Honourable Olatoye Temitope Sugar is one politician whose
profile has been on the rise over time. From the time he served as Special
Assistant in Ogun State to his tenure as a member of the Oyo State House of
Assembly, Honourable Sugar has consistently warmed his way into the heart of
people, even outside his constituency.
While speaking as the guest at the second edition of the
South West Group of Online Publishers’ (SWEGOP) Breakfast Media Chat, the
Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Urban Development was taken through
questions on national issues and those bordering on his role in the legislature
by the panel made up of Olayinka Agboola, the Chairman of the Group, Wole
Adejumo of The Anchor Online and Seun Akinola of Splash FM.
He also took time to explain how he came about the name “Sugar”
as well as his relationship with the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba
Gbenga Daniel and Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State. Excerpts:
We are two years into the tenure of this administration, what kind of
budget are we talking about? There is a slogan online, “Bring Back My Nigeria”,
how do you feel about the performance of the budget and about the performance
of this APC administration when your constituents talk of not being able to
send their children to school, being unable to afford qualitative healthcare
and things like that?
Personally, I will say
the government has various policies and most of these things that are happening
did not just start. They have been in existence prior to this period. To
rebuild, is hard, look at this edifice, very fantastic but as you are seeing
it, for a bulldozer to pull down this building, it won’t take up to an hour.
But to rebuild, you may not even finish in one year if you don’t have all what
it takes at hand. That is what is happening now. And Nigeria is heterogynous,
it is not like Ghana, it is not like Zambia with 7 million population. We are
so many, with over 490 languages and tribes, so those are the issues that we
are facing and at the level of the National Assembly, we have been trying to
have a dialogue with the Executive so that we will be on the same page and
through that, there are lots of things that the Executive will introduce that
will help. Some of us that are in the House of Representatives today have
served in executive capacities.
In my committee, we have former Zamfara Governor; we have
Professor Talabi, former House of Assembly Speaker from Osun State, and also a
lecturer, we have so many Doctors and more than 17 professors in the House of
Reps, we have many former Governors. They have what it takes, they have the
experience.
But this is a party
and a government that came on board with the grace of God and to solidify
things is not that easy. Just to push the previous government away, whether you
are from CNC, whether you are from Accord, everybody just gathered and we told
ourselves to think. That is what has been taking time; you know different
people from different angles came together. The last two years, we had to just
get ourselves; it is not an easy task.
And the issue of APC, you are just mentioning APC, truly APC
is the party that is the majority in power but there are some things that have
been working in the 50s, 60s and 70s that at this level can no longer work.
There are some policies that Nigerians have been using that we forgot to
continue with. Agriculture was what Nigeria was using and we were succeeding,
even the Western Region was being run by agriculture. But we have forgotten
where we are coming from. Because of oil money, everybody has left farming and
as a country, we should be able to feed ourselves. How can we feed ourselves?
It is not by inviting China or Israel but by having something that we are
producing here and the major thing our forefathers started with is all these
farm products and we utilized it prior to the advent of oil. We have entered
into discussions with elders of the party and other people that are concerned
and you will see changes by God’s grace.
On August 4TH, 2015, the 8th House of
Representatives adopted a legislative agenda, and in the legislative agenda
Honourable Dogara read on the floor of the House, he said “the legislature will
among other things improve the governance process in Nigeria by legislating to
cut the cost of running government, reduce wastage and tackle national revenue
leakages”. Going by your functions as legislators, have you been able to cut
the cost of governance in Nigeria as we speak now?
Whatever I say today, write it down, ask me any day, I will
stay by it. The previous Honourables like the 7th Assembly and the
others before it, what they were taking; I am taking less than 50% of it.
When I was in the House of Assembly, I used to tell people
that we were taking N 2 million with all the allowances. Later on, people told
me it is not good, so learning continues. So I may not tell you in specific
figures but I am telling you nothing but the truth that what they were taking
before, that was what I believed I would be taking what Jibrin mentioned which
is N 10 million but since I got there, I have not taken that. He said House of
Rep members are taking N 10 million; meanwhile, since I have entered, I have
not even taken N 9 million. I have not even taken N 8 million; that is the
truth.
So it has not been easy at all and the les than N 8 million
that I was taking, after a month, they reduced it. So most of us have gone to the bank to
borrow; it has affected us seriously. And the House is not free, if it were to
be before, the National assembly would have given us apartments but that no
longer happens. Now, I am paying. I am paying the least, I know. I live in a
three bedroom apartment for which I am paying N 4 million in Abuja. So things
are no longer the same.
And at the same time, when they were taking what they were
taking then, the fuel price was not like this. We are entitled to have our cars
before three months in office to help us in our oversight functions. But two
years in office, none of our members has collected any car. I am talking about
House of Representatives, I don’t know about the Senate but the House of
Representatives, and people were screaming “ah! N 3.6 billion cars”, maybe they
will eventually give us but till today, we have not taken any car. That is the
true picture.
Nigerians are poorer than they were last year, what do you think can be
done, especially when you consider that this administration is growing older by
the day and back then, people clamoured for change. People believe we should be
seeing positive changes by now but instead, people are becoming poorer. What
would you say is the way out?
There are many ways for us. First, I usually advise that
every one of us should get involved in what we call subsistence farming. With
that, the people that will be looking for what to buy in terms of food will not
be many. But if you and I fail to engage that, we will all be looking for
imported rice and other things. The other issue now is how many Nigerian youths
are ready to be involved in agriculture? Most of the things in agriculture are
free, natural gifts of nature and almost everywhere in Africa; that has been
our source of income right from the time we read in history. It was never in
the history of the First World War that Egypt or Nigeria won, maybe because
they had machines or something. So in the area of technology, we are nowhere to
be found, if not just now that some of our people are trying to compete with
the whites. But anything that we have, the white people will come here to get
the plant, they will come to get resources they need to build other things like
stone, they will come here to get our cocoa.
In the 1950s even up to the 60s and 70s, 75% of Nigerians
were engaged in farming. But now, it is less than 10% and that is part of the
problem. When you look at Malthus Theory, it speaks about food first before the
other things, so how do we sustain that feeding? In Nigeria, we are importing rice;
even now we are importing palm oil. How can Nigeria grow if we continue to
import?
I am a legislator and I have the largest cassava farm in
this state. I did not just start. I was born and bred in the farming system.
Even then, my father had 5 or 10 acres but now I have 5,000 acres of cassava
plantation adjacent my Local Government. So I have contributed my quota, we
have about 50 people that are working there and they get paid. So we should ask
ourselves what have we contributed instead of just condemning the government.
What is your own part?
I told my brother yesterday that the programme I am doing, I
thought it was something N 40 million would be able to complete but I found out
that it could exceed N 60 million and I don’t want to sell my cassava because I
want to be producing garri to the South West of Nigeria. But now I have to sell
like half to get money. Sometimes our people will not be paid for up to two
months, how do you survive if you are not into farming? Apart from the cassava
farm, I have a fish pond and that is the only job a political office holder can
engage in which the law allows you.
And if you are going from Oyo to Maiduguri, the law says
nobody should stop or check your vehicle when you are taking your farm produce
just to motivate the farmers. So everybody should be involved in farming. Right
Honourable Yakubu Dogara has the largest farm in Abuja, along Keffi Road. But
all what we are saying is just less than 10 %.
Do you think President Buhari is doing enough for Nigeria?
He is trying his best. He has been fighting the origin of
our problem, which is corruption and I want to tell you the issue of
insecurity, this Boko Haram issue that we are having has been on for about
eight years now, no one has ever fought it the way he has done. If you are
having courses in the university, maybe twelve courses, there will be one in
which you are an expert. You know he was once a military man and he has shown
himself.
When police arrest anybody now, they say bail is free but
they are not faithful. I was battling one policeman from Abuja about a week ago
who arrested a member of the 7th Oyo State House of Assembly. He
called me in Abuja and I called that DPO that for you to be asking for N 5
million, it is wrong.
I am telling you the truth. He didn’t release that man until
he collected N 500, 000 from him. The man has a filling station along Oyo Road,
uncompleted. The man has a Hausa security man, a vehicle stopped and the
occupants said their vehicle had a fault and begged him to allow them stay
there overnight. He said policemen came in the morning to check. In ignorance,
the security man allowed them to pack some bags in. In one bag, they found
Indian hemp. If you found hemp, what you
should do is arrest who you found at the place; that is the security man.
The people that kept the thing left early in the morning;
that is why I said maybe it is a set up but whether it is a set up or not, the
man that received them was the security man. Now, they came in early in the
morning around 5 am to check and they found the bag with Indian hemp. They
questioned the man and when he gave his explanation, they asked who owns the
uncompleted filling station. He called him on phone and the guy spoke with the
owner. That was how the issue of the N 5 million arose and I told the DPO if
anybody comes to my hotel now whether I am around or not, if you see him maybe
with a pistol, you have to arrest the person you see. I am not a security man
to be checking to that level. So arrest him. If you don’t see that person or
you meet something illegal in my place, you can arrest me but as long as you
have seen the security man who claimed to have to have received that thing, he
has to face the wrath of the law.
Even Nigerian law says nobody should be kept for more than
24 hours; they kept a former Honourable of this state in their cell for three
days. I am going to fight that battle to the last. So corruption is there, it
is everywhere. If you have land anywhere in Nigeria now, if you don’t give them
money, they will not do what you need.
When you started what were the things you set out to achieve at the
constituency level?
When I was about to contest for this office, so many people said
I would not achieve much, they were saying ‘can he be a good representative?’
But God proved them wrong by allowing me to achieve what they though could not
be achieved.
I was praying that God should just allow me, and give me the
grace to surpass their expectations and He did so. You know it is when you
don’t suffer for an office that you can do anyhow.
What I am saying is that I suffered. I tried to be the
Chairman of my local government for good nine years; then everybody was making
jest of me, some said ‘you better go back to your teaching job’, some said ‘you
better go back to Ogun State, shebi you are from Ogun State’. I said I went there
for education and had my way; none of my parents is from Ogun State. I was born
and bred in Ibadan; my mother is from Oje, one of the popular areas in Ibadan
while my father is from Alafara where I am by the grace of God the Mogaji of
that compound. And if you are going to become Olubadan, you start from Mogaji,
so I suffered a lot.
If you suffer for something, you will know how to handle it.
God helped me and I joined Accord, a party that was formulated two months to
election, and I won. Since then, I have been doing good to people, before I can
buy chair into my house, I buy chairs for others. If not for the courage I
have, I wouldn’t have achieved that. I learnt that from one man who happened to
be the most courageous man in Ibadanland; he was honoured about nine years ago.
He obtained his Master’s degree in 1971 before he had his first child and he
has four children, all PhD holders. His wife has died; he now saw that he was
the only one not being addressed as Doctor, so he went back to school, he went
to the University of Ibadan. And within three or four years, he became a PhD
holder at 74 or so. The CCII honoured
the man as “The Most Courageous Man in Ibadanland”. He was the oldest man in
the Faculty of Education.
So I learnt from him, because of the suffering I endured, I
had to do something special. I had to surprise the people that believed I could
not do it. That is what has become part and parcel of me.
After leaving the House of Assembly in the state for the
national level, they said no first timer in the House of Representatives has
ever become the Chairman of a committee. But by God’s grace, out of all the
lawmakers from the South West, I am the only first timer that is Chairman of a
committee.
When you have the courage that you can do it, you talk when
you are supposed to talk and keep quiet when you should be quiet. I also take advice from the elders and I have
been contributing my quota so that people will know that I can do it. Where I
should organize seminars, I have organized seminars, where I should build, I
have built. The money that comes from my farm, sometimes we embark on projects,
grading, and so on. I can also tell you that apart from the one you are looking
at, building six schools within two months has never happened in Oyo State,
from an individual.
This is not executive power where you have money to run such
projects. You can challenge me anytime any day. I don’t mix with unserious
people, I work like a jackal and I use the proceeds for the development of my
community. I am telling you that by the 20th of April, the six schools;
one in Igbo Ora in Ibarapa Zone, four in Ibadan. Six schools at a go, it has
never happened. Three classrooms of one block on each. We are starting that on
February 20.
You are from Ibadan, are you happy about the way houses are being built
after the expressway? You know Felele, Bodija, Oke Ado, those places are well
planned. As someone who was in the House of Assembly, did you make efforts to
talk to the past administrations and the present one?
When I was in the House of Assembly, I did not have the
capacity. I was Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, not Housing and this one
is not up to two years but I want to tell you that it is a gradual process.
Something that has been in existence since 16 AD, I cannot jump into it today
and say oya demolish.
Those areas you are referring to are in existence because of
the Challenge, Felele areas you mentioned. Felele and co are new sites, of
course, anywhere that is less than forty years old is a new site. There was
nothing like Felele 41 years ago. It is what I know that I am saying. If
anybody says I have been living in Felele 50 years ago, he should come out and
tell me. I was born and bred in Ibadan and I l know the history of those places
but if you are talking about Oje, of Ojaaba, you will realize that places like
Alalubosa and Kolapo Ishola Estate are new sites.
What we are working on is urban upgrade, look at the bridge
at Ojoo. Personally, I wrote to the Ministry of Works, they kept
procrastinating so I dabbled into it and started all alone. Later on, for some
reasons, the SSG, the senior engineers came to me, they said “ol boy, don’t
waste your money. We have other things that you can help us to do in the
state.’ Already they have written to the World Bank, there is a purse
that anything to do with Urban Development, goes to it and they work with the
World Bank too. They said they have the facts and figures at hand that they
would start doing it in a month; a month passed and they could not do it. I
went with members of my committee and they promised that in the next 14 days
they would start doing something and that is what they are doing presently in
Ojoo.
What informed your decision to do free surgery for 2,000 people and how
do you plan to do it? Are you partnering with the World Bank or where is the
money coming from?
We have a platform which we call OSF, Olatoye Sugar
Foundation which has been in existence since 1997. I started alone but with the
experience I have gained and what I have learnt from people around me, if it is
a true foundation, it is easy for people to join you and dance to your tune to
help you. So it is not on the basis of Olatoye alone.
At our foundation, we have been doing various things but the
one you asked will end on the 17th of February, I used my good
office to seek for help in South Africa and they searched round, who is
Honourable Olatoye Sugar? They found out he is the founder of OSF, they checked
our website, they discovered that we have been working for long and that since
we started, this is the first time we are asking for help. They don’t give
money but if you need help in areas of health, they will assist. I went
straight to NACA (National Agency for the Control of AIDS). So I told them to
come to my state as well.
They asked what we can do from our own end, so we told them
we can also preach the gospel of AIDS prevention and remedy. We also have
doctors who go round so we pulled resources together.
When they mentioned what they could do, I said at least for
15 days, we should be able to achieve at least 2000 people. 500 surgeries for
people living with hernia, 500 for fibroids and 500 for people battling
cataract, then 500 free tests. There is this scan that they are also going to
do for free.
For fibroid surgery now, you must have N 250, 000. If it is
hernia, you must have at least N 170, 000 and our people are suffering. When we
were doing sampling, we saw that some people have been living with these things
for the past 5 or six years. And hospitals have turned to where you must bring
money before they can do anything for you. If you can treat 2,000 people now,
in the next six months, if we can treat another 2, 000 it is something.
It is no longer news that you have governorship ambition. It is also no
longer news that your ambition is creating ripples within your party, the APC.
We’ll like to know why you want to be governor and who are the forces that can
likely stop your governorship ambition in 2019?
There are some things that you envisage or think of, but
there is time for everything according to the scriptures. It is not yet time to
be talking in that area; I don’t know what tomorrow will say. If you ask me
questions on this one for which people have elected me; that is the House of
Representatives, I will answer you.
How did you come about the name Sugar?
The name Sugar was given to me from the Celestial Church. I
was born into the Celestial fold. You know Cele, they have all these spiritual
names, so the name was given to me, Olatoye is my surname, Temitope Sugar are
the other names that were given to me from the Celestial Church of Christ.
Ibarapa is not part of your constituency, what informed your donating a
school there? Secondly, how do people register for the surgery?
I want to let you know that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the
great prophet, Jesus Christ, they were born the way I was born and they are not
meant for their areas alone. They are for everybody. And the gospel, my own
gospel, I am being sent as a gospeller to preach the word of God and help
people, even beyond Africa. So, most of the things you see that you are saying
is beyond my constituency is because of the OSF and OSF is not meant for the
people of Lagelu/Akinyele alone.
Look at scholars like Awolowo, when they started schools,
they did not limit it to Ijebu. Awolowo built the first stadium in Ibadan, he
introduced the first television station in Africa in Ibadan. Look at UCH, it
was the work of Awolowo and Awolowo was from Ogun State and at the same time,
they created Ogun and Oyo at the same time.
Awolowo was an Ijebu man, so if you want to be great, you
must not limit your resources or your power to your community or immediate
environment. The Sugar Foundation you are talking about is in Ghana, UK and by
God’s grace, on the last Saturday in April, we’ll be marking the first year of
Sugar Foundation in England. So it is international.
How many legislative aides do you have?
I have about 115 now.
Is that what you are supposed to have as a member of the House of
Representatives?
The rule is to have 5 but God has ways of doing things. I
won with a margin of over twenty thousand, I mean between me and the person
that followed me, Hon Adeyemi from Accord. Look at the number of votes, so if I
am to empower, and I keep saying it is small it is small, and I have some
amount of millions per month, it is money too. So if I give them N 20,000 or N
30,000 it is something. And that is what I have been doing.
Do you still have a relationship with Otunba Gbenga Daniel and what is
your present relationship with Governor Abiola Ajimobi?
Otunba Gbenga Daniel is a mentor who has contributed to the
success of Honourable Olatoye Temitope Sugar. I met him at the airport in Abuja
two weeks ago and before then, we had not seen each other for about ten years.
He said “ah, Sugar you have changed, I learnt you were in the House before ,
that is great. I love all I used to read about you. Thank God you left us in
Ogun State. We contributed our quota to your life then and you did not fail us.
You have added value to what we did.” We laughed and we discussed some things.
And coming home, Governor Ajimobi is a powerful man. He has
helped me a lot; he is my boss, not ordinary boss, my father, from whom I have
learnt a lot of lessons. He is somebody that has increased my level of politics
so if you are living or working with somebody and you cannot increase either
spiritually or politically, it is bad. I know what I have gained.
We have a wonderful and cordial relationship. Even
immediately I leave here, I am going to his office. He is my mentor, he is my
Governor and that will continue to be.
Photos: Emmanuel Ginikah Okafor
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