Honorable Daniel Abimbola Kolade (DAK) is an accomplished native of Fiditi in Afijio Local Government Area of Oyo State. He had his secondary education at Saint Charles Grammar School, Osogbo. He was also at Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) in Ile-Ife for his Bachelor’s Degree in Building. Later he got a Masters Degree in Housing Development from the University of Ibadan. He has also attended various management courses at Lagos Business School and elsewhere. Along the line, under the administration of former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, he served as the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy matters. He was also the Commissioner in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Ministry of Works. Today, he is a serving Federal Commissioner at the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, (RMAFC). He was recently on our Radio Show, Parrot Xtra Hour live on Splash 105.5fm. The show was anchored by OLAYINKA AGBOOLA. Excerpts:
You are welcome to our show sir…
Thank you very much. Thank you for the interview and I promise to speak the truth.
Thanks for the opportunity given to us to have this exclusive interview with you. The first question I will ask you has to do with your veering into politics. What was the initial attraction for you?
Thank you very much. Yorubas will say, “O si mbe oni won o pin da, tani won ba ma pin fun?” We all complain that it is not good, it is not this, it is not that. They are not doing it well, they are not doing it like that and all that, and then you refuse to be part of it. Honestly, that was my encouragement in it. If I must go into details, the thing has been there and one way or the other, growing up, I do say I find myself occupying leadership roles. Even among my peer group while I was a kid, I was always chosen to play leadership roles. Coming into politics, I believe that we all travel all over the world, we see things being run in a better way elsewhere, and we come back to our country and just keep laying back and complaining. Then, why don’t we join them there and be part of it so that we can contribute our own quota?
Will you say you too attended some kind of informal school of politics?
Sure! Well, thank you very much. I will say that I belong to the ‘Ajumose School Of Politics.’ We all know what Ajumose means and what is Ajumose? I belong to Ajimobi School Of Politics and I was a foundation student of the school. I got ‘admitted’ in 2002 when he first came out to run for Senatorial seat. Deeply, amongst us we call ourselves ‘Ajumose Marine.’ I am a senior commander of the Ajumose Marine.
As I said earlier, you are a Commissioner at the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission. A commission established with the functions among others to monitor the accrual to and disbursement of revenue from the federal account and reviewing from time to time the revenue allocation formula to ensure conformity with changing realities. Sir, we want you to educate us on what the Commission really stands for to enable people understand better.
Thank you very much. The Commission seeks to know how revenue is being generated to federal government purse and we decide on how the revenue is being shared to the three tiers of government; that is Federal, State and Local governments. We also review constantly how the revenue is shared in order to go in line with the reality of modern world. The revenue sharing formula we adopt presently has been in existence since 1992. Former President Obasanjo adjusted it through an Executive Order in year 2002. Also, the constitution of Nigeria states that the sharing formula should be reviewed every five years. This is why we made a new plan and presented it to the President as the Constitution demands, and the President will in turn present it before the National Assembly that will transform it into a law.
Many Nigerians, especially from the Southern part of the country grumble about unfairness and injustice in your Commission. Do they really have reasons for this attitude?
There is no way you can please people when it comes to sharing things. If you look at it truly, people see things from different perspectives. You will see that you till today, the State government has been the most agitating factor against the allocation formula, saying that it is too heavy on the federal side. Today, if you look at say the 100 per cent, the federal government takes 52%, the state governments are taking 26% and the local government takes 22%. Although out of the federal government’s 52%, FCT takes 1%, Economic fund takes 1.5%, Stabilization Fund is 0.5%, development of natural resources also takes 1.6%. So, in the real sense of it, federal government only takes 48%. Of course, the State governments have been agitating that this thing is too heavy on the federal side. But then, the federal government also will equally come back to tell you that the responsibilities it bears is much. Security is centralized today, then agriculture, health, education and others. In the real sense of it, we thought that our own way of contributing to restructuring is to think of how to rejig revenue sharing formula, which is what we have done and completed, and hopefully, we believe that the President will transmit it to the National Assembly. The second part of it is the horizontal sharing formula. The first one I mentioned is the vertical formula between the three tiers of government: Federal, State and Local. There is also, what we call the horizontal formula. It refers to the sharing formula amongst all the 36 State governments and all the 774 Local Government Areas. All these are considered using some factors that determine the sharing formula amongst the states.
Don’t you think there is lopsidedness in this sharing formula?
There is always lopsidedness in one way or the other, but we will start working on it soon and we will try our best because the motto of our Commission is ‘Equity, fairness and justice.’
Do you think your Commission follows the motto?
Honestly, as much as possible we do have scuffle amongst us, because each state has a representative in the Commission. Majority of us have served at the State level prior to our selection in 2019. There are three former Deputy Governors amongst us. The least person amongst us is a former Special Adviser at the State level; likewise, we have former Chief of Staff and others who have served severally in various capacities such as Commissioners like me. When I was Commissioner for local government, sometimes, federal allocation does not get to the state until the following month. As it is today in Nigeria, it is only six states that can pay workers’ salaries conveniently at the end of every month without federal allocation. Unfortunately, Oyo State is not among the six States. Without federal allocation, Oyo State cannot pay workers’ salaries. When we got there and saw how people were suffering, I was one of the people that complained on the delay in the state allocation. Then we thought of what to do. We made a plan sometime in September 2019 that latest by 21st or 22nd of every month, federal allocation should be released to the State governments. By this, it is expected that every Governor pays their workers’ salaries without any delay.
Does your Commission have the power to ensure that State governments do not undercut local governments on the issue of revenue allocation?
I have been opportune to work in both ways. In the real sense of it, the constitution of Nigeria recognizes the 774 local governments. The responsibilities and control of the local governments still lie with the State government. Also, the State laws has to do with local government. From now, the demand of our constitution to our Commission is to make sure that we give each local government their money but we can’t pay directly, we pay to the States’ joint account and whatever the state likes it can do with it. So, to address this, the local government autonomy being pushed for in the National Assembly should be considered. Secondly, RMAFC cannot allocate money to Local Government Council Development Authority created by some States because LCDA is not known to the Nigeria constitution. However, the law delivered by the Supreme Court judgment says states can create those Local governments but National Assembly must enlist them into the constitution which they are yet to do. Majority of these things will still require for us to sit down and holistically look at our constitution to see how to go about it.
I want you to answer this question as briefly as possible, you have been to Abuja and seen or have access to privileged information concerning revenue allocation. What lessons have you learnt?
Thank you. The thing is that the way people in the northern region relate with the central government in Abuja is not the same way we in the South relate with them in Abuja. It’s just that majority of opportunities are there that states can tap into for the development of individual states. There are many funds that can be of benefit to them. Good enough, we take UBEC and TETFund seriously now. UBEC handles basic education and infrastructural development that is from Primary to JSS3, while TETFund handles infrastructural development in tertiary institutions. Many of these things are within the federal government’s purview that we can tap into, but we did not use to give them serious attention.
Let’s talk about our local politics. I want to ask you sir, do you still think APC stand a chance at the Gubernatorial Election considering the fact that this issue of ‘Ojagba ko jagba’ is still being discussed?
It is apparent that our people in Oyo State have seen the difference.
Sorry to interrupt, but Chief Adebayo Adelabu left APC for the Accord and they are many there as well as other parties.
Though there are always reasons for animosity, but we react to issues differently. I won’t blame anybody defecting to any other party. After all we have done it before with my late oga, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. We went to ANPP also because we believed that time that we had a point to prove. So, if anybody feels that they have a point to prove, honestly, I won’t blame anyone. Let me say this, I’m waiting for 2023 election, thank God it’s around the corner and we will all witness it. We have not been voting along two parties in Oyo State. We have always been voting along three major parties with extra ones. Go check all the results. Even in 1999, it was PDP, APP and AD. The coalition of 2019 defeat we experienced in 2019. Look at 2015, it was Ajimobi, Ladoja, Akala, Teslim then Seyi Makinde in SDP. In 20151 also, it still repeated the same, Ajimobi in APC now, Ladoja, Akala ran under Labour Party and Seyi Makinde and others. But in 2019, they succeeded in having a coalition which was where the trouble was. I have said it at several fora that look at past election results in Oyo state, whoever won as the Governor, the maximum we’ve ever had was the 34,000 lead that Ajimobi had in 2011. If you look at 2019, it was because of the coalition that produced over a hundred and fifty thousand votes. Where is the coalition today? It has collapsed because the people in Oyo state have known the truth. I said all those things for you to know that the scenario in 2023 is changing. Now look at what APC is bringing to the table. We have said that APC is a progressive party. We believe in government of development and we have seen it. Our candidate is a well-experienced politician, who has served at national level, as a Senate Leader. You know I said the other time that the disconnect is there from the national to the state. Here is a man that already has a wide range of connections and things like that. If he brings those connections he already has at the center to the state, then it will be good for us. Also, people know that Tessi is not a Facebook politician. His popularity is not on the social media. His popularity is the people on the streets. Have you ever seen Tessi walking on the street? He walks so freely on the road, he identifies freely with people on the road and all that.
The thrust of my question is, if you have Chief Adebayo Adelabu having almost half of APC with him, how do you intend to garner votes for Senator Folarin?
No. It is not almost.
I know Senator Femi Lanlehin embarked on some kind of reconciliatory moves some months ago to bring in aggrieved party people. Will you say his efforts yielded positive results?
I believe so far so good, the reconciliation effort of that time worked. The election may be close and may be narrow, but I’m saying with all honesty, Tessi will emerge victorious.
Let me give you this scenario, let’s assume Senator Bola Tinubu wins, I know you are one of his campaigners too, and he comes or sends to Oyo state after winning and gives out instruction either way Adelabu or Tessi…
From what is on ground, who do you think that will favour? Our elders do say, ‘Bi agba ba se omode, omode na ni yoo be agba, t’omode ba se agba, omode na ni yoo be agba.’ So if that is going to happen, who do you it will favour? In all ramification, there is something you have raised that if Asiwaju will be here tomorrow to say okay, I want to bring truce between the two of you, who do you think it will favour?
I am sure you will agree with me that exactly what happened four years ago is likely to play up itself again this year. The clear leader cannot emerge or apparent until maybe one or two weeks before election. Do you agree with me?
Yeah, I agree with you. The two weeks after the Presidential Election to the gubernatorial Election as it was in 2019, it will be in 2023 also. That two weeks will be very crucial. I agree with you.
Before you go sir, we want you to advise your fellow politicians. It is our country, it’s still our state, we don’t have another state, we don’t have any other country. Please say one or two words to them about the fast-approaching elections.
Thank you very much. This is the time for elections to hold and everyone is going about to vote. So far so good, although we hear of some issues in some places, but I want to implore us all to tread cautiously with integrity in our various election campaigns. When it’s time for election, we should all troop out en masse. PVC collection is ongoing and those who are yet to collect theirs should create time to collect it. It is our instrument. INEC has extended the deadline for the collection at the ward level by another one week so that it will be easier for everyone to get their cards. Let’s also keep praying for our country and Oyo state for peace to reign.
