We’ll stop capital flight in Ekiti – Ajayi, Accord guber candidate

The Accord Party (AP) gubernato­rial candidate in Ekiti State, Mr. Kole Ajayi, in this interview with CHARLES ADEGBITE, in Ado-Ekiti, explained why he is in the gubernatorial race, challenges and his hope of winning the election and other issues. Excerpts:
How do you describe the present state of politics in Ekiti State?
The political situation in Ekiti State now is very worrisome. A situation whereby people are playing politics of do or die, politics of all or none. It is very worrisome. Three political par­ties in the state are having prominence through violence. When they say three major parties in Ekiti State, I always tell them that they are major because they are known for violence.
Accord is the only party that has a message, a clear message, a message that moves like a spirit into the hearts of the people. We sell our message peacefully, without any rancour. We are being attacked in some occasions by the All Progressives Congress (APC), because APC is a desperate party. While the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) are matching it with them in terms of violence, Accord remains very peaceful.
About three weeks ago, my billboard was destroyed at Aramoko-Ekiti. It was pulled down by one of the APC members in that town. He is very well known in that town. He is a member of Governor Kayode Fayemi’s Peace Corps. We reported to the police. The billboard is still there turned. I told the meeting of the Council of Traditional Rulers in Ekiti State, with Fayemi in attendance.
Sometimes ago our boys were beaten to stupor by APC thugs, who said they were members of signage agency. They couldn’t even produce their signage identity cards. They have been apprehended by the police too. It is not that we are not having our own shares of the violence too, but I just believe that it is high time our people know that politics is not about do or die. Ekiti State is the most homogeneous setting. We are all interrelated.
What is going on in Ekiti, is a battle of betrayal within three brothers. They are accus­ing one other of previous betrayals. All these crises are having electioneering at its melting point because the three of them are in the race. It is now time for vengeance. It is pay back time. That should not be, because if you want to govern, or you are governing, you govern over the living and not the dead.
By and large, I know that at the end of the day we would have peaceful election. We will have successful election, because it is an isolated election. An isolated election is always very peaceful because all eyes would be focused on Ekiti State on that day. I know that one-man-one-vote will also prevail.
How do you rate yourself and your party in the on going electioneering?
Our campaign is going on well. It is not about official rallies or making noise. The same crowd that was with them in Ado-Ekiti, is the one that move with them from one place to another. That is deceit. You will not be able to ascertain the number of people in that locality that will come and listen to you.
What we are doing presently is top-level consultations with various unions, associa­tions, community leaders and stakeholders. For instance, we have been to Efon Alaaye, Aramoko, Ijero, Moba, Ijero, Ilejemeje and Oye-Ekiti. We are going to other local govern­ment areas to talk to our people. And gradually, the rallies should be the meeting points. We don’t have to first be making noise. And in terms of awareness, our posters and billboards are all over the places.
Before the campaign started at all, at least for the past one or two years, I have been on a personal crusade on the need for a home-based government through our indigenous organisa­tion, the Ekitikoya. It was that crusade that dovetailed into bringing Accord to Ekiti State. So we have been selling the idea of home-based government, Tiwantiwa. It is now a phenom­enon. It is a serious issue that perverse the entire state.
I am happy that during the PDP primaries, a lot of aspirants jostling for the governorship ticket were home based started clamouring for home-based candidate. I should be congratu­lated. That means it is a thing that bothers Ekiti people.
Those making noise don’t know the strength I have. I have been living with the people. I have strong synergy with the people. That is why Kole Ajayi is known across the state. This is just to tell you that I am naturally structured. We thank God, we are not doing badly.
What do you have for Ekiti people?
We are giving them a home-based govern­ment. That is not negotiable. We will form a cabinet of people who are home based. Not those who will be spending all their weekends in Lagos and not accessible by the people. We want to put people who understand the problems of Ekiti in the positions where they can solve them. We want to ensure professional unions and associations nominate people into our cabinet. It is a kind of revolution we are bringing into governance. With that, we won’t be coming with policies that are alien to the people.
Bringing somebody from Ghana or UK, who left the shores of Nigeria since he finished sec­ondary school to come and govern Ekiti. Some­body who cannot even speak the dialect. That means there is a serious disconnect between the governed and the government.
Another area is to take governance, that is the seat of power, to the local level at least a week every month. We have realised that life outside Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, is like no life. We want to look at a way of taking government back to the people. That is why we have ad­opted the policy of “Down Town Government.”
The policy is about taking the seat of power away temporarily from Ado-Ekiti to a local government area for a week within a month. We will get there on Monday, stay in the houses built by their sons and daughters within the local government area. Within that week, we will be treating all the files that have to do with the needs and demands of that particular area. We cannot sit down in Ado-Ekiti and solve their problems effectively as one would do if one is closer to them.
On Saturday we will join them in attending some of their social functions like weddings, marriage, birthdays. On Sunday we will attend church service to God for the time well spent and achievements recorded. And return to Ado-Ekiti that Sunday. We will then superintend from Ado-Ekiti for another three weeks, plan­ning ahead for another local government area, and doing all other state functions.
Another area is industrialisation. Ekiti cannot boast of a single industry. I believe that this is due to degrading and the irresponsive policy of state government. If you can sell out all the machines in the Oodua Textile Industry and at the same time go ahead to start doing some unprofitable ventures like building a new Gov­ernment House, civic centre, pavilion and other projects that will add no economic value to an average Ekiti man, I think it is misplacement of priorities.
Our government will start our industrialisa­tion policy with the revitalisation of the textile industry, by ensuring that our farmers go into cotton plantation. This is because cottons grow well in Ekiti State. We will encourage them to go into its mass production, we will device a good storage system while we are talking to our foreign partners, investors, and other people that will facilitate the take off of such textile industry.
We would identify major agricultural prod­ucts in that area and establish industries that we source such materials from such agricultural products. For instance, in Ise-Ekiti axis, there are a lot of citrus fruits, we will establish fruit juice industry in that area. We will facilitate in­vestors and make it a tripartite arrangement. We will shift the economy of Ekiti from the table of the governor to a system-driven economy. And of course, the issue of unemployment that is already ravaging our youths will become thing of the past.
Our programmes will be holistic because our industrialisation policy will be linked with agricultural and educational policies. We want to develop our youths into vocational education. Apart from making education free from primary to secondary school, we’ll make technical education free. The existing technical education will be given a facelift. We will bring in modern equipment. This will dovetail into another state Polytechnic that will have purely technological curriculum. We will put in place skills acquisition centres in each local govern­ment area where anyone who wants to acquire skills, may be able to learn it free. We have to render these services as a government because I don’t have anybody to return Ekiti money to. I’m just a homeboy, I know where the shoe pinches.
What do you mean by, you don’t have anybody to return money to?
The problem with the present and the previ­ous administrations is that they have godfathers and friends. That is why we have huge amount of capital flights. The economy of Ekiti State is being carted away on daily basis to Lagos, Ghana, Port Harcourt, America and Abuja. And that is why an average Ekiti man is economi­cally decimated. All these things are as a result of government policies that are not in tandem with the economic aspirations of the people.
But you have Chief Rasheed Ladoja as your godfather, don’t you?
I don’t have a godfather. If we have a godfather in our party you will see us flaunting money here and there in this campaign. Our National Leader, Ladoja, believes in self help. And what he is raising is a revolutionary party for the masses. A party that will help the masses get out of poverty. We are more concerned about educational development, youth empower­ment through training and skills acquisition and emphasis on industrialisation. We will make sure that our educational policy is targeted towards achieving the industrial growth.
In the last three and a half years of the present government, it has been war with the teachers. That is why Ekiti is in 34th position in the pres­ent national school certificate rating.
The state that is known to be a fountain of knowledge, coming out with such a bad show. We are going to make sure we have compre­hensive qualitative education policy that will ensure that everybody in the education sector, all actors, the students, the principals, the teachers, the education officers, everybody will be highly motivated.
It is the basic responsibility of government to do roads, provide water and basic amenities, and that is why they are called basic. That means it is not something you have to celebrate. If you don’t provide them it means you are not work­ing at all and so don’t deserve to be there, in the first place. You don’t call them achievements when you do them.
That is why we are talking of key areas where we can improve the lives of our people, through solving unemployment problem, proper educa­tion, skills acquisition to empower our youths and the jobless, industrialization among others.