Senator Iyiola Omisore, the former Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation was recently in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, where the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Ibadan National station hosted him as a guest. In this interview with Sakin Babalola, Senator Omisore discusses many issues including the nation’s nascent democracy, the insecurity crisis in the country, and his prosecution for the assassination of the former Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige.
No doubt you have contributed to the growth of our democracy. What is your view on our dividends of democracy? Are Nigerians being shortchanged as alleged in certain quarters?
The answer is neither here nor there. They are shortchanged, but they have also shortchanged the good leaders, the brilliant alternatives to the present shortcomings, because of their perspectives to the issue of democracy.??
Do we have pointers to gains of our people to dividends of democracy?
Yes, definitely. The dividends are there to keep people happy about their investments in democracy or to act as the resource to be ploughed back into production process so as to increase the base of the social capital. Granted that Nigerians have indeed invested a lot in this nascent democracy, including but not restricted to time, energy, financial resources and even life, but can it be said that democracy has yielded something tangible to be shared? In Nigeria’s current? socio-cultural expressions, democracy has become a significant concept for the articulation of various and varied meanings, all attesting to a certain position and expectation, a peculiar act and consequences, a certain commitment and sense of loyalty that individuals and groups express as desires, strategy and forms of affiliation. The democrat, so to say, demonstrates a commitment to actions that meet certain expectations, as the freedom of speech, choice and association, and works with specifically identifiable principles such as the rule of law and due process.
Are these requirements relevant to our home grown democracy?
Not all these requirements are home grown developments, of course rather, they are derived and borrowed from the West, as an alternative to chart a new course of development that would place a developing nation like Nigeria in the class of the modern. In essence, democracy in Nigeria has come to be associated with the modern. Democracy is also signification to that which is developing or developed.
Going to your state, a group in Osun state uses the word ‘Omoluwabi’ meaning ‘gentlemen with integrity’ very frequently. What is your disposition to this claim by the political group?
Omoluwabi must have a standard. It does not end with acronym or propaganda. The people calling or identifying themselves as Omoluwabi are fake simple hypocrites. It is an aberration in the state. Omoluwabi must be sacrosanct and must have pedigree as well as good credentials one must bold of. Those people have no business calling themselves Omoluwabi and running down others with blackmail.
What is your recommendation as to the problem of insecurity in the country?
The Federal Government is doing everything humanly possible to stem the tide. We should in addition be our brothers’ keepers. All of us should regard ourselves as security officers. That is how it is being done in developed countries.
Some people see you as very patriotic while others regard you as being very controversial particularly those in the other political camp. What is your reaction to this observation?
A person of my pedigree cannot be controversial. I am sure that is one of the destructive propaganda of the ACN leaders. I have said at many fora that none of the ACN Governors have a better structure than I have. This I say this with all sense of humility and responsibility. I know what I have done in my engineering field. I have delivered to my constituency what I thought would promote healthy living, improve their standard of education, empower the underprivileged and the marginalized, and comfort those in distress. I can do more if given the chance to lead. But such an opportunity would be right to address the ideological issue more appropriately for then I would, as somebody that has educated himself to the level of having a PhD soon, have the resources to make the minds of our people more creative, enterprising and productive.
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The assassination of Chief Bola Ige , the former Minister of Justice and Attorney of the federation for which you were prosecuted, discharged and acquitted continues to be a political issue by the ACN leaders who have threatened to reopen the case. Can you respond to this?
In my own case, there is a lie that has gone on for too long about the death of Uncle Bola Ige, in spite of the court judgment on the issue. I have waited for till this time thinking that they would follow the path of reason, truth and honest conscience, but they would not, as they have found it politically expedient and a soft pad for opportunism. Truth, in any case, and any how it is viewed, would remain the truth. I speak the eternal truth, whether they believe it or not. In any case when the wise speaks, the fools throw tantrums. How Uncle Bola died cannot of course, continue to be a matter of conjectures where facts are available, have been scrutinized by appropriate and competent bodies, and categorical conclusions have been made. That he died, at the time he did is, indeed, a sad moment of our local and collective history, particularly given his contributions and the contributions he could still make to our nascent democracy and unfolding drama of progress and? development. However, locating that circumstance in imagined possibilities is a departure from the truth and represents an attempt to shortchange democratic dividends to those who could be blessed by the presence and roles of those who could be blessed by the presence and roles of those being impugned and maligned. The real truth is that if this skeptical public would move away from their fixated mindsets, drawn on circumstantial evidence, and obviously for cheap political victory, they would look for the killers elsewhere rather than me.
Senator, coming back to democracy, you observed that some Nigerians shortchanged themselves. Would you mind elaborating on this?
They do so in three specific ways. First in the ways political parties relate, mobilizing the skeptical publics to disrupt normal processes of governance in order to gain political advantages as self serving and self fulfilling elite. The society has been shortchanged by disputations that lead nowhere than the perpetuation of criminality and wastage of resources in maintaining unnecessary chaos. Second, because communal relations are informed by primordial concerns, prejudices of ethnicity religious bigotry, and localized claims that distort the distribution and flow of resources across social divide, they have been shortchanged. The third and last point is the shortchanging coming from and flowing through party politics and public relationship. We describe this as problem of information flow, limited knowledge construction and low capacity development. This has an endangering effect on the growth of the mind. The people continue to shortchange themselves when they fail to see the beyond the grandstanding of their rulers, speaking to the condemnation of others, while they themselves remain under the influence of stupefying, subduing force, alienating critical thinking. Indeed when they receive pittance for their efforts and do not insist on being paid their worth, they have also shortchanged themselves because they failed to take advantage of existing liberal philosophy.?
Have you not also in other ways shortchanged the people of your constituency and your state though one is aware that lawmakers have no allocations for developmental programmes like the Executives?
We did our best while in the NASS. Despite the fact that there is nothing called constituency allowances as the public is made to believe. I have addressed this perspective through material gifts and donations, satisfying the expectations of various constituents, ranging from the health to education sectors. I have helped to facilitate the extensive expansion of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital’s ultra Modern Mortuary, Ophthalmology Center and ultra modern Auditorium.
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