He needs little or no introduction. Mention his name anywhere within Yaba and its environs in Lagos and those who know will tell you that Hon. Kayode Omiyale, the Executive Chairman, Yaba Local Council Development Area, is a man who commands enormous respect within the LCDA and beyond. And this is not just about the fact that he is the Executive Chairman of the LCDA, but because he is also an extremely focused administrator who does not joke with the wellbeing of the people within the LCDA.
He is always working round the clock, looking for ways to bring the dividends of democracy ever closer to the doorstep of the people. And they also appreciate the fact that, unlike many other politicians, Hon. Omiyale will never promise you what he cannot give to you. When Omiyale promises, he delivers. Under his watch, Yaba LCDA has experienced tremendous changes in the area of road rehabilitation, improvement of its health facilities, clearing of drainages to reduce the perennial flood problem the LCDA has been battling with for years, and he has been a blessing to the young pupils whose parents are unable to procure GCE and JAMB forms for them. Every year, he sets specific funds aside to assist the parents to procure these forms for their wards and strives to ensure the kids are adequately prepared to meet their educational aspirations.Without
a doubt, Hon. Kayode Omiyale is hugely loved by his people. They don’t joke
with him. And he does not joke with them either. One of the reasons why they
love their chairman to bits is the fact he is unbelievably humble and never
looks down on anyone. He welcomes everyone to his office. He is very
accessible, he does not like to hear his people complain that they have
difficulty in reaching him. He believes it is wrong for the people to have
problems reaching him as a politician because they voted him into the office to
help them make certain things available for them in the community and so, when
they try to reach him to make one request or the other, he has absolutely no
reason shutting his doors against them. This, he said he learnt from his
national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Two
weeks ago, WALE LAWAL was a guest of
this very unassuming and God-fearing administrator who holds very dearly the
principle of fairness in everything he does. Hon. Kayode Omiyale’s love and
admiration for Asiwaju is well known among his peers. They all know how
passionate he is about the Jagaban. We got him to talk about his thoughts on
the possibility of an Asiwaju presidency come 2023 and the future it portends
for Nigeria. He was more than delighted to speak with us. Enjoy the excerpts.
The
national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has formally declared
his intention to run for president come 2023, how excited are you about this
long-awaited declaration?
I
am extremely delighted at the news of the declaration of his intention to run
for president. It was a huge relief to many of us his disciples who had been
quite worried about his prolonged hesitance and the fear that he may just
choose not to run. But we were all so excited when Asiwaju finally came out. We
are very thankful to God for giving him the courage to come out. He represents
hope, not just to his teeming disciples but to Nigerians as a whole. It also
came as a big relief because we were hoping we could put forward a candidate
that will be easy to sell to Nigerians. Asiwaju’s name is a household name. He
is known virtually everywhere in Nigeria and even beyond the shores of Nigeria.
So, it’s a big confidence booster for us as his followers and as a party. His
own case is like that of MKO Abiola, who was known throughout the world, I only
pray he won’t end up like MKO did. This will make it easy for us to go the
length and breadth of the country and campaign for him without any fear of
rejection. Believe me, his decision to contest is the best news we have
received in a long while.
From
your response, it is easy to tell that you’re extremely passionate about
Asiwaju. In just a few minutes, you have spoken so passionately about him. Tell
us, what is the one thing about Asiwaju that you admire the most?
To
begin with, Asiwaju is an embodiment of everything that is good, character-wise. He is always cheerful, I like that about him. He is also extremely
intelligent and strategic. Many people don’t also know that he’s a workaholic.
I have had the privilege to be at his house on several occasions, not only
during the day but also very late at night. Do you know that from morning till
about 4 a.m. the next day he is still attending to people? He is forever busy
attending to people and helping people. It’s from him I learnt that a
politician must be highly accessible and that is a major quality we, his
disciples, inherited from him. He taught us to be there for our people,
supporting them and serving them as best as we can, that is baba for you. And
that’s working for him now because he’s always ready to accept people and
support people, irrespective of tribe, colour or religion, whether you’re poor
or rich, he will make himself available to you. That’s why he’s a man of the
people because he knows how to come to your level, no matter how highly or
lowly placed you are. He’s always ready to go the extra mile and I am
personally hoping the Lord will give me the grace to emulate him.
You
just said something very instructive right now, which is that Asiwaju can be up
all night, attending to people. Many of those we’ve spoken to have also said
the same thing about him. How do you feel when you hear people talk about his
health and wonder if he has the capacity and sound health to carry the burden
that comes with being president of a country like Nigeria?
For
me, I do not see how his health could be a problem for him in any way. The man
is enjoying good health for a man his age. To be the president of a country
like Nigeria, what he needs the most is experience and he has it. Whoever wants
to rule Nigeria must be highly knowledgeable about the country and its people.
He must be highly experienced. He must have tested leadership qualities. And as
far as I’m concerned, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has all of these qualities and
much more. Don’t forget he was at the Senate before he became governor. He has
formed various political parties that were very successful such as Alliance for
Democracy, Action Congress down to the APC, all of these have helped him to
acquire the experience to relate with Nigerians from different parts of the
country and proffer solutions to problems. He is a man that is close to the
Yoruba, he is close to the Igbo, he is close to the Hausa. He is well accepted
by Nigerians and that’s why we feel baba is the one that can come up with ideas
and solutions that can take Nigeria to the next level. And that’s the most
important thing. As for his health, it is only God that can determine how
healthy we are or will be in the next few years. How many people that are
younger to Asiwaju can you count that have died as a result of ill health in
the last few months? So, it’s only God that determines one’s health. Don’t
forget, in the Bible, God called Moses at the age of 80 and Moses and Moses led
the Israelites from the age of 80 to the age of 120 and that was when he died.
So, I believe that this is the time God has called baba and he will give him
the strength, the knowledge, the wisdom, to carry on. God will surely give him
everything he needs to lead us to the promised land.
Many
believe that Nigeria is possibly in its worst situation ever in terms of
insecurity, terrorism, banditry, economic downturn etc. How would you advise
Asiwaju to go about solving these issues God willing he becomes president come
2023?
Let
me first and foremost correct the people’s impression that we are in the worst
situation ever in terms of insecurity and poor economy. I want to disagree with
that perception. I believe that the only time you can describe a situation as
worst is when that situation has no solution in sight. The security challenges
in the country can still be addressed. Hope is not lost. Right now, the
government is doing its best to tackle the problem of insecurity as well as
revive the economy. We need somebody who has the capacity to continue from
where the present administration stops. I want to believe that Asiwaju already
has a blueprint of solutions and strategies in his hands to tackle the myriads
of problems the country is currently facing and God will strengthen him and
give him the necessary wisdom to scale through. He is a brilliant man. He is
strategic. The God that has called him will not let him down.
What
are your concerns, sir, regarding some of Asiwaju’s loyalists and closest aides
who are not standing by him at this critical time? Do you think this might work
against him during the elections come next year?
To
tell you the truth, I do not believe that any of his aides will not work for
him. I am very positive about this. See, even within the family, it gets to a
point when the children will want to have some certain privileges. As a primary
school pupil, your child won’t come to you asking for permission to go to a
disco party. But by the time he’s getting to the university, he will ask. And
you as a father will have to give him some considerations. So, it’s the same
thing with the close aides of Baba that people think are not with him at this
time. When the chips are down, you will see how they will rally around him and
carry the banner of Asiwaju and the party with their heads held high. I am sure
of this because I know they will never forget their benefactor. They will not
disappoint him. They will remember who they were when they met him and what
they have become today. Don’t you worry, when the chips are down, things will
change and you will see the performance of these people and what they will
contribute to the success of baba come 2023?
Let
me ask you pointedly, sir, are you one of those who believe VP Osinbanjo will
not run against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
He
is not going to run. People will be shocked. Those who are just pressuring him
to run are wasting their time. Thank God he is a mature and sensible man. He is
a man who knows his onions. He knows what he’s doing. He’s a man of God. He’s a
pastor. He will not disappoint those of us who are coming behind him and baba.
He’s not going to disappoint us. As a man of God, I have followed his conduct
closely and I have lots of respect for him. He will not betray Asiwaju. All of
those people shouting Osinbajo, personally, I do not think it’s the vice
president that contracted them to do what they are doing. Take it or leave it,
Osinbajo and Baba are inseparable. When the chips are down, everything you’re
seeing right now will change. He can never disappoint Asiwaju.
So,
you’re saying we have nothing to worry about?
Absolutely
nothing to worry about. We are all together. The house is intact. There is no
divided house in Asiwaju’s camp.
Some
people are worried that this is starting to look like the Awo and Akintola situation
that we had on our hands decades back…
God
forbid, it will never happen to us again for the third time. Never in the
history of the Yoruba will we have a repetition of Awo and Akintola again. We
will not have that scenario, be rest assured.
Yaba
is very key to Lagos state and very key to APC, what are your plans to ensure
it plays a critical role in the coming presidential election and…?
To
mobilize, that’s our primary goal. And like I said, when you have a good
product, people will definitely buy it. People know a good product when they
see one. And they will appreciate it. Asiwaju is a good product any day, any
time,. So people will accept him and massively vote for him. In fact, the kind
of voting that has never happened in our local government will happen this time
around because this is a good product. It’s a product that’s been accepted
worldwide but never the less, we will not rest on our oars, we will still go
from house to house, street to street, ward to ward, community to community and
mobilize the people. We will not be overconfident and we will not underrate
the opposition. We will subdue the opposition by galvanizing a mobilization
that has never happened before in the Yaba community and bring out our people to
vote for baba.
Yaba
is a very cosmopolitan part of Lagos. It has lots of non Lagosians from nearly
every part of the country, talking about Igbo, Hausa, Edo, you name it, they
are all domiciled here. Now that the big one is drawing closer, how do you hope
to carry all of these different communities along and get them to align with
the party’s candidate?
Oh,
that’s very simple. In fact, for us that are at the helms of affairs of the
local government, we believe that Yaba Local Council Development Area can be
divided into two communities, the rural area and the urban area. When you talk
of Alagomeji, Gbobi up to Jibowu, those are the urban areas. Then, when you
look at the riverside, that’s Makoko, Iwaya, Abule Oja, we regard them as the
rural side, and that is where we have the larger part of our population. The
urban centre is dominated by commercial activities, where you’ll see offices,
corporate bodies and so on. In fact, these days, we don’t have much of our
population domiciled in those parts. But still, we will leave no stone
unturned. We will reach out to everyone. Like you rightly, we have lots of
tribes here with us, especially in the rural areas. The Egun people, Ijaw,
Igbo, in fact, there is one of our communities called Ijebu quarters and we
will reach out to all of them. Thank God we have made quite an impact on all
the nine political wards here, either in the area of health, education, roads,
you name it, the dividends of democracy has been brought to them. And thank
God, we have a good candidate that we can sell to them. We are sure that they
will be on our side because we have never let them down. We listen to them
whenever they reach out to us. I run an open-door policy here in my office. The
market women, the artisans, the members of the Community Development Association
(CDA) all have their roles to play and specific days that they all meet with
me. The Igbo people, the Arewa, we are all together. So, we don’t have any
problems mobilizing all these people.
Finally,
sir, you are just settling down for your second term in office. During your
first term, you were very busy trying to meet up to the various needs of your
people. What are those things or projects that you really wish to execute this
term for the benefit of your people?
Well,
this term, we want to improve on our first term performance. The first term
when we came, the whole terrain looked new to us. But we were able to get over
it within the first couple of years of our tenure. And we were still able to do
quite a few things. This time around, we have been able to take off from where
stopped the last term. We are going to put all of the experiences we have garnered
into good use. We are going to be much faster in terms of our response to the
needs of the community. For instance, right now, we do not have our Exco in
place but we still had to go ahead to put our budget in place because we
realized that we cannot afford to waste time and take our people for granted.
So, in terms of education, we intend to increase the number of GCE forms and
JAMB that we give out to students. Last term, we gave out about a hundred
forms, God willing this time around, we will increase it, depending on the
resources available to us. We should take it to something between 150 and 200.
Also, before, we would go round and give stipends to about 80 aged and 20
widows. This time, we could do 100 aged, 50 widows. In the area of environment, in the last term, we were able to clear some canals and drainages in some communities.
This time, we will ensure we do everything within the next three years. It’s
something that we have to do consistently because we are very prone to flooding
here. Last term we had environmental defenders who went from one community to
the other to sanitize the people and also apprehend those that were not doing
well in terms of discharging their solid waste. This term, we are going to add
what we call the drainage gang to these environmental defenders. The drainage
gang will clear the drainages and desilt the gutters. And this time around, we
now have the equipment to cart away the heaps of garbage immediately they
desilt the drainages. These are some of the things we didn’t have in our first
term.
What
about roads, are there any major roads that you have in mind?
Of
course, there are. In our first tenure, we did about three to four roads in
Makoko, while at Iwaya, we could only do one road there. And both of them are
more or less the same thing in terms of population. But now, we have started
working in Iwaya. We also plan to work on Mosalasi street, which is already
about 30 percent completed. God be on our side, by the time Lagos state is
finishing Iwaya road to Okoagbon, we also would move to Owodunni, from Church
junction to palace of Iwaya. Ditto Abule Ijesha, we did only Opayemi during our
first term, but with God on our side, we will work on Akinsola and some other
roads and Abule Ijesha. Last term, we touched all the nine wards with one road
or the other, but now we want to balance it so that those who did not feel our
presence enough last term will get to feel us and enjoy the dividends of
democracy this second term.
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