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OGUN House Of Reps Member, Hon. TUNJI AKINOSI
There has been an ongoing debate in Ogun State regarding the performance of the state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun. Many Ogun residents believe he has done extremely well in his almost five years at the helm of affairs of the state. Many others insist that he has performed below expectations, citing the deplorable condition of many of the roads within the state as their bone of contention. The governor himself has repeatedly assured the people that his government will do everything within its capacity to meet most, if not all of their expectations.
One of those who do not agree that the governor has under performed, is Honourable Olatunji Akinosi, one of Ogun State’s brightest new breed politicians. He currently serves the people of Ado-Odo/Ota Federal Constituency as a member of the Federal House of Representatives. An engineer by profession who has been involved in the construction of major roads across various parts of the country, Honourable Olatunji, is clearly one of the few politicians that can be said to be genuinely passionate about serving the people and giving it everything in his powers to ensure that he brings the dividends of democracy to their doorsteps. If you were meeting him for the first time and you spend only a few minutes speaking with him, you immediately get to see that he is not like the run-of-the mill Politicians. Engineer Olatunji Akinosi, does not carry himself like the regular politician does. He does not go about with chips on his shoulders and he’s not disposed to having praise singers and boot likers flock around him and heralding his arrival or presence anywhere he goes. He is a federal lawmaker who would rather be left alone in his quiet little space to concentrate on his work so he can meet the demands and expectations of his constituents.
But this very brilliant and articulate gentleman understands how politics works and has found a way to navigate around some of the distractions that being a federal lawmaker could attract. And he has done well so far. This is why his constituents love him. They don’t joke with Hon. Olatunji. They all admire his simplicity and appreciate the sincerity with which he relates with them. He will never promise what he cannot deliver. When they speak to him, they have no doubts in their minds that they are talking to a sincere and honest individual who genuinely has their interest at heart.
Two Saturdays ago, at the investiture of Rotarian Femi Adenekan as the pioneer District Governor of District 9112, City People Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) engaged this distinguished Lawmaker and a staunch believer in the capabilities of Governor Dapo Abiodun for a few minutes. He shared with us the challenges before the Ogun State Governor as far as road infrastructure is concerned. Enjoy excerpts of the interview.
You do not cut the conventional look of a politician, you are a very calm person. And you look like one who would rather want to be left alone in his private space and do his own thing, so how did you get pulled into politics?
As I said, service. I’m from Ado-Odo Ota and along the line in 1998 when the politicking thing came back, serving at the highest then, Lagos and Ogun, I said, okay, let me be part of those that will atleast serve the people. I got interested in the chairmanship of my local government, unfortunately that did not come to being because the traditional politicians made it very tasking. I went back to my office, I’m an Engineer. I work on roads, I construct roads, bridges, so I went back to work. But in 2002, when His Excellency, former Governor of our state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was vying, I came back to assist in the electioneering process and God smiled on us and the election was won. After that, we got close to the governor, got close to some of our leaders then and that was how I got into it. In 2005/2006, I was given the nod to become the chairman of the local government and that was it. A year or so later, I was given the opportunity to become a commissioner in the state. I served as Commissioner for Agriculture from 2008 to 2011 and that has been it. I left commissionership in 2022 to vie for the House of Reps seat and to the glory of God we are there. So, it’s not been easy. I pride myself and others as being professionals in politics and it’s been something that’s been worthwhile.
That’s a whole lot of experience you have under your belt already. But how have you been coping with the humongous pressure that comes with dealing with different kinds of people everyday given the fact that you came from the private sector where things are more organised?
Permit me to tell you that before leaving the civil service, I worked in the Ministry of Communications for almost nine years before leaving. Now, the civil service Rotary is a mini country in itself. So, leaving those ones and going into politics is something that is, okay, we deal with ourselves and you see the crowd that has come in here. The governor has to go to about 80 to 90 clubs round the year. If he’s not careful, he will not be able to go round the clubs in one year. So, those are the pressures that we faced in Rotaract and Interact and we stil faced in Rotary. So, bringing that into politics was a good thing for me and it was something that lent a lot of weight in my developmental stage. And I find politics, just as we’ve done in Rotary and Rotaract assisting people. The difference is that in Rotary and Rotaract, the needy are those that you assist. But in politics, people bring this entitlement syndrome into it, which if you look at it, these are not their entitlement. But you’re the one that has gone there, our doors are never closed, we’ll continue to work and roll with them.
One of the challenges many Lawmakers have had to battle with is explaining to their constituents that your primary duties are to propose bills and help make Laws that will facilitate the provision of infrastructure and enhance the living standards of the people, but you do not have executive powers like a local government chairman to do a lot of things for them. So, in the early years, how were you able to deal with this?
Not even in the early years alone, even now, there is no way you’ll draw a line between the governor and the Legislator, except for those that are literate. Even those that are literate would still call you to say come do this for me. While driving down here now, someone said we have issues with our transformer, we have issues with our roads and I said, okay. Ours is to pass the message to the authority. And the government has done something now, they say they want to give us a chance to say, so and so might happen in the budget. So, whatever we get from our constituents, we’ll also put it down and make it a reality. So, there’s no difference as it is now in this country, but I believe as we go on and develop in our democratic ideals and ideas as a nation, people will see the difference and will tell us, okay, this is what we want you to go and do there. It is not about we need to give rice, we need to give food, its good, its an experience and I believe we are evolving.
Tell us, sir, considering the prevailing economic hardship in the country, how have you been able to explain to your constituents some of the economic policies of the governments, the intentions of Mr. President and the expectations that things would work out right at the end of the day?
Well, I’m luckier than some other Lawmakers in that my federal constituency has a very high rate of literates. It’s an industrious federal constituency. We contribute very high to what comes into the federal government’s purse. So, its been easier explaining to them. I have like 70 percent literacy level in my federal constituency and that’s very high, very, very high. So, it takes those seventy, once they understand, to explain to the other thirty. They believe in the president. My constituents believe in the government of the day. They also know that if what the president did on the 29th of May is not done, it may not have been easy for him to do it again, which is removal of the fuel subsidy. And I’m certain by August to September this year, when they start seeing and start feeling the ease that comes with it, they will know its something that is good for the nation. It’s not been easy, we know, there is nothing good that will come easy, but we have taken the hard stance and we’re sure that it’s going to be better for our people.
What are those things you’re looking to put in place for your constituents in the coming months? If not for time, I would’ve liked for you to share with us a few of the challenges you met on ground, some of the ones you have been able to address and the ones you’re looking to address in the next few months?
There will always be challenges. What we found on ground, what it is that has been there before now, have always been there. It may be a plus and it could also be a minus, Ogun State has the largest concentration of federal roads in this country. If not more than 70 percent, about 70 percent of our roads are federal roads. So, there is no constituency that is not affected as it were. And you can see the state has done the bit that they are supposed to do. The governor has gone severally, it has become confrontational, wanting to take over federal roads and the people in charge will say no. Unfortunately, our constituents don’t know the difference between a state road and a federal road. So, those are the major challenges we have as Lawmakers and even as state governments and that is where the governor and the government of the day is working on some things. In my federal constituency now, the Abule Egba, Sango, Ifo road to Abeokuta is one. The Sango, Ota, Idiroko road is another. The Atan, Oba Adesola, Agbara road, Isokoto road, the Alagbole road, Sango-Alagbole road, they are all federal roads, but so many people don’t know this and I don’t blame them. My governor will not come out to say these are federal roads, that is why you people should bear it, he won’t do that. The governor is trying. He’s working assiduously to make these things work, using state funds and not even sure he’s going to get back the money from the federal government. But he’s desirous. These are his people, these are people from his state, people that voted for him, so the governor is doing everything within his power to getting things done, what we are doing is only to assist in the little way we can in terms of legislation, in terms of talking to the Minister for Works to go with our governor. Once those things are sorted out, we are fine. Like I said, my people don’t want so much, once our roads are sorted out, we are good. And I think our government has started doing that now. The Ota-Ifo road has been awarded and work will start in the next few weeks. The Sango –Atan-Idiroko road has also been awarded. Work has started on it. They started with the bridges there. The state government is working on the Agbara road, Oba Adesola in Lusada as well as the Atan road, the state government is working on them. I am certain that my constituents will smile better than other constituents in the next one or two years.
You have just given a totally different complexion to this scenario. A lot of people believe Governor Dapo Abiodun has not done much in terms of road infrastructure….
He wants to do, but when they say even if you do we’re not going to refund, that brings so much problem into it. If the government says, go ahead if you have the power, if you do we will refund, my governor would’ve done all. But what many do not know is that a lot of these roads they want the governor to do are actually federal roads. If I begin to list them one by one, you will be shocked at how long the list is. But I trust that His Excellency the governor will not be discouraged. I will just implore our people to be patient with the governor. Governor Dapo Abiodun loves his people and he wants them to enjoy the dividends of democracy, but they need to understand these limitations and give him time to address them one after the other.
