POLITICS: HOW EWI OF ADO, OBA ADEJUYIGBE, LATE OTUNBA BISI EGBEYEMI GOT ME INTO POLITICS – OTUNBA LADI OWOLABI

Otunba Ladi Owolabi was the running mate to Former Governor, Engr. Segun Oni who was the SDP Governorship candidate in the Ekiti 2022 governorship election.  This Insurance cum Politician spoke with Princess Adeola Shittu on his political journey and while he return to APC after his party SDP lost the election in Ekiti state. Enjoy!

As a successful insurance mogul, what inspired you to go into politics?

(Laughs) Initially, I called myself an accidental politician, but no, I am not an accidental politician, but rather I’m a professional in politics. I made an incursion into politics not too long ago. You see my love for where I come from and my passion for giving back to society gave me lots of inspiration to go into politics. It will interest you to know that in my place of birth, which is Ado Ekiti, we have a popular festival called Udiroko; it is a New Year festival for the people of Ado Ekiti and it is the Ewi of Ado that hosts the festival. It’s a period when kabiyesi prays for the progress and well-being of all sons and daughters of Ado Ekiti, and in turn, they will also pray for kabiyesi, and a colleague of mine, who is the Managing Director at Mutual Benefits Assurance would tell us about Ojude Oba in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, his contributions and support for the event and I felt like ‘woah, let me also introduce some of these to the Udiroko festival in the interest of Ado Ekiti’, and some years back, the king called me to be the chairman of the committee for the festival, but it was the time I started my insurance firm and I said to kabiyesi that a child could not say no to his father’s wish, but my company was at its infancy and to be a chairman of such an event was a tough one and that is why each time, I salute my brother, Professor Akindele, who is the chairman because to manage people and the committee is a huge task, but I thank God for his life and wisdom. 

So, kabiyesi said, ‘If you are not going to be the chairman, you must be a member’, and I accepted that I would always come from Abuja for the meeting and it was at this meeting some of the chiefs, precisely my late sister, Mrs. Shonike, fondly called Eye Igba, said, ‘Ladi we are looking for people like you in politics’, and when the chiefs are talking, I know it is the voice of kabiyesi and I said to them, ‘Ok, I will join the following year’. Kabiyesi took me to the late Deputy Governor, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, who said he wanted to do politics and he said he wanted to join the APC (All Progressive Congress). Otunba Egbeyemi said, "Are you introducing Ladi to me?" He was my bursar in secondary school; he accepted me and advised me and that was how I joined politics and I started as an APC member.

What year?

Precisely in 2018 during the second term of former Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, I contested for the House of Representatives to represent the Ado Federal Constituency 1 before we were asked to step down. During the 2022 Ekiti governorship election, I contested for the governorship under the platform of the APC but we were asked to step down for the party’s choice and I made a request that they didn’t meet and this led me and my supporters to move to the SDP, where I emerged the running mate to Asiwaju Segun Oni, the SDP governorship candidate. 

You left the APC to join the SDP and now you are back to the APC, why did you accept to be the running mate to Asiwaju Segun Oni and why did you return to the APC and not the PDP?

Thank you very much; we all know that there is no smoke without a fire, if you follow the politics in Ekiti in 2022, you will know that some of us in the APC were not happy with what was going on then; we were talking and advising but nobody wanted to listen to us then and we said look this political party belongs to every member though we have our leaders and you can not be a good leader if you are not a good follower, and we as the followers are following them and whatever they say we should do, we do it; we were asked to step down, which we did, because if out of the eight of us that contested for the House of Reps in Ado, if we all went for the primary, a winner would emerge but when the leaders said they were picking someone and the other seven should step down, I took it in good faith and said let give the leaders their right because the leaders are the party and we can’t be bigger than the party; so we accepted but some of the promises they made were not fulfilled.

I didn’t ask for an appointment; rather, I said the money I paid for the form should be refunded to me since they said we should step down because the party had a consensus candidate and I asked where were the leaders when I paid for the form, I didn’t ask for the money I spent campaigning round the 24 wards in my federal constituency, which is more than the money I used to obtain the form; rather, I asked them to refund the form money I paid. However, that was not the reason why I left the party. The main reason was that some of us were stigmatized and we were not pleased with what was going on within the party, especially for we that belonged to SWAGA (South West Agenda for Asiwaju) under the leadership of Senator Dayo Adeyeye. We all know that SWAGA was a southwest platform we used in promoting President Bola Tinubu, the incumbent president, and certain people in Ekiti were not comfortable with it then and this made them see those of us in SWAGA as their enemies and enemies of the party and our followers and people within the party found it difficult to visit us during the daytime, you can imagine that When you tell your associates you want to visit Oga Ladi in his house and their respond is you are going to SWAGA’s house; some of them even ran away from me and some preferred to come to my house in the middle of the night to talk to me; it was very difficult. 

When we looked at the situation and realized that we were not part of the APC in Ekiti State, we decided to make an expression and this led to the birth of the SDP in Ekiti State during the last governorship election.

(…cuts in) Who and who formed the SDP in Ekiti State?

Don’t forget that the SDP is a national party and before the last governorship election in Ekiti State, we had the SDP (Social Democratic Party), but the coming together of the APC and the PDP gave the party a better result at the last election in the state. We all know what happened during the election and the SDP didn’t do badly. We left that for history to judge.

Why did you return to the APC and not the PDP after dumping the SDP?

As I said, when I wanted to join politics, some forces wanted me to join the PDP and I looked at the PDP in Ekiti, I was not particularly pleased with them and I then took the decision between the two political parties and I joined the APC because I felt it would be easy for me to mix with people as most of them are my friends. So, after the Supreme Court judgment, which upheld the victory of the incumbent Governor Abiodun Oyebanji as the governor of Ekiti State, the question of where do we go came up. It is on record that across the 36 states in Nigeria, Ekiti State was the first state that the SDP would have such an impact after the late MKO Abiola, the founder of the political party. We notice that if the game of politics is played and the game is over, the best place to go is to join the bigger player; on the other hand, the coming of the working governor of Ekiti State, His Excellency, Governor Biodun Oyebanji, and his attitude and approach to people, I felt the APC was the right place to go and that was what inspired me to return to the APC. Some of the leaders came to me and asked me to come back to the APC and then, it was like a bird that was ready to fly and you throw stones at it; so when they asked me to come, it was not difficult for me to accept and say yes and that is why I am back to my party, the APC.

Going by your desire to serve your people, do you still have the ambition to contest?

Hmmm, I believe future things should be left in the hands of God. When I was asked to join politics and I did, I never knew God would direct my steps. So if there is anything that will come up again, I leave it to God and our people.