Reasons Nigerians should reelect Buhari – Boroffice

• says mammoth crowd await President in Ondo Tuesday

By Banji Ayoola

“A lot has been done under Buhari that is bringing back the past glory of this nation. And of course our image outside is improving because he is the epitome of our integrity, the epitome of our honour; and people can see that he is a honest man, he is a man of integrity, he is a man of honour. And that impacts on us when you go outside this country.”

These were the words of the Coordinator of President Buhari Support Group in South West, Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice. In this interview, conducted in his Oka Akoko home, ahead of the planned visit of the President to Ondo State in continuation of his Next Level reelection nationwide campaign, he reeled out reasons why Nigerians should return Buhari in the coming election.

He urged the people of the state to troop out in their large number on Tuesday, “to welcome Mr. President to Ondo State and to assure him that he is going to have overwhelming victory in Ondo State come February 16.”  He said: “We want to show Mr. President that we love him. We want to demonstrate to him that he owns this state.”

Boroffice, who is also seeking a return to the Senate as representative of Ondo North Senatorial District, spoke on other interesting national and local issues; and the golden guiding principles which shape his own personal life. He spoke with Banji Ayoola of The Radiance.

Enjoy…

Two months away, you would be 70. How do you feel at 70?

I feel young. I feel good. I feel there is life ahead of me; and so I look forward to a beautiful life, a fulfilled life ahead of me. I am in good health. So you can see that at almost 70, I look like a 50 year old person. So it’s God’s grace. So I am looking forward to a beautiful, fulfilled life as I move on.

How do you wish to mark it?

Actually, I have not marked any birthday myself. It’s people organising it for me. But I think the best way to mark a 70^th birthday is to give thanks to God in your own way decided  by your family, and may be by your own prophet.

Not that you want to please the world, or you want to show that you are a Senator. No. You give thanks to God for sparing our lives, for leading me so far, and pray that He continues to lead me. That is the way I want to celebrate the 70^th birthday.

Your remarkable achievements as the founding Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, between 1999 and 2009, speak glowingly of you. They include the launching of NigeriaSat 1 and Nigcom Sat 1; and laying the groundwork for building NigeriaSat 2 and NigeriaSat-X.  Are you feeling comfortable with the development since you left there?

You know when you start a programme, usually you see a very rapid development. Then you go to plane two when the various infrastructure have been put in place, when the policy have been put in place. Those are the very active years. Then you say the plane two assumes a normal curve.

However, I am not saying that the agency is at the best of its performance because everything depends on funding. We have to find out whether the funding there is adequate and whether they have the manpower to do what they should be doing. I think the funding is the issue. The manpower is there, but the infrastructure, of course funding affects the infrastructure.

There is a major infrastructure that is needed there which is called AIT (Assembly Integration and Testing Centre) where you need to build satellites. We have trained personnel who can build satellites. We have trained various people who can operate the satellites. What we need there is the infrastructure, where satellites can be assembled. So as long as they get over that, things would just go on normally.

What is your advice to the Management and the Federal Government on this point?

I think my advice should go to the Federal Government that this is a very important investment and it is the technology of the future. So I think Government should, having invested so much in it to lay the foundation; continue to fund it so that the dividends of the investment in satellite technology can be achieved.

You are an erudite scholar, a professor of Zoology. Have you missed the classroom all these years?

I don’t think so really. But at times, you have a nostalgic feeling of being in the classroom. But when you go out and meet your students in various endeavours of life; some of them are lawyers, some of them are accountants; and they are doing very well. When you see them, you feel happy and you would believe that I have made contributions to the lives of these people, and to the development of this country. Once a teacher, you are always a teacher.

You would recall when the issue of cloning came up; that Mr. President has been cloned. After listening to all those nonsensical stories, I became provoked, and I had to do a write up which is purely academic, and because I am a geneticist, I know the details of cloning, and that put paid to the whole argument. So at times like that, I feel maybe I should have been in the classroom also teaching.

You don’t look 70. You look rather younger. Even you don’t look like a politician because some politicians look oppressed.

No. I don’t want to mention some politicians, when you look at their skin, very smooth skin, robust cheeks, and they walk with elegance, with confidence. I am a professional in politics. I am not a professional politician. So I am a professional in politics having my PhD in Science. I am a professor, a technocrat before I went into politics. So I cannot leave that completely out of my life.

And if I am looking young, it’s that I am not over ambitious; I am always content with what God has given me. And I believe that whoever I am today is by God’s Grace. So whatever you are, it is an opportunity to serve humanity and to worship God. And once you have that, you would be contented with life; and the wears and tears in your body would be reduced, and you would look young. I take that as a compliment and I thank you, that I look young. People say it and I continue to thank God for that.

When we came in to your house for this interview, you were observing an Hour of Worship. This is strange for a politician particularly in this campaign period…

People take God out of politics. I believe God is in politics. And as I said, whatever you achieve as a politician is an act of worship and an opportunity to serve. So I see God in everything that I do. I have to worship Him on Sunday. And I am even on tele-service with my church in South Africa. So this is what I do; and I do this almost on daily basis because my church worships every day, and I worship with them over the television.

So that is part of the secret of your youthful look?

Let’s thank God for that.

The nation was saved what could have been a calamity yesterday (Saturday), when the Vice President survived an air crash. Any comment on that?

You’ve said it. We thank God for averting that disaster. He is the God of Nigeria. We would continue to make sure that we don’t have that disaster. It could have been terrible, not only for our party, not only for Government, but for the whole nation and for Africa as a whole.

So we thank God for averting that terrible situation, and I know that God is very merciful as far as this country is concerned. And that is why that thing was limited to what we saw. We thank God for it.

We have been seeing you play some active role in the NextLevel campaign to return President Muhammadu Buhari to power. What exactly are you doing to ensure he is victorious?

What we are doing is to mobilise support for the President at the grassroots, because it is the grassroots people that normally vote. So we are mobilising support for the President. I belong to the Buhari Support Group Centre under Hon Umar Dembo. And so I am the trustee representing the South West.

The goal of this is to mobilise support for Mr. President across the country. I am the South West Coordinator of the President Support Group which is under the Rt. Hon Zamani, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Political. I am the South West Coordinator; how to lead the massive mobilisation of support for Mr. President in the whole of South West, that is Ogun, Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo States.

We are doing that effectively within the limit of our resources. The third one is that as a candidate in this election, I have been going from ward to ward in my Senatorial District, 72 wards, going from ward to ward to preach the gospel of Buharism.

So apart from campaigning for myself, I am also campaigning for Mr. President, because there is no time Mr. President would come to the local government level to campaign. We are his hands, his legs; we are the instruments in his hand to touch the grassroots at the ward level. And we are doing that effectively.

Why should Nigerians return President Buhari?

Because he is the best we have, and we can have at this time. He is a very honest man, and he is committed to Nigeria. He is not looking for any personal glory. He is not amassing wealth. If you look at him, he is no respecter of any person. He is doing what God has given him as an assignment.

He is making sure that the leakages we have in our economy have been blocked, so that we can have enough money for development. He is diversifying our economy. We had been depending on oil for the revenue to sustain our economy. But now he is diversifying our economy in Agriculture, in Solid Minerals.

Look at the measure he came up with concerning this singular account system, where an agency might be having ten, 20 different accounts, both recurrent and capital. And at times it came to the eyes of the auditors that these monies eventually found themselves in private pockets. But then with this single account, Single Treasury Account system, we are having only one account.

That has saved Nigeria billions. People don’t really know that this is the first step and a major step in the anti corruption crusade of Mr. President. With the lot that he has been doing, we can compare his four years in government with the 16 years of the PDP in government, and we can see the difference.

He inherited Boko Haram. He has remarkably reduced the nuisance of Boko Haram. There is nothing that people talk about, even the issue of herdsmen. Herdsmen predate his administration, but you know virtually now that the issue of herdsmen has been resolved and reduced to the minimal level.

He has been bringing back our infrastructure. Railways are being built. Rails are been built. We have opened Abuja to Kaura Namoda. We are working on Lagos – Ibadan that would take us to Abuja. We are working on roads in the Eastern part of the country which had been neglected over the years.

We are renewing our ports. Roads are being rebuilt. Electricity supply has become more stable because we are generating more power now.

A lot has been done under Buhari that is bringing back the past glory of this nation. And of course our image outside is improving because he is the epitome of our integrity, the epitome of our honour; and people can see that he is a honest man, he is a man of integrity, he is a man of honour. And that impacts on us when you go outside this country.

What is in store for Nigerians if he is reelected?

If he is reelected, he would continue to do what he has been doing; what he has started, he would complete it. The infrastructure would be fully established. The rail, the road, the air, the economy would be strengthened and made more viable, diversifying the economy.

And also when you have more power generated, you would also be preparing the ground for industrialisation. So, more industries would come up and improve our economy. The educational system is improving every day, even though you have a threat by ASUU recently. But I think he is focusing not on the quantity but quality of university education.

In my own field which is Science and Technology, he has established a Science and Technology Innovation Council which is very important. And if you look at other countries that are developed and using Science as a basis for their industrialisation, they have this type of council. So this is what he has done and I personally appreciate it as a scientist. And that is why we would work very hard at the Senate level to make sure that that bill is passed.

What has been your experience going round canvassing votes for the President?

It’s been very inspiring. I was in Sokoto, I was in Bauchi. I saw what has been happening in other parts of the country, and I have been going out on my own from ward to ward. There is a tremendous support for Mr. President. I can assure you that what he is going to get in this election would be almost 20 percent over what he had in the last election.

Last week, for the first time that the public would know, you and the Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, were seen together at a public event; and you even shook hands. That gave a signal that the reunification within the APC is by the door. What is your comment about that?

We pray for it. We have been meeting here and there. When the Vice President, Prof Osinbajo came to Ondo State, when he was in Ifon in Olufon’s palace, we shook hands then. And when I was in Ibadan to inaugurate the South West executive of the Presidential Support Committee, we met at the airport, we greeted each other; we shook hands.

And this third one during the inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Council, Ondo State version, to prepare for the visit of Mr. President, I was there because I am a member of the council. And after he had addressed us, and the council was inaugurated, I shook hands with him on my way out. So it’s nothing unusual. I hope that it translates to a more united party.

How would the two of you work together to ensure that you have victory for your candidate?

I think the important thing is: let everyone play his role. And I have been doing my own, playing my own role, not only here in Ondo State, but even at the national level, I have been making my own contribution materially at the national level to ensure that Mr. President succeeds. And I am doing the same thing here. I am sponsoring many NGOs and support groups.

The Buhari Support Group Centre in Ondo State has over 50 support groups. I am going to mobilise them to welcome Mr. President on Tuesday. I am doing my best. Apart from my own followers in the Senatorial District, we are going to mobilise heavily. We are planning to take large number of buses from each local government, and we would go there with billboards to welcome Mr. President to Ondo State.

We want to show Mr. President that we love him. We want to demonstrate to him that he owns this state. So I am playing my role. I hope other people who have been given the opportunity, who are in the position to play their own role would play their own role. And as a synergy, when we all come together, it’s going to be a huge success.

Could you give us inkling into the programme of the President’s visit to Ondo State on Tuesday?

The council has various committees. I am not in the protocol or programme committee. But I have been to many rallies with Mr. President, and it has been the same thing. Before his arrival, people would be seated in the venue, whether it is stadium. But in this case it is going to be Abiola Memorial Park, Akure.

There would be a podium where people who would speak would speak. Then the DG of the campaign, the Hon Minister Rotimi Amaechi, would speak and welcome everybody, welcome Mr. President. After that, maybe one or two people, leaders in the community may be asked also to address the crowd.

Then Comrade Oshiomhole the chairman of the party would come on board, and present the candidate of the party to the electorate, and advise them to vote massively for all the candidates. Then Mr. President would come on board and also address the crowd. And that is the end. That is the pattern.

Do you have any word for the people of Ondo State?

They should come out in large number to welcome Mr. President to Ondo State and to assure him that he is going to have overwhelming victory in Ondo State come February 16.

You are seeking reelection into the Senate for a third term. What have been your contributions to justify this ambition?

I think you should take a look at a small booklet that I produced, which is titled My Stewardship. You would see what I have done. If you want to talk of the performing senators, I would be among the top five.

I have built a mini hospital here. I am building a biofuel plant in Ajowa. I am building a cashew processing plant in Ikakumo. I have built Skills Acquisition Centre in Ikaramu where now we are concentrating on laser technology. In fact a pair of the shoes that I wear is made from that centre. We have Skills Acquisition Centre here in Oka. We have another Skills Acquisition Centre in Ifon that has been equipped. Three Skills Acquisition Centres.

We have a biotech centre here in Oka. We have been able to attract federal presence to my Senatorial District. There is a National Laboratory on Science and Technology being built in Akungba. We have Chemical Technology Centre being built in Ikare. We have Aerospace Development Centre now here in Oka. There is a Ceramic Processing Unit in Epinmi.

I have built many classrooms in Ikaro, Oka, Ikare at Agboriki and other places. So it is not something we can count; apart from the solar street light and boreholes, bringing transformers to improve light distribution in Ondo North Senatorial District.

So I believe I have done very well when I compare what I have done with that of my colleagues in other parts of the country. With these, I think there is justification for me to return to complete those ongoing projects and to bring in new ones.

What are you doing to ensure your reelection?

I am talking to the people, assuring them that I would do more than what I have done here; and to apologise to those who have not felt my impact. There is no way you can satisfy everybody at the same time.

There are people who felt they were neglected and I said it is turn by turn. My third term would be their turn and they should work hard to make sure that I am reelected.

So I have massive support from Ondo North except that we have some problem, the problem of AA. We don’t know who is behind AA. And my concern is the violence that is being nurtured by supporters of AA.

There is threat that when they vote and they see that my votes are very high, they would send thugs to destroy the ballot box or to snatch the ballot box, empty it, thumbprint and put inside. These are the concerns for me. But I am sure that the authorities, the security organisations would look into it.

Have you contacted the authorities on this alleged threat?

We have not, officially, but we are talking.

Can you formally inform them?

We would do that when we eventually concretise, when we know what they are doing in concrete terms. Then we would be able to specifically refer to efforts being made by these people.

With your grounding in the Presidency, and particularly with your good relationship with President Buhari, one expects that you would attract federal presence to the whole Ondo State. What are you doing about that?

You don’t forget that I am a senator, and the preoccupation of my mandate is that of Ondo North. And I want to thank President Buhari for having made such a huge federal presence in Ondo North. We have a senator in Ondo North, another senator in Ondo Central, another senator in Ondo South.

And don’t forget that when these things come, they come under the budget as a bill which is a law. I am supposed to fight for my own Senatorial District. So what is meant for Akoko I can’t take it to Idanre. So that is how it is. But there is quite a number of federal presence that we have in Ondo North, far beyond what any senator has done whether in the state or in the past within the state.

Your advice to the people of Ondo State concerning the next elections particularly on this alleged threat of violence?

Ninety nine percent of Ondo people do not want violence. It’s just a few people who believe they cannot win under normal circumstance, that want to create problem.

My advice to our people is to shun violence; and when they vote, they should defend their votes; and they should come out massively to vote for President Buhari and all APC candidates at all levels – Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly.

Could you give us a picture of the next Senate that you want Nigeria to have?

I think the next Senate would be more organised. And I think the party would take more interest in who and who occupies a particular position in the next Senate in leadership. And once the leadership is working in a symbiotic manner with the party, then we would not have problem.

I am sure we are going to have majority in the Senate, and the leadership of the Senate would work hand in hand with Mr. President. So it’s going to be a calmer Senate, a more progressive Senate, a more hardworking Senate, a more cooperative Senate. That is what I expect in the next assembly.

What has been your experience so far in politics?

It’s been very interesting because you go to the grassroots people, you begin to know better the problems of the people. Because when you campaign and meet people and they tell you what they are going through, then you would understand the problems of this country particularly in the areas of water, roads, electricity, job; people have no job.

Farmers have their own problems of inputs, access to market, preservation of their goods because most of the goods produced, by the time they get to market, 50 percent is gone. And when they want to sell, another 25 percent is gone. On the whole, you see that it is only 25 percent of what they produce that they sell and generate revenue from.

On the other hand, it gives you a better understanding of the problems of this country because it is easy for you to stand somewhere and be condemning this and that, criticising that nothing has been done. But when you are an insider, you now understand more, how government works and the problems confronting government itself.

If you have in your budget to do 20 things, and don’t forget that budget is a document of intent, if we have this, we would do this. For instance if you say that in the whole 2019, we are going to generate N3 trillion to run your budget. And you can only generate N1.5 trillion, it means 50 percent of your programmes would not be implemented; but people don’t know that.

They don’t know the problem of generating that revenue, the vagaries of global economy where the price of oil goes up and down. And until recent, Nigeria had been a monolithic economy that depends on oil. All these things affect the performance of government. If you are just outside you don’t know. You would just be criticising government; that government said they would do this, it has not done this.

Now I have many friends outside Ondo State. I have friends in Zamfara, in Kebbi, in different parts of the country. We have been together in the Senate as brothers and patriots, patriotic citizens of this country. And you get to know the problems of other parts of this country, that Ondo State is not the worse; that Ondo State is not the best; that we are all struggling together to make Nigeria great and move to the next level.

So far, you have spoken glowingly of the Buhari administration. Are there some areas of minuses that you want government to correct?

I can’t see any areas of minuses. I can only see pluses. Government has started well; and they should continue in a conducive National Assembly that government would do more.

If I am to advise government, the executive should move closer with the National Assembly, should work closer with the National Assembly. They should work hand in hand. This is because the National Assembly is the symbol of democracy. When you have military regime, there is no National Assembly. When you have dictatorship, you don’t have National Assembly or legislature.

The legislature is the symbol of democracy. Without the legislature there is no democracy. So it is very important. You always have the judiciary and the executive. It is when you complement them with the legislature that you have democracy. And we are representing the people. So I want to recommend a closer working relationship between the executive and the legislature.

Any further comment?

No comment.

Thank you.