Dr. Wale Bolorunduro was Osun State Commissioner for Finance in the first term of Mr Rauf Aregbesola as governor of the state. A few days ago, he was asked to lead the reelection campaign of Governor Ademola Adeleke in Osun East Senatorial District. The Ere-Ijesa-born banker is also eyeing the House of Representatives ticket for Ijesa North Federal Constituency. He speaks with SAHEED SALAWU on various political and governance issues in the state.

Do you think the August poll is too close to call between your leader, Governor Jackson Ademola Adeleke and his main challenger, APC’s Bola Oyebamiji?

No, the August poll is not too close to call. Nothing is tight or close about the race. The Yoruba will call it “arun oju,” which is something too empirical to deny. Governor Adeleke will win straight and convincingly. In fact, I am predicting a landslide or, if you like, a shellacking. The governor’s performance, his popularity, the current political configuration, the timing and the season, all give him clear edge. Then there is the name brand. The Adeleke dynasty has always been about the people; caring and compassionate. The governor has continued in the tradition. In politics, you know those factors have weighing-in effects. The sum total of the current political realities in the state is in clear favour of the governor. Without devaluing Oyebamiji, who was my successor as commissioner for finance, the Election Day will be more like a re-coronation for my principal and leader. You just have to touch base with the real voters in the state, like I do regularly across the state, to appreciate the wide acceptability gap between him and Oyebamiji. I’m not diminishing Oyebamiji, but like the punch line in the advert of a beverage, the difference is clear.

Many polls and pundits slightly favour your man. How confident are you as a top surrogate for the governor?

I am very confident Governor Adeleke will win with over 100,000 votes. With the campaign council in place, with its committees in action now, his numbers can only get better before August 15th. As chairman, Contact and Mobilisation Committee for Osun East, our functions are well-spelt out; grassroots organisation and mobilisation of voters, stakeholder contact and engagement, voter education, direct support and intervention, and finally, localising the implementation of overall strategies, which are currently held confidential. And it is a simultaneous arrangement with the other two senatorial districts. So we are internalising these functions at the party level, working with other committees and localising the process. With other senatorial leaders working with our director general, Senator Lere Oyewunmi, and the chairman, the erudite Prof. Wale Oladipo, I can confidently tell you we full ground berekete, like street guys will say when they are sure of their territorial dominance. I’m too sure of victory for the governor, not that he is slightly ahead, and I trust the great people of the state to protect the mandate they are renewing for him. Nobody can come and steal election in Osun again.

You are leading the mobilisation efforts in the entire Osun East senatorial district where you will be confronting APC heavyweights like Senators Iyiola Omisore and Francis Fadahunsi. How will you hold your own against them?

That I was given this powerhouse senatorial district, which has several big names in Osun politics, means the governor and the top hierarchy of our party know I can beat those APC heavyweights at their game and to the ultimate prize. I have profiled each of them and I know their strengths and weaknesses. Senator Fadahunsi knows me very well and until he struck alliance with me in 2019, he couldn’t win our federal constituency. Senator Omisore, yes, I respect his accomplishments and he is from Ife. In 2022, he and his party, APC, won Ife zone (comprising of four local governments) with about 10,000 votes and eventually lost the senatorial district, even with their power of incumbency then. So with the unprecedented democratic gains Governor Adeleke has delivered to Ile Ife and Ilesa and the urban renewal projects through road construction, flyover construction and public financing of the University of Ilesa, the people know who has their interest at heart.

With our party faithful working hard and around the clock under the leadership of Prof. Oladipo and the Deputy Governor, Prince Kola Adewusi, we will win Ife zone and Ijesaland votes for Governor Adeleke. In fact, the numbers will be bigger than 2023’s. In my voting algorithm, we will win Osun East with nothing less than 20,000 votes. Our candidate, the governor, has made the campaign job easier, with a second-to-none performance.

Many would view this appointment as your first main rodeo though you were at Aregbesola’s side during his reelection campaign. Do you think you have the experience to beat the competition and deliver for your principal?

Yes, I have the experience, the competence and the capacity. I have traversed the senatorial district before and I will work with my team and the party to deliver a strong win for Accord, the Adeleke party. Being an effective political operative isn’t about noise. Don’t they say still waters run very deep? The election result will prove who is really on the ground and who is just doing digital dance on social media. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

From your various grassroots engagements even before the appointment as a top mobiliser for the governor, how encouraging have your get-out-the-vote (GOTV) outreaches been?

They have been very encouraging because the governor is massively popular. The people love him genuinely. Leaders like him don’t fail because they are driven by the shared love with their people. Have you seen our campaign gatherings? Oh my God, the outpouring of affection is indescribable. Now, top that with the fact that he has outperformed practically all his predecessors. Governor Adeleke is a promise keeper and a go-getter. I’m grateful to have him as my leader. Look at this: he promised to reconstruct the three gateway roads in our federal constituency, but while the design was ongoing, the Federal Government seized the local government fund and he had to use state funds to pay local government salaries and also to sustain social services at the local level. We lost hope and I had to lead several community leaders to him. Surprisingly, the governor started the two roads at the same time and they are now moving fast. We just need to go back to them to reward the governor with their votes. It is going to be an easy-peasy win in my federal constituency. The third road is Idominasi to Ipetu Ile to Ada-Owode in Obokun Local Government, which he has promised to reconstruct. I have seen the design and our people will vote for Accord for its realisation soon.

You are also a candidate for Ijesa North Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives. With multiple candidates from the leading parties, how close or far away are you to the ticket?

Only God can speak about tomorrow with certainty but I can confidently say that by all indices and nuances, it’s almost certain it is my turn to represent our people in the federal constituency. Please note, I’m not adopting the ‘emilokan’ slogan; I’m just saying our leaders in Accord know who can deliver the seat and I don’t see anyone in the opposition beating me in the general election. I dey kampe, as Baba Obasanjo will say.

Hon. Wole Oke has represented the constituency for two decades and is seeking a fresh mandate. He is likely your opponent in the 2027 general election. Many are not giving you a serious chance of dethroning him.

Wole Oke knows there is nowhere across the nooks and crannies of the federal government that he knows that I don’t know or that I don’t have footprints; roads that I graded or road reconstruction that I facilitated as commissioner for finance. In 2015, I led a campaign against him and gave him a run for his money. He narrowly escaped with less that one percent. He is the one that popularised my name politically while trying to explain why he was seriously exposed in the election. I don’t think he would want to run against me in 2027, because he would be beaten flat. I am not a newcomer; I have been on the ground for the past 15 years.

The Rauf Aregbesola years, especially the former governor’s first term, featured you prominently. Do you want to give an insight into what went wrong in his second term that made a hugely popular government at inception almost a pariah at its end?

Aregbesola was someone that I served diligently with my whole heart. I was freshly minted from private sector with a network of support of my industry. Most of the things I do now as consultant to states, I did free of charge for him. When his local government roads project was failing, he made me chairman of the ad-hoc committee to salvage it. I was not the only one doing great jobs for him, but I found that out many of those other guys (about four) did not return during his second term, too. I think some of us were termed “labour weakling” because of our readiness to always listen or pander to labour’s demand, because even the Bible says a labourer deserves his wages. The rest is history.

Osun, on both sides of the aisle, can be said to be fully BATified, considering that your governor has been all over the place campaigning for the reelection of the president despite belonging to different political parties. I take it you are also BATified.

PBAT is a Yoruba man and I personally think, if a northerner, the immediate past president, could do two terms, despite his faltering on all fronts, why should we deny BAT, a southern Yoruba, a second term? That’s on the political side. I have had to discuss economic and finance issues with him before, when I was commissioner for finance and I can say, since 1999, we have not had a president like him with full grasp of finance and economy. But he needs men who can translate his vision into task and actions; men and women with character, competence and capacity. So I may be classified as moderately BATified, because, for me, at the end of the day, it is about service delivery to the Nigerian people, and the president alone can’t do it. Those in his orbit will have to further fold their sleeves and redouble efforts. But I think he would be reelected and where our leader in Osun goes, we follow.

Do you want to predict how well your governor will win in the senatorial district where you are mobilising voters for him?

I am mobilising voters for Governor Adeleke of Accord in Osun East and I have said he will win with over 100,000 votes and 20 to 25 percent of that will come from Osun East Senatorial District. After the election, we can have this conversation again and I will remind you of this prediction. Despite all the noise the APC is making, I honestly foresee an anti-climax for them where they trail badly in the final count. By noon of August 15, it would have been over for the opposition. (TRIBUNE)