Former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel served as the state governor from 2003 to 2011.
In this interview, the former governor granted to the Punch Newspapers, he speaks on his life after his 2-term tenure as governor, God and his relationship with some highly placed Nigerians.
Here are the 5 things that we learned:
1) He easily settled into his previous life before becoming governor
“Not at all. When I was governor, I remained myself. I wasn’t living extraordinarily. I kept my office here and once in a while, I would come here and tell my secretary that she should ensure that they dust and keep the place clean. So when I left as governor, I didn’t find it difficult to acclimatise and there wasn’t any issue. I just resumed with my life where I stopped eight years earlier.”
2) In Nigeria the highest office one can run for is governorship, powerful people decide everything else
“I have always explained that in this country, the maximum anybody runs for is governorship. Above that, it is really by invitation. I have run for governorship twice and that is the maximum anybody can run for.
“In Nigeria, it may appear as if you are running for a position but when you look carefully, it doesn’t work that way. Some powerful people would have reached a consensus somewhere and invite you to come and run, not that you would have decided to run.
“All the people that have tried to run on their own for the post of either the President or the Vice President in the past have not been successful in Nigeria, and if you know any one instance, please tell me.”
3) Close relationship to God is key
“My father, His Grace Most Rev Abraham Adebola Daniel JP was a clergy man; I was born and raised in the vineyard of the Lord. So, it is in my gene to praise and worship God and that is precisely why whatever I touch, the first thing I do is to praise and thank God.
“And in any case, if you examine my life journey, I do have more than enough reasons to praise the Lord. The Bible teaches us that if you know how to give thanks, then God would multiply your blessings.”
4) Principle was his second name, not controversy
“No, quite on the contrary, principle was my second name; it wasn’t controversy. It was about being principled. There is just a minimum that I would not go beyond under any circumstance based on my training and long cherished value systems. That is what happened.”
“That is the opposite of what I am. All of that was media orchestration. Quite on the contrary, I remain a democrat; quite on the contrary, what I enjoy most is if people can come, sit with me and argue, I always respect superior argument and fall in line. So that is precisely the opposite of who I am. I am very comfortable in the company of highly intelligent and cerebral people.”
5) People deliberately misunderstood him
“Deliberately so, all what happened then is what I call deliberate falsehood, formulated by political opponents and orchestrated by the media. I have described it correctly and I am not joking: tales by the moonlight, fiction by James Hardley Chase. That is how I think I can describe what happened. It was the exact opposite of who I am and I cannot be any other thing.”
6) He has no regret for any action he took throughout his 8 years tenure
“No regret whatsoever. We met Ogun State as a complete civil service state; it is now fairly one of the best industrial locations you can go in this country; that was exactly what I went to do there. Three Free Trade Zones, several Industrial Estates, several housing estates, three new Stadia. etc.”
“People were not going to Ogun State before, now, everybody is now going there. And while I was there, I had opportunity to put a few landmarks; I was able to prove that things can be done effortlessly without breaking your nose, the way we did our projects; we woke up the civil service, we computerized the whole thing. God enabled us despite the paucity of funds, we were able to build probably the best state secretariat any state can build in this country; we were able to build probably the best NYSC camp anybody can build in this country.”
“With our little or no resources, we were able to build three brand new stadiums; we were able to host the Junior World Cup, the best National Sports Festival to date called Gateway Games; we turned around tourism. Everything we did opened our eyes to areas where hitherto nobody was paying attention to and everybody is now talking about Ogun State.”
7) Gbenga Daniel attended the same school with former President Olusegun Obasanjo
“I attended the same school with Chief Obasanjo; we both attended the Baptist Boys High School and to that extent, Chief Obasanjo is somebody I had known as a young man and if I needed anybody to take me to him, it wouldn’t definitely be Governor Amosun.”
“People should also not forget that I was privileged to host Chief Olusegun Obasanjo with my colleagues in my Maryland residence in 1999 before the election and I am proud to assert that we actually contributed our own widow’s mite to his election even at that time. Chief Obasanjo came in the company with Otunba Fasawe, Dr. Bode Kalejaiye and Kenny Martins amongst others. They are all still alive. That is part of the lies I am talking about.”
“Quite on the contrary, people should not forget that while I was running for governorship, Governor Amosun ran for Senate with our political machinery called OGDCO and we cooperated effectively then.”
