She kicks against the resort to military actions to douse the spate of bombings, killing and maiming of innocent souls and destruction of property by suspected Boko Haram sect and other forms of insurgency in the country, saying the action is expensive and grave to prosecute. Sen.(Mrs) Veronica Iyabo Anisulowo, who once represented Ogun West Senatorial District between 2003 and 2007 at the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly, in this interview with FEMI OGBONNIKAN, in Lagos, takes a swipe at the leadership of the PDP-led Federal Government accusing of being responsible for the high-level of corruption which gives birth to the various security challenges in the country.
Are you on a political break, much has not been seen of you on the political scene lately?
Really! I have been around. Perhaps, it is because I am no longer in government or holding any public office either at the federal or state level. There is nothing much you can do when you are in the background playing grass roots politics. And if you belong to any political party, you must really guard your utterances and be mindful of? functions that you attend. So, that is my position and really, I have been very much active in politics as usual.
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Prior to 2011 general elections, you were a chieftain of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s party in Ogun State and now, you are in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), what informed your defection?
Well, I have said it severally, times without number, that what made me to defect to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was the fact that, in the first instance, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had always been in problems, but I wasn’t part of the problems.I left the PDP in 2007. When the case of Senator Ibikunle Amosun was quashed and the PDP-led government were thinking of zoning the governorship seat to Ogun West Senatorial district, former? governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel approached me and even sent some people to me.?
???? He said he was sorry for what he did to me and that apart from that, he confident? that with me on his train, we would achieve this ‘Yewa-for-governor ambition.’ Though, I joined but my own choice for a candidate was Gboyega Isiaka from Imeko and the choice of other people within the party was my brother, General Adetunji Idowu Olurin from the same Ilaro with me. I decided to support Isiaka and that was why I had a little romance with the PDP. And then, we had a terrible cafarati within the ruling PDP and traumatic experience and because of that, we found out that we were split again in PDP and later formed PPN. Yes, of course, I was in PPN to actualise the Yewa dream. Unfortunately, it ended the way it did. I had thought that they would put their acts together and resolve whatever the problem was, so that some of us could come back and form a single entity, one body,? but that was not to be. It was rather degenerating by the day. You should know the relationship between Amosun and I. At the Senate, we were colleagues, we sat beside each other. In my usual self, I don’t really fight people.? So, there wasn’t really anytime we had a quarrel that we could not settle.
Again, when I joined Amosun, you should remember that I sponsored the entire Yewa land for ANPP in 2007 general elections. And two, I am the secretary to the Senators’ Forum in the Southwest and as a colleague of mine, I couldn’t just leave him like that, other than to wish him well and say, “I am behind you and also, you are one of us.
But he felt that if he had had me it wouldn’t have been so difficult for him to penetrate the Ogun West and after much persuasions with my colleagues talking to me, that Ogun State was my home and there was no place like home; that I should not so much concentrate on the federal which was for everyone, and that it was from here that I rose to be known at the federal level, that I should join him in rebuilding Ogun State I decided to defect to the ACN.
I am a liberal and an activist. I am not particular about any political party, especially when we have several of them without much ideology. Really, here you can’t say who you are in politics, what is important is your group interest where your people will benefit, where they will be able to say, apart from government, they are enjoying government’s patronages and where development is coming to them.
?So, that’s the main reason I joined Amosun. Amosun has a global vision of what he wanted to turn Ogun State into, especially the state capital where he has started developing. He has also come to Ogun West, especially Ota and he is doing some works there also, and I believe that the centre, Ilaro, he (Amosun) will soon come to our aid. And don’t forget that, before the last Administration left, this Sabo Road, which is a federal road, was really in a mess and he helped us to rehabilitate it; same with Owode. He has been making strides to surprise us, according to his word,? he would do more than a Yewa person would do if he were to be in control of the governance in the state. Well, let’s give him the benefit of doubt and see what he can do, but for me, I joined him for the development of the state.
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Now that you are an active member and a chieftain of the ACN in Ogun State, are you nursing any political ambition come 2015 general elections?
No! I am not eyeing any political office, but the fact is that you will need to understand the political party in which you have joined. Anybody who joins ACN and has an inordinate ambition stuck in him is a fool. Although the nitty-gritty of it, you will also find it out that even in PDP that they will make sure of all you waste your money and time, which I feel the ACN is better off because where they are going they will let you know. If you are not their choice, stay in your house and if you are the choice of God definitely, you will be the choice of men. That is my own, but personally, I don’t have.
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You are a chieftain of the ACN in Ogun State, what is your take on the recent de-registration of some political parties by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC)?
De-registration! They will still de-register many. The best time we enjoyed politics in this country was when it was two-party system. I don’t know what informed this multi-party system. It is not even multi-party now, but it is another thing in a country with 150 million people. What are their ideologies? No! You will find out that our politics revolves around what we get from the government. If you ask members of the party to? contribute money toward a party, they will not. They don’t want to build parties. So, the earlier to de-register many political parties and let those who want to play politics the better for those who are ready to spend their resources in building the party. Let them do that. And when they do that birds of a feather flock together, but strange birds fellow, for the sake convenience of it, will have their ways out. When it is election, they will bring one candidate who can’t win, and the end of the day, I don’t know the resources they have to run campaigns. I know and I also pray that more mushroom political parties will be de-registered so that we can know those that are viable to contest elections in this country. I am in support of what Prof Attahiru Jega is doing by deregistering mushroom political parties.
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There are many problems confronting this country, especially the spate of bombings, killing and maiming by suspected Boko Haram sect, insecurity and others that Mr. President has been accused of being slow to respond to , while others havecanvassed for a military action. Do you share this view?
I want to say that we are not in a military regime and Mr. President is not a military man and invariably, he has to really think about resorting to military action because it is very expensive to go to war. He has to consider the lives and property that would be lost even during the prosecution. You see, this country has been porous and there is no way we can run away from what is happening now. Our national borders are very porous, and nationals of other countries easily find their way into into the country. Strange people are in our country, strange religions and strange belief-systems and there is a high-level corruption to an extent that lives and property do not matter to many of us any more. You should know, the sanctity of human life is lost in our culture today. We have seen pictures where they killed human beings as if they were slaughtering cows. They slit their throats. In fact, the spate of bombings, kidnapping, armed robbery and other vices are all results of corruption. The government has lost its grip and there is no doubt about that. Government at all levels has lost its grips on the people and that has been the major problem. I just I pray for those in government and the people, we should be our brother’s keeper. We should be vigilant at our various homes.
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What is your rating of the PDP-led government at the federal level?
Well, corruption has been entrenched in every areas of the PDP-led government at the federal level, including those states where they are ruling. And it is the people that should reject them at the polls. There are so many people in PDP that do not want the party to succeed because they are tired of those things that are happening within it. Some people have long over-stayed, and with such people, they can’t move because they are part of the system. They have many problems within the party that they can’t resolve. But in all, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) is better off than the PDP because of the latter’s myriad of problems.
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