- ‘Oyetola is good because he is ahead of us’
- ‘Things are not Okay with local governments generally’
- ‘My role in completing Osun Bridge and stewardship as Ayedire LG Chairman’
The Chairman of Ayedire Local Government of Osun State, Alhaji Adeboye Mukaila Oladejo has revealed the major reasons that led the Gboyega Oyetola administration to reverse the education policy which it inherited from the preceding Rauf Aregbesola administration. As an insider in the governor’s administration, the chairman assessed the leadership traits of his boss and declared that Oyetola is good because he is ahead of those working with him. Also, he identified the major problems rocking local government administration generally across the nation. In this interview, he spoke passionately of some of the processes connected with him, which led to the approval by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, through the connection of the Olowu of Kuta, Oba Adekunle Oyelude, Tegbosun the Third, for the completion of the age long Osun Bridge, which links Kuta, Ikoyi and Ede together and with the outside world. He spoke in his Kuta country home on Sunday, November 22, with Banji Ayoola of The Radiance. It compels all to read.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman
Good morning Sir.
We congratulate you that during your tenure, the Osun Bridge passed through and the Kuta Town Hall project which started about 25 years ago is being resuscitated. How do you feel about these Sir?
Thank you very much. I am Otunba Adeboye Oladejo, the Chairman of Ayedire Local Government. As you rightly asked, we thank the Almighty that our hopes have brightened on the Kuta-Ikoyi-Ede Road which had been moribund because of Osun River Bridge, which has now been a cross-over. I am very happy.
It was just like a joke when this thing wanted to start. About two years ago, we wanted to do grading of roads in the local government. I went to the Olowu that I wanted to do some road grading and I would like him to tell me which roads he would like us to grade in the town. He said that “whatever be the share of Kuta in your grading project, just face Osun-Kuta-Ede Road. It just started like that.
I got to a point by the railway line. I believed we had to cross the railway line. I just struggled. I said having crossed the railway line, I must get to the river. So I called the boys in the town. They followed me. We were able to locate the pillar which had been erected about 50 years ago. When we located the pillar, it’s like when we get to labrum. We tied a rope from there and drew the rope to the outer vicinity. We now told the people: “Try to cut line from this open place now down following this rope with the line so that you would not miss it.” That was how we cut the line to the bridge area. After cutting the line, we took the grader to go and bulldoze. The bulldozer followed the line being cut by the boys. The line is just like a footpath. The bulldozer now followed the footpath. As the boys were going in front, working forward till we got to the bridge.
Having got to the bridge, I now went back to the Kabiesi and told him: “Kabiesi, I have been able to locate the pillars of the bridge. He said: ‘Waoh!’ We now took a day to go and visit. Good enough, there was a monitoring committee put up by the state that they should visit all the grading being done by the chairmen of the local governments. Fortunately for me, I was part of the committee. When we came to Iwo Ola Oluwa axis, I told the commissioner for Works that we would like to visit Osun Bridge. I told the Kabiesi. The commissioner, myself and the Kabiesi went. We were able to make it to the abandoned pillar of the bridge. Everybody was amazed. Despite the fact that we didn’t know what was going to happen later, we were all happy that at least we were able to make it to the pillars that were erected about 50 years ago, where somebody could not even remember or locate. I was able to locate the pillar. We went back home.
The Kabiesi was so happy. He said: “Chairman, I would do something very soon and you would see.” I said “Okay. No problem” I just believed that I had reached where God had been able to help me. I got to my limitation as far as this thing is concerned. Not quite two weeks, he just called me and said: “The Chairman, we have gotten approval for that bridge. The Chief of Army Staff has approved that bridge”. I said: “Waoh!” Honestly speaking, before, we were putting the pictures of the pillars, this and that on the Facebook. People were commenting. But when that letter came and they put it on the Facebook, the sons and daughters of Kuta, wherever they were, were agog with joy.
So the thing started like that and at the same time when the Army came in, I tried my best by being with them. We did some cutting. It now happened that when the Army did their survey, they discovered that where the pillar was, was not the best place to go with the bridge so that the depth of the river in that area was just too deep; and there was nothing solid to erect the bridge on. They now went and pick another cross-over about four kilometers away from the former pillar. I said “Okay. No problem.” They have chosen that place; we were using footpath. I now took another challenge by getting the bulldozer again, bring in the surveyor to do the surveying so that we could get a straight line to the new beam under construction. The surveyor cane and they cut the line. I now brought another bulldozer to the area. We created another way to link the bridge. That was just my participation in the whole thing.
It seems the name Adeboye Mukaila Oladejo is strongly connected with this bridge because two days after you were born, was when the bridge was commissioned…
Yes! 14th of September. I was born on the 12th of September. You got it right. Anyway, it has some attachment to my birthday. That’s just it.
How has it been governing Ayedire Local Government?
We thank the Almighty it has been so far so good. At the same time we cannot really assess ourselves; or I cannot really assess myself as being so better or best or whatever. But I believe that I am above average in this governance. The problems with the local government generally are the paucity of funds and that things are not all that Okay with the local governments. To worsen the whole things, this COVID of a thing cane in, and it distabilised the whole system. But so far so good I think that I have been able to leave a landmark in the history of local government governance in Ayedire Local Government.
When you go to Ileogbo now, you would see the market being built by the local government – very fantastic. Likewise at Kuta, we did the same thing. And I was able to do some roadworks though I did not tar them. At least they were standard in terms of rehabilitation. If you go to Ileogbo from Ode Ayi down to Yidi, we put concrete gutter here and there. Likewise when you go to Iloro junction down to Oyatedo, we did the same thing. Likewise I have been able to facilitate borehole water into four local palm oil mills called eku. We got the generator there. The borehole is there, the stansion is there with overhead tanks. During the dry season, these people suffer a lot looking for water here and there. We just believed that we should make life easier for them to be able to do good production with clean water. So we were able to build boreholes in the four local palm oil mills. At Kuta here, we did one at Arowo and another one at Olosuuru; in Ileogbo we did one at Eleja and another one at Fine Boy. They are all functional there.
At the same time, I have been able to do something reasonable for our gari producing women, I got them the cassava peeling machine; likewise the cassava drilling something. I was able to build sheds for them to do their production. At the same time, I did one gari processing cottage industry in Ileogbo. I did one in Kuta. I put boreholes there as well. At the same time, I constructed another borehole at Ode Oosa; and I constructed another one at Open Space in Ileogbo. I have tried my best. Likewise we ventured into some other empowerment projects like organising the computer training for people. So far so good, I think we have some things to really point at that we have done in the life of this administration.
What are your further plans?
God owns tomorrow. As far as I am concerned, I believe that it’s just like a college. Once you pass through a class you move to another class. But in politics, only God knows the class that you can move to depending on the party, where they want you. Won ni omoran kan o fi’ra e j’oye. You cannot decide that “I want to be this.” Well, you may have the desire that you want to be this or that. At the same time you have to put the party consideration into it that “if I want it and they don’t give me, what would I do?” everybody is ambitious, wants to move forward in whatecer he is doing. Likewise, I want to move forward in this politics. I am a chairman, looking forward to something else. But let’s leavr tomorrow to the Almighty.
And your further plans for your local government?
You mean this administration?
Yes, before your tenure lapses.
The administration is going to an end. Everything would end up by January. Things are hanging here and there. I am trying to see how best or what best can I do. We have an estate in Kuta here, which was built by Hon Yunusa Amobi when he was Chairman of the local government. That place is suffering a lot. The place has been gutted by fire two times and it’s still inside the bush. But we are looking forward. Before I would round up, I want to make sure that something is done about it. May be allocating it to people to repair and be living there; while we commute their repair expenses into agreement of years to be used. At least let any other administration do whatever it likes with it, but I want to make sure that it is allocated to people for occupancy. At least, I want to make sure that that one is done before I leave the administration. At the same time there is a proposal in Ileogbo generally and some people in Kuta want us to do something like street naming. I think I would put that one also behind me before my tenure ends.
Could you tell us what you want your people to remember you for?
When doing things, just like what people are saying, I believe that at least in Kuta and Ileogbo, I have given them ultra modern markets. Hoe I have to to understand how these markets were before the building I erected there now. It is a landmark project that people cannot forget me about.. At the same time, I ventured into politics. Practically I am a business man. There is a difference between business and politics. The politics of business is just to make your profit. But the tactics of politics go into different levels.
The only thing which I don’t like and which I believe is not the best for us especially in this our own community called Kuta, is the intrigue of b’o o ba o pa, b’o o ba o bu u l’ese. An issue that if you are in the front, you don’t want somebody else to be in your front; and you don’t want somebody to be at your back. It’s a very terrible thing which I pray that God Almighty would try to eradicate such a thing in our community so that everybody can progress. Won ni oju orun t’eye e fo lai f’ara kan’ra. Whatever I make in my life, whatever you make in your life, it doesn’t disturb other people from making their own in this life. So why don’t we want progress for each other. I believe that the Almighty Father will take control of that one.
But as I have rightly said, to answer your question straight, I believe that people would remember me for good governance especially the civil servants because I am proudly telling you that I am ahead of them in administration. They don’t have competence of my administration. They don’t have it. I am saying it boldly that I am very ahead of them which they always acclaim to. They have their way of doing things, the civil servants way of doing things; but as far as the core administration is concerned, I am very much ahead of them. I teach them so many things. I would tell them that you can use your own civil servant idea to go about it but this is just the way the thing should be. Everything has a laid down way of getting it done and at the same time there are the running systems. I came from the banking sector. So the idea is not the same. But I am trying to mix politics with my background and do things rightly. So I believe that at least I would be remembered for all those things that I have practically done both in the office and outside the office for the community.
How does your experience in banking help in your administration?
It helps me tremendously. Like when they are doing their budgeting, I do tell them some certain things. When you are preparing budget, you are budgeting for this and that, what is the value or how would this one assist the growth of the local government. At the same time it’s like writing something for approval. I don’t just approve. What’s the purpose of just granting approval when there is no cash backing for what you want to do? Of what value? So by the time you leave here, somebody would come back with that approval that we have done this job when so so person was there and I used my money to do the job; but we didn’t get the money; so I now want to claim the money, when nothing was done. For the fact that you have given approval, it’s assumed that it has been done. There is a lot of that thing. It’s not that I don’t want to grant approval but I believe that why do I give approval when there is no cash backing> I cannot cash-back what I want to approve; no money to do it, what’s the purpose of the approval? I can’t do that. I did some, but when it comes to some certain things that I believe that ordinarily it doesn’t worth it. Why should I give approval for a project that I know I can’t get money to execute and then later somebody would come up to claim that the job is being done because his money is being used to get that approval. Those are the things.
And at the same time when it comes to banking issues, I monitor my expenses and our accounts. I am ahead of them. I easily tabulate things. I easily cast. I do even tell them that without writing approval, once I know what I got, I use reducing balances. If I have N50 million now and I want to spend everything today, it doesn’t mean that I would make mistakes . If I have exhausted my account to say I have N50,000 there, and in the next one or two months, I am still having like N2million, I would know that somebody has not claimed his own money. That money doesn’t belong to the local government again. It’s another person’s money. But the accounting officers would say we are still having N2million. I would say it is noyt our money. Somebody must be holding on to cheque or something must have happened along the line. It’s not our money. Our money is just N50, 000 balance in the account. All those things help me.
In the banking industry there is something we call approval in principle. It’s not an approval itself, but just an agreement that we are willing to get things done. So I don’t do approval in principle in the council; but at the same time I do something like K.I.V – Keep In View. I have interest to do it but I don’t have money to do it. But keep in view for so so time. Instead of me approving straight, I put it K.I.V pending the October or December allocation, so that by that October or December allocation, you bring back that thing to me. If I have the fund and can accommodate it, I would accommodate it, rather than me giving approval while I know that I wont be able to accommodate it in my expenditure. That one is very tasteful. It’s helping me a lot and helping me among the local government chairmen. Hardly could they form any committee without bringing me in into the committee. I chairman so many committees among the local government chairmen. I am enjoying my backdround tremendously because it is really helping me. It vindicates me that I have some sort of quality which can be useful to other people and which they can buy into. So I believe that my background is not wasted in this administration.
With your experience with your colleague chairmen, do you have any suggestion on how they can improve their own administration?
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that anybody is running bad administration. But what I am trying to say is that fingers are not equal; we cannot all be on the same footing. The educational backgrounds differ. Political background differs. The problem is that some people believe that everything is about politics. That I must be at that person’s party, I must carry people, I must let people come and eat, gather people together. Yes. They are right. But you have to mix corporate experience and the political experience together in order to move ahead. That is exactly the governor is using. He is from corporate background like me. He doesn’t believe in wastage.
Governor Oyetola doesn’t believe in wastage. Imagine how long we had been on half salary in this state. He came in even the most significant of his competence was during the Coronavirus crisis. Other states were talking about cutting some people’s salaries by quarter, by half, by whatever. But the man was paying salary before the last day of the month, full salary. How does he achieve that? He’s using the Management skill to get things done. Why spend money on what you don’t need; why not spending on what is useful to you? That is the difference. If you believe that you have to politicise everything – I want to please our leaders here and there; I want to do this and that. Yes. The leaders’ desire and the people’s expectations are many. But if you have to focus only on that, you would never have any structure or anything remarkable to point to that this is what I have done for people that can sustain throughout your administration. That is just it.
Governor Oyetola is implementing certain programmes now; like in Education, reversing some policies and programmes that were not popular with the people of the state. And there are other programmes that he is implementing in this regard. Could you speak more on these?
That Education sector you ventured into, honestly speaking, I am not trying to relegate or talk bad of any person. But when this administration came in, the Commissioner for Education and SA went to Abuja for meeting. This is the meeting in which Osun State had not been participating for so long because they don’t accept us because they would tell us that the system we were running in Osun was not related to the Federal Government system of Education. I was there when they were giving us briefing; not that they told me. I was there personally in the briefing. So they now said that there were so many grants and pegs that were tied to Education system which Osun was not even benefitting from because our system was not in compliance with the system being run in the federation.
The people said we have another government in place and we want to align with the Federal Government. They said,: “well, if you believe so; we have cast your state as a recalcitrant state.” At that meeting, some states went away with about two, three new buses, lorry loads of educational materials and some other things you cannot even talk about. They said that anyway, so that it won’t be like you just come for nothing, they gave us two motorcycles and some educational materials at least to mark that we were back. So with that can you imagine what we must have been losing all along including grants?
Now, talking about changing of the schools, this and that, is the best for the state because there were lots of misunderstanding, things were not normal. But if you want to know how these things went down with people, I would use Ilesa Grammar School as a case study. Go and see how happier the Old Students Association of that school are now. I saw them in the television, everything. They were so joyous to the extent that they sew the real school uniform and distributed it free of charge to the students that “our school is back.” They were so happy about it. And that school has produced so many titans in this country. They see it as liberation; likewise in all other places. When you see somebody in white or green now you know where he comes from. You can easily differentiate students now, not just the same thing all over. I think it is a good thing that has happened to the state of Osun, honestly speaking. It’s a welcome development.
In view of your experience with the governor and the way he relates with his aides, commissioners, chairmen and top government officials, how could you assess him?
You mean the governor?
Yes.
Oh! Honestly speaking, I have said so much about the governor. I told you his style of administration. He is mixing corporate experience and political experience to get things done. Likewise even at our own lower level here, he believes that if this is meant for this, it should be exactly for what it is meant for. I am so close to some of the commissioners and SAs. What you would hear from them is that you need to get yourself accurate before tabling anything before the governor because he is ahead of you. When you are ahead of the people you are governing, you are good. But if you are the one they want to teach what to do, definitely you would be at their mercy. But if you are ahead of them, you need to be ahead of the people you want to teach. That’s the only way you can get things done. So the governor is ahead of the commissioners. Let’s assume that it’s just an engineering matter and he is not an engineer. But at the same time when you do your costing, you do everything. It’s not necessary to be an engineer before you could be able to relate figures that this is what should be this or that. At the same time when he asks questions, you would know you have to get yourself ready before you go to him because it would be intelligent and related questions and ones pertinent to what you are being assigned to do. So I believe that we got it right with the governor. The governor is very competent and he is doing things rightly, honestly speaking.
With your performance in office which is confirmed with our interactions with some of your people, supposing your people say they want you back as their Chairman. How would you react to that?
Everything has to do with policy. There are lots of noise about second term, this and that. But everything depends on the party. So I believe that and I know that what you said with your interactions, the people may want me back. I believe that it’s a thing God can do, and I believe that God Willing, it may happen. But I have said it before that ologbon kan o ta koko mo eti aso, omoran kan o fi’ra e joye. So becoming or coming back depends on the Almighty God and the decision of the party. But all I can tell you is that if it has to be on merit, I merit it. That’s all I can say. I merit it. With what I have done in the past, I merit it.
Who is Alhaji Adeboye Mukaila Oladejo?
You are talking to Alhaji Adeboye Mukaila Oladejo; and this is me in person.
We want to know more about you, your birth, education, experiences, business background, your profile…
I attended St Peters African Church Primary School, Kuta. I spent two years at African Church Secondary Moderm School, Kuta/Ileogbo before I proceeded to the secondary school in Lagos. I attended Anwar-Islam College, Agege and I attended Yaba College of Technology where I obtained my HND. I did my MBA at Lagos State University. I worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria. I retired from the CBN in year 2002. So I went into my private business. And I am doing greatly well in business. I am not a hand to mouth person. I am a successful businessman. It’s just the traits and the love for people that drew me into politics.
With what I have been doing in the community, go and find out. Won ni igba t’a a s’oosa a n s’oosa. Without politics, I have done so many things in this community. I have participated in so many events. And I have spent so much, yes, in this community. I have spent so much for this community. So if they call me to come and be chairman, I don’t think it’s something bad, I am a successful businessman and my business is still running, being run by the competent people there. I am not bad. I am married and I have children. One of my children is a PhD holder working abroad. i train my children and they are doing well.
Any further comments?
I thank you for yrying to find out some things from me. I nelieve that it is nice of you talking to me about various things especially on Odo Osun Bridge and some other things relating to my doings in the local government and Osun State Government in general. I believe that as time goes on, things would take shape and we would have cause to glorify the Holy Name of the Almighty God. So I thank you and you are welcome to my domain for this interview.
Thank you.
