How has the campaign being so far and how has your campaign strategy being?
The campaign so far has been going on smoothly. The All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party has been putting all it needs in place to make sure we emerge victorious and we are confident that Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola will become the next administrator of the state succeeding Ogbeni Aregbesola who has laid a solid foundation in the state. He has helped us not to be a failure; he has conferred on us the credibility which has enabled us to talk about continuity to the people unlike other people who are pathological failure. We have come in and showed the people of Osun the clear difference between pretenders and showed what government is all about. This development must not be retarded; reversed continuity is the way out for the people of Osun. The people of Osun who showed us love and understanding will continue also to support us to give us votes to continue.
As at this morning, the people of the state of Osun have said they do not want a new starter who will come and destroy the achievements of this present administration. They want a situation where what we have done continues. Who in the whole world will like to replace bad governance with good governance? Who in the whole world will like to replace the people who are dogged in failure with those who have been successful in their dealings? The outgoing administration has taken the people of Osun to a wonderful position. The minister of education came here few weeks ago and applauded Aregbesola in the area of education that his own approach to education is unparallel In the entire country and we know the people of Osun are not fools, they are also saying what that minister said and they will go too far to ensure that there darling party wins.
How has the party dealt with allegations raised by opposition?
In time like this, you see those who cannot successfully manage their homes telling you that they want to manage the affairs of a country. You see liars, you see people with no enviable background. You see people who have been called veteran aspirants still talking as if they have the magic to turn things around, meanwhile, they have been rejected by the people of Osun . So what will they want to say? Is it about the school built so far? Something that the United Nations regarded as wonderful or are you talking about the school feeding program which the country has taken as its policy including some states. Even at the international level, Aregbesola has been applauded. Is it about the relative peace we are enjoying in the state which was not there in the past. Security has been beefed up by the assistance of this administration. These are things we are saying must continue, so that the issue of the state of Osun will not be like that kind of person who has seen the promise land and failed to reach there.
The salary issue is in the mouth of the so called never do well people , the opposition basically, because that’s the only thing they have said they want to come and do. Have you heard them to even talk seriously about Agriculture which Aregbesola has made easier for farmers? Are they talking about employment in the state which this government began with the removal of thousands of people from the streets of Osun through OYES and many of them have gone abroad to advance their careers, many are in the civil service, teaching, health sector.
They have no plans other than going to Abuja take money, pay the money they have to pay to workers and then go ahead to do party, play golf and carry women of easy virtue. We are serious government. We have showed it and we want it to continue. The issue of salary is known to everybody in the country. When Aregbesola came, was there protest before he was paying on the 25th of every month? Did anyone protest before he increased the car and housing loans and all that? The former governor before Aregbesola took over was giving out N150m every month to pensioners, now Aregbesola has increased it to N500m to help reduce debt and the pain of our senior citizens. Before the economic crisis that hit the country, Aregbesola has been paying salaries as and when due. The issues of half salaries was agreed to by all the stakeholders and I mean the civil servants, the labour generally, teachers union and the government headed by veteran labour leader, a respectable personality in Alhaji Hassan Sumonu.
They sit down every month to look at what comes into the coffers of the state and what they, because the options were either we pay this way or we sack to reduce the staff strengths. It was unanimously agreed that sacking people will not be the answer, let us retain them and still pay whatever that comes in. Was that the fault of Aregbesola? Definitely no, and this continued as the economy improved? Yes, this happened few months ago over intake here increased and the government was generous enough to pay full salaries to everyone. Before then, nobody was owing the vulnerable workers that is level 1 to 7 because they know the full salaries of this people is not enough not to talk of bringing it to half. This are issues that they can’t take to the market. They are trying to fool Osun people but Osun people are more educated than them.
How will you gauge the mood of the electorate?
The electorates are happy with us from the survey we have carried out, that is why I am sounding confidence that there’s no hanky panky, no vote buying, no cheating, no rewriting of results which INEC didn’t supervise, no snatching of ballot boxes. We have confidence in INEC. They have put in place a full prove arrangements to make this election go very smoothly. You need to now see the kind of mammoth crowd that attends our rallies. What we have been having so far have been wonderful. This shows that people are still with us.
Can you Predict the possible outcome ?
The APC is on top, probably followed by SDP and lastly the PDP. Though the margin will not be that so wide but victory is victory. We are not saying, we will defeat them with a wide margin but it will be better than 2014.
