•On His 2020 Governorship Ambition
His Face-Off With Gov. AKEREDOLU
Hon. Duerimini Isaacs Kekemeke fondly called DI is one of the influential politicians in Ondo state and a force to reckon with when it comes to politics. This Law graduate is the Founding / Principal Partner of D.I Kekemeke & Co legal practitioners and the Executive Director, Legal & Strategy International Strategic Management Institute.
He was honourable member/minority leader, Ondo State House of Assembly (1992-1993). He was the pioneer Chairman, Board of National Examinations Council (NECO) for 3 years (2001-2004). He was the Attorney –general and Commissioner for Justice, Ondo state for 2 years (2003-2005) and Ondo State Commissioner for Works, lands, and housing between 2005-2007. He was also Secretary to Ondo state government (SSG) 2007-2009 all during Olusegun Agagu administration.
He was also a Member –Niger delta technical committee 2008. Aside from this Hon. Kekemeke had also held party office positions, he was Member PDP Constitution Drafting Committee in 1998. He was the Pioneer PDP Secretary Ondo State chapter in 2007-2009 and the Pioneer Chairman APC, Ondo State (2014-2018).
Last week City People’s ADEOLA SHITTU was at his Alagbaka Law chambers in Akure where he opened up on his 2020 ambition, his late wife, his issues with Arakunrin Akeredolu among others. Enjoy!
In the last 2 years, much has not been heard about you, what has been keeping D.I busy?
Well, King Solomon of the Bible fame tells us that there is time for everything. There is time to be heard and a time not to be heard. There is a time to fly high and a time to lie low.
There is time for success and time for failure and indeed there is time and season for everything. The last 2 years was a season for me to introspect politically.
As a successful legal practitioner, what inspired you to go into politics?
It will interest you to know that I have been in politics for over 30 years. Basically, I see politics as an instrument of service to one’s community, to one’s state and the nation at large depending on what constitutes the constituency at any particular time.
This is because there are things that we have caused to happen that wouldn’t have happened if we were not involved or better still that God had used me and some other people at every point in time to change lives and to add value to society.
It was great joy stabilizing the National Examination Council (NECO). Talking about the access road to my community, I am proud to be part of it. Again, one feels privileged to be a part of the success story of late Agagu’s administration in Ondo State.
I feel fulfilled that as minority leader at the Ondo State House of Assembly between 1992 and 1993, I spoke and represented my people very well. I worked with others to make PDP win in 2003 and am so glad that I led APC to victory in Ondo state in 2015 general elections and the Ondo 2016 governorship election.
You are one of the most influential politicians in Ondo state, having served as Attorney general and Commissioner for Justice, as SSG, as a minority leader of the house, as commissioner for works, lands and housing and party chairman. Was there any time you felt like quitting politics?
In my political career spanning over 28 years or more in public life, if there is one thing I have been unable to comprehend, it’s the harassment of public officials by the citizens and the blackmail that follows public office.
At times I marvel at the kind of name-calling and the kind of lies, untruths that is generated by opponents, political adversaries and/or naïve citizens about their Leaders.
I know that it is impossible for everyone to like public officials and that there is always a place for criticism in public life, but it isn’t right to slander leaders at will.
As the pioneer APC chairman in Ondo state, how were you able to stabilize the party during your era as the state chairman?
Hmmm, let me say that that was a very challenging task. You will recall that I joined the party from PDP, so I was not a member of any of the legacy parties namely: ACN, ANPP or CPC. , so getting to work with people whose political orientation was different from mine must necessarily have teething challenges.
Some people had difficulty accepting me while the majority believed that with my pedigree in the state as a former honourable member, former Attorney- general and commissioner for justice, former commissioner for works, lands and housing, former secretary to the state government and the Chairman, governing council of NECO, I possessed the experience to lay a solid foundation for the party.
It was clear to me that the national leadership of the party wanted us to win, some elements in the party couldn’t be bothered whether we won or lost. I had to contend with attitudinal dispositions too. Every party member was a leader and /or aligned to a group at the expense of the party loyalty.
There was also a palpable commitment to individual pockets rather than a commitment to victory. Further, was also the problem of over-reliance on external support rather than building support from inside and contributing to the growth of the party in the state.
At the start, I had to turn my law office to the temporary APC office because the party office was not in good shape. It was not easy uniting all the many diverse groups to achieve our commitment to change the party’s name from a party in opposition to a party in government.
I was able to achieve this with the support of quite a number of people who keyed into our vision and the tremendous and unflinching support we got from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Pius Akinyelure amongst others.
How were you able to win the election having contested with an APC candidate and you only joined the party a few months to party election?
First, I didn’t join the party a few months to the election. I am a pioneer member of APC and played a very active role in the membership registration exercise in 2013.
As for my election, I will say it was God’s doing. On joining the party, I observed that unless we instituted a strong leadership that is bold, courageous and firm, the chances of victory were slim, I then decided to offer myself. I set out my vision and my mission and a program of action which was new to a number of them.
I was sure of an APC victory nationally and felt it will be nice if we also won here (Ondo). But like I said, it was very, very tough but my antecedents, programs, and roadmap appealed to a number of party men and women and with the support of the national leader of the party who was looking for strong leadership, I won.
But by and large, I think God just helped me and I won the party chairman position with just a slight margin to become the APC pioneer Chairman.
In the first 6 months or more of Arakunrin Akeredolu’s led administration in Ondo state, the news that as the then chairman of the party, you had issues with the governor which led to your suspension as the party chairman, how true was this?
I had said it time and time again that, nobody suspended me from the party as the chairman, nobody did. As state chairman, I was a member of the national executive of the party, so only the National executive committee or the national working committee acting on its behalf could suspend or remove me and that didn’t happen.
Till date, I had no letter to that effect and I challenge anyone with such letter or resolution or decision of the national working committee suspending me to bring same to the public domain. What happened was that when Gov. Akeredolu won the election, he didn’t want to work with me as party chair and since he didn’t want to work with me, I didn’t want to force myself on him.
I didn’t want distraction for him and I wanted peace for myself. So when they brought their black- market letter signed by then national chairman, Chief John Oyegun appointing my deputy as acting chairman without any reference to me and clearly stating that he was acting solely and without the authority of the national working committee, I decided to ignore their drama.
I felt satisfied with the role I had played in the success of the party. So having said that I was not ready to force myself on any government, I settled down to doing other things and catching my fun.
But, it was painful that those who really worked for the victory of the party were not compensated and I was not in any position to influence the reward for their efforts.
But sir, one of the allegations was that you were involved in anti-party activities how true was this?
(Laughing) You see, one of the things in ACN which constituted about 90% of the APC is that, once they disagree with you, they make two stereotype allegations against you. It is either you have stolen billions of naira or you are engaged in anti-party activities.
How can I work against a party I led people to build from scratch?. Does anti-party mean going to Odigbo to flag-off the governorship election campaign and be the main speaker and campaigner at that event? Anti-party I guess is working so hard to cause a party to win.
Anti-party is when you confront that huge Niger Delta sentiment in my local government area or Anti- party is working against PDP machinery to crumble it for you to be where you are.
I have never been involved in anti-party and I will never. Ironically these same people who accuse me of doing anti-party have queries to answer and are now running helter shelter to explain themselves and video clips of their anti-party activities.
Will D.I quit APC for another political party?
No, there is no plan for that and I have no reason or cause to quit my party. Even when you don’t have a good relationship with the governor? The party does not belong to the governor, it belongs to all of us. The party is a platform for everybody.
It’s available today for the governor, it will be available tomorrow for others. Moreover, I have this great relationship with the southwest leadership of the party. I can’t leave the house that I built.
It was gathered that you are lobbying for Ondo ministerial slot, how true is this? Anyone who says that does not know me, I have never lobbied for any political office.
I’m either running for office or God is appointing me into office, I don’t know how to lobby and as a matter of fact, my friends say that one of the reasons my politics is surviving setbacks is because I don’t lobby. And I have been surviving with the help of God. No single person can say I have lobbied him or her for office.
God has always been in charge and I have come to learn to rely on him.
Ondo 2020 governorship election is fast approaching and the Leke-leke slogan is everywhere, what is leke-leke all about?
Leke-leke is leke-leke. Leke-leke is the king of birds.
No one stops leke-leke from flying and in the case of Ondo state we are ready to make Ondo state fly like lekeleke.
The news is that D.I kekemeke is the face behind the new political slogan “Leke-leke” in town, Is Hon D.I kekemeke contesting the Ondo 2020 governorship election?
I will answer in 3 words, I kekemeke is consulting, sensitizing and exploring the possibility of a run. After I am done with these, I will make my decision.
After consulting, are you ready to run?
What D.I will do after consulting, sensitizing and exploring will be determined by a number of factors, the most important being that, D.I will not be breaking the laws of the land, the constitution, the electoral act and the constitution of our party.
I wouldn’t act in violation of the timeline speculated by the law but one thing I want you to know is that D.I has a right, a political right to aspire to any political office in the land that he is qualified to run for.
So, once the time is ripe and the result of the consultation and sensitization is positive, why not?
It’s been almost 2 years that you lost your late wife, do you have plans to remarry?
Hmmm, marriage is a very personal thing and I look forward to getting married again one of these days. When the time for making, the decision comes and the decision is taken, I will remarry.
How have you been coping since the demise of your late wife?
It’s been very difficult but I will say God is helping us. So difficult, but we are coping.
What do you miss most about your late wife?
A home is not complete without a woman. My late wife was my best friend, a very good friend who tolerated me so well and managed me perfectly. It is not that we didn’t have our differences or disagreements but we understood each other.
She helped to stand in for me when I was unavailable at home and she organized the home front while I was away with politics. She was my friend and I was happy that we were together and comforted that, that was the way she was meant to go and this was the way I was meant to go.
How have you been able to manage your profession as a lawyer and politics together, without one affecting each other?
I will say am an away lawyer, I still practice law and I go to court once in a while but most of the time when I am about to stabilize in my law practice, I get taken away by one political assignment or the other, so I have been off and on.
It’s a very difficult thing to combine together but the good thing is that I always have a place to fall back when am off from politics and fortunately my brother runs the office efficiently.
So the office is running and I can always get back to play a role when there is a need to do so.
Tell us about yourself?
I am Hon. Duerimini Isaacs Kekemeke but my political associates and friends call me DI. I’m a legal practitioner by profession and I practice politics as a vocation. I attended L.A Primary School Abigi, Muslim Pry. School, Ode-Remo, Christ Apostolic Pry. School Ijebu-Ode, L.A. Pry. School, Arogbo before I proceeded to St. John Secondary Modern School, Arogbo, Stella Maris College, Okitipupa.
After which I gained admission into Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife where I bagged my L.L.B (HONS) and I proceeded to Nigerian Law School. I went further for my master’s degree in law at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan and Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti for my Ph.D.
I am a member of various professional bodies such as Member, Nigerian Bar Association, Member, Institute of Industrial& Corporate Administrators, Fellow, Institute of Local Government and Public Admiration, Fellow, Certified Institute of Management, Fellow, Institute of Public Administration and Fellow, International Strategic Management Institute.
How do you unwind?
Well, I read, sing and love dancing. I have of recently developed passion for farming, so these days, I’m either with the fish or in the garden within the compound.
