QUESTION: May we meet
you?
SHOWUNMI: My name is Segun Sowunmi. I am from Abeokuta.
I am a happy person who has had a bit of experience around political process,
so you could say I am a politically exposed person. I used to be the Deputy
Chief Press Secretary to the former governor of Ogun state, Otunba Gbenga
Daniel. At a point in time, I was a Senior Special Adviser on Economic Policy
and Media as well to Otunba Gbenga Daniel. I have also been opportuned to be
the Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), campaigning for the
Presidency in 2011. I have continued to stay with and articulate the issues of
PDP. I am a Christian and married with children and by training, I am a multi-linguistic.
I am always interested in how things can be done differently and better.
QUESTION: Do you
intend to go for any political office in 2019 considering the fact that your
billboard is all over places?
SHOWUNMI: ln almost eighteen
years, I have been part of political process. I have never thought of felt that
I should push myself forward to represent my people. I just wait, do the job
and if anyone comes, I preach and try to encourage them. But I observe the
level at which they are delivering services to our people especially at the
house of Representative level is too low. This is the town where I come from,
Abeokuta South, in Ogun state. This is the town some of the best hands and some
of the best training and opportunities may have ordinarily showcasing because
they embraced everything very early educational-wise. I begin to look at where
development is going and I think that with complimentary efforts at different
layers is not going on well enough.
I am not coming just to build roads and
many other things. We are coming to figure out what other things can be done
from the legislative point of view. We have not get quality representation from
our State when you see them in the cumulative issues they are been. You hardly
move around in any environment and see the impact of anything meaningful they
are doing and I thought that before we become less than what our destiny gave
us opportunity to be in Ogun State. I better now present myself to go and try
and be the representatives of Abeokuta South Federal House Constituency in the
Federal House of Representative Abuja that we may by doing it demonstrate to
the world, demonstrate to our people that it can be done better and meaningfully.
I cannot imagine somebody goes to represent in an urban area at the Federal
House of Representative and his Constituency Project is the buying of Okada.
It
is not that I do not accept people should do that but that can’t be all what
they can do. If you want to create value for the people you must be more
interested how you strengthen whatever is by the way of education. You must be
interested in how you get human capital development in Sports and how you energize
the youths to provide more access for them. You articulate their wishes by town
hall meetings to know exactly what the people want. If I were to be successful
that people gave me their mandates, one of the minimum thing that will happen
in Abeokuta South is that all secondary Schools must have wireless internet. I
do know that this is the only way to get the students appreciate what is going
on in the outside world quickly. And if you put wireless Wi-Fi in schools all
the students and teachers can go on internet at no cost.
If I were given the
chance to represent my people, I will set up clinics and after school clinics
for sports. I cannot imagine all the stadia lying fallow there and we have
young people that are not engaged. It doesn’t cost too much to get coach for
basketball, boxing, soccer, athletics and buying the equipment. All the
equipment and kits are not that costly. Putting a bus to convey the students
after school will do. I cannot ever imagine that I will be in Abuja if the
mandate was given to me and major issues will be debated and our opinion will
not be heard. If I go there, my salary will be divided into two and a half will
be used to empower people not by giving them rice, beans, Okada and other
things politicians use for empowerment. It is also in my programme to open ICT canters
that will take care of 100 people at a time mainly to support the School
Internet Wireless programme for free. Regular Town hall meetings will be put
in place not to distribute food items
but to engage the people of what we have done, what we intend to do and as what
the people want. The essence of this is foe our people to appreciate themselves
for putting their trust in me. My stand remains how do we leave legacies that
can sustain our people and significantly impact them.
QUESTION: Any government
that fails to protect the lives of his people is a failed government. This
statement credited to Chief Olu Falae. What is your take on it?
SHOWUNMI: Chief Olu Falae
is correct. That is a very popular major quote. It is believed that the first
duty of government is to protect lives and properties. But it is easier said
than done. There are things that befall Nations that is the result of
carelessness from the previous times that comes to play. For instance, if you are
a nation like Nigeria and you are not bothered to figure out an identity system
for your people in such a way that government can identify you to an address it
means if one goes and commit crimes they cannot even find you. Also, if the
rate of unemployment continues to balloon without figuring out how to provide
social safety net. It is only a matter of time before desperation will come in
when people becomes easily available to crime.
We need to modernize our farming
system to save ourselves from all impending dangers because animal cannot differentiate
between cash crops and weed. The business of government is to sit down every
day and ask themselves how we can do it better. We have not reached the point
when we say everything we need has been done. We are too complacent. They just
go there to steal and when they steal you ask yourself what are doing with the
money they stole. They live reckless lives and try to guarantee the lives of
their children. Take cursory look at history. You cannot even find their
children significantly doing better than other peoples’ children from the
resources that were stolen. Chief Falae is right for knowing the answer but is
not a reason to blame just one man.I am scared what if young people that just
graduated got sparked as a result of unemployment. We have seen it in the case
of Arab and who told you that such cannot happen here. We need to get serious
with what we are doing.
QUESTION: Sir, as a
political pundit, how can we correct all these wrongs?
SHOWUNMI: Before now,
I have been preaching and telling people how to do it but with what is on
ground, I now decided to run the House of
Representative race purposely to teach people how to do it and to show
myself as an example. If I were given the mandate, I believe we have 9 Federal
Constituencies in Ogun State and 360 throughout the Federation. Once I lead by
example people from other constituencies will demand good representation from
their own representatives. We cannot continue like this because we blame Federal
Government for everything. How about our legislators? I cannot imagine how corruption can be a
major problem for us and cannot be a major problem for legislators? It was a
major problem for legislators from oversight functions, from budget and people should
come and defend well. But when it comes to implementation, it becomes a problem
for the whole country.
The way we are doing it, we believe it is the business
of the president to do everything. There is a reason we have three tiers of
government. It’s the duty of the journalist to go after good information and
shame looters. It is the business of the judge to jail them. It is the business
of the legislators to strengthen the laws and we as a citizen we must pay
attention to the process. As a citizen, you can write your legislator. What
exactly is their function? But if we all fail to do our parts,we will leave
everybody at the mercy of God. God gave us everything and the only thing we
need is for us to be dedicated. I have been around since democratic process
started in 1999. I came from Europe and did not say I know the problems of the
people. I sat with them which make me to understand their needs. I am
completely convinced that I can do better. It will be a disservice on my part if
I do not present myself for service.
QUESTION: The 8th
National Assembly has been at loggerheads with the Executive. What do you think
is responsible?
SHOWUNMI: First and
foremost, we as a people have not been reasonable especially those of them we
have been sending to Abuja. It is a party that gave us their mandates and it is
the people of your constituency that sent you there. So, there are two
fundamental things that you must not forget. One, you owe your people good
representation. Two, you must not become a hindrance to the progress of your
party. When you become a problem to your party, it means you do not allow the party
to grow.
Everywhere in the world, there are party caucuses who look at what the
agenda our presidency is and if they have majority in the House, it is expected
that their leadership and their majority member will be working together and
not working against them. How can you convert yourself to the opposition of
your own government? It can’t be right. Not that your party wants to go left
and you are saying no so that they can be begging you. You all came together to
form the government. Nobody profits when you don’t allow the government to run
well. The both Houses have the responsibility to choose their leaders without
any interference. Whoever they choose the executive must work with the person
and not trying to pocket the person because he not your candidate. If you are
not going there to steal why do I need to pocket you?
And some of these
legislators do not attend sitting while some of them use the periods of sitting
to sleep, And at the end of the day, the will say they want to be governor.
Five minutes after they become Senator, they began to give their Governor
problems. Finish with what you are doing first. In Ogun State for example, have
we touched the lives of the people medically, educationally, economically
before we start telling people the position you want to go after the one you
are still doing. If you don’t think right, you can’t act right.
QUESTION: Festus
Keyamo has just been appointed as the official spokesperson for President
Muhammadu Buhari 2019 Presidential Campaign. What is your reaction?
SHOWUNMI: I am not a
member of their party. It is their business. The President wants another term.
Let us come together and solve the problems of our nation now. Nelson Mandela,
great man spent 27 years in the prison, (Buhari did not) came out from that
prison, took over the reign of his country and did only one term and yet South
Africa is making progress. I am extremely disappointed. I repeat, I’m extremely
disappointed in President Muhammodu Buhari. I would have expected him
considering his health, age, energy required to drive Nigeria, to just say
gentlemen, all the good things I want to do I have set them in motion.
See, I
have never been this fooled. It has always been about themselves and they are
only playing to the gallery and deceiving us. If you say you don’t like money,
look at your kids they are not poor like that, look at your wife she is not
poor like that and you yourself is not poor like that. So, if you say you are a
man of integrity, what other integrity is better than the self-evaluation of
what ought to be right for your people. We know it is his right to come out and
he has came out. We will interrogate the issues and give Nigerians the
opportunities to choose better what is good for Nigeria. I am convinced beyond
any reasonable doubt that our President cannot go through the rigors of
campaign. Let them go and do an artillery for him to start coming to States. It
is not his fault, time, age and nature will do what it will do.
You asked me that they chose Festus Keyamo as
their spokesperson. Good luck to them. Festus is going to learn that managing spokesperson narrative is not in his ally and he
does not have what it takes. I just wish and pray they appoint me as the spokesperson
for PDP so that I and Festus can go at it. I know a rule of court is not going
to work here. And if they don’t appoint me I will still try and do the best I
can. I know he is not going to have protection of the court. I will help him
drag his SAN-ship on the street in the mucky waters of politics.
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