An exclusive interview on 'State of the Nation' with the Observer General of the the Federation, the founder of One Love Foundation and the Father of Nigerian Students-FONS; Chief Dr. Patrick Osagie Eholor otherwise known as Ultimate Equal.
Nigeria is in the era of eections from the presidency to councilor which many grievances, rigging, arrest and cheating have been recorded, let us meet the Father of Nigerian Students- FONS in this dialogue
Journalists: Sir, what is your take on he monarchs , especially Ooni of of Ife's efforts on today's politics?
FONS: of Ife is a well respected monarch but saying LP and PDP to shield their swords from the election is what I am not pleased with, I was not saying he can not have a preferred but he is a father of all, and someone like that have to be very careful by not commenting on politics like that, when you are offended, you can speak up and that Is what I am talking about.
Journalists: Looking at the issue of Seun Kuti and the Police; Seun have slapped officers, it has gone viral and I.G has ordered his arrest and now he is sitting with the criminals in the jail, what is your take sir?
FONS: Respect to my mentor and role model, Fela Anikulapo who I cherish a lot, he didn't die, he lives among us and as I have said that if Fela or his brother who was a minister are alive today, they would not be happy, though police has been know not responsible, I am a victim too, I saw how they beat women publicly and they yet to learn their lesson, we need to understand also that it is not all the police that are bad, we still have a good one among them, I would have appreciated him to ignore the police and we may say the police provoked him because they are known for that mostly, he has been to court and remanded, I urge police to stop provoking people and I stop them to learn their lessons.
Journalists: Election petition with the judges now, the president elect, INEC and Labour Party are in the court, still on the issue, what is your take on it so far?
FONS: We know how MC Oluomo threatened non Yorubas not to vote in Lagos, we know how Festus Keyamo uses hate speech, Keyami who stole about Two Billion naira in Port Harcourt who have been on news for bad reasons and the good conscience people know that the Election was rigged alongside what Professor Mahmood did to this nation but however, police was not responsible by assisting them stealing ballots, INEC failed as they could not transmit the presidential collation live unlike the others, because they want to manipulate, Wike also was so disgraceful and he was exposed, the judiciary is also on trial. I would like to say to the Nigerians to be calmed and let's hope and pray to have victory, there are also some procrastinations so that the president elect can be sworn in but it is not about that, therefore those that are saying Asiwaju can not be sworn in are misguided, if he is sworn in, he doesn't deny the tribunal, some people say there is no how justice can be done once the president elect is sworn in, that it never been seen like that in the history but that was then and this is now, the democracy we have is encouraging, the judge should please need to do the needful by allowing the tribunal to be live on broadcast, it's done like that abroad even in the worse situation, Johnny who has bulb in his hand did not give up, and he did not fail.
Journalists: Recently Obaseki commending you on the reopening of the court in Edo State.
FONS: I think High Court 1 and 2 are Federal High court in Edo State, it was shut down for three months and I think it was not deliberate, I think it is the infrastructure because of the rain damaging, the Governor's cabinet would have advised him that justice delayed is justice deny, we have lots of issues to be discussed in the court, we have women who are raped, people who.theor parents were murdered and you know, delaying their trial is denying them, I personally wrote him gave a 72 hours ultimatum to reopen the court, and in Godwin Obaseki's wisdom, he adhere to it, he said the plans were there to open it before it but that does not matter, he has done the needful, I also still wrote him a letter to specially thank him and did a video on it. When people speak to the government and he.hears, you will know.you have a government but when people are quiet, it means it is not democracy but autocracy, I'm happy and honored and I want to encourage the people to keep speaking.
Journalists: What prompts you to write the Governor?
FONS:I know it is not normal for the court to shut down because of people that want justice.
Journalists: Talking about the road in Edo State sir, like Ekenwa road, not motorable what is happening in Edo with bad roads?
FONS: The governor lives at Ikponpa area of GRA here and the road is not terrible,if you govern people and their road is not like yours I think something is wrong there, for instance, from omogiatte junction through the street is tarred but immediately you ply my road, my hotel, it is not tarred because Governor and his people choose where to work, those who that are with them should enjoy and those against them should suffer, even if the governor is punishing me because I speak against him most time but there are others who voted for him here and I think he should do the needful, the governor have borrowed a lot of money and if you have borrowed money to be invested on infrastructure, I do not know what the money was used for because Edo does not have overhead bridge, no fly over so we are third or fourth that holding the largest amount in the whole of thirty six states because of the money borrowed, which is waiting for the unborn generation, I challenge him to tell me what he has been doing, I took him to court on this, I'm a Nigerian and I have right to challenge any government in power, I think Edo is one of the worse state when we talk about deplorable road, see Sapele road as the federal road too, there are always protest there, go to Ikpoba hill, upper sapomba as well as many road that are bad, if it rains for three hours, noone will be able to pass Ihama in GRA, where we have legislative quarters, really? Something must be wrong.
Journalists: What are you recommending?
FONS: Is to put pressure on them because we deserve better roads as it saves your car from being damaged, give value to your car. Local Government, state government are doing nothing, they are selective, they have no say, because they were not elected, they were selected as a matter of fact, to make things worse, they change it to liason, I took him to court that and yesterday it backfire on him as his chief political thug Osaigbovo Iyoha went and start fighting everyone in liason office, a chief of staff is a key to government's heart, the SSG is the engine room to.the government heart but these one we have here whether is for thuggery, Osaigbovo Iyoha have displayed that he is a thug, he attacked me during the last Election, I have reported him to human rights, to Inspector General of Police that my life is under threat, that he's after me to kill me.
Journalists: Now let's go to Edo State Local government Election, all the political parties are warming up, mobilizing, what are we looking up to?
FONS: It's very clear, the body that coordinate local government Election is very fraudulent to do things for the governor, this time around, Labour Party is involved, when they are funny, we will be funny to them. I promise you that there is going to be free and fair Election because Labour is involved, nobody has the Monopoly of violence, we will give to ourselves what it takes. They have taken us for granted and enough is enough, we have encouraged the youths to come out to vote, they were sad that their votes are not counted, now their vote will count.
Talking about INEC, Mahmood can be described as an ugly thing, he is not a good man for robbing over hundreds of millions people, I don't feel for Yakubu but for his wife and children because what are they going to be remembered for? My family can't be allowed to mix with Yakubu in any form.
Fani kayode once complained about Asiwaju but now he has eaten his vomit which is disgusting, he thinks he loves Asiwaju than us but no, we did, we respect Asiwaju but it does not mean we should no go for what we want, if you call what Fani did politics, politics should be about respect, avoiding repeation of mistakes, do what is right. Festus Keyamo also took Asiwaju to court but now see all what is happening, Igbos and Peter Obi are human and should be respected as Nigerians, Obi has done a lot for Nigeria, he governed Anambra State, not only igbos are there,other parts of tribes are also there and he governed them fairly.
Wole Soyinka spoke against Obi-Datti but he is the one who brought confratality to Nigeria, everybody must just be respected by avoiding twisting our mouth for fun, we should reject ethnicity because it is a thief of love among us, there are tribal sentiment, talking about Wole Soyinka, Bayo, FFK and others, it will be good if we drop tribalism.
Journalists: What is your take on Buhari government sir?
FONS: I hope Buhari will be able to reform election fairness, we spent around 350 Billion, Yakubu, the INEC chairman would have been arrested for Election malpractice, look at Sowore was arrested for using the word 'Revolution' but was arrested for treason because he didn't use the word well. Concerning Emefiele who wants approval to travel abroad for a course is not genuine, it is because he has stolen a lot of money, he wasn't even supposed to become CBN Governor, with all his negative effort putting the country to chaos with cash crunch and selfish strategy, do you know how many people died because of change of naira note? Emefiele has committed crime against humanity, he can not enjoy his stolen money in Nigeria, that is why he wants to run to abroad.
