6th April, 2011
Kehinde Odeneye,an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate for Ijebu Central Federal Constituency speaks with our Ogun State correspondent, ABIODUN ONAFUYE on his plans for his people and how the party is ready to take over the Gateway State.
Tell us about yourself
My name is Odeneye Kehinde Olusegun. I am a Chartered Accountant, presently working with Ericson. I am from Ogbogbo in Ijebu North East Local Government.
Why do you want to contest for the House of Representatives?
I believe it is a divine call, and there are so many things I have considered even before joining the race but what is most important and paramount to me is that we can no longer continue to fold our arms and look at our state and our constituency being run the way they are presently run. There is a need for us, most especially, the enlightened ones to come and contribute to the running of the government. Government is people and we are part of the people, and there is no way we should fold our arms and believe that government should be run by a set of people.
As a Chartered Accountant and considering the kind of politics being played in our country, especially Ogun State, do you think you can cope under such atmosphere?
That is exactly what a lot of people have been asking me: Are you not too gentle to contest?, are you not too pure to contest with your background? As I said earlier, this is a divine call, and with God, everything is possible. Politics should not be a do-or-die affair. Ordinarily, if the people running government have done what they should do to develop people, if they have provided amenities and they have given back to the society what belong to it, I don’t think political contest or going to politics should be a do-or-die affair. So, the fear of going back to the society is why they make politics a do or die affair. As a Chartered Accountant and with my background, I believe the society where you come from is where you go back to, and the only way you can go back to that society is giving back to that society, which also includes yourself.
What are your plans for your people?
I would not even wait for 100 days. The first thing I will do is to establish Constituency office in each of the 36 wards we have in all the three local governments (Ijebu-Ode, Odogbolu and Ijebu North East).
Do you think this platform is good enough for you to actualize your desires?
Yes, I have said it in the beginning that this is a divine call. I am also receiving this call through a divine platform which is Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The party is a father of many parties, we have DPA, CPC, part of PDP, you have part of ANPP there, you even have some people that never belonged to any party, that have seen ACN as a party that can win. The story is not far-fetched, we have seen what PDP was able to do in Ekiti State, and we have seen what ACN is doing there, we have seen what PDP was able to do in Osun State, we can see now what ACN is doing there, ACN is operating in Edo and Lagos states, everybody including PDP states are copying what is obtainable in other ACN states.
What are your promises to your supporters as the elections approach?
It is true that a lot of people have a different belief about politics, but I just want to believe that without people like us coming out, the belief would have remained the same. Though, I cannot be with the people at all times, my office will be close to them. There are things that I need to attend to urgently, ditto the governor and the local government chairman, but where there are no coordinating offices, this might be very difficult, everybody does not need to see my face. It is not my face that would work, it is my action, it is my offices, and that is the essence of creating those offices and whatever we need to get out on time, we get them on time, and whatever we need to delay, will be done accordingly.
In less than three weeks from now, we will be going for the election, what is your message to your people?
What I have to tell my people is that they should remain steadfast; the election is won already and won by God for Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). What we need to help ourselves is to stand by our votes, go out early enough to get accredited and after accreditation, come back to vote and after voting, ensure you give enough support to your agent to ensure that our ballot boxes are not carried away. This is because I’m very sure that other parties are already aware of the support for ACN so far and I want to believe that they are already planning either to steal or to disrupt the election by scaring people away. All what we need to do is to claim what God has given to us and the only way we can claim it is to stand by our votes.