Oluwole Oke is a member of the House of Representatives, representing Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency. Oke, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, spoke with a private radio station in Osogbo, Rave FM. Exerts:
After months of suspicions, you finally announced your resignation from the PDP. What pulled you out of the party?
I decided to leave the PDP. I was part of the foundation members. I contested and won elections back-to-back in the party, but after making consultations with my people, and with my constituents, I had a series of meetings to appraise the situation of our party at the state and national levels; we came to the realization that it was time to quit. As I speak to you, if anybody obtains a form to aspire to the office of Governor, President, Senate, or House of Representatives, if (Sunday) Udo-Okoye signs your form and the other person says no, he is the secretary, where do you go from there? That is the major issue. Another issue is about the growth and development of my constituents and constituency. I have won elections in the past simply because I was able to generate employment for our youths. I have also been able to have lots of projects for our people, but for how long will the national government continue to feed their enemy to their detriment? So, the growth of my constituents and constituency is a major reason for me to want to partner with the national government. Don’t also forget that the incumbent President is our father, uncle, and brother, and we can’t allow him to be in government without supporting him. Recently, he (Tinubu) established a Federal University in Iragbiji; if you don’t know, my mother is from that local government. I am a prince from Iree town. What is the distance between Iragbiji and my local government, Obokun? We are neighbours. As a matter of fact, the university site is just behind our community in Obokun. So, imagine the downstream opportunities and benefits that the university will bring to our people. I sponsored a bill to establish a Federal College of Agriculture in Ijebu-Jesa but it was not assented to. I have also proposed that Uncle Bola Ige should be honoured but how would that see the light of the day? You should ask yourself, would you empower your enemy? So this and many more that we can’t say in public are the reason I left the party, but those are largely the major issues. I am from a rural area and I don’t pretend. We are very industrious and we are giving the entire world our best. There is what is called the Federal Character principle enshrined in our constitution. It is not about employment alone. It is also about infrastructure distribution. There must be equity. Is it wrong for me to clamour after almost three years out of the first term of Governor Ademola Adeleke to beg him to look at the situation of our infrastructural decay in Obokun/Oriade?
Go to Esa-Oke, look at the road linking the town to Imesi-Ile and Oke-Imesi. Look at the road linking Ijebu-Jesa to Iwoye to Esa-Odo to Ilare, go to Ijebu-Jesa to Ere to Ibokun to Ada-Owode and Ada. After that, come back to Oriade and check the road from Ikeji to Ogotun and the road from Ikeji-Ile to Arakeji; you will cry at their state. These are the roads that I used to blackmail APC to get our people to vote for PDP in 2018 and 2022. The last time those roads were rehabilitated was during Baba Akande’s government. We are human beings and not animals. Is it out of place to ask for potable water? I have been in the parliament for almost 18 years. I am a lawyer and a developmental economist. It is the private sector that feeds the government, and how do you get money from the private sector? It is through their tax levies. So, if you collect all that money and you now have to share it, why should we be left behind? So, if I cannot get those things fixed by my state even after getting money from the federation account, won’t I go and look for succour elsewhere? Why won’t I go to where I can get help? Ultimately, I am also aging, and each time I raised this issue, they reduced it to the House of Rep contest that I have contested six times and lost once. For clarity of purpose, I know how to win my elections, even when they decided to make me a sacrificial lamb to fight their war. I can win my election and the worst that can happen is for me to fail. I have had an election where I lost and I came back. I have a second address. I am a member of the organised private sector. I’ve been in business for more than 35 years. So, we should be able to place the issues. The issue is that my constituency has been sidelined by Governor Adeleke’s government and I noticed this from day one. When we came into power in 2022, he set up a transition committee and excluded me. People were telling lies then that I gave former Governor Gboyega Oyetola N250m to clear the state for me. They raised serious issues that lacked merit. I bought 54 Sienna cars to campaign for Governor Adeleke but they claim I did not brand them with the picture of Governor Ademola Adeleke. Go and check out, my constituency procured the third-best result. It was on that basis he gave one of us, Mayowa Adejorin, the commissioner slot, having given us the federal constituency slot. So, the major issue is what is Wole Oke’s crime?
Anybody you see with me, you take them as enemies. Traditionally, there is no governor that did not appoint an Esa-Oke indigene as a board member of the OSCOTECH Governing Council, but because it’s Wole Oke’s place, they didn’t. So, rather than having a personal altercation with the governor, I decided to quit.
Why did the party conflict resolution fail to the point of you taking this decision?
The question should be answered by the PDP at the national level. At the state level, the party has no problem. Elder Sunday Bisi is my brother. We have been together for over 40 years. I don’t have any problem with him. He loves me and I love him. There are leaders in the state executives of the party who are my people but there are cracks at the national level. We have to be pragmatic. I don’t deceive myself. In the PDP over the years, four key states financed our election and party — Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta, and Bayelsa; where are they now? What is happening there? If a sitting governor of Delta State and the entire family of PDP could make up their minds that they are leaving because of the crack in the party at the national level, what about me from just a constituency?
It’s a fact that the PDP gave you a platform in the House of Representatives for close to 18 years now. Is it safe to say the party made you who you are?
That is wrong. You don’t even know me or my background. I have lived in Abuja for 36 years.
I mean, in politics, sir?
You are saying in politics. Human beings develop a party. I developed the party. Go and find out. My constituency traditionally is the base of the progressives. Let me tell you this for free, the home of APC in Osun State is Oriade and Obokun local governments. It takes a lot of effort to win an election in those places. I go the extra mile to win elections in those two local governments. Go and check the statistics. Naturally, those two local governments are APC’s home. I have to sow heavily to give PDP victory. I didn’t come into politics in penury, without sounding immodest. Go and check my pedigree. So, if some people are just talking, you know, I speak to issues and I challenge anyone to come out and contradict what I’m saying.
Don’t you think people will say after using the PDP, you resigned?
Stop using that word. I am a founding member. When we were founding the PDP in 1999, where were those saying I used the party?
Forgive me for the choice of words; you have been in the PDP since 1998, and you are a six-term lawmaker under the same platform; don’t you think some would say your action is treacherous?
How? Even with all the facts and issues that I have laid down? How can anyone say it’s treacherous? Put yourself in my shoes now. Politics is about interest and service to the people. Do you think I am looking for money to pay my children’s school fees? No. It is about how to render good service to my people and my constituency. What will be the purpose of being in parliament and you cannot get your youths employment into Federal Government agencies when the state does not have the capacity to employ them?
Are you sure people in your constituency are happy with this move?
I don’t argue with people on such issues. You wait until we conduct our next election. I will be able to give you statistics of what will happen in the next election. I give you, for example, PDP will not get 500 votes out of close to 9000 votes in Esa-Oke. Take that to the bank. I can also tell you the results in other places. In Ikeji Arakeji, Owenna, Dagbaja, Ipetu-Ijesa, mark my words, PDP will struggle to get 1,000 votes if they are on the ballot. Write it down, and if the statistics fail, I will quit politics.
There are reports that PDP in Ijesa North said they are not with you, why are you so confident?
I know those people who are working with the governor and honestly, because we sweat and laboured to put the government in place. So, as a Commissioner or Special Adviser or Chairman of a Board, if they converge and say this is their position, let them converge; it is their entitlement, and I will leave them to enjoy the same. In Obokun/Oriade, we have close to 80,000 votes. The totality of the people in government now from Obokun as at the last count is about 11, with their total earnings per month less than N10m. In Oriade, they are fewer, and let me put their earnings at N10m also. That’s N20m in total per month. That is the money we spend on paying children’s school fees. Is that what they will use for the election in Ipetu-Ijesa? You wait and see what will happen in Ipetu-Ijesa. I’m giving you an expo which I should not even tell you, but I’m telling you now, so, they can prepare ahead.
There are conflicting reports regarding your impact on your constituency. While some hail you to the high heaven, some say that you have no legacy projects. What is your reaction to this?
Have you heard of the Nigeria Air Force Safety Institute in Ipetu-Ijesa? It took the grace of Air Marshal Petinrin and myself and with the support of Senator Iyiola Omisore, to bring that institution there. What we asked for then was just a secondary school but Air Marshal Petinrin counseled me that it was not possible to have a secondary school in that locality without an institution that would require the services of that secondary school. It is on record that President Umaru Yar’Adua approved the Arm Forces Games Village. It is two in one. Armed Forces Games Village and Armed Forces Training Institute. I bought the traditional community chiefs in that place 10 vehicles and gave them money for them to relinquish part of that land to us. Yes, it is not functional, but don’t forget that I left Parliament when that place should have been fixed. Now, that I am back in parliament, I am making all efforts to make sure the project comes alive. That is why I told you that you cannot continue to feed your enemies. I cannot be in the opposition and continue to bring programmes that will suppress their growth in my constituency.
Is there anything that you are not telling us as regards the grouse you have with the leadership of the party?
When I did this project, it was the PDP in government.
Are you saying it’s hard as a lawmaker to bring development to your constituency while the government at the national level is not your party?
It’s a major issue. If you are in the opposition, go and feed your enemy.
