Former Secretary to the State Government during Senator Rashidi Ladoja’s tenure as Oyo State governor, Mr Ayodele Adigun, in this interview with CEOAFRICA bares his mind on national and state issues, especially the Niger Delta. Excerpts:

You have been quiet for a while, why is that?

There’s no problem, the situation in town do not call for too much noise making because Nigeria is in a dire state and we have been looking at what the government and people can do to get out of this recession.

The present government has blamed the past administration for recession, how would you react to this?

While we cannot outrightly exonerate the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government for the mismanagement of the economy, it is wrong to say they are solely responsible for where we are right now. We have something similar around 2008 and 2009; that was the world global meltdown, somehow, we were not affected, but this time around, beginning with the advent of the All Progressive Congress (APC) government, I don’t think they did the right thing.

Yes, the price of oil dropped and this brings me to the issue of the Niger Delta people. The strategy adopted in dealing with the Niger Delta militancy from 2015 is faulty. You cannot compare the militants with the Boko Haram sect. The force that you use to deal with the Boko Haram should not have been applied to Niger Delta militants for obvious reasons.

First, Boko Haram is fighting a religious battle though it doesn't make moral sense because they say we should not go to school; they want to introduce their form of religion. Besides, the North-eastern zone of the country is not contributing much to the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria.

We should not have applied that kind of force to the Niger Delta agitators because they are sitting on the wealth of Nigeria and any destruction definitely would affect the economy of Nigeria adversely and that is what we have been having.

For instance, the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo, a couple of days ago, said that we’re losing about a million barrels of crude a day because of the nefarious activities of Niger Delta Avengers. I think we should have adopted the carrot and stick approach to deal with the issue; a situation where we have allowed them to be vandalising pipelines is not ideal for our economy, giving that the price of crude oil is as  low as $35 per barrel. If you are losing a million barrel a day that translates to about $35m a day and multiply that by 30 that will give us a little above one billion dollars every month.

That is what we have been losing through their activities. But if you have adopted a dialogue approach or a carrot approach in dealing with them, maybe we wouldn’t have been losing that. Imagine if you have been getting a billion dollars every month that should have cushioned part of this economic problem that we are experiencing now. So, I think President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to retrace his steps to enter into genuine dialogue with the Niger Delta agitators.

There is so much talk about diversification of the economy. Fine, but it will not happen in a day.

Some school of thought are saying that the President does not have what it takes to take us out of recession. What do you think?

I’m amazed that we are in the 16th month of this administration already. 16 is one third of 48. You see, he should have used the first year to lay a solid foundation for the development of Nigeria, I am not saying that it’s not appropriate to go after treasury looters, but you chase treasury looters on the one hand, and on the other hand, you face the problem of the economy. It’s just about thinking of assembling an economic team; what should have been done within the first two months of his administration, he started after spending one third of the lifespan of his administration. The problem is with the slow pace of this administration, they did not hit the ground running as they promised. They are not proactive, they are just being reactive.

Do you think he has the capacity to take us out of the economic recession or will it get worse?

It depends on the quality of advisers and if he’s able to listen to them. The other time, he said he assembled some economist to advise him, he said they were talking over his head and nothing to his head, which is an implication that he doesn’t understand much of these economic issues they are discussing. Let’s pray that he listens to some of these advisers so that we can get out of the wood.

President Buhari recently invited the United Nations to negotiate with Boko Haram, is that a good step in the right direction?

I don’t know the problem they are having with Boko Haram. They cannot be as equipped as the Nigerian army. If they had applied all the resources at their disposal to deal with this Boko Haram issue, I think we should have overcome them long time ago.

Sixteen months down the line, how would you assess the government of President Buhari?

Well, I will rather talk about the Oyo State government where I can feel everything. You see, most of the states are in dire states, like in Oyo State, workers were last paid in March. This is September. So, workers, teachers and pensioners here are being owed six months salaries. I wonder how they cope at work. I wonder how they get to their places of work. The morale is not there; they are depressed and you cannot expect so much productivity when you have very, very low morale. Most of these workers are dying of hunger, they cannot pay their children' school fees, they live in penury. I went to Ife recently and the condition of that road is so bad. I wonder what is happening in Nigeria. Most of the roads are in very, very bad shape, no rehabilitation, no maintenance... So, for me, I will say the government has performed below par.

Would you say that the APC government has failed?

Well, to the best of my knowledge, if you ask nine out of 10 Nigerians, they will tell you that the APC government, so far, has not really come to the rescue of Nigerians. Maybe they will improve over the months, but to date, there is not much positive to write home about in their administration.

The Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, recently announced the addition of 35 LCDAs and the House of Assembly has approved it. What impact do you think this would do to the State as a whole?

You see most of our politicians are jesters, they are comedians of the highest grade, in Oyo State like I said earlier, the governor is yet to pay salaries of civil servants, teachers and pensioners for six months and you want to create more LCDAs, you see by creating LCDAs, you are expanding the frontiers of democracy... what we actually need at this point in time is actual development, not expanding the frontiers of bureaucracy.

Now, if you are creating 35 more LCDAs, you have 33 on ground, bringing them to 68 that means you have 68 chairmen, secretariats and by the time you would address the administrative issues, you will find out that the little money that is available will be spent on administration and not on the real development.

So, it’s a waste of time, but I don’t believe that he is serious with creating local governments, I don’t believe him. I doubt if he would go ahead because I don’t know where he would get the money to service them. He says he wants to conduct local government elections, I don’t know where he’s going to get the money from but I seriously believe that he’s just using the LCDA issue  as a distraction to the local government election.

Today, it is on record that Nigeria do not really have a strong opposition to actually challenge the ruling party, do you agree?

The PDP, to all the terms and purposes is a discredited party with the level of looting and unseriousness exhibited by past government especially under President Goodluck Jonathan. I don’t think any serious Nigerian will take that party seriously. So, the PDP is not capable of being the opposition party in Nigeria. What I foresee is the springing up of a third force, which will be very potent to challenge the dominance of the APC. As I said earlier, we have not seen much of APC performance, so we need a strong force that will address all these issues, definitely not the PDP because they are already discredited.

What is your party, Accord, doing as regards the state of affairs in Oyo State?

Very soon, we would have our congress. Accord would have easily won the election in Oyo State if not for some infractions. We have never had it so bad, I joined the civil service of Oyo State in 1978 and I retired as a permanent secretary in 2002. I served for about 25 years and never for once did I experienced salary delay. The worst we experienced was delay salary for maybe five to 10 days and then we pay. But now, six months, it has never happened in Oyo State. I asked some of my senior colleagues who are also retired. Some who joined the service in 1955, 1960 and 1965 if they experienced that kind of thing before I came in, they said No, that they never experienced that kind of delay in payment of salaries. The state of education is in shambles; go to any of these secondary schools. I was appalled the day I went to Loyola College and most of the classrooms had about seven to 10 desks and benches for about 70 students. The whole place is in shambles. Go to St Patrick, just go around secondary schools in Oyo State and you will see that we are not just there at all. Same thing in health and other ministries.

I live in Akobo, look at Akobo Olorunda Road, it’s a death trap. Look at Ologuneru Road: it’s terrible. Look at Apete Road; that one is nightmarish. Look at Akanran Road, terrible. Look at the Old Ife Road. The people are not feeling the impact of the government. Don’t forget that the state is more or less a civil service state. Most of the industries have folded up because of poor power supply. If you go to Oluyole Estate, the roads are bad; that is the industrial hub of Oyo State in Ibadan. Power supply is very poor.

Now, what is your party doing to keep the government on their toes?

You see, opposition will have a very hard work to do when the government is performing, but when the government is not performing, the opposition has little or nothing to do. Do I need to tell people living at Akobo that there is no government in Oyo State? They know already. Do I need to tell people living in Akanran Road that there is no government in Oyo State? They know already. Do I need to tell pupils or teachers or whoever in secondary schools that we don’t have a serious government? So, all these things are well known to them and I’m sure that they are regretting why they voted in the government in power.

But the Oyo government said he would conduct Local Government election?

No problem.

Will your party participate?

If he knows that it’s credible, we will participate and woe betide the fellow who want to rig that kind of election. You see, the people are charged now, they are enraged. There is so much suffering and poverty all over the place. So, if anybody tries to rig any election in Oyo State, it would be disastrous. We are ready if we are sure it’s going to be credible, but if it’s not credible, we will allow it to go. But I doubt if he will conduct any local government election, what we are waiting for is 2019, it’s less than two and half years.

Do you think your party have the chance...

Of winning? (cuts in)

Yes?

Like I told you, I’ve given you the preamble; the people now know that the APC government in Oyo State is no government at all. They know that they have been taken for a ride. So, definitely, PDP is definitely not on ground. I don’t think they won any seat in the House of Assembly. So, it’s only Accord that is a credible party that is on ground.

Some people said a single entity cannot take over the power from the ruling party, except there is an alliance. What happened to the alliance between the Accord and PDP?

There is no news. The news is very bony. You see our gates are wide open for them to come in. they know that PDP is standing on a very shaky ground even at the centre and in the state here too. So, they know that the place to go is Accord. We’ll be willing to accommodate them so they can join us in ousting the APC government in power come 2019.

What do you do to help in cushioning the present hardship?

I have some businesses and I’ve not laid off anybody. We are trying to forge ahead giving the limited resources. But you see, at times it’s very difficult to go through some of these businesses right now. For instance, I operate some hatchery in Ibadan. You know when you are operating a hatchery, you need power supply always, diesel now sells for N200 per litre and you don’t have power supply, but we are trying to cope. I’ve not laid off anybody. We are trying to forge ahead giving the limited resources we have, that is it.