Dr Charles Akinola is the Chief of Staff to Osun State Governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola. Prior to his present position, he had served as the Director-General, Office of Partnership and Economic Development under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. In this interview, he speaks on next Saturday’s election in Osun among other issues. Excerpts:
As a child of a clergyman and educationist, what was growing up like for you?
Growing up for me was a lot of fun. I am privileged to have grown up in an environment where every child is allowed to express him or herself, albeit in an environment of very strict discipline. My father was an educationist and a clergyman, and my mother was an educationist as well. They had worked in different parts of the country and that in itself has been a lot of education for me. To meet a lot of people with different ethnic backgrounds,religious persuasions, and all of that so for me, that really has been a plus.
My primary school education was at a place where we stayed for not more than a year and a half or two and nonetheless, I was able to do all I could in five years and then went to secondary school with a bit of homeschooling as well. So, I grew up with the best values that you want to offer a child. Strict Christian values of love and respect and also my father was very strict so you also have to go on this straight and narrow path and that kept you in check.
So really, we grew up happy, lots of laughter around the house but you have to keep a good focus on education so that’s actually what I’m really grateful to God that I had that kind of startup in life.
Does that influence your education?
Oh, absolutely it did. I went on to earn a PhD degree all on account of the fact that my father wanted me to do that. He had that kind of influence on me and also because I loved it. The background did help me and all my siblings.We’re happy that we’ve all turned out very well.
After your PhD, you lectured at the University of Ibadan, then ventured into private practice with a speciality in strategic development, what attracted you to politics?
For my PhD, I actually worked on one of the first enclave agricultural development projects in Northern Nigeria, which is the Funtua Agric Development Projects. I was lucky to have generous funding from Ford Foundation, and from both the State and the Federal Government, so it was easy. And when I was working on the World Bank project, it got me exposed to a lot of interesting people some of who really have combined very rich multilayered experience in academics and in practice.
So, very early in the day, I knew even as a young lecturer at the University of Ibadan that my own career path would be one in which I will be heavily involved in the field of public policy. I always had that interest and I’ve always had an interest in politics. As I should tell you, back in the University, (University of Ibadan, 1987/1988) we formed a political party. Myself, my good friend, Architect Kunle Bolarinwa, Demas Nwoko, and a few others.
So, I’ve always had this interest in people, in the change process so that was indeed what pushed me into the area of international development work, consulting for international development agencies. I went to work with the Pan-African Institute for Development in Cameron. I really wanted to be grounded in that area of work where we’ll be able to transverse both academics and development practice, so that was actually what moved me in the direction of politics.
Considering the financial crisis at the inception of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administration in 2018, how have you been managing to pilot the state affairs without an industrial crisis?
The secret is about being focused. It’s been a great privilege and opportunity to work with Governor Oyetola who I work with as the current Chief of Staff. It took him quite a bit of time to be persuaded to throw his heart in the ring and to contest as governor but the moment he did that, he was very deliberate about choosing a team of people who will work with him in charting the development agenda that he was going to pursue. We had, for example, a robust manifesto that clearly defined his Development Agenda.
You remember we were owing salaries and there were a lot of discontents, though we started out well with the administration of Governor Aregbesola that the current governor and I were part of. For the record, I was very much involved right from drafting the Green Book, which really was a development agenda that we came to implement under the Rauf Aregbesola administration. So, we started out well.
There will be some time, that some of the experiences I had over this period actually will be coming out in a book shortly that will discuss what worked, and what didn’t work. We started out well, but when Governor Oyetola was coming in, we had to look at all of these and so we came in very prepared. We knew the odds that were stacked up against us and he (Governor Oyetola) knew, for example, that there was so much discontent regarding workers’ welfare and so we came in and prioritized workers’ welfare.
The big focus for him was really ‘how am I going to manage the ‘economy’.So, it’s about prudent management of resources and blocking of leakages, accountability, and of course, the background that he has had from 8 years of working with Governor Aregbesola would’ve come to good use. But again, like 30 years preceding that, working in the private sector has been very useful to Oyetola. So, we came in, prioritized workers’ welfare, and started paying salaries.We’ve not owed a single month of salary since we came to power and that is going to continue in the second term.
Going for elections next week, we’re very optimistic and hopeful that we will win, considering Governor Oyetola’s outstanding performance and the massive goodwill he enjoys from the people. We have been clearing the backlog of pensions. We’re even among the first 5 states to implement the minimum wage. Today, there hasn’t been a day of workers’ strike and that’s remarkable.
We’ve spoken about infrastructure. Well, we were able to do infrastructure, because, again, he has brought in some creativity there. You will not see any abandoned projects under the watch of Oyetola. Not in this administration. Because of the innovation that he brought into the financing of infrastructure projects. We search for partners with the capacity to actually raise funds themselves so they do not get paid beyond what they’ve done.As a matter of fact, we work to catch up with payments. We’ve also done a lot in the area of health.
Well, today, Osun is the state that has the highest budgetary provision for health in the country starting at 17.3%.
We implemented the Osun Health Insurance Scheme and a very innovative drug distribution scheme which we are very proud of despite the scarce resources. We work on commerce and industry as well; the Dagbolu vision that we had in the previous administration, a strong vision, is now a reality. We continue with project and policies of the previous administration that are good for the people and review those the people felt doesn’t work for them.
We’ve continued on the ringroad, Gbongan-Akoda road, we’ve continued with the Osogbo-lIa-Odoroad projects, but we didn’t feel that it made sense to continue with the single school uniform and school merger, as well as the re-classification because people said they didn’t want it. Not only that, we also had third parties, international organisations, special interest groups, and security agencies talking about what’s not working with the education policies.
These are some of the things that we have stopped in good faith. We were the only state that was not running the 6-3-3-4 programme. Like an aberrant state. It’s not really wrong to do new things, to thread a new path but if you take a new path and you see that it’s not yielding results, you can sit back and review, if you really want to serve the people.
Today, Osun has moved up 11 places in the ease of doing business. So, it is a good day for us in Osun and the Governor has more to do.
Some people blame Governor Oyetola for some of his predecessor’s policies he subjected to review, was he that powerful?
Well, the Chief of Staff is a very strategic position in government, however, the bulk still stops on the desk of the governor. Constitution really has told the story to know what the role of the governor is, the deputy governor, the SSG and by extension the cabinet members. The chief of staff really can do so much and also so little, depending on the principal. But summarily, the red ink approval, the Governor possesses overrides the green ink a Chief of Staff has.
In spite of hues over the financial stability of the state, the Governor has announced the upgrade of the state college of Education, Ilesa to a university, are you bothered and how does the administration intend to finance it?
Well, firstly, I’m not bothered at all. Should governor Oyetola be bothered? No. Because this is a totally different case. There was a case of LAUTECH, where we actually let our hearts rule our heads and it didn’t take long when Governor Oyetola, after inauguration got to terms with the fact that things must change with regards to the partnership that Osun had with Oyo State on the school. A lot that influenced our continued stay in that partnership was emotional. It was not based on logic.
The case of the college of education is different. The College of Education in Ilesha is over 40 years old. It’s actually the oldest in the state. It has already been granting degrees to other institutions, such as Lagos State University, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and perhaps UI.
If you look at the infrastructure outlay of the college, so many universities cannot boast of the kind of infrastructure therein. Now, the plan is that the state would not add extra funds more than what it is currently doing in the college. That’s the plan and this is an idea that has been there for a long even in the previous administration. We had the Ijesha society in Lagos with eminent members, lots of them had been in the university administration. Under the leadership of late Professor Ibidapo Obe, late Professor Ajeyalemi, Professor Oniduro Oni. They were working on these ideas but it was actually brought up to counsel during the Aregbesola administration.
Fast forward. now, some additional energy came into the clamouring for university also led by some distinguished sons and daughters, led by Chief Akinwande Akinola, Asiwaju Yinka Fasuyi, Lateef Bakare, among others. So, the clamour has been there and what they were saying was that they will raisefunds for it running. As we speak, they’re already raising money for that university. So what Governor Oyetola is planning is not an Ijesa University; it is an Osun state-owned university located in Ijesaland. He has engaged the services of KPMG, a top-tier consulting firm to help work out a sustainability plan for the school. The firm is working to develop what is referred to as “a governance charter” which will also see how to harvest the energy of the community stakeholder group in developing a very robust endowment fund.
So, the upgrade is not politically motivated?
It is not. Look at the process the agitation has gone through, politics is out of it.
The major opposition party said it’s politics. The flag bearer said he was going to get a university out there in some weeks or something but he was talking to a monarch who is well-read and who was quick in saying there are processes involved in setting up a university.
If it was just a political thing, we would just be running courses and awardingcertificates tostudents that will graduate and there are no jobs. So, this is a painstaking process that is being followed to ensure we produce graduates that would be job creators not mere job seekers.
You have worked with Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and now working with Governor Oyetola, who do you enjoy working with the more?
No doubt, it is Governor Oyetola and that is without prejudice to the fact that I also appreciate the opportunity to work with Governor Aregbesola as I was very much involved in crafting the development agenda for that administration but as I did say, I would’ve enjoyed it better if we were able to follow through with a lot of the ideas that we had. I did value my work with governor Aregbesola. I learnt a lot from that experience of working with him. Again, some of the lessons learnt have now been useful in working with Governor Oyetola who has given me the opportunity to advise and I do get listened to a lot more by the Governor.
I’m not just involved in planning as I was during the previous administration but planning and delivery in this administration. There’s a difference. You ‘ll definitely feel a lot more accomplished.
But as I said, if I didn’t work with Governor Aregbesola, Oyetola wouldn’t have known what I was capable of contributing but again you can see, I’m happy to be a part of this team. It’s a winning team and I’m very proud of what we’ve done. I’m very hopeful and optimistic that the best of Governor Oyetola’ administration’s is yet to be seen and we’re hoping that the second term would afford us that opportunity to show that Osun can experience that huge turnaround. As I said, our revised manifesto is ready on what we want to do in the second term (because we had a review of the manifesto early this year). Governor Oyetola is also benefitting from what has worked and what hasn’t worked, because he is not even shy to review things in the light of practice some of the things that have not worked as well as he wanted them in the first term will definitely be changed. I am be happy working in that kind of environment.
Does the Governor have a worthy opposition candidate in terms of depth and content?
I was at the last debate organised by Arise television and there was a candidate who said to be the major opposition candidate who was expected (most people had said that he would not attend). I think there’s going to be another debate on Sunday, I would place a bet that he would not attend. Now, how would you compare that candidate and Governor Oyetola? There’s a difference between day and night
What kind of Governor does Osun need? I would respond, given the fact that I’ve been here, and I’ve worked with Governor Oyetola and Governor Aregbesola. He must be someone who really has the preparation to run such a complex state like Osun. Look at the kind of preparation Governor Oyetola has compared to the opposition candidate. I’m not sure the opposition candidate has worked. So, the governance of a state cannot be put into the hands of adventurers or people who are out to experiment. Politics is a serious business, so for me, there’s just no basis to compare the candidate of the opposition party with Governor Oyetola. I think it’s going to be very unfair. There are some values you would want your governor to have. You want to look at your governor and say I would like to be like him in terms of focus, preparation, you want to be able to show-off your governor. Governance is beyond entertainment. There’s nothing to dance about with the challenges we have in Osun
As a development specialist, do you think Nigeria is getting good deals from it development partners?
I think we can do better in terms of our ability to attract foreign direct investments, right partnerships can definitely make room for improvement
I look at it and there are some excuses we can make especially in the last 4 years. By and large, the clamouring about how to expand the space for innovations in economic developments is what would be leading us in that path
What is your counsel to youth seeking political leadership?
First of all, the youth have to know that they won’t necessarily get their results the next day. I’ve been in this situation some 30/40 years ago. This is speaking about our sessions with the late Chief Bola Ige as his proteges then.We listened to every advice he gave us. He even said we should go into the local government. Go into the local government, be the counselor, and all that, he would counsel. Young people shouldn’t think it’s dirty. It’s of too much consequence to run away from it. It is the reason we are where we are now. Quality persons believe politics is beneath them.
They are not to imagine that they would get k wins. Young people should take a look at their mates in other countries and see what they’re able to do. That should motivate them. What young people do now is mirror all the nonsense that is going on in politics.
My advice to them is to be steadfast. Look for mentors. I’m happy because I’ve spent a lot of my time in Osun working with youths and they are with me.
