Amplification Of ‘Big Ideas’, ‘Big Impacts’ ‘Unnecessary’…NNPP Now Most Popular Party In Kwara–Abdul Aiyelabegan

Alhaji Abdul Aiyelabegan is by all standards, a polished and a refined gentleman.

 He is contesting election for the third time since venturing into politics more than one decade ago, and interestingly, this had featured graduation from one level to another. He was at different times, a house of assembly candidate and a House of Representatives candidate.

This time around, Aiyelabegan is seeking to represent Kwara Central in the senate.

In this interview with Team@orientactualmags.com  Alhaji Abdul Aiyelabegan, who is the Kwara Central NNPP Senate candidate, asserted that he will take over Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe’s parliament seat this year, while also giving his take on sundry issues.

Read On:

The National Assembly and presidential elections will hold next month, you are the Kwara Central NNPP senate candidate, people have given their take on BVAS and submitted that   it will enhance electoral integrity. Do you think it’s a system that will actually motivate an average Nigerian to leave his or her house to vote on Election Day, believing that his or her vote will count?

 Yes, technology, as it is, enhances life and the way things are done. So BVAS, which is Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, is a component of electioneering that sanitizes election process. Because from experience, crisis occurs in electioneering when the integrity of voters’ accreditation gets questioned. We have witnessed fake voters, people that did not register in a polling unit casting votes in that polling unit. We’ve seeing people voting  at more than one polling unit in the past. So, with BVAS which has the features of automating the identification of registered voters. A lot of sanity has been brought into the election process. However,  is there the needed awareness for voters  to know  that their votes will count. So this is where a lot of orientation has to be done. The ministry or parastatal in charge of national orientation has to increase efforts to complement the efforts of INEC in this regard. With that process done, a lot of sanity will be brought into the system. And from what we have seen, the BVAS itself is being put to the test in Osun State. I think it’s doing very well. 

This is not the first time you’ll be contesting election, this time around, you’re the NNPP Kwara Central Senate candidate and you’re competing with people who some have described as political heavy weights, talking about Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and Mallam Saliu Mustapha. Do you think you have a high chance of winning this election?

 Yes, I and my party have a very good chance of winning this election. Because from inception we have propagated the concept of candidacy above partisanship Even as far as  back 2011 when we had the first election that I participated in, the ACN was new in Kwara State. We propagated it. So it was  our personalities  that we put forward ahead of the party and that was why then, you would recall, that it  was believed by many  that we won the election. But what we’ve not been able to do  at that time was to be strong enough to be able to  stop the rigging machineries of the people in positions of authority in  those days. So for my two major opponents that I have now, the two of them put together are not as strong as even the opposition we had in 2011 when we won, and our mandate was stolen. Bukola Saraki was in power then, and he even came out himself to campaign for my opponent and told the electors  that he was the one that was  contesting and they should vote for my opponent. It was a rerun because they just had to look for a way to help themselves. We did the rerun  and they did what they wanted.

Take it or leave it, here in Nigeria, money plays an important role when it comes to electioneering and winning elections, and you have two among your co-contestants being a former minister, and a big spender and you still asserted that you will defeat them. Do you actually think you can achieve this?

 Yes, money plays a lot role in electioneering and when you talk about winning elections.  Unfortunately, our economy is bad,  and it is th same story all over the world. It’s not peculiar to Nigeria. So the influence of money is there even in the United States of America. But for someone that is interested in fighting for the people, you have to look for ways around it. While some people are spending money, you can concentrate on educating the people on the implications of making money  a factor in deciding their future. As it is now, no matter how much anybody has spent now, I can bet it with you that there is no single individual that can tell us, in Ilorin or Kwara Central today, or in Kwara as a whole  that he has collected enough from any  of the money mongering politicians that will be enough for him to even spend for one week, not to talk of spending that for four years. So this is what we are propagating. When people spend money, you can collect it. Even the votes that you gave them in the past, they are yet to compensate you. So whatever they are giving you now is just part of the compensation because it’s not meant for you to be compensated directly but have they even  done things to satisfaction when it comes to  governance? No.  So ,if they have not done that, whatever they are bringing now is either a compensation for the  sympathy you had for them last time or that they are investing for another erroneous future.

So  you  will tell your supporters to collect money  from your opponents? 

When they bring money, collect it. But don’t sacrifice your future and the future of the generation yet unborn for a  wrong candidate. That’s the message. 

One thing that is unique about your campaign trail is that you don’t move around with thugs. Do you feel safe?

I don’t feel threatened when I’m with my people, and I don’t feel threatened because I have no ulterior motive. I’m one of the few that are not even moving around with security agents because I with my people in  Ilorin people,  some are moving with security agents just to form personality; to let people think I’m big. So nobody is threatened here. Not even the governor. You can see that Governor  Abdulrahman, sometimes drives himself in Ilorin. If his security  aides are too late, he would be ahead of them. I met him  recently walking on the street  in Amule-Okelele when there was traffic. So nobody is threatened.

Back to the issue of BVAS. Many people believe that the introduction of BVAS will put a stop to vote rigging, it will however make contestants left with no option than to prioritize vote buying?

 You see, Ilorin people are unique. We are unique.  Firstly,  we have two forms of education, we have Islamic education and the Western education. Islamic education teaches us a lot about morality. An Ilorin man will not cheat you and they are very intelligent. So when they they give you their mandate, it’s for the sake of Allah. In most cases, they will not even collect money. You see in some villages, outside Kwara, they say how much will you pay for one vote. They have price tags. In Ilorin, all you need is just to show them love. It may not be money, it could be  about sharing joyful moments with them,  showing  them respect, they’ll appreciate it. They will pay you back. There are instances when people spend money. You’ll think you’re influencing them but they know the reason why you’re spending the money.

They say it is ‘karimi’ , he’s just spending money to let people see him. Where they don’t need  a transformer, you go and give them transformer. No need analysis. Or when somebody is in need, you don’t give them on time until the whole public is there, and  you now come out and say I donate 2 million naira. Ilorin people know all these. Whereas there will be others who will only show them respect. Whenever they need small assistance, he’s there like summer school for children, some of our young guys do it. And when they do it, you don’t forget. Those people that taught me when I was attending summer school people like Amuda Oganija, Ayo Abdul. Most of them are our uncles, they were young then and they were  teaching  us during summer school. When we grew up we saw some of them contesting elections, it was this that influenced our decision because they’ve added value to us, not just coming down from nowhere and you start to spend millions of naira that do not even get to our pockets.

Taking a trip down memory lane, you were one of the people that began ‘major’ Otoge in 2011, you were an ACN house of assembly candidate, and you were the only one that a rerun election had to be held in his constituency. Eventually, Otoge produced a government in 2019, why would you abandon APC , an Otoge platform and join NNPP?

 You see the Otoge  catchphrase  has to do with a movement that was spearheaded by some of us that have the interest and development of our town at heart. I’m in the private sector and we are doing well but at a stage we discovered that our people need volunteers that will correct the situation. So some of us decided to invest our time and resources in working with our people to change the defective hegemony. So it was a nine-year investment of our lifetime into the Otoge mantra that produced the current government  in 2019. So we thank God it was not a wasted effort. However, Otoge is not an abandoned project. It’s an evolution, it’s evolving now. We’ve taken care of the people of the past, now we are in government. We were all in APC. Then we continue to do our assessment, a continuous assessment. And we now discovered that there has to be some other sanities within the movement. The person we have leading the government is not doing well enough. So there’s  a need for us to remove him. 

Not doing well in terms of governance, administration, or politics?

All of them. The three of them.

 If you’re to assess the  Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq administration in three and a half years on a scale of 1 to 100, what would you give him?

 I’ll give him a mark that is better than the government that we removed. As bad as you may think he’s doing, he’s still better than  the PDP governor’s.  And he’s better than the crop of politicians that we had in PDP then.

In terms of administration or politics?

In terms of administration and politics. In administration…

If you are asked to compare the Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq administration, with the Abdulfatah Ahmed and Bukola Saraki administrations,  you mean he has done  better than them?

 Yes, he’s better than them. 

Then why did you leave APC?

What I’m saying now is that Abdulrahman is better than PDP, but he has not satisfied the people of Kwara, he has not satisfied the Otoge doctrine. In this estate, it’s 350 housing units and it was built within 365 days of a government  headed by a PDP governor . This is the last 100 days of Abdulrahman in government, he’s still struggling to do one project. 

But you said his administration is better than…?

 ( Interrupts) I will tell you where he’s better  than them ,now  that you’ve been here . You’re a witness. I’m not having  security  agents around me  because we don’t need it. You know that before they were voted out  you as an individual can’t even move freely because there were thugs, people’s lives were at risk. That apart, civil servants, were not getting paid   for months, not two, not three, not four, not five months. In fact, it got to a stage that people didn’t even know what they earn. We didn’t have any access to get opportunities  for people at the federal level. In Kwara here, ordinarily drinking water which we all witnessed while growing up became a dream. And we know how much money was being voted for water reticulation, in billions. All our resources were taken out of the state. And we even know that those who were  in positions of authority, most of them, their citizenships are even questionable. We have what we called Kwara investment, the investment arm of the state  and land matters being overseen by somebody from outside the state. 

But there are Kwara indigenes who are members of governments of other states. Even the current Commissioner for Tertiary Education was  Governor Dapo Abiodun’s Senior Special Assistant before getting appointed and there are Ilorin indigenes, Kwara indigenes playing prominent roles in other states.

There is no state that has handed over its investments, lands, properties within and outside the state to an outsider.

But Dr. Abolore was SSA, Land Matters in Ogun state?

SSA is an adviser and not in charge of any property belonging to Ogun State. The DG of the Bureau of Lands at a time in Kwara is from Ondo State. He allocated lands in Kwara, he’s from outside Kwara. He allocated government property in Abuja, he’s not an indigene.

But he was removed after two months because people complained and this brings us to this question. You’re a widely- travelled person, you’re a cosmopolitan person, people  have  talked about the idea of replacing state of origin with place of residence. What’s your take on this?

 Nigerians, we are supposed to be one. The issue of place of origin and citizenship of a particular place is a national issue. These are the kind of issues that we expect to look into at the Senate and the House of Representatives. So when we get there, reasons for and against can be brought forward. So, we’ll look at it and take  appropriate  decision on it. It will come through a bill and if approved it will be forwarded to the president for his assent.

If elected as Kwara Central’s   representative in the senate, what are you plans? Have you identified what   your people really want because the person you are seeking to replace, Senator Oloriegbe had  his fourth bill assented to by the president last month.  What should we expect from you as Senator Aiyelabegan?

God willing, if we sail through the election, we are going to look at  some of the existing laws, policies that we are going to assess while also making efforts to come up  with new ones . One of the areas that I have surveyed in town is this environmental issue. You see this Asa-dam, it’s a challenge to Kwara Central. It traverses the four local governments in Kwara Central which I will be representing ; Ilorin West, Ilorin South, Ilorin East and Asa . Odo Aluko starts from Esinrogunjo’s family house and  got emptied into Asa-dam. There’s another river that starts from Ile Akaaba, that also got emptied into Asa-dam. If you look at these two rivers, the situation of the two rivers require attention because none of them has been given either dredging or proper channelization. You have to channelize them so that the hazard that happens periodically, especially of recent, you heard that a prominent islamic scholar even died in one of those rivers. We will have to look at it because I think  it was under Bukola Saraki, that they tried to channelize the dam over there. It was not properly done, until Abdulrahman came and they did something there but even at that, we have seen the limitations of the current one which they have done. I will look at that area; revise the bill so that other rivers that are threatening  people’s lives will be given attention, that’s one.  There is another thing that is of interest , I’m a computer scientist and I’ve been an entrepreneur for a very long time here in Kwara. We have seen that we have a lot of resources in this state which are not harnessed, many of them. Information  is not made available to the people about them. We have seen instances where young people that come from where you have gold don’t even know about its existence. They are already in Lagos riding Okada. That means we have the challenge of knowing  resources that we are blessed with, we have the challenge of letting people know what we are blessed with. Then, we also have the challenge of channelling our education and vocational trainings towards what we are blessed with. You can imagine if we say we have gold and the people that will mine it are coming from Togo or they are coming from Nasarawa state. Already we have exported our employment opportunities. For our businessmen, are they knowledgeable in processing of mineral resources? If not, then we need somebody to come from China. And that means you have exported even that your expertise. So we need to change our orientation in terms of what are the courses our children will be studying in tertiary institutions. Some of them have to  study mining, civil engineering, geology and other relevant courses . Then what support will the government be giving the people. They have to be investing in processing machines. Machines that can grind stones, machines that can process other materials like .

Then government (at the state level) have to even support the people, our artisans. Though we can influence the federal government but all these have to be localized so that it is not outsiders that will be doing the work that we should be doing. In this wise, not even in Ilorin alone, I’m going to propose a bill on technical change and technology transfer. With technology transfer, we can select some of our brilliant school children, high school leavers and send them abroad to go for relevant trainings that will help them  to assess and process the mineral resources that we have in Kwara. By the time they come back they will teach many others. So with that, instead of expecting a Chinese to come, our children will go there, learn about it and they will be doing the work here. With that, the issue of unemployment will be minimized.

Actually, we will even end up being an employer of labour. Another area is business incubation. I have in the past done a lot of activities and consultancies  with respect to incubation centers. I consulted for NCC, the Nigeria Communications Commission on the setting up of ICT for youth development. That one is currently running in some states , including Kwara State. There is one at Sango. I designed it. This concept involves having to educate fresh graduate in all various professions. We will set up incubation centers where we get some of them as incubates. We will give them mentorship in their field of endeavors. We will invite experts that are knowledgeable. They’ll mentor them on how to go about their businesses. Then all of them will have offices within. The incubation center will register their businesses for them, the incubation center will even introduce them to industries where they will be getting small services done, either in form of contract, consultancies or trainings. After two years, each incubate would have been equipped enough with regard to how  a business  can be done successfully. Not just going out. They’ll also have to do one or two projects that will give them the required experience. And lastly, we will also influence the government to give them seed fund to be able to start up on their own. Not this issue of money  that they distribute  to people in Kwara , like N1m, they put a signboard that somebody has been given 2 million and they thank the governor. No. You did not mentor them, you did not incubate them. If at the end of one or two years you go and do impact assessment of all these people that are collecting the money now, the story will be different.

 Even one week after, we heard some people were fighting at the ward level sharing that money because they did not pass through any training.

 But the government said only people who needed it were given and that it was not politicized in any way?

 I’m not talking of who were given. What I’m talking about is how the money was given to people. The person you give the money, does he have enough knowledge to run a business successfully? We are all challenged now. Even existing businesses are falling. So we need a lot of training and retraining. Even as managing director of a company, you still go for conferences. When you are not training people and you’re just giving them money, you’re just acting like a father Christmas. 

Is an artisan who has been given money not expected to plough that into his or her business? 

You see when people go through incubation centers; it’s not a one- day, one- week thing. It will be for one year or two years where they will incubate you.  We will have every information about you. If you’re in debt, the incubation center will know. All these will be managed for you before you graduate from the center. How do you say somebody is into business and you just give him two million naira. You don’t even know his history. It’s very likely that he’s already in debt. So that money, actually as you’re announcing it, they are going to his house to go and harrass him and say come and pay our money. And that’s the end of it. So there has to be a lot of process that everybody will have to go through and that’s when we can now boast that in Kwara State in the next one or two years we have fifty companies because when they come out they are coming out as a company. They will go to Taiwo road, they’ll go to Muritala, they will also rent their own offices because they can now afford to pay. They will hire secretaries because they can now employ people. They will have lawyers that they give consultancy. They’ll give employment to auditors. That’s when we can now say we have successful businesses here. When they are now advertising any projects in Port Harcourt, Abuja, we can now say our indigenes can go there and compete favourably, not ending up as  peasant business owners  in the state.

Why the seeming permanent interest in becoming a legislator and not seeking a role in executive arm of government?

 Like I told you earlier, I ventured into politics  to come and sanitize the system, to come and assist our people. I have been in business all my life. I have never worked in any company. So I have been a small business owner. So it makes me appreciate the fact that we can create employment without having to wait for government . So where we can influence decision is in the legislative arm, not  the executive. In executive, yes, you can be a commissioner and if the governor wakes up from the wrong side of the bed you’re gone. So there’s no way you can assist the people. And the executive too needs to be checked. So they need better legislators that will work with them so that we can have  an effective and better governance for our people. That’s why  I prefer to become a lawmaker.

We’ve heard of big impacts and big ideas, which one is yours?

 I just see the two as attempts to  intimidate the people.  Oloriegbe, a medical doctor, is an embodiment of ideas and impacts. For God’s sake, somebody that passed through a university, is it the idea that he’s lacking or  making impact will be a problem. So if you say Oloriegbe has done very well, he is an embodiment of all. So I’ve been into business  more than three decades ago here in Ilorin. I’ve employed people, I’ve trained people, I’ve mentored them and many of them are successful. You can see them around. So why do I need to be speaking in tongue. Why should ideas or impacts become an issue? So, for me, I just see them as telling people about their existence. 

 Your party’s gubernatorial candidate, Prof. Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, do you think his  being in the governorship race  has assisted you in any way?

 Yes, his being with us is adding a lot of value to the party, just like  Kwankwaso has done to all of us and the party.

 Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso did a revolution of selecting female students in numbers, I can’t remember whether they’re hundreds or more, he sent them  to different countries including China,  Russia,  Dubai to study medicine and they are back. The impact is felt in Kano State. Now  Professor Oba Abdulraheem is someone I will call a homeboy. Kwara has not been fortunate to be ruled by homeboys. We have been ruled by somebody who only knows one or two routes to their family houses in the past and even up till now.  

Oba Abdulraheem knows everywhere that leads to his family house. So he’s indigenous. Now look at his antecedents and compare it to his co-contestants. He has had the opportunity  to be a university lecturer, what were his impacts? Everybody knows it. As a lecturer in BUK, his office was the destination  for those seeking to   become university students among Kwarans.

 When he became the Vice Chancellor of  the University of Ilorin, as at the time he became the  head of the University of Ilorin one of our leading academics in Kwara state was Dr. Shehu Jimoh. he was not a professor then. So when Oba Abdulraheem became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin  he was able to change the status of Kwara indigenes in Unilorin.  He changed the catchment states  to ease things for Kwarans. He was able to  do all that because he’s indigenous, he’s learned. He feels it. So nobody needs to tell him or teach him because he knows it. He facilitated the employment of lecturers  some of who  had  become professors even before he left. People that were not getting promotion, they were getting it on time and as at today, in Kwara Central,  there are more than 130 professors. He was also the chairman of Federal Character Commission. Federal Character is an institution where fairness in appointment and other resources distribution is being overseen. Kwara has not been getting its fair share of federal appointments but when he got there he made sure Kwara started getting its fair share. And when you get your fair share, people get employment, everybody is aware of it. And he did not rob Peter to pay Paul. He has also played a part in the establishment of new institutions in the state. Specifically, aviation college. I think it was almost his idea which he sold to Bukola Saraki, with some others in the aviation industry, Alhaji Tunde Yusuf . And he was one of the people that designed and oversaw the implementation. KWASU is also another one, so in the overall analysis, his personality, his past, his achievements, his being a local person, his being a fair-minded person has added a lot of value even to my campaign and we are having things easy.

You know people that have money are still running around. If you go to town now, it’s like a carnival of  campaign billboards. I was in Lagos two days ago, the campaign billboards in Lagos are not half of what we have in Ilorin here. You can verify that. Call people over there. So they are disturbed and for PDP and APC, they are not even afraid of themselves. They are more afraid of NNPP because of who Oba is and the popularity of the party .

 Can you please tell us about yourself?

Iam  Abdul Aiyelabegan. I am from Ilorin West. I schooled here and later attended the Federal University of Technology, Akure where I got a Bsc in computer science. I have been a private small business owner. I own Goga Computers, we initiated ICT development in Kwara state. I’ve been involved in a lot of activities and I have interest in the development of Kwara Central that was  why I joined politics in 2011. I  was the ACN House of Assembly candidate for Ajikobi-Alanamu constituency  Ilorin West in 2011  and I was also  House of Representatives  candidate in 2015 and Iam currently the Kwara Central NNPP candidate- Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you