Barrister Isaac Kekemeke, one of the top aspirants in the fast approaching gubernatorial primary poll in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State spoke about his ambition and plans with our Ondo/Ekiti correspondent, EMMANUEL ADENIRAN. The prominent lawyer specifically addressed the issue of poverty. Excerpts: Â
Your past is little known sir, do you wish to talk about it?
Our people are aware that I am a Lawyer. I have Chambers. This is my office where I am a founding partner. In government, I served as a legislator, a Minority Leader in the old Ondo State House of Assembly, between 1992 and 1993. I served as the Chairman of NECO, Nigeria between 2001 and 2004. I was Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State between 2003 and 2005. I was Commissioner for Works, Lands, Housing and Transport in Ondo State between 2005 and 2007. I was the Secretary to the Ondo State Government between 2007 and 2009. In party politics, I was the pioneer State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State in 1998. I also served as the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State in 2014. I have been really involved in the issues of Ondo State.
You have really come a long way sir
Yes. By God’s grace. We are doing what we are doing as a result of Divine call. Some of the times, I refer to it as a prophetic encounter. We are doing so because that encounter worked a genuine repentance in us. And, basically too, because we have experience. We are inspired to want to refocus and direct government. We have enormous power which I want to channel to work and impart directly on the citizens of Ondo State in a way that they can be seen, touched and be felt. We are inspired to run so that we can run in an innovative and creative way, so that we can ordinarily do more than what the present government currently does by a way of payment of salaries and construction of roads.
We are inspired to want to work for our people and compulsorily provide free primary and secondary education, so that we can deliver free and qualitative compulsory primary healthcare, so that we can deliver affordable healthcare, so that we can innovatively and creatively feed ourselves and earn a living from agriculture and use the products as raw materials for our agro-based industries to enable us give jobs to our citizens. We need government to be able to pursue entrepreneurship promotions and skills developments. And we will want to use government to maximally and profitably exploit the tourism potentials that we have in Ondo State.
In order words, we plan to fulfill our visions of a prosperous and peaceful state, where citizens will be engaged to enable them live decent and meaningful life.
Specifically, let us discuss your programmes
Our programmes and vision for the people of Ondo State would be centred on the areas of Education, Health, Agriculture, Industries, Entrepreneurship Promotion and Skills Acquisition, Tourism, Good Governance, Security, Social Security for the Weak and the vulnerable.
We will promote partnership of government and non-governmental organizations and improve the environment. We have focus to reposition local administration. We will also work on women and youth empowerment, all-round infrastructural development of the State. Other areas of our focus are bitumen development, Olokola Free Trade Zone and development of a seaport, as well as the establishment of the Ondo State Economic Intelligence Unit among other initiaves that will be birthed later.
Sir, can we say that your decision to contest is as a result of your fallout with the current Governor of the State?
I have explained to you why I am running. So, what has that got to do with what I am saying? It is time to put the people of Ondo State first. It is time to deal with hunger. It is time to deal with poverty. It is time to deal with unemployment. It is time to deal with insecurity. It is time to rescue our basic infrastructures. I don’t discuss persons. I only interrogate issues and of course, issues that affect the lives of the common people. I don’t have time to discuss people. Only issues.
So, how do you intend to navigate the political arena, the permutations going on in the APC in Ondo State at this time?
With God on our side and with the great efforts that we have made, we are seeing the results. You came in here to tell me that it is in the news we are running, that’s no longer news, it is already stale. The great news is that we are leading. And we are the only one with structures on ground in the APC in Ondo State. We have structures in the Units, structures at the ward level, structures at the local government areas of the State and they have been meeting regularly. We have become a movement. A big movement, where individuals have stakes, contributing their funds, energy, resources, and time towards the realization of the LekeLeke Dream, which is the dream to put the people first in all things; the dream to be fulfilled in education, the dream to accomplish the programmes we have enumerated as our focus for the people of the State.
In almost first term of four years of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, what are those things he has been doing that you will like to disagree with?
 I don’t have to disagree with Governor Akeredolu. The position has always been that in the past three and half years, Akeredolu has done his best. He has done some things on road and housing. I thank him. But we are selling free and compulsory education. We are selling highly subsidized tertiary education so that students no longer drop out of school, particular stone-aged schools. We are selling affordable healthcare for our people. We are selling jobs and jobs and jobs to our people. People still don’t have jobs. He has done his best. My focus is different. My vision is different. We want to deal with hunger. There is still plenty of hunger in the land. We want to deal with poverty. There is still plenty of poverty in the land. There are no jobs. We want to create jobs. So, our area of focus is different. Our visions are different.
Quite for sometime now sir, we have been rattled by the COVID-19 pandemic, we will like you to talk about it.
Well, COVID-19 is a global pandemic. It is one of these things that the whole world has no control over. And the best we can do is to continue to cooperate with the Federal Government, with NCDC, with the State Government and to abide by the advice they have issued asking us to adhere to social distancing, asking us to wear our face masks, asking us to wash our hands as many times as possible and to sanitize our hands and to reduce our engagements and number of gatherings. I support the decisions of both State and Federal Governments. We all must work hard to keep our lives safe. We all must work hard to make sure that we don’t hurt others and others don’t hurt us. We, at our LekeLeke office, we have our own COVID-19 songs and prayers, which we pray every day and every time that the good Lord will keep our lives and land from the storm.
Ondo’s gubernatorial election is fast approaching – and with the COVID 19 protocols already set down by the NCDC to curtail the spread of the Corona Virus pandemic, how do you think that the people of the Sunshine State will still be able to observe the NCDC protocols, most especially the social distancing aspect?
The truth of the matter is that despite our challenges, we are all beginning to recover our lives. There is a thin line between being saved and being hungry. So, we have to recover our lives and begin to live all the protocols. I think that is the challenge that INEC has; to think out of the box. To begin to think that people are not disenfranchised because of the protocols by the NCDC. And like I will always say, Edo and Ondo elections are isolated elections. INEC should maximally deploy enough and adequate human resources to man the polling centres on the Election Day. INEC has to make sure that people can vote simultaneously at different points at the same time and at the same polling area so that, the election would be conducted visibly with fewer crowds around voting points created. They can also extend the time in which people will vote so that nobody would be disenfranchised because this is Democracy.
Sir, you are from the Ondo South Senatorial District, the coastal area of the state, if eventually you emerge as the Governor of the State, what and what are you going to do to tap into the enormous resources in that area?
If you look at our programmes, our mission is on the issue of Science, Technology and Information; we will maximally deploy government revenues to impart directly on the human capital and on the natural endowments in the State to create wealth. That means also that it’s not just Ondo South Senatorial District, we would deploy the States’ revenues and resources to every nook and cranny of the State. Fortunately, Ondo South has abundance, just like other Senatorial Districts of the State. That’s why we have said we are going to litter Ondo State with cottage industries and agro-based industries to create jobs.
On the crisis that has been ravaging the APC lately, President Muhammadu Buhari dissolved the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Party, what’s your take on this?
I have always said that what we had in APC are internal scuffles and divisions and disagreements that were threatening the various existing structures of the party. And Mr. President, as the leader and the National Executive Committee (NEC), whether properly called or improperly called, have thought that that was the way to go and everybody has no other option or alternative than to congregate around that arena. So be it, so that the party can move forward.
Finally, we will like you to send specific messages to the APC party members and the people of Ondo State.
Members of APC in Ondo State have a choice, they have a choice to decide to stay where they are with their lives if it is acceptable to them or to embrace what we offer which is a programme to put them first and to directly impact on their lives, on the lives of their children and then reversing the revision that the state has suffered in the last 10/11 years.
