Ekiti
State Governor (Left) Ayodele Fayose paying an unscheduled visit to a
former governor of old Ondo State, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua
A former Governor of the old Ondo State, and a chieftain of the All
Progressive Congress, Evangelist Bamidele Olomilua, in this interview
with Vanguard, spoke extensively on many topical and controversial
issues.
Read excerpts below;
On President Buhari’s method in reining in Niger Delta militants, as against the pacifist method of former President Jonathan:
Self discipline is what can take a man to where he wants to go.
Self denial and self discipline are very important in the life of
individuals, and a nation should have discipline, we can’t continue like
this. If PDP had continued for another five years to 10 years, we would
have been in trouble, there may have been no country anymore.
So there comes a time when people must stand up and say, who are
mine, where am I and how far am I going? Buhari is a man who is well
known for his disciplinarian pattern of life and he wants to apply it to
governance. He has the boldness and self discipline to say let us
discipline this nation.
So, must we be so afraid of those who break pipes, so that there
can be stability? Do you bring stability by breaking all those things
that the nation spent so much money on? I don’t think so. Discipline is
necessary in the life everybody. Chief Awolowo said two things affected
his life, the grace of God and self discipline, if you don’t discipline
yourself and your government, you would be afraid.
Look at the way we bring our children up, some children are
pampered, they can’t face life or their own reality. It is better we
face the situation squarely and it will reach a point where people would
accept the fact that some people are in charge. I think that even the
bible, says spare the rod and spoil the child, we need discipline.
On PDP’s allegation that the anti-graft war is selective and an attempt to muzzle the opposition:
I don’t think so. Discipline is discipline. Even when the PDP is
complaining that the President is going after their chieftains and
defying court orders to keep them behind bars? But the PDP chieftain put
their hands into the cooky jars of the nation. We would all become
wretched if we distribute it just as we like. $2.1 billion was
distributed to people when Boko Haram was having a field day
slaughtering our people.
The situation was so bad, no discipline, no purposeful pursuit of
goals, everybody got what he wanted, they were all struggling to get the
bigger pie and Boko Haram was making mince meat of our soldiers, just
because the money meant for the purchase of weapons disappeared into
some peoples pocket. There is so much revealed and disgraceful, now we
cannot abuse anybody who says order must be restored. I think this is
what Buhari is doing to restore order.
On claims that the APC was not prepared for governance:
The formation of APC is a landmark in the political development of
this nation, the party was made up of all Nigerians from every part of
the country. In those days, principally in the West, we were Action
Group, we couldn’t get votes from certain states in the north. Things
are changing, you may not know it. They are changing so fast here, they
are going to reduce the number of beggars in the streets in the north,
so that every child would have opportunity, that is progress. They all
have the opportunity now, to be who God wants them to be, when they are
exposed to education and they have a right to it. Progressiveness means
people moving forward to a higher ground to have a better view of
situation.
That is a progressive movement. But when you say conservative, we
are here, my grandfather was the Emir of this village, only my children
can have access to land, only my children can do things here. Some of my
classmates I met at the University of Ibadan were either sons of emirs
or prominent persons. When you go to England, you would find them in the
same situation. So they didn’t want a change but now the progressives
have come together. It is a landmark achievement, the people are able to
come together, you may say that they are not as fast as they ought to
be in taking decisions. We thank God that he has made these progressive
to come together so that this nation can move forward.
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