How the opposition destroyed
AD
By Muyiwa Oyinlola
Thursday, September 2, 2004
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Chief
Bisi Akande
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Chief Bisi Akande, former governor of Osun State, was no
doubt adjudged one of the prudent administrators in the last
political dispensation. But the troubles confronting him lately
over an alleged mis-appropriation of about N127 million while
in office, as well as his rejection as the National Chairman
of the Alliance for Democracy by the Pan-Yoruba social cultural
group, Afenifere are raising a question mark on his reputation.
But these do not bother him. He says the alleged misappropriation
was a campaign of calumny by his political opposition. He
also disclosed that contrary to the insinuation that he is
being wanted by the police, no warrant of arrest has been
issued to him.
While the Afenifere has adopted Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa
as the National leader of the AD, Akande said he is undaunted
by the development.
Afenifere and AD
I don’t know if it was Afenifere per se that did that
thing. There have been forces within forces, and we expect
that we should not be marginalised in Lagos. But they quickly
joined Progressive Action Congress (PAC), joined in the election
against Governor Tinubu, and at the election, they were thoroughly
defeated.
So, these are the people who are attempting here and there
to oppose what we are doing in the Alliance for Democracy.
By the time they were going to PAC, they wanted the Alliance
for Democracy destroyed. Some got into the meeting and requested
that I should join them to destroy the AD.
The reason is simple, they know that Bola Ige formed the AD
and they don’t want to touch anything Bola Ige led.
That’s the simple fact about it. And once they can’t
have a control over it, they want to destroy the party. And
they allowed themselves to be used for the destruction of
the Alliance for Democracy.
My hands are clean
When I was in Osun State, as governor, the state’s total
income was N150 million. The salary bill was N250 million
per month. So every month, I needed to borrow N110 million
to pay salary. I went to the Parliament, to the Obas and chiefs.
I went to the market women, everybody. And they started going
on strike, that they must have the salary they cannot get,
because you can’t get that salary from our income. And
when they insisted, I went to Industrial Arbitration Panel,
that’s the Court of the Labour, and it was at the Industrial
Arbitration Panel that we agreed on the salary we were paying
until I left office.
It wasn’t me as governor, who was paying the salaries
of the workers. It was the Nigeria Industrial Arbitration
panel. We submitted our case, this is how much money we could
get in a whole year, and we insisted we could not use more
than 80 per cent to pay salary. I was paying the salary that
was fixed for me by the court of the land and the labour court
for that matter, and I don’t know what you could have
done if you were in my position.
For people to know what I did, I established what you can
call Labe-Odan, once every month. I went from town to town,
village to village, to make the people know what I was doing,
to let the people know what I wanted to do. In the forum,
you can ask any question under the sun and I would answer
it, publicly. I was carrying the people along with me. I was
educating the people as to what I wanted and I did what I
knew the people wanted. The workers were not happy they were
not earning the same salary with Ekiti, which is having about
less than 20 percent of the number of workers we have in Osun,
or like Ondo which, with petroleum, is earing double what
we were earning.
So, that was what I’m saying. You can’t just say
you will earn what the other man is earning. You must think
of what you want in your own home. Until you are able to do
that, and stand by it, you will never get the kind of treatment
you deserve.
World Bank project
I read that thing myself, and three is no secret about it.
May be, there is one that is sunny. The World Bank, wanted
to give assistance to some poor states and about three states
were to be interviewed. They came to Osun to interview us
for three or four days. They went to Abia and one other state
in the North, may be Katsina, and at the end of the day, Osun
never won Ekiti won. Then I said how come that a state that
never went through any interview won? Then I made the noise.
And I shouted about this foul play on the part of the World
Bank. How can you come to Osun for three days, you didn’t
go to Ekiti for one day and when the result came, Ekiti won
and Osun State did not win. That is to tell you that the World
Bank itself is a manipulator, it’s a rigger. So, after
all that noise, the European Union came and I said no, to
hell with them. I don’t want to listen to them, they
should take their money away, that I wanted to make an impact
on my own with, as little money as I can get.
But after much delay, we agreed to surrender, and they were
in Osun three times. On each occasion about a week, they went
through all our books. I produced the account. When I was
in Osun State, at the end of every month, by the 15h of the
following month, the account of last month would have been
ready. How much came in, how much had been spent, what we
spent it on. We did not wait for annual account which some
people were doing. Up till today, the Federal Government has
not been able to produce its account for last year. May be
it has not even produced the account for the previous year.
So where you don’t make the account ready at the time
when it should be ready, how would you be accountable?
In Osun State, by the time, I produced budget, by December
of every year, my account for November would have been ready.
That is, my account from January to November would have been
ready. And by the time the budget was ready, may be in March,
the auditor would have fully audited the account for the previous
year. That is what the European Union called accountablity,
with full openness. And out of about 500 projects, and we
made sure that no project was abandoned. All our projects
were completed. And I can remember even the Federal Government
gave Ogunpa channelisation to a carpenter. The carpenter took
the money and disappeared. Do you call that prudence? So,
we don’t have that kind of thing in Osun.
Oyinlola’s administration
When the subsequent government came, when Oyinlola’s
government came, he appointed him a judge of the High Court.
So, what can I do in that circumstance? How would you not
get the kind of thing you say you are getting?
And I’m surprised you sit down here to listen to me.
Since I’ve heard over a month ago that I’ve been
declared wanted by the police in Osun State, and I’ve
been moving around, nobody has come to me to say I am a police
man, I’ve come to arrest you.
I wrote to the police, where is the warrant of arrest? They
were unable to produce it. I wrote to the magistrate, where
is the warrant of arrest? They were unable to give me. But
the Chief Judge directed the Chief Registrar of the state
to write to me that such warrant was never emanating from
the Judiciary (presented a copy of the letter). So, that’s
another fraudulent way of arresting people, declaring me wanted.
They want to arrest me, and urging me to run forth for a fraud
because they are fraudulent and they want the world to believe
them. But I started making noise, all of you heard. So, when
you have trouble and you have no gun, you have no cutlass,
you can’t fight back, make enough noise, so that the
whole world would hear your voice.
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