@Mcjarus : Why I may go into politics soon (Y! FrontPage)

by Suraj Oyewale

In the last one year I have strongly considered joining the murky waters of politics, specifically in my home state of Kwara. Although my family back home are known more for business and, in my generation, production of professionals (accountants, doctors, engineers etc), rather than politics, our patriarch, 100-year-old Alhaji Salawu Oyewale, was a pre-independence and First Republic politician, being one of the first members of Action Group in Northern Nigeria. As he told Sunday Punch in this interview, he joined Action Group in 1948 as one of the earliest members. He contested local elections in the 1950s, and was a dyed-in-the-wool follower of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the sage with high veneration in Yoruba political circles.

I have actually never been apolitical, but I prefer discussing, rather than participating in politics. At a very early age, from primary school, I developed interest in reading about politics, and listening to Baba discuss politics of First Republic and colonial period. At such early age I was already used to names like Sir Akinola Maja; Alhaji Gbadamosi of Ikorodu, said to be a major financier of Awolowo’s parties in the era;  Chief Bode Thomas; Chief Lanlehin, and of course, home boy, Chief J.S Olawoyin, who Baba won’t stop talking about.

I spent the first eighteen years of my life without spending five consecutive nights outside of my hometown of Offa. I was born and bred in that rusty community, which is the traditional opposition capital of Kwara State. Kwara State has always been ruled by conservative parties – except the short breaks in 1983 when strongman Olusola Saraki worked against his party, the conservative National Party of Nigeria (NPN), to install the candidate of the progressive Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Chief Cornelius Olatunji Adebayo, as governor, and recently, when the internal wrangling within the conservative People’s Democratic Party (PDP), saw the current Governor defect to the generally-regarded-as-progressive All People’s Congress (APC).

That should give a clue to the platform of my choice already. Our Baba was an opposition politician in his era, more than five decades ago. Actually, the leader of opposition in Northern parliament, Chief Olawoyin, was from Offa. Beyond this historical trend, I have never been a fan of the PDP. This is a party that has been in government at the national level for over fifteen years with nothing to show for it. I concede that due to lack of ideological discipline that sees politicians crossing from one party to another at will, APC is also populated with many ex-PDPs, but you can’t take away the fact that the party is saner. One, I think more often than not, APC gets right its political recruitment strategy, the reason it has more performing elected public officers. Some of the officers that defected from PDP, most notably Rotimi Amaechi  and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Rivers and Kano states respectively, have always been  decent performers, with progressive tendencies, even from their PDP days. For all these reasons, I have always said I had sympathy for APC. That is likely going to guide my choice of platform.

Now, preferred office. I have always preferred executive offices to legislative ones. I believe you have the opportunity to make more impact in an executive position. Being a core Offa man, I must confess I have not been so impressed with the pace of development in the community in the last two decades. Putting my hat into the Local Government Chairmanship ring in the next elections, by God’s grace, may likely be the first point of duty.

In the last half a decade as a public commentator, I have written a number of articles on the history, politics and administration of the community. In an article I wrote four years ago, titled, Offa: Recipe for Sustainable Development, which was published in Thisday and a number of other national dailies.

Unsolicited, I set out a blueprint for the development of our community. At the heat of the unfortunate Offa-Erin Ile communal dispute that led to several deaths early last year, I intervened with a piece published in Punch newspaper, titled, Offa –Erin Ile: War Profits No One. I also took a historical journey into the Offa-Saraki rivalry with an article I contributed to Tribune newspaper two years ago, titled, Offa-Saraki Political Rivalry: A Chronology. I also have the honour of being referenced by veteran columnist, Mr. Tunde Fagbenle, in his essay on the outcome of the Offa Local Government Re-run election in 2013, which he titled, The Moral Example of Offa’s Jimoh Afolabi. All to show this is not the ranting of a Lagos boy that is disconnected from the happenings in his home state.

Politics is a long shot, I know. I have a number of personal principles I will never sacrifice for anything, even as I believe in political pragmatism. I have already begun consultation with key stakeholders in the state. I will definitely keep my followers updated as things pan out in the coming months.

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Suraj Oyewale is a chartered accountant, blogger and public analyst, is the Founder of JarusHub Career & Management Portal. He tweets from @mcjarus

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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