By Olubunmi Omoogun – There can be no denial of the sterling performance of this honourable and distinguished man. This naturally and very well so made him a first choice candidate to represent his beloved Akure South/Akure North federal constituency in the House of Representative.
Hon. Afe Olowookere didn’t just have the title of an honourable in
front of his name. He earned it. The title Hon. is for an accredited
representative of a particular community/geographical area who had
gotten the mandate of his people to fight their cause in the Assembly
or hallowed chamber.
APC being a party of progressives will be glad to have to its credits
and stable someone you could easily and comfortably call in yoruba
parlance ‘Omoluabi’. Hon. Afe Olowookere was one of the most vocal and
shrewd member of the 4th House of Assembly in Ondo state where he
previously served as a member and chairman of the highly revered
appropriation committee of the House and thereafter deputy majority
leader a position he assumed due to his commitment and respect for
ethical standard and values.
Olowookere comes out with wealth of political and corporate experience
spanning over 3 decades, after working as a clerical officer for
3years in the ministry of Lands and Housing, Akure, Ondo state
Southwest Nigeria and later for the compulsory National Youth Service
where he served with merit.
His well horned innate capacity for service is fast finding a great
expression currently in the Nigeria’s House of Representative of the
National Assembly with his prompt presentation of the motion to nip
kidnapping activities in Ondo and Ekiti states in the bud and the
promotion/pursuance of other people friendly programmes. He is a
gentleman politician that has strong connection with the people in his
constituency.
Hon. Afe Olowookere, a Masters holder from the prestigious Obafemi
Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Osun state spoke to AfricanVoice
Newspaper’s Olubunmi Omoogun recently.
AFV: Judging by your antecedents, you have always being an apostle of due process, capacity building and firing people’s mindset about doing the right things. Buhari is going towards this direction. What are your perspectives on this?
Hon. Olowookere: Let me say that it is the right thing at this
particular time. Because Nigerians have long missed it. You will
recollect the short time Buhari and Idiagbon were in charge in this
country was the only time Nigerians were been organised to conduct
themselves in the right way and manner to do the right things. This
concept of observing due process manifested the right character and
attitude in Nigerians but unfortunately the IBB regime abruptly
brought an end to that regime. IBB regime corrupted Nigerians socially
and morally and we lost all the gains that were achieved under Buhari
and Idiagbon. And so people went back to their old ways of doing
things with impunity; exhibiting negative culture and practice.
I want to believe that the conscious effect by this new government to
sensitize us again and make us see things the right way. The corruption is endemic because people have not embrace the culture of doing things the right way. Nigerians need to imbibe right values, strong culture and practice. Corruption doesn’t start and ends with issue of money. It is in all spheres of our lives. So the new orientation and consciousness courtesy of Buhari is the right tonic we need now that will give us the desire change we all clamoured for.
AFV: You have shown that you are responsible to the people and I think that was what aided your success at the primaries and the main election that brought you here. What do you think we should do more for the politicians to be responsive to the yearning of the people?
Hon: Well, I just want to say that to make our politicians and public
office holders to be more responsive and responsible to the people, we
need to ensure that our electoral system and process are well
organised and strengthened such that it will always produce credible,
responsible, quality and qualified representatives into political
positions. Secondly, the people themselves must be organised and
discipline their minds. They must also resist the temptation of
putting forward people with biggest purse or make the positions cash
and carry. Then it would be easy for the people to hold the office
holders accountable. The real power resides with the people as
democracy is government of the people by the people and for the
people. If truly you derive the mandate from the people then you will
do the right by them. And this will guide your actions. So the people
definitely need to downplay the role of money in competition for
positions. When we were in the House of Assembly during the AD era. Those of us that contested and won that free and fair elections were the first set of the current political dispensation. During that time there was no rigging of election in any form. It was transparent. The system was
not corrupted like we have now. I valued that mandate so much so that
every last thursday of the month I report to my constituency in a town
hall meeting and highlight the programmes and activities of government
at the time and I also set aside a period in a year where I give account of my activities in the House which I tagged ‘my stewardship and accountability programme’ because I see the people as the source
of the mandate I was enjoying.
AFV: You have been a member of the legislative arm of the local government, the State House of Assembly and now the National Assembly. How much legislative experience does one actually need to become a functionary in the National Assembly?
Hon: You need legislative experience in order to function well. It will be to one’s advantage to garner enough experience because you will not act as a neophyte in some issues. Even then it doesn’t take a long time to get in the groove and function very well. The role of functionary is mostly administrative. I will want to say experience is good but that should not be used to exclude first timers from being functionaries after all one will have to start from somewhere. Though if you have the experience you will surely perform better.
AFV: Do you think the President is looking for people with great character, discipline and integrity or why do you think he’s taking long to announce his cabinet?
Hon: It is not taking too long for a journey of 48 months. So if the
President takes 3 months to study who he wants to work with is not too
bad. After all the President has promised the list will be out this month. Rumours have it that the DSS is screening and doing security checks on some names. The President is actually looking for character, people with impeccable character. The PDP are deficient and they have accepted that so they should keep quiet. Buhari is trying to beat that deficiency in our polity, so he is trying to pick people that have not soiled their hands. He wants a solid and formidable team that will take Nigeria out of the woods.
AFV: There are words out there that the National Assembly should get cracking with the issues of legislation. Don’t you think that recesses are becoming too much?
Hon: Those that are saying that are not properly informed about our
working and duties. People do not understand that our duties and
responsibilities do not start and ends at the chambers. It starts from
the representation of the people. Representation is the first duty we
are here to do. The second duty is making laws and the third is
oversight function. You can only be seem to be effective if you do the
first duty correctly. You must be able to rub minds with the
constituent you represent, know their needs, what they desire. That’s
what you will arm yourself with to legislate on. The other two you
perform outside of the chambers. For example I was in my constituency
in August to flag off three different projects, the 1km light drain, borehole and community town hall project. You can only do these when you are on recess. I have used the recess window to hold several meetings with my party the APC and my constituency where I synergized with them to know their worries and needs. I will then table them in the chambers. For instance, I raised the motion on kidnapping which was rampant in Ondo/Ekiti. Based on this motion moved by my humble self, ondo state now has an anti-kidnapping squad to tackle the menace. And I was able to see first hand the deplorable conditions of the roads between Lokoja and Ondo. All these were done during the recess. Within the short period we have passed 66 motions and 12 Bills have been presented and under consideration.
AFV: Nigeria needs strong institutions. How far will Buhari’s lone integrity take us?
Hon: I want to agree with you that we need to build institutions.
Institution is the people. The greatest problem has been the issue of leadership. We still make reference to Murtala short lived government
and Buhari/Idiagbon regime, they did things that were fundamental.
Buhari will lay the foundation for strong institution. Under the last
regime institutions were not allowed to function. Buhari has led from the front. He declared his assets. He has started cutting costs and blocking leakages. Definitely the followers would have no reason not to follow. We hope it will be sustained and the institutions entrenched. The people should have the consciousness of having values and strong culture. The issue is the mindset of the Nigerian individual. The different between the civilised world and Nigeria is the mindset. Our mindset needs to be reconstructed. We need to instil the right discipline and values. My advised to the President is that the President should maximise his own personal integrity Nigerians are enjoying now and try and correct the mindset of Nigerians.
AFV: APC seems to be a formidable political party in Ondo state today. What are its chances for 2016 guber election?
Hon: Well, it is unfortunate the Labour Party was supposed to be an
offshoot of AD and AC. Most of our members joined the Labour party
because they were disenchanted with the Agagu government so they
wanted a change. They pitched their tent with Mimiko’s Labour party.
But we have now seen the true colour of the government of the day in
Ondo state and so the battle line has been drawn. However, the strength of APC lies in God. Our God never loses battles. He will not lose this one. It is between David and Goliath. David told Goliath that he comes with the name of God of Israel. God makes things possible. He will make this one possible.
