Edo, Ondo guber: Project Victory Call Initiative equips voters for credible polls.

Founder speaks on political developments.

Project Victory Call Initiative, aka PVC-Naija, is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that anchors political education and advocacy towards equipping electorates to perform their civic responsibilities dutifully and peacefully.
In this interview, the founder, Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi, gives an insight into a spectrum of political scenarios and developments, especially the manoeuvring in Edo and Ondo states.
He also emphasises the roles that his NGO has played and would continue to play in advocating good governance in the country.

You are the founder and President of Project Victory Call Initiative, aka PVC-Naija. What roles have your NGOs played in shaping credible elections and good governance in both Edo and Ondo states?

As the name suggests, we operate through projects to fulfil our mandate of political education and advocacy towards guiding the electorates to perform their civic responsibilities dutifully and peacefully. We set up Community Ambassador for Peaceful Election in the states during their last election in 2020. iWalk is another awareness walk held by us in both states before the last general election to say no to vote buying. We have just added our new product, Governance Impact Assessment, ahead of governorship elections in Ondo and Edo states to help the electorates make informed decisions during elections.

Edo and Ondo states are currently in the news in the nation’s political firmament. What are your views about Governance Impact Assessment in Edo State? If you think the impact falls beyond expectations, what are your personal recommendations?

The challenge of Governance Impact Assessment is complicated by the benchmark set by relevant international bodies given to it, such as the International Association of Impact Assessment and of course the confrontations of our clime as an operating environment for democracy. Let me take it one after the other.
The benchmark for measuring Governance Impact Assessment internationally favours developed democracy more than developing democracy. It focuses on freedom, respect for the rights of individuals, the rule of law and adherence to the separation of powers. If that is the basis to judge Governor Godwin Obaseki’s last four years in government, then he is internationally a failure!

The clampdown on the legislative arm of government for the better part of his administration should be of concern to sincere democrats like myself.

Local Government Administration and elections into the third tier of government went through torture at his hands, a usual game by our governors; another unpleasant experience under Obaseki!

To think that the same person will find the legislative arm useful, following his fallout with his recently impeached deputy, Philip Shuaibu is unbelievable. All we need is to draw our conclusions from the sad reality of our lilly-livered legislators.

However, in the context of fulfilling the needs of the people of the state, I will rate him above average. Our politicians are capable of drilling a borehole beside a river! If you know what that means. The people will still travel their usual distances to the river bank to fetch the same water they have always fetched. It may be cleaner in appearance because it has filtered through the soil to flow through pipes but it’s still the same water from the river with all its impurities flowing through a tap, which is enough to excite the poor and illiterates among us!

It is important that the Government Impact Assessment (GIA) for Edo and Ondo States be properly conducted.

Well, the Executives of PVC Naija, led by President Paula Bellgam would want me to step aside from being a part of the GIA Committee for Edo State, given my confrontation with His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over Obaseki.

Sincerely, in retrospect, I think the president was right about Obaseki being autocratic in disposition which is not good for the development of our democracy!
If the development of democracy is at the mercy of a virile opposition then, we are at a crossroads on Edo.

For how do we in all honesty support APC, a party that is already showing the glide towards a one-party state at the national level against PDP in Edo because of Obaseki who is on his way out to being autocratic?
Unfortunately, the Labour Party’s eyes are not on this ball at all!
The challenge of this autocratic allegation is that Ogie for me is another Obaseki and he is on the PDP ticket’s pair; a burden that Asue Ighodalo doesn’t deserve!

The hallmark of democratic leadership is keeping your word. Does Ogie keep his word?
Of all the many failings of President Tinubu, you can’t accuse him of not keeping his word. Well, I will talk at the time most appropriate on the Edo election in my capacity as Bolaji O. Akinyemi before the election.

The development of our democracy is stranded currently because the best opposition institution we have ever had in APC is now in power running the government with media and propaganda tools which the opposition should be doing. And PDP as the leading opposition is content with the arrogance of “the people can see what we are doing.” They are out of the government but have refused to accept their new status as the leading opposition party. Put little me side by side with PDP on the opposition of government policy engagement and draw your conclusion of PDP failure as an opposition!

PDP should be out in partnership with the media, invest in propaganda machinery to set the records straight and educate the public. On these, PDP is dead and we may soon have to bury it!

Unfortunately, LP is not taking advantage of this. Their Ambassador in power is too refined for politics and its games. I hope he won’t pay dearly for this in the next election. Politics is more about talking than doing. Otti is all doing and not talking! On this, I am sincerely concerned for him and the LP! Not even in almighty America is politics different!

Trump is first of all a mouthy candidate rather than a better candidate, compared to Biden. Democracy is the same everywhere. This for me, is the reason the Edo debacle should be pragmatically considered in view of all perspectives before we choose the side to go with.

Otti’s acceptance of the leadership role that destiny has bestowed on him can change the game in Edo, Ondo, Anambra or other states for that matter. What APC is today can’t be divorced from the assessment and perception of Lagos with Tinubu as the governor in those days!

What do you think are the expectations of the people of the state and to what extent has the governor fallen within or below their expectations?

The people’s expectations today are relative. I know this question is asked with a particular reference to Edo. But it applies to all our states. Expectations are amoebic, changing shape and patterns. The masses are too hungry to care about real development. People are concerned about where their next meal will come from. Whoever is used to make this happen will be an influence at swinging the pendulum of power! This is what a candidate like Governor Ayedatiwa will be banking on and he is privileged to the treasury to have that done!

But the Elites in Edo and Ondo must set up intervention projects on Voters’ Education to assist the electorates in making informed decisions at the poll. A wrong decision by the poor masses will bounce back if we don’t get involved as elites in practical terms!

That is what is bouncing back in Kogi, which is a neighbouring state to both Edo and Ondo states. The impunity of our political class and the oppressive nature of governance must concern us. The elite class, not political, but business and intellectuals have kept more Nigerians going since the last election held in 2023! Why won’t they come together to get their state running?

The governorship primary election in Ondo State that was held on Saturday, April 20th, was said to be fraught with electoral irregularities. To what extent is this rumour true and what should the INEC do?

Where was Usman Ododo, the governor of Kogi State and chairman of the APC Committee on the Primary election in Ondo State during the election? He was possibly more concerned about helping former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, escape from the arm of the law when EFCC came to arrest him at his Abuja home last week than attending to the responsibility of conducting a free and fair primary election.

APC should produce a picture of Ododo taken anywhere in Ondo State on the day of the election. What was witnessed in Ondo was an abduction of democracy and a supervisory institution by the power of incumbency in all 203 wards of the 18 local government areas of the state. What was the party expecting from a man like Ododo?

That election was a charade and further confirmation of “Emilokanology” at determining APC primaries? I had made a recommendation to APC delegates to rally around Prof Dayo Fajuyile in a video I titled: “My advice to APC Delegates.” Dayo Fajuyile, for heaven’s sake, is a professor of Forensic Medicine. The greatest challenge of Ondo State is the departure of her youth from her once-upon-a-time cherished value of education. There is a need to project the future and mentor the youth through political leadership which is what I expected from all political parties in Ondo to be able to wean Ondo youth from easy milk of Yahoo trade to which the majority of them are sold by the example of ‘certificateless’ leaders without any known means of livelihood before politics.

Ondo has lost its rating in WAEC performance. It is now almost on the same level as the educationally disadvantaged states of the core North.
Dayo would have been a rekindling of value for education. But APC had squandered that. We can only hope that PDP will get it right. The biggest selling point any political party could be privileged of is to have an aspirant who is the highest single indigenous taxpayer asking for the party’s ticket. On this alone, I expected PDP to have opted for a consensus in Bosun. But you know what? APC and PDP are head or tail of the same coin. Let’s hope PDP will not fall into the snare that APC is right now!

If Bosun Arebuwa didn’t get the PDP ticket and APC refused to address the scam of a primary election conducted in Ondo as it did in Edo, then the tone of disappointment of the youthful components of our electorates that would have been divided between APC and PDP, but rallied to become the force that powered the third horse called the Obedient in the last general election may be the lot of Ondo!
Give me a credible candidate on the platform of the Labour Party, backed by Otti and I will deliver Ondo to the opposition. What exactly am I saying? Ondo, as a South West State, must go to the opposition if we hope to save our democracy from the one-party state that the recent regular dinner at Bourdillon is aiming for. PDP is better positioned to make this happen. I hope they do.

Do you think Gov. Ayedatiwa, having served under the late Rotimi Akeredolu and later replaced him as governor has what it takes to emerge as winner of the forthcoming governorship election?

No man can give what he doesn’t have. Ayedatiwa needs to prove his personal content. You can simply tell the capacity of a leader by their respect and enthusiasm for ideas and that I have not seen in him. Nevertheless, It would be unfair to conclude about him but sincerely the pragmatism and charisma of Akeredolu are yet to be seen.

Do you think he has what it takes to replicate Akeredolu’s legacies if he eventually wins the election?

An idea of Governance Impact Assessment on Akeredolu was presented to him. Can he count on his fingertips the projects of Akeredolu? He missed the opportunity to take stock of Akeredolu’s years and reflect on the failures, appreciate the successes, quantify the gaps and how to fill them. Okitipupa has been in darkness for 15 years, that is the prime city of his political zone. What has he done since he became the governor to address that? What is the basis for him to expect that Okitipupa should give him their votes?

How would you assess Ondo’s politics in the context of power-sharing and Governance Impact Assessment?

On Governance Impact Assessment, I wouldn’t want to let the cat out of the bag. It will be conducted in Akeredolu/Ayedatiwa years and the result will be out to guide the electorates in Ondo. As for the unwritten power-sharing formula in the state, it goes to confirm my position that Ondo and Edo are unpredictable. The natural injustice and political oppression that is common across the country has no home in both states. Parties with internal justice stand a greater chance in both states.