My plans for Oyo — Makinde

Engr. Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, is the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in the forthcoming election in Oyo State. In this interview, he reviews his chances and issues that will shape the election.Excerpts:
Whydid you defect from the PDP to the SDP?
Well, it is an open secret how the primaries in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), went. The party would not obey its own guideline and it wouldn’t also honour a court order regarding the delegates to elect the party’s flag bearer. So, when they wouldn’t do that and our people insisted that they were waiting for us, that they want us to have a platform for them where the hope of the generality of the people of Oyo would be realized, we then decided to move to the SDP to give that hope to our people.
What enticed you to the SDP?
Well, there is concept of Omoluabi in Yorubaland. And that is who we are and that is how we were brought up. We looked at the parties and all the available platforms and coming from this part of the country, and being Omoluabi ourselves, we looked at the promoters of the SDP in persons of Chief Olu Fale and Chief Segun Osoba. These are the men that have contributed immensely to the progress of Yoruba race. And they areOmoluabipersonified. And we discussed with them. They have vision for Yoruba and we share in their vision.
How do you intend to cover ground within six weeks to face those with public office experience?
Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde
Well, democracy is not about the positions you have occupied in the past. It is about the people. It is about the majority of the people and that is where we are going. We have listened to our people. We have heard them. We have given to them our programmes and our manifestos.
I believe that politics of Oyo State will be turned around and all these so called heavyweights, I think they are going to be shocked at the end of the day. This is because the decision of the people is going to be final. Actually the vote is going to count.
How would you popularize the relatively unknown SDP?
It is not all that easy. It is about educating our people. They know already what we stand for. I am not just coming into the political arena. I have contested in the past and we have been engaged with our people all these years. We are doing a lot to introduce the party. And of course the SDP was used as a political party in 1993. So, it is not something totally new. And people also recognize the fact that the freest and fairest election ever conducted in this country was won by the SDP. I will probably say, we have turned a full circle. But Oyo being a Pace Setter State, I will not be surprised that we are the one projecting this.
The reality is that the youth at these days are not really concerned about the party but about the candidate. So, once we have a large following from Omititun as a structure and they follow Seyi Makinde as a person, then all is well.
That is what they care. And remember most of our youths are not illiterate. They are even better at identifying symbols. I thought where we need to do a lot of work is actually with the elderly people.
Do you have candidates across board?
We had hectic time sieving candidates. There is no constituency where SDP is not fielding candidate in the state for the election.
What are your chances of winning as you are contesting with those who have done it before?
That is actually our strength because the people that have done it before, people have seen their limitation. And for us, we haven’t done it before, but we have done certain things that people have been able to see. And you can fool our people some of the time, you cannot fool them all the time. They are convinced where we are coming from.
They know what we have done privately. They know precisely our engagement with them. They know precisely that over the years, we listened to some of the issues within our communities.
What would you do different as governor if you eventually win?
Well, we have our manifesto and our campaign theme which we term ‘Operation HEAP. We are talking about Health care delivery. We are talking of making agriculture positive business in Oyo State and also weaning the state from over dependence on oil by projecting agriculture.
We have education. We all see the level of decay the infrastructure in Oyo State. We see students and pupils learning under a very difficult and unsafe condition. Dilapidated buildings here and there, non provision of material for the teachers.
And if you look at the WAEC result, Oyo State came last behind all the states in the South-West. If you go to Total Garden they made a fountain there which never works and to me, that is a half-hearted way of doing things. We will get all we have into doing all those things.
What are the factors you think would shape Oyo election in 2015?
I think the major factor is the personalities that are involved. I can characterize it for you. You have three of the candidates who are over 65 years old. You have two who are around 50 years old. I am 47 years old.
And one of those two has been tested as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and people have seen what he has done and what he didn’t do. And you have a personality that kind of stood out. I believe people would gravitate towards me.

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Good luck to him them... Mak story no change wen dey get der o