KAOLI OLUSANYA RATES AMBODE'S ADMINISTRATION, DEBUNKS CRISIS IN THE APC OF IKORODU DIVISION, IN AN EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MEGAXPRESSION. | Shakiru Seidu.

Shakiru Seidu of MegaXpression Magazine, engaged the two term former Commissioner for Agric, Lagos State, Asipa Kaoli Olusanya, in a special interview where he addressed many issues.

Q: Good morning sir.

A: Good morning, you are welcome.

Q: My name is Shakiru Seidu, the Publisher of MegaXpression Magazine, the genuine VOICE of Ikorodu Division. Please can we know you sir?

A: My name is Kaoli Olatunji Olusanya; I am the Chief Laying Officer, Kith and Kin Educational Growth and the Asipa of Ikorodu.

Q: As a Politician and School Proprietor, how do you cope with the two sir?

A: life is about service, man is created to serve, to serve God and to serve humanity. I have chosen these two platforms to serve God and humanity. Politics is about creating a better community life for all the constituents and getting involve in matters to improve the standard of living in a community, giving some help to those that needs it and even assisting them in some areas, to direct and mentor them, that is that about the community.

For education, education I believe is the most appropriate key to get out of poverty. According to Nelson Mandela, in life generally, to touch lives, education is a very good platform in touching lives, because through education, you give knowledge, you help people discover their innate talent and you also help them to develop it, you share experience with them, you educate them to have education, to have knowledge, and through that, individuals are able to discover themselves and develop further. The little children, the best you can do for them is to really mentor and teach them. So, to me, I think the two areas are inter-related and I enjoy getting involved in these two areas, both politics and education.

Q:Thank you sir. What prompted you to venture into education proper, knowing fully well that you studied agriculture?

A: Yes, I studied Agriculture in the University, and I started as an Agricultural officer, Lagos State Government, Ministry of Agriculture 1977, but in 1979, I was transferred to Lagos State Polytechnic as a lecturer because I felt the vision I have for myself is to be in academic environment, where I can have some quietness, where I can share my thoughts, express myself and also impact knowledge, and that, I was able to do when I was a lecturer in Lagos State Polytechnic.

When I was in LASPOTECH, because of my choice of the kind of career I wanted for myself, I went for further studies for masters degree at University of Ibadan. When I came back, I was promoted the acting head of department of Agricultural Extension and Education Service. So, naturally, education to me is like a natural calling for me, I decided to extend my service.

Q: The falling standard of Education in Nigeria, what do you see to that sir?

A: It depends on the parameter you are looking at, in 1950-1960, if you look at the curriculum, it was so little, it was all about the purpose, education then was just to produce class and the subjects then were few, like seven (English, Arithmetic, civil education, religious studies etc.). At that time, the resources used were simply Books (Physical books that can be read) and of the almighty teachers who know all, who stands at the class and try to demonstrate their all-knowing ability, the students were able to receive and listen to the superior teacher.
Today things have changed, the curriculum consist about 15 subjects in the primary school and about 17 in the secondary school, and these students are supposed to take all and the resources deployed are even more than physical books, now you can read from websites, Facebook, Instagram and so on, so everything has become wider.

Moreover, the social and home background during that time is different from today, then the parents and community as a whole, all take time to watch over children, it was a communal life but now the father goes to work, same with the mother and the child is left alone, so everything has become different. You cannot compare education 60years ago with education today, the purpose and objectives are different. Today we want to provide global citizens and that comes with a lot of challenges, it is due to those challenges that made some people to fall the standard of education.

Q: You're once a Commissioner in Lagos State, if you are opportuned to transform Nigeria as a whole, what are the possible changes you will put in place?

A: The first thing is leadership, selfless leadership, God has blessed Nigeria, all the resources are there, land mass and you have all the geographical zones that can produce different types of crops that are needed for human and animal consumption. Our climate is very good, no natural disaster, there is water, if you drop a seed, before you know it, it will germinate and we have large number of population which is a big resources in terms of market, in terms of people that will develop these resources, God has given us in large population. We have Gold, Tin, Zinc, Iron, Oil, etc. Cash Crops are there, annual crops are available.

What is our problem? Our problem is that how do we now bring these resources together to meet the needs of every Nigerian in an equitable manner. To satisfy the people with these resources is not a problem as for me but our problem is that some people want to have all these things to them alone. So what I will do to help this Nigeria as you have asked is through selfless and Godly leadership, which is what we need. Those who are opportuned to rule over us, if they know that they are there in public trust, they will use it for all our benefits, not for the benefit of their own children or families. If we can get over that, Nigeria will be better.

Q: Almost three years of Governor Ambode in office, what is your score card for his administration?

A: If I may understand Governor Akinwunmi Ambode very well, his government is premised on 3 programs. One is security, two is infrastructural development and three is Job creation. These are the goals he has set for himself, and in those three areas, we can all say we are proud of the infrastructural development taking place simultaneously across the length and breadth of Lagos State. He came up with the idea of 114 roads each in the 20 local Governments and 37 LCDAs of Lagos State simultaneously, in which this has never happened before.

Most cases before, you see development in the urban areas abandoning the rural areas to the local government which has no resource. Ambode saw that and he took care of it, we are very happy. He is now doing another 181 roads. So in infrastructures, he is doing well of which Igbogbo and Ishawo communities of Ikorodu is currently benefitting from it. The communities will now have an expressway, and after that, economic empowerment will come in, revival will come up. Infrastructure goes along with Job creation, rehabilitation will engage people, there is consumption of materials and human labour, it wakens a sleeping community, and he has expanded employment in so many ways.

Concerning the security, Ikorodu is also a beneficiary, in recent past, there was a newspaper I read that was asking that “has Ikorodu become a den of criminals?” This is not our life, it is not our culture, it is foreign to us, but when Badoo came, Ambode with the collaboration of the security agencies, they came up with genius ideas that flushed away the criminal idea, series of agencies intervened, in fact, there is now a station at Igbogbo which is sending message to hoodlums that peace has arrived, with that, there would be confidence of investors that will come. If am to assess Ambode’s three years, in terms of these three areas, security, infrastructure and job creation, I think he is doing very well.

Q: As one of the Apex leaders of Ikorodu Division, there are speculations that there is crisis among the Apex Body of APC, Ikorodu, which some said it was the aftermath of the last local government election, what is really happening sir?

A: No, I won’t call it crisis! Politics is a platform where we all come with different ideas and you have different perspective and we have different ideas to actualize dreams, maybe in different ways. Oftentimes, there would be conflicts of ideas in politics that is not about crisis, there will be conflicts, the ability of a leader is to be able to manage and control the conflict of ideas. There will always be, but that is not enough to say there is crisis in the Party. Issues will come up always, a leader must have an open heart to embrace different ideas and opinions, a leader should not impose himself and think he is the alpha and the omega of all ideas, politics is a platform to cater for the community and no idea is foolish, there is always an iota of sensible ideas in foolish ideas and make use of it, make such person feel good and make him feel part of the structure, encourage such person to do more. So all what is happening in Igbogbo even in the whole State has being happening and will continue to happen, a leader’s success is demonstrated in being able to manage conflict idea by embracing.

Q: Recently, precisely in January, 2018, Governor Ambode reshuffled his cabinet which affected one of the representative from Ikorodu Division, as a leader, what are the leaders of Ikorodu Division doing since the incident occurred sir?

A: Yes, you are talking of Hon. Adebimpe Akinsola, the Special Adviser for Housing. It unfortunate, we are not happy with it because in Ikorodu, we are praying for more representations at every level of government, so if we are represented by two members in the executive of Lagos State and we are reduced to one, nobody should feel happy about that, am not happy about that, but what led to that, I don’t have information, I don’t know, so I could not pass a judgement to say it bad or good but what I said is that we are not happy that we lost one. Wisdom requires that when such things happen, we find out what the cause is, where have we made mistake? If we can find out, then as leaders we will rectify the mistake, not for today but for tomorrow. It is also good for the concern victim to know her mistake so that as such person goes on in life he/she would not make the same mistake. Having said that, service in government will start one day and would end another day, let everybody have it in mind that it is not a permanent position. I am happy for Hon. Adebimpe Akinsola because she has gathered experience in government, being a legislator and being a member of the executive, I myself don’t have that experience, mine was limited to the executive, but she started as a legislator, spent four years and came into the executive and spent two years, glory be to God, life goes on. Although as a community, our prayer is that we have more representatives, so in this aspect, we are not happy about it.

Q: Thank you sir. This year is a campaign year for all the political parties, now in Ikorodu Division, what is your advice for the aspirants of one position or the other?

A: From my experience, political office is nobody’s heritage, it is everybody’s entitlement, so if you know everyone is entitled and there is one position and there are 15 of you aspiring to be, definitely you know 14 people will lose and 1 person will win, so everybody should go into the race with a competitive mind, and one feature of a competitive mind is that you just go there, enjoy yourselves and try your best and pray for luck, whatever the outcome is, just take it as it is. For example if you lose the primary election, just support the winner and show that you are a good politician, if you are the winner, you will also expect others to give you that support so that you can eventually get to the Seat. To determine a good politician, you have to go with an open and free mind, whatever the outcome, you are a good member of the family of the Party.
More so, don’t invest what you cannot lose in a political race, it a gamble, don’t go and sell your father’s property, it is not a do or die affair.

Q: As a stakeholder in Ikorodu Division, what are your developmental plans for the Division?

A: Development plans depends on which sector you are looking at, if you are looking at education, Kith and Kin will be my legacy, I want to leave Kith and Kin to a board of trustees when I grow old and I die.
Kith and Kin is not to be inherited by my children, I have repeated that to my children, teachers and to the school, this is not a school to be divided among my family, I have given them education, this is my own vision, theirs may be different from mine, let them establish whatever they want to do. I didn’t inherit this from my family, I want to give this to the society as my contribution to Ikorodu community. I pray God spare my life for long, it will get to time when I will retire and I will establish a board of trustees. Kith and Kin will become a service to Ikorodu, that is my plan, I pray God will actualize it.

In terms of the community generally, I am working closely, collaborating with the traditional institution in Ikorodu Division, for instance HRM Oba Kabir Shotobi (Ayangburen of Ikorodu), I have being working closely with him mostly in the areas of administration and bringing development to Ikorodu. Bringing development to Ikorodu, we have to help the young ones, how can you give them skills? How can we mentor them? How can you direct them to productive parts? We have started doing that with the radicalization of our youths, denouncing cultism, there is nothing there, it is destructive, you are carrying arms against your community, killing and you say you are a true son, how can you be destroying your own home, you are not a true son. Thereafter, we now look at collaborating with government, we have to be friendly with the government if you want to bring development and thank God the Adeboruwa of Igbogbo, HRM Oba Semiu Orimadegun Kasali, a Director in Ministry of Justice, a legal luminary assuming the throne of his forefathers, he has that connection, he knows the people, he knows what to do, he is an intellectual person, he has access to government, in fact, the entire government machinery will want to collaborate with him because he is one of them. In just two years as the king, look at what has come to Igbogbo and by God’s grace, more will still come.

Q: Thank you very much sir for sparing us your time.

A: Before you go, I want to talk about giving, Kith and Kin here, every year I send teachers to two public primary schools that is located in ibeshe here, Ibelefun Primary School, Methodist Primary School in Owode and in Ibeshe respectively and we conduct scholarship examination to the pupils there. There are children of great talents there, some need help, so I send my teachers there to conduct scholarship interview and we pick the best two in each of the school and what I have discovered about the third year we did was to discover a child who scored 100% in mathematics and I wondered, 100% in mathematics. Even in our private school here, it is rare to find a child score 100%. That particular child today is now in SS3, we give 6years scholarship, throughout their secondary school, we give them food, books, they stay in hostel etc. all for free, in fact they get their exams form and registration free, either junior or senior WAEC, I paid for everything. The boy has always being scoring 90%-100% in all his subjects consistently, if we want to do the valedictory service, I will invite you. If such a boy has not been discovered, what would have happened to him?

Q: That is a great achievement sir! Lastly, how do you rate MegaXpression Magazine in Ikorodu Division and what is your advice for us sir?

A: Sincerely Shakiru, you're doing wonderfully well and I am very proud of you. Communication is one of the greatest tool God has given mankind, because without it, we will not be able to give information, we will not be able to entertain, we will not be able to educate and we will not be able to learn from other people’s experience in other to go forward. With community we will also be able to put some people on guard in terms of your behavior. I will plead or advice that in anything one wants to do, try as much as possible to get the competence, proper tolls and adopt best practice. You are doing a fantastic job, I can really see that you are growing, the community is also growing to have people that is providing service within the community, I wish you all the best, and I am asking you to sharpen your skill, training, seminars, conferences, getting proper tools, resources and best practice and I pray God be with you.

Q: Amen. Thank you very much sir.

A:You are welcome.