“The APC of today has totally forgotten our political trajectory, particularly in Ekiti State. People have suddenly forgotten where we came from; our depth of travails and struggles.”
Honourable Bimbo Daramola represented Ekiti North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He speaks with Newscoven.ng on why he seeks to return to the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly, now on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and his chances in the forthcoming February election.
You were once a member of the House of Representatives. What informs your decision to seek to return to the legislative chamber?
Thank you so much my brother. Happy New Year.
My decision to seek re-election is borne out of my desire to ensure that my people of Ekiti North Federal Constituency, made up of Oye and Ikole local government areas, continue to get value for representation; value for their involvement in politics such that politics does not remain just a play thing or a past time.
It is rather a serious endeavour that must be a vehicle of transformation of society and the lives of the people in a remarkable way. That is, on the constituents and constituency basis.
But, more importantly, it is to be a platform to commit to working with others for a better nation ultimately. The National Assembly is a veritable arm of government that has a critical role to fight for a better nation.
By our constitutional responsibility, the National Assembly has power of the purse to influence the budget for key national development. The duty of the National Assembly is curbing waste and checking corruption through oversights and lots more.
Being a member of the National Assembly also veritably puts any conscientious member in a position to work, not only for his or her immediate constituency or constituents, but also, by direct deduction, for the entire 360 federal constituencies which are actually under the purview of every member.
So, my desire to have a come-back bid is anchored, also on the realities of increasing demand and obligation, and on pursuit of ideal sense of duty to contribute to having a nation that works for all of us.
Because this is a lifelong commitment for me, a better nation is in the interest of all. Your immediate constituency is just an integral component of the whole.
It is a case of one for all, all for one. We are talking about real people; real lives facing real issues and demanding real solutions.
We cannot afford to fail the defenceless, the weak and the innocent. These goals will require concerted efforts, resilience and determination.
To accomplish these, we will need experienced hands with profound exposure, character, robust track record, personal credibility, conscience and a proven heart that beats for the people.
The job has tangible and intangible deliverables. And that is what we will judge ourselves in another four years:
How many young people got pulled out of the growing line of unemployment? How many got empowered and supported to start their businesses?
How do we ensure that the environment does not get inclement that he will not be able to survive it? What of meeting infrastructural deficits etc…?
These are the real issues that our representatives will face and we have a duty to elect someone who is good to go, not from the date of inauguration but, indeed, from the day of election.
I am that person, most humbly, compared to others on the ballot for this position in our constituency by the grace of God. It is a time for reason to prevail over sentiments.
By the Grace of God, I have all these requirements that will not only make me deliver but also beat the records on ground, which people say is my record. That is what they say. I am not in any position to compare, anyway.
I believe everyone had served our people as they best can. I just do my bit. They do theirs and surely leaving their own imprints.
So, humbly speaking, this is not just for political promotion. It is a job of putting the people first, which has been my credo for ages.
You once sought to contest for the governorship seat in Ekiti State. Why the legislature now?
Yeah, my brother, I sought to contest the governorship in 2018 again. My coming into the murky, shark-infested waters of Nigerian politics was basically influenced by my people-centric nature.
I hate to see people suffer, particularly where it can be avoided and, unfortunately, amidst plenty.
Let me tell you, I have never sat down to think of becoming governor, and I did not even pray for it.
For me, getting into politics is not about becoming a titular head or for profile or recognition or, indeed, pursuit of career. Rather, I see it as a tool and vehicle for making lives of the people and our society better.
You would recall that when people started showing interest, the likes of Uncle Segun Oni, my brother, Femi Bamisile (BAFEM), my brother, Kola Alabi, my egbon, Wole Oleyede and many others, walahi, I could not even be bothered.
I was simply manning my desk as Chief of Staff to Deputy Speaker in 2018. Indeed, I took one of the persons who had stepped forward to Dr. Kayode Fayemi at the Hilton Hotel in Abuja and he stylishly refused to see the person.
There were one or two people that I had supported their campaign financially and who I genuinely wished well because I was not interested.
But all that changed when eight former state House of Assembly members came to my office in the National Assembly, reputable ones o, to convince me to run on the ticket of the APC.
You are contesting on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Did you think the party is strong enough to ensure your victory at the polls?
My brother, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), as a platform for contesting this election, is not really an issue and I can tell you for a number of reasons.
First, the SDP, historically, is a party of progressives, if and when we choose to identify and characterise ourselves loosely as politicians often do. That is a fact!
This was the party that the late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola used as a vehicle for his famous mass movement aspiration, tagged HOPE ’93. And recall that all the members of the SDP in those days, like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief John Oyegun and many more, were in the SDP who today are in the APC.
So, any claim to progressivism characterisation by any party, including the APC, will be equally met, if not better matched by the historical identity of the SDP. So, if we are talking of party of progressive people, SDP matches it and measures up on all fronts.
Besides, today, every sincere person knows that such political characterisation and classification is long dead! With what we have seen in the last 15 years, it will be delusion to think that APC can wholesomely claim to reflect the pristine identity of the progressives.
SDP may have not been in power, but historically by motive, manifesto, composition, it can most competently lay claims to progressivism more than any other political party in Nigeria.
The indent of progressivism stamped on SDP cannot be washed away by time, granted how the SDP was voted for massively by Nigerians as a party that marketed HOPE, even when the situation was not this seemingly hopeless. Isn’t it regrettable that all the societal ills that the SDP sought to cure, 30 years ago, are still here with us under the watch of some of the players wearing the same boots?
It is instructive to say the SDP has not changed its logo, and what it represents; her objectives as a people-centric party. And, of course, it is still a political party that is a conveyor of that pristine hope, as championed 30 years ago.
For anybody or electorate who is still enamoured by the terminology of progressives and conservatives, that seems to be in words only, and not a fast disappearing ideology. SDP is the surest best to appropriate that identity.
Thirdly, things are beginning to change. Increasingly, a lot of people have seen the futility of ceding their future into the hands of the political parties.
Nigerians are conscious of the critical role and place of personalities in determining what becomes of their lives after election.
How can anybody amplify or justify voting for a political party, when the party would not deliver on your expectations? How many electorate hold parties accountable for their inability to deliver after elections?
Consequently, the electorate are increasingly conscious of the need to also profile the quality of personalities who will ultimately represent them or the real occupiers of the offices.
Political parties are like vehicles that are supposed to get you to destination. Going for a meeting, for instance, it does not matter if you rode in a Rolls Royce or Bentley to the venue of the meeting. The human being will have to disembark at the location and enter the meeting room, and speak or act for the people he or she is representing at the meeting.
The vehicle you rode there, be it a public cab, Bolt or Uber, or the chauffeur-driven Bentley, cannot do the job of representing whoever sent you there. It all boils down to the persons elected to represent the people.
So, it is misplacement of focus and priority to think that once a big ‘political party’ is voted, that will translate to performance or the delivery of the most touted dividends of democracy to the people.
Let me state that political parties may have manifestos, but how many of the parties have distilled the final prints of their manifestos to their elected officials to imbibe? As you know, it is said that the devil is in the details.
Particularly the legislators…
As I have said variously, the former political party, the APC, that I belonged to never gave me a Standard Operating Manual (SOM) from which I deeply looked and found how to discharge my duty as the representative of my people; to show me how to serve my people in the modest ways that I did when I had the opportunity of serving them.
I acted purely according to the dictates of my conscience and demands of my conviction to ensure that I kept to all the promises I made to my people to upscale the quality of their lives by the quality of representation that I will give them according to their realities and opportunities available via my position. And to the glory of God, I kept my promises, and even did more.
So, my political party certainly does not have anything to do with the quality of representation that I provided. It was me and not the party. I did not leave my heart from where all that was inspired by my conscience and the conviction that provided the strength.
It was not my political party. It was simply what I have in my heart and how I hold my people in such a high esteem not derision.
So, I can safely say that if I have the opportunity to serve the people again, I certainly will most definitely serve them more from the same heart.
You have always been known as a front-runner in the All Progressives Congress (APC). At what point did you fall apart with the party?
Well, that’s funny; the question is which of the APC? How could I fall apart from a party that I served with all of my heart, means and might for over 16 years? I did not join APC. As I often jocularly say, APC joined me o!
The APC of today has totally forgotten our political trajectory, particularly in Ekiti State. People have suddenly forgotten where we came from; our depth of travails and struggles. And, of course, they have forgotten those who were the leading lights and pillars of those days of tears, struggles.
Today, it is convenient to carry on as if those day never existed! It is very unfortunate.
Well, I had to leave because the noveau riche powers that-be, Lord and Lady of the Manor decided to politically asphyxiate and assassinate me.
The ordinary people on the streets have not forgotten our humble and little role and contributions to the party in all ways. But you know it is a convenient path to tow to begin to introduce “caste system”, interpreted as loyalty when motives differ.
I could not cope and that was what they want. So, I just consulted and the two options available were to quit politics (which is more attractive and I have a terminal date in view already) or seek another platform to pursue the objectives that informed my joining politics. I chose the latter.
And, believe me, the political party may be different, but my heart and its content has not be changed. It is still same. The people and my disposition to them has not changed and they know.
We have a tested, proven and certified relation that change of political party cannot wash away. It is deep in the recess of my heart and not on my lips.
Besides, it is the impacts and contributions made to the lives of members of the party and the people that makes the party look good. This is because a good party is the one that is populated by good people; not the party secretariat or size of the party.
And that is what has kept me going; my track record shows that.
If I was not repainting the national secretariat of the progenitor party, the APC, I was equipping local government secretariats of the party with DSTV, plasma television sets, fans, chairs and making it worthwhile to me a functional office.
In one day, I got 320 people to defect into the APC, and the defectors were received by not less a person other than the state party chairman, Barrister Paul Omotosho, and the state PRO.
Do you know that nobody remembered anything I ever did in the APC or said as little as a wimp or a word when the political lord and masters decided to snuff my life out physically and, of course, politically?
So, I had to leave. I challenged them to also come up with their records of service to the party. It is well sha.
You are a known ally of former Governor Kayode Fayemi. What caused the disaffection between you?
Well, my simple answer to that is that you should please ask him; nothing more. I leave everything to God who knows all and sees all to judge.
Is it true that you approached the former governor to seek his consent when you wanted to contest the governorship election in 2018?
Yes, I approached him four times and even his wife too; twice in his office when he was Minister of Solid Minerals; once in his house; then in Wuse 2, Abuja; and once in Lagos.
I approached the wife, once, by the poolside of Rockview Hotel in Wuse, Abuja and the second time in the plane, on Air Peace flight to Lagos to Abuja.
What happened?
Well both of them said he was not going to contest. That was what both of them said all of the times that he, Dr. Fayemi, was not running.
But I have a lot of time to think about the relationship. I think I was too loving; too sincere. I was sold out and I think I was stupid.
I should have been circumspect, going by other factors that should have been tell-tale signs long before the governorship contest. But love blinded me.
Incidentally, those who were more discerning cautioned me. I certainly was naïve and too trusting. That is my weaker side. How do you hold back with someone that you were in school with some 45 years ago?
It was a huge price to pay for love. But it is well. I never would agree that Dr. Fayemi could do it in any way. But life goes on!
What have you been doing between 2015 and now that you are coming out again?
Well, I have not been idle. I have, in the period, faced my business and other noble causes that I am passionate about. These ranges from youth engagement, empowerment and employment to pursuit of the renaissance of the pan-Africa Spirit on the platform of our foundation, the ONEUNITEDAFRICA, among many other things.
I have also not stopped keeping my people on the line of benefits that my little goodwill and modest clout could to attract from every possible areas. These have lead to getting jobs for many, and empowerment of hundreds, among other interventions. I have kept to my lane and God has been faithful.
You have been an apostle of individual recognition as key to electoral victory. Did you think you can win the 2023 election mainly on personal recognition?
Yes, I surely, by the grace of god of God, will win by individual recognition anchored on the purity of purpose, now mixed with stain-free identity of the party on whose platform I am running. And, above all, by the huge goodwill of the people.
There are a number of boxes to be ticked as our people go to this very crucial election, broadly wrapped around People, Politics and Personality (3Ps). They include the 3Rs-Recall, Recognition and Relationship.
Are we saying our people in Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1 would not recall how I served them with all my might and means?
Leading to the numerous interventions, personal and communal, there is no town or village or settlement that I do not have human and physical projects…none!!!
Is it from those who have benefitted from scholarships, education support grants, free JAMB forms for over 3,000 indigent young persons-a lot of them are graduates today because we opened that door; to several transformers installed; boreholes to medical outreaches that their saved lives, limbs and sight; the certain persons we bought cars for…some persons who never thought they would have cars; or the yearly feedback festivals tagged Abomire 1, Abomire 2, Abomire 3, Abomire 4, and terminating in the 32-bed medical hospital that we built, by the grace of God from the scratch and fully equipped today, that has complemented the medicare access to many; or the rural roads that I have opened; or the legislative presence on the floor of the House?
We have built and rebuilt schools and hospitals.
I am sure my people are not the unkind natured ones to forget. They have the intelligence to know, recall and remember the persons who have represented them. And they know how everyone served them.
I am pleased that a number of people, from our esteemed kabiyesis to regular people on the streets, attest to our modest service record and tour de grace, as their representative.
With due respect, nobody out of my co-contestants has anything that comes any close as a statement of claim like these to show…no one.
The weak excuse may be that they have not been in the House of Representatives before. But, at least, they have been in positions of influence before. Let them show anything that is commensurate to the positions they held as a sneak preview. Let them show that to start with.
You don’t need to go to House of Representatives to attest to show how your heart is to the people. The Bible enjoins us to come with our strong reasons. It also says your faithfulness in small things is the basis for entrusting bigger things in your hands.
As little as pictures with the regular people on the streets, they don’t have. It is now that they know how to force themselves with regular people for photo ops. Show us those pictures with the regular people three to four years ago first; not 10 years ago o!
The assumption of we, the members of the political class, is that the people are stupid and bereft of retentive faculties. The people surely know who knows them, have being with them and served them really well.
It is the political class who use party loyalty as a tool for sustained exploitation and means of exploitation of the people. That should stop now!
You think SDP is strong enough to defeat both the APC and the PDP in any electoral contest in Ekiti State?
The gang up against the people, using party loyalty must be shattered. After all, what has party loyalty given the people in tangible and sustained manner after the last election?
Where was party loyalty when a little known Honourable Adefisoye (a.k.a Young Alhaji) won with SDP ticket under the APC government of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, and Honourable Makinde won under ADC under the same Governor Akeredolu?
Indeed, so many of such reactions abound all over the political space. My friend, Herman Hembe, won with the APC ticket when PDP denied him ticket. When the APC did same, he went ahead and bought APGA (Igbo people’s party) ticket to win in Benue State.
Today, I believe that the illuminating discerning light is spreading so fast. The people can see clearly beyond the narrow prisms of party loyalty which is the tool of hostage of the political elites to continue to gang-rape the innocent people.
What are your chances in the election?
I am sure my good people of Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1 (Oye/Ikole) will also recap our good relationship and recognise how far we have come.
I believe they are even more discerning than the examples I gave earlier. Also, some of those areas where the people have freely elected their choices, we have those who do not have the political profile and reputation that I bring to the contest.
I believe God that my people in Oye and Ikole will not forget how I have been with them through good and bad times. Our journeys through crests and troughs. As a member House of Representatives, I was not in Ekiti only 403 days in four years. I was always with them. Let the others prove their affinity for the people.
I hope I have earned their confidence modestly enough by who I am, how I have served them and sustained our relationship to trust me better to give me their votes.
With me they are surer, they have collaterals and evidence-backed justifications that I dont think anyone else does in this race, humbly speaking.
Beyond that is the demonstrated competence, character capacity, capabilities as my networth that I came to the election with.
With due respect, there is no other person in this race whose records from the past can validate their promises to deliver more, better and faster when elected.
I also have the singular honour and privilege of becoming ranking member of the House of Representatives, if I am elected. Our constituency has not had the opportunity of fielding a returning member, since 1999. Consequently, overtime, we had cut short the opportunities and possibilities that a ranking position could avail my people.
We also must realise that the door of that possibility is now open to attract more for our constituency and constituents. By the special grace of God and goodwill of our long-suffering people, I am the only one in this race in our constituency who can and will deliver all.
I thank you for finding time to pin me down. Happy New Year to all my beloved constituents. Be rest assured that you are in my heart always. I will forever defend and advance your cause and protect your interest with all of me.
My people, I am sure you know that I am not gaming you. My past confirms that and it is too late to change. May God bless you all and grant all your desires in the new year.
