Without Goodluck, Nigeria Would Have Disintegrated

Senator Adeyemi who represents Kogi West Senatorial District in this interview on the fringes of an empowerment programme for constituents, talks about his people, his passions and his politics.

The interview in part is provided below.

Does being a journalist put a burden on you in the political arena (Senator is a former president of the Nigerian Union of Journalists – editor)?

Of course it is a burden because people will always remind me to say 'you are the people criticising' and so I must make the difference. All that I am trying to do is to make the difference in the lives of the people and to justify the fact that I am coming from a background that criticize bad governance, which should be a strength to me.

I am always conscious of what the people will say about my representation on the floor of the National Assembly. I must strive to do beyond the ordinary, so that my colleagues in this profession can be proud of the fact that they have an ambassador at the National Assembly.

What is the content of the empowerment materials that you are giving out?

I came from the US with about seven container loads of medical equipment. There are twenty-two ambulances that I paid for, not donation. Each of them cost me over 450, 000 thousand Naira to clear it from the port. I never allowed them to be driven here, I hired trucks to carry them and I paid one hundred and eighty thousand Naira to get each of them here, each of them cost me fifteen thousand dollar, excluding the cost of freight.

I have all other kinds of medical equipment that I brought from overseas. I have spent over seven hundred dollars on empowerment interventions. Presently, I am constructing four cottage hospitals in place like Odo Iri where I am doing a thirty bed hospital. In Igbaruku, I demolished the cottage hospital there, which the Sardauna built in 1962. I got there and I shed tears because that is still the only building that they call their hospital. I just demolish it. I am roofing the new building now as I am speaking to you. That is twenty five-bed hospital, in Igbagu, I am constructing a 15 bed hospital there. In Ogale, I am doing, a ten bed hospital there. All these equipment are meant to be shared not only to these hospitals but also to other hospitals in the state. I have about four hundred hospital beds and mattresses. I have stretchers, wheel chairs, surgical equipment. It might interest you to note that I'm donating two of the ambulances to Central and East senatorial districts.

Business interest

I am equally donating to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital because this district used to be part of Old Kwara State. As I speak to you, we still have hundreds of thousands indigenes of Kogi West living in Kwara State. More importantly, my wife is from Kwara State, I also have substantial amount of business interests in Kwara State. So, we have to let them know that Kwara is home to us.

Do you have a governorship ambition?

No! All I am doing is to complement their (state government's) efforts, there are other people who can do that (become governor). What I am doing now is to let the people see what you mean when you say that you are representing them.

Could this be the reason why some of your people are urging you to go back to the senate for the third time?

You see, as a Christian, I always believe in the saying that what happens tomorrow is in the hands of God. If human or government power or machinery is what is required to win an election and is capable of stopping somebody, I should not have been a senator today but when I was fighting the former administration people asked if I could return to the senate and I said my second term was in the hands of God. My take is to tell the people to allow me do this job well so that my conscience will be clear that I have served like Baba Awolowo served, like Ahmadu Belloe served. Those are the people I see as role models.

You have a lot of confidence in the Jonathan administration. Why?

Tell me the government that has ever ruled this country that has had the challenges of administration more than Goodluck. Tell me the government in Nigeria that has faced worse social disorder in any nation than Goodluck Jonathan.

Challenge of terrorism

There is no government in Nigeria that has had the burden and the pains of carrying the challenge of terrorism than Jonathan. The problem of terrorism is enough to collapse the economy. If we didn't have the government of Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria would have broken up.

Why do you think Nigeria would have disintegrated?

Let me tell you, the humility and simplicity of Jonathan at the time of serious challenge that requires maybe to the thinking of some people that government should use force on Boko Haram, if you use might in a complex and diverse country like Nigeria, the consequences would have been worse. Government is not the way people see it. The complexity and diversity of our nation with the burden of governance, I know it now more than before. When people talk, I keep quiet, because I am aware they don't know the obstacles and hurdles, the consequences of comments and actions that could break up this country.

Jonathan came at a time in this country when God wanted him to preside over Nigeria. If you have had a president that people say action government, the situation today would have being worse.

Original source: Without Goodluck, Nigeria Would Have Disintegrated.