy fight , ask Ekiti people, what has Opeyemi told you he wants to do. The day he declared, he (Bamidele) said, “I agree that Fayemi has done very well but I will do better. He should tell us how. When Jesus told the Pharisees that I will pull down the synagogue and rebuild in three days the people asked him how.
So if he becomes governor, he will bring money from Federal Reserves in United States or from his own pocket to fund what he said he want to do better. He should be able itemized what he plans to do for the people.
But Fayemi is not just coming to he will do it, he has done it! The veracity of the claims of a man is inherent in what he has done and not in what he says. And of course, you know they say talk is cheap. Anybody can say anything. If you watch this football matches, the best coaches are the one sitting in the comfort of their rooms. The best footballers are the ones sitting in the comfort of the room. They will say why you don’t play it like this and that. If they knew how to play the game they should be on the pitch.
