I can still be Speaker if God says so–Mulikat Akande

Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, lawmaker representing Og­bomoso North/South/Orire Federal Constituency in Oyo State, has been in the lower chamber since 2007. Having been elected twice by her people in 2007 and 2011 to represent them, the House Majority Leader, who is gunning for a record third term, said she still needs to be in the House to enable her complete all outstanding projects and make her constituency the envy of all. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) law­maker urged Nigerians to vote back the PDP because the opposition has got nothing to offer.

You’re a second term member of the House of Representatives; why are you seeking a third term in the House?

I think the reasons are not farfetched because the issue of ranking is very important in the House of Representatives, and right now the people of Ogbomoso do not have people at the top except me, and if, assuming somebody else goes to represent them, he or she will have to start from the scratch, that is from the bottom of the ladder. I have been in the House since 2003. In fact, some of my colleagues will even say they didn’t know me at that time and this is because when you just come to the House, you cannot hold any important position in the House; therefore, there is nothing really you can do for your people. But as a second timer, you know that I was supposed to be the speaker but I’m sure it wasn’t the time for me then. Going there now as a third timer, I don’t think there will be any reason for anyone to say I cannot hold any post or she will not be a ranking member any­more. So, it is very important and my people feel that they need to be part of government to be able to get whatever they want from government and if they have a daughter up there, why remove her and bring somebody new. So, that is one of the key reasons I am going back for a third time.

And also, projects that I have attracted to this community, some of them I am yet to complete and you know the status of the bud­get this year. Last year, it was just 45 per cent realised; so these projects will be at a standstill because when a member does a project, a new member will not be willing to complete your own projects and they become abandoned. And there are other things that my people are looking forward to and apart from even Og­bomoso, talk of the South West, you can see that in this present administration, the South West did not really get much and we hope to really get back to our place in governance in this country and I am sure between me and my other colleagues, we are very hopeful that the PDP will have a larger number from the South West this time around so we can be able to get our rightful place.

Could you give us examples of the ongoing projects that you wish to complete and those things you said your people are looking forward to?

State creation is uppermost in my people’s minds. My people really wish that Ogbomoso will be able to become a state capital and if the government, I know in the parliament, nothing about state creation came in dur­ing the constitution amendment but at the National Conference, which we are yet to get the report, are very much in support of that. Whatever happens, if states are going to be created, at least Oyo State will not be left out in the scheme of things. Also, the Ogbomoso / Oyo axis of Ilorin express road is also some­thing that we need the government to com­plete because it is causing a lot of problems and havoc to our people and movement from Lagos to Ilorin is not as smooth as is supposed to be because of this road and that road needs to be completed and they all feel that with me there, the road should be completed even though the road was started in 2001 and you know, they have been going back and forth on it because the amount of money required to complete the road is huge. Within Ogbo­moso itself, we have a lot of projects such as erosion control because we have a lot of erosion problem here; we have been able to get the government to start working on it. All of these projects may be left uncompleted, if an old legislator from the axis does not return. Definitely, those who are vying against me are not from the PDP, they are from other parties, which these projects may not be of interest to. And you know the way Nigerians behave, instead of working on continuity, they want to start on something different and that does not allow for progress, as far as I am concerned. We also need a federal institution in my con­stituency, which I have promised my people they will get in the next dispensation.

As a member of the legislature, you do not have executive powers to execute projects, which is one of the reasons it is important that you be­come a principal officer of the House. What do you think your chances are this time around, to be the Speaker of the House if elected?

I believe in only what God says it’s pos­sible. If God had wanted me to be a speaker at that time, I don’t think there was anything anyone could have done to stop it. So, we can only hope for the best and wait for the best. And I am sure you know that why I did not become speaker then was partly because my fellow legislators from the South West, who were in another party did not support me and that a lot of people were not happy about it. If south west has to get anything at all, I think we should all work together, irrespec­tive of the parties because they too will have something to benefit, whether they are from the ruling party or not, the fact that you have someone from the south west in that position, things can be achieved for the zone.

So, to what extend will you say that incident has affected the fortunes of the South West?

It has affected it a lot because all the posi­tions or appointments that were supposed to come to the south west, of course, majority of them were not achievable because there was nobody from the zone within the top six in the country to fight for the South West. Usually, the way it is done is for these positions to be shared according to geo-political zones, but we didn’t get anything. The North-West took two slots and so the positions were going to the northwest. If you look at positions in the country and how they are filled, you will see that the south west really did not get what they were supposed to get and these positions could have spread to anybody in the south west as long as it is being held by somebody from the south west, then it will benefit the people of this zone. So, it is very necessary that in the next dispensation, we get our rightful position and whatever the position is allocated to the south west must be filled by somebody from the south west.

If at federal level the PDP wins and you also win, there will be an open­ing for the Speakership of the House. Is this something you are working towards?

First of all, I am working now on my winning the elections. The issue of becoming speaker, I leave that to God.

So, are you sure of your chances of winning this election?

Sure, I am very confident of winning this election with the support of God and the support of my people, except if hard work is not being rewarded. But if my people are going to reward hard work, then I don’t have a problem.

You speak so much about your conviction in your people and your re­lationship with them. Why should they give you another term? What exactly have you done for them?

I am sure I have touched the lives of my people in so many ways. I am not represent­ing any other place and myself or any other person; I am basically there to represent them. People in the community can testify to that, I can testify to that. For instance, I have a foun­dation that is basically in line with poverty alleviation, scholarship programme and lots more. We also have associations too where we put our money into for the people to be happy. I don’t believe in giving people money because I want you to vote for me, I believe in doing things that will make the people happy and this will make them vote for you willingly. In this regard, I have done a lot like giving the community boreholes, schools, and getting involved in erosion control projects which we are focusing on and this project is worth N67 million and the work is on going. I believe in projects that will impact the society, not giving money. People who are against politicians and other big people out there are people who have asked of money or material things from these people and they were not given, and because of this, they decided in their hearts and minds that the person is bad, hence won’t get their votes. Or maybe you might have been giving them, and they are always coming and I say to them that I can’t give them anymore and they take you as an enemy. People will tell you that I have done a lot for the community.

Speaking specifically on the youth programme, what should the youths of the community expect from you?

We have been doing skills acquisition pro­gramme like Cocoa research, fishery, baking, snailry, fashion designing, amongst others. The same programmes are going on in my Foundation now where we have 50 people. In earlier programmes, we gave N100, 000 each to the participants to start the business they have been taught. Presently, we intend giving each participant N50, 000 to start business and certificates will also be given to them at the end of their training. If you go to the Founda­tion now, you will see them and by the time they finish their training we are going to em­power them to start a business. We also have a computer centre in town and also in my Foun­dation, where we train 20 students in ICT to help them understand computers; these people are either undergraduates or just youths. And we do that twice in a year. Widows are not left out. We work with a Micro-finance bank, through which we give them interest free loans- they pay back the loan while I pay the bank the interest on the loan. We teach them how to trade and accounts is opened for them so that they can save the money they have traded with. I am sure they are all happy about what we are doing for them. We also train the aged, train people in tailoring, and give money to them to start their business.

How do you raise funds for the foundation? Do you borrow or seek grants from organisations to fund these programmes?

For my Foundation, I set aside N10 million every year, and that is paid into the Foun­dation’s account to fund the programmes that we do. We are also trying to work with other Foundations to partner with us in our programmes, but since I have started, I have been the one funding the Foundation with my personal money. If you go to the Foundation’s secretariat, you will see a lot we have done for people to help them earn decent living, be­cause before now, some of them cannot even afford to eat three square meals daily, and we are trying to help them make money to help them provide for their families. Some come back to complain that some of the things we gave to them got spoilt and some other heart-breaking things like that, it doesn’t really make me happy when they say such things.

It is not only in Ogbomoso that I have impacted. At Orire local government, we have done about 80 boreholes. The town has 700 villages and the problem they have is water.

What are your principles in the politics?

My principle in politics is to put smiles on the faces of my people. That is my main am­bition,. I also want to ensure the standard of people is improved. That is the bottom line. That was why I set up my Foundation which we started with N30 million, and our work or ambition is to help the less privileged, give scholarship to children, give employments to people who don’t have jobs, and by God’s grace, I have given 120 federal jobs to people in my constituency. And we are working on more job opportunities for them. We work with the motherless homes, blind and host of the others. We touch every aspect in the community.

PDP has not been communicating with the people, what is the problem?

From my point of view, I think it is the me­dia themselves that is the problem. PDP thinks the opposition has bought or let me say has hijacked the media. People tell me that I don’t advertise my good works or projects publicly. One of my cousins has even taken it upon his head to go and print a report on my achieve­ments to get people updated about the works we have done in this constituency.

We Nigerians are never truthful to ourselves. And what people don’t know is that APC cannot do what PDP has done in Nigeria, if you have the interest of the people in your heart or mind, then you will surely get there to serve the people. And not because you want to get there to show the people that you can do better than those who are there. And if you will investigate things, you will see that those who are the corrupt people are part of the opposition party disturbing the peace of the nation. What APC is doing, they can­not give the people anything. If you look at Lagos, if APC wins again, I tell you that they won’t do anything, because they will say the people do not want anything again, and they will also say the people have everything they want. But if PDP wins, I tell you that Mr. Jimi Agbaje will do a lot for the people and change things.

What can you say about Akala’s defection?

Former Governor Akala is a very influential figure in our community, we respect him a lot. His leaving the party means that we will have to work twice as hard as we would have. I believe that every individual is working for the interest of his or her party.