Across Africa, politicians enjoy privileges far beyond the reach of the people they represent. They receive allowances, government benefits and comforts that ordinary citizens pay for themselves. While a civil servant on the minimum wage earns ₦70,000, members of the political class earn millions. This explains why some politicians will do anything to remain in the same office indefinitely.
What manner of service to the people requires one person to occupy the same political office for 24 years and still demand more? Twenty-four years is enough time to show a people what you can do. When someone keeps asking for more time in office after all those years, I call it greed and an uncontrollable appetite for public money. Such a person has grown so accustomed to free money that, outside politics, stealing would be their profession.
We are now at the threshold of history in Ijesa North. The more I read about the exploits of great Ijesa leaders, the more convinced I am that we must take our destiny into our own hands.
This morning, I received a call from a respected elder and businessman of Ijesa origin. He said he was greatly impressed by my activities. Then he asked whether I thought Ijesaland might benefit if we supported Hon. Wole Oke, my opponent, to become Speaker of the House of Representatives.
My response was simple. He will not get there. From my experience with him, I believe he is my particular about his own advancement and not the interests of the people of Ijesaland and Osun State. One conversation in particular has stayed with me.
Before the 2023 general election, Hon. Wole Oke approached me, both personally and through his lieutenant, and asked me to set aside my ambition so he could contest for the House of Representatives one last time. He said he wanted to complete some projects, including the work towards establishing a tertiary institution in Ijebu-Jesa.
He told me I would succeed him immediately after that term. In fact, he promised that if I stepped aside for him to contest the 2023 election as his last, he would personally bankroll my entire campaign for the 2027 election. I thanked him, and we continued to relate closely.
My brother and friend, Damilare, who was then my personal assistant back home, was visibly unhappy with the development. He criticised Hon. Wole Oke on social media. When I saw the post, I asked him in the comments to join me in Abuja.
Damilare arrived in Abuja with some others I had invited, and I immediately began working on their applications for master’s programmes in the United Kingdom. While the applications were under way, I mentioned to Hon. Wole Oke what I was doing for Damilare. I said nothing about the others and did not ask him for a single penny.
He told me to my face, quite happily, “Why would you waste your money on that? That is too much! You can give him ₦250,000 to start a small business in Ijebu-Jesa, or he can do a master’s degree in Nigeria for less than ₦300,000.”
Then he asked, “Do you know how many votes those millions will buy?” He explained that, at ₦5,000 per voter, the money could buy many votes. “You cannot waste millions on one person,” he told me. “You are still new in politics.”
I have never forgotten that conversation. I was thinking about what a young man could become if someone gave him a chance. He was calculating how many votes the money could buy.
Today, Damilare is doing better. He has contributed over ₦25 million to my election campaign. I had to ask him to stop and take some time to organise his own life first.
After Damilare and the others relocated, some of Wole Oke’s ardent followers felt they, too, should have access to such opportunities. They met with him and asked him to sponsor people from across the federal constituency. They told him people were talking about what I had done and urged him to do something similar.
I was later told that Wole Oke said he was not into charity. If he sponsored them to go abroad, he asked, who would paste his posters during elections? That response tells you how he sees the young people of Ijesa North.
We must set a precedent in Ijesa North. No leader should ever again take our people for a ride for 24 years. Everyone who seeks our votes must answer for what they have done with the opportunities we gave them. That standard must apply to me too.
Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq.
ACCORD CANDIDATE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ORIADE/OBOKUN FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY
