Lucky Aiyedatiwa is the governor of Ondo State. In this interview, he speaks on his victory in the November 16 governorship election in the state and his promises to the people of Ondo State, among others, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

In your acceptance speech, you talked about gratitude and humility. Tell us about that gratitude and humility, and how you hope to serve the people of Ondo State in the next four years?

I’m really overwhelmed with gratitude, greatly humbled and honoured by that renewed merit given to me by the people of Ondo State by coming out in their hundreds of thousands to cast their vote for my party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and by extension for myself, to continue to be their governor beyond 2025, when this very tenure will be ending.

It’s a whole lot of gratitude for me to all of them, especially considering the number of votes across the 18 local government areas, not just some of the local governments that were won, but the entire 18 local governments and with the margin between my party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

My gratitude also to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for providing a level playing ground for all of us, all the political parties, to campaign and contest without any form of bias in any way.

My gratitude also to my party, the All Progressive Congress and the leadership of the party led by Dr. Umar Abdullahi Ganduje and members of the National Working Committee for all the support and engineering of the political party as a platform upon which I ran for the governorship.

And also, my brother governors, all of them, for rallying around me, and giving me support, especially the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, who is also the chairman of the Sub-committee for Election Management and Strategy, and my own South-West Governors’ Forum, who is the chairman of the Governorship Campaign, His Excellency Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, all of them, for their support.

My gratitude knows no bounds. I would like to also commend the umpire itself, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting a free, fair, credible and conclusive election, because an election can be conducted and can be inconclusive.

But this time, we had a free, fair, credible and conclusive election. Commendations also to the security agents for protecting everybody without any form of partiality. They were deployed everywhere, and the election itself was so peaceful.

Elections in Ondo State have been very peaceful in the last four elections that we’ve had aside the experience in 1983. I think Ondo State people have learned their lesson.

So, I want to thank the good people of Ondo State, the critical stakeholders, the citizens, the eligible voters, every one of them, for the show of love, which they have translated into votes.

Since you’ve touched on INEC already, let’s get straight into it, so far, the post-mortems from various observers, CSOs, and the general conversation around INEC’s conduct have not been positive given allegations of vote buying and BIVAS not working correctly. How does this make you feel?

It is not so true because everybody is entitled to their opinion, depending on where they are speaking from and the areas they visited. I want to tell you that not every location was visited by the so-called CSOs and observers.

But really and truly, there are some locations where we have delays initially when it comes to accreditation through the BIVAS network. That initially slowed down the process in some areas, but not everywhere. If you know where I come from, I voted in the remotest part of the state.

From Akure, if you want to travel to my hometown where I vote, it’s about three and a half hours and on water. It is in the riverine area. Even before I arrived at the polling station, voting had started.

The INEC officials arrived very early. I wasn’t the first person who voted at my polling unit. Some people had voted before my arrival.

So, upon I arrival, I joined the queue and yes, the BIVAS at my polling unit worked. Within two minutes, I’ve been able to cast my vote. The accreditation was done, and my PVC was presented.

It was run on the BIVAS, it popped up my name and I was given the ballot paper and I voted. In some other units within my ward, they complained of network slowing down the process but eventually, people were able to vote.

But in some areas, they made such complaints as well. The BIVAS was slow, but along the line, it picked up. That is why you can get that number of votes.

If you look at the total number of those weho voted in the election, the number is huge. It’s like every other election. Even, we had a higher figure in this very election than in some of the previous elections. So, even though the BIVAS was failing at a point, it picked up and people were able to vote.

The deep sea port will be coming up very soon. The licence has been granted and investors are waiting. We will now focus, after this election, to pursue that, so that it can come to reality

There were less than a million people that came to vote when there are 1.7 million people with their PVCs. Is that not an indication that people are disenchanted with elections in Nigeria?

Let me quickly say this. If you are judging from the number of people who registered and collected their PVCs to the number of people who came out to vote, this is not peculiar to this very election.

That happens in every election all over the country. A lot of people registered to have their PVC because they just want to have that document.

When it comes to being active politically, not everybody who registered is very active politically. So, if you look a the records, not just in Ondo State, but in every other election in other states, that has been happening.

A lot of people are not so active in participating and that is what we should encourage. It’s supposed to be a national awareness that has to be created that people should always come out to vote. But for some people, you cannot force them to come out. Some people are passive, some people are active.

We talk about citizens’ participation as part of good governance. Yes, we have to continue to encourage them. And if you look at the figure that we have at the end of the election, you will agree with me that this is a very good one also.

During the debates, you had a back and forth as regards security votes but a question that was never asked was how much do you collect as security votes?

I would like to know how much monthly, or if the numbers vary, how much in the last one or two months have you collected as security votes in the state? Let me tell you, Ondo State, first of all, has been adjudged to be one of the most safest and peaceful states in Nigeria.

Go and check with the security agents. Intelligence gathering will tell you that we are safe here in Ondo State and very peaceful. You can also attest to the fact that during the #EndBadGovernance protests, most states experienced protests, but in Ondo State, there was no single protest, because we are engaging our people.

We talk to them, we let them know, we allow them to participate, we listen to them, answer their questions, their requests, and we ensure that our security architecture is funded rightly and bet ter equipped. So, if you want to really know how much I draw every month as security votes; that is a security matter that cannot be divulged.

But there is a budget for security votes for the office of the governor, and our budget has been published. You can go there and check yourself. It’s an appropriation and I can’t draw beyond the appropriated amount. You can check because this is a security matter.

What role did the late Rotimi Akeredulu factor play in your victory in the election?

My late principal; may his soul rest in peace, he was a factor in this election. I’m proud to say that I’m actually the face of Aketi. Forget about all the narratives that people are pushing about the Aketi people not being happy and that they are not supporting me.

I ask: Who are the Aketi people? Are you talking about the immediate family or his political associates? When it comes to politics; when you talk about the political family, they are the people who are standing by you and are working with you.

I and Aketi have come a long way since 2012, when he was given the ticket at the time by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Although we lost the election, we remained together as progressives.

In 2016, before he won the election, we all worked together and Agboola Ajayi was picked at that time as his running mate, and when he fell out with his principal in 2020, I was chosen as the deputy. I worked with him as a loyal deputy and everybody in Ondo State knows that.

Even on the day of our inauguration, I don’t know if you have seen that video clip, where he openly commended me. He first interpreted my name, what it means, and how names can really affect the destiny of a person and then talked about my loyalty, commitment and worthiness of the position that he gave to me at the time.

And he went further to also say that he has a maximum of four years, maybe I can continue from there. He cannot just say categorically that this is my beloved successor, please support him when the time comes. But he said it in another way that he must come down for me to go.

Those are his words, you can play that back. It’s everywhere on social media, especially during the impeachment plot, it came out from the archive and everybody began to wonder towards the end of his journey before he passed. So, we’ve come a long way, and that has always been his wish, for me to succeed him.

And those who really understand the dynamics, they knew but because of interest of some of the political gladiators, they will have to push other narratives to either de-profile or de-market me and create some kind of blackmail. Because politics is about something I call competition or interests that are different, everybody wants to sit on this seat as well. So, that’s it on the Aketi factor.

I am the face of Aketi, a successor that he actually desired from day one. And that was why I said that I wished he was alive to sit behind his other governor’s colleagues who were in that banquet hall when I was declared the winner.

That would have been really great but God knows better. And Owo people also know that I have my disposition towards the Aketi group, which I am leading right now alongside the party chairman. We all belong to the same Aketi group.

You are from Ondo South and the PDP candidate, Agboola Ajayi is also from Ondo South. People are saying that coming from Ondo South, you owe the people of the area a special obligation to do things for them. Are we going to see you establishing a university in your constituency?

In the southern senatorial district where I come from, we already have a university, which very close to my local government, in between Okitipupa and Igbokoda in Ilaje Local Government Area, the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology.

So, I don’t need to establish a new university in the southern senatorial district. But one of the departments of the university is already being built at Igbokoda, the capital of my local government. So, that is enough.

All that I need to do for the southern senatorial district is to also bring some kind of infrastructural development. A lot is happening in that area.

Don’t forget, the wealth of Ondo State, most of it is in the southern corridor. The deep sea port will be coming up very soon. The license has been granted and investors are waiting.

We will now focus, after this election, to pursue that, so that it can come to reality. Don’t forget, we have the largest bitumen deposit in Nigeria and the second largest in the world, which is in the southern senatorial district of Ondo State. With the deep sea port coming on board, that will further help investors to look in that direction.

Exploration is ongoing in that area already because licenses have been issued by the Federal Ministry of Mineral Resources and some people are already there doing the preliminary work. Don’t forget also that the southern senatorial district is where we can link with Lagos.

The Araromi-Lekki road is coming from there. If that road is completed, from Lagos to Ilaje and Araromi will be about 45 minutes, rather than spending almost three hours. Don’t forget also that the cleanest beach in Nigeria is the Araromi Beach. We are going to develop it and make it a tourist place.

Also, the Lagos-Calabar highway that started from Lagos; a very huge project by the Federal Government, is going to pass through Ondo to Delta, connecting from Lagos to Ogun, Ondo and Delta and then to Calabar, linking all of those communities and states together. It is better to imagine the kind of economic benefits that that will bring to the southern senatorial corridor, especially my local government, Ilaje.