Why We Sacked Oseni

Q: What specifically did she do?
A: We leveled 12 different allegations; some of them we chose not to go into details because they have some security implications. The summary of everything is her high-handedness and that is why I mentioned in the first place that what she offered us was not leadership but rulership and quite a lot of other dictatorial things she did were not in the interest of this administration. A situation where you go out for oversight functions and you do anything that did not agree with her own stand, then forget it. Whatever you have done cannot stand. The House of Assembly should offer this democracy the necessary ingredient that is required. Take the legislature out of democracy and there is no democracy, because every republic we have had in Nigeria has always been the return of the legislature. The executive and the judiciary have always been there. But anytime the military strikes, it shows us that the activities of the legislature have to be suspended. If we are not able to take our rightful place in this democratic setting then where is democracy? And that is why we said if this requirement, the ingredient of democracy is lacking, then whoever is making things not to work must be told in clear terms that you cannot unnecessarily make things not work.

Q: But the former Speaker was installed by the Governor…
A: Point of correction. The former Speaker wasn’t picked by the governor, but the leaders from the area where that position was zoned. On the night that the whole arrangement was done, all the federal constituencies where these positions were zoned to were asked to present their candidates. People from her constituency presented the former speaker. Some federal constituencies were merged to produce the speaker: Abeokuta South, Abeokuta North and Owode constituencies. We would assume that democracy had actually taken its full course before they arrived at her name. That was how other officers were picked from their constituencies. And the governor told us that night that this is your choice and if the governor said this is our choice, that means we decided that she should be and not the governor. Because if you insist it was the governor that chose her, you are sending dangerous signals to those out there that she is a puppet. And so, on the strength of that, I’m bearing in mind that Ogun State is the only politically homogenous state where all the 236 ward councillors are PDP, where all the 20 chairmen of the local government are PDP, all the 26 House of Assembly members are PDP, all the nine House of Reps members are PDP, the three Senators are PDP, the governor, PDP, and as such we believe that as loyal party members, we have not in anyway jettisoned our respect for the party supremacy. Of course, the governor of the state is a leader of the party in this state and as much as I know, any Speaker is going to embrace the OGD ideology and administration. It is just a change of guard and not a change of policy. The policy of this administration is what all of us have been working towards and that was why we all pledged our loyalty even though some few positions are changing.

Q: But why did he bring General Babangida to appeal to you to change your decision on Oseni?
A: Thank you very much. The whole scenario was not in the knowledge of the governor when it took place and you know that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, you will expect him to be keen about security. And that’s why we all said: ‘Sorry, your Excellency, you are not in the picture of this because of the respect we all have for you. If you said don’t do it, none of us would do it.’ But what Babangida did was what any father would do. He came to visit the governor to commiserate with him over the death of his mother, because he could not make the burial ceremony. He met us with the governor and of course you would also expect that we would be happy to have a Nigerian of such calibre in our midst and we all stood and exchanged pleasantries with him. So when they went into private meeting, whatever transpired I don’t know. But what Babangida came to tell us was that we should co-operate with the governor because, as I said, he wasn’t in the picture of what had happened. So he would imagine a lot of things. But we said this is not about you, Mr. Governor. This has nothing to do with a threat to your position and Babangida spoke along that line. He said: ‘You have been working with your governor, continue to work with him, there will always be issues but resolve the issues amicably and move on.’ At no point in time did Babangida ask us to return Hon. Titi Oseni ,and the governor did not either. He was only saying that the implication of this to the outside world is not good for the developmental agenda we are all striving for because investors consider peace as a very paramount factor when they are coming to any state and we are all saying this state must be the next investment destination.