Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, veteran political activist in Kwara and an arrow head of Otogee, a movement that swept the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out of office in 2019 general election speaks to NICHOLAS UWERUNONYE on why the movement failed and the need for an alternative for Kwara people, which is the Redemption Movement, among others. Excerpts:

What are the reasons why you have decided to settle for another political movement after the previous Otogee movement in which you were a key player?

This movement is about Kwara State principally. The organisers of this movement are increasingly dissatisfied with what is going on in Kwara State in terms of good governance. We believed that it can be done better. Yesterday we claimed it was not good. Today, it’s worse. So we decided that we should come up with an alternative, acceptable to generality of the people of Kwara State. There is something that is absent from our politics. The issue of equity, fairness and justice. We believe that we should do something that will bring out manifest interest of the people of Kwara State. That is the meaning of KRM. That is why we said it is redemption.

Is it that Otogee has outlived its relevance necessitating formation of another one?

The other time we organised Otogee. Otogee means, all bad behaviors, all misgoverning, all inequality must come to an end. We could not see it in the present circumstance and we must be able to attain that level of fairness for the people of Kwara State.

At what point will Kwara people stop seeing this cycle of political movements?

Until we get it better, we must continue to search. We believe that with what is on the ground, this is the last movement that will bring Kwara into the threshold of prosperity.

In a nutshell, what is this new movement set to accomplish which Otogee could not?

This movement is about solving the problems of the people. There are some variables usually introduced into our politics that are outright weapons of deception. That is ethnicity, religion and inappropriate use of money. All those things are really not necessary and that is what we have decided to bring to an end in Kwara Politics. In different parts of Kwara, the rate of hunger or the effect of hunger is felt the same way. We are going to address the real issues that are germane to the people of the state. Once we do that, the people of Kwara will find it relatively easier to govern.

When you speak of lack of equity and failure in governance in Kwara you must be specific because that is what people want to hear and see.

Let me give you an example of the present government of Kwara State. If you know Kwara very well. You will discover that the majority of the development effort of the current administration is concentrated in just less than a kilometer. What I mean is from the Post Office Area, stretching to the end of that road and to Government House. There you have the renovation of Kwara Hotel, International conference Center, you have Film Center whatever and you have another renovation of a road in good condition. That is from Challenge; there was nothing wrong with that road. When you see all those things it’s a case of misplaced priority. It doesn’t bring fairness to all sections of Kwara. Some people have done the calculation and have seen that the road alone can be up to N8 billion. Many people in the rural area are suffering from poor road infrastructure, lack of facilities for farmers. There are so many people unemployed. If the government is desirous to give priority to the real needs of the people. Things like that will not happen. That is what KRM is trying to bring up.

“We believe that with what is on the ground, this is the last movement that will bring Kwara into the threshold of prosperity”

Considering that you are one of those who brought Otogee which by your own admiitance has failed, do you think people will listen to this new pitch?

They are already convinced. I say so because they know that I preach what I think is possible, but I have not been given the opportunity to be there, either as a proxy or a member of an existing government or directly in charge. If I am not there and I told you these things are possible, I was never there, so how could I practice things I told you. We didn’t think it was going to be like this when we were practicing Otogee. Otogee, to us, is like a hijacked revolution, an aborted revolution. We are now with the knowledge of what happened back then and why the revolution was aborted. We will not allow it to happen again.

We observe that those here are people who you worked with in SDP and your faction in APC. Doesn’t this suggest that the movement is not as broad based as you suggest?

There are New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) persons, and there are people from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whom we may not know their names. But we are working together with prominent names, some of them may not be here. In fact some working with the present government are with us. They have strategically kept silent.

Again you may find it difficult to convince people that this is different from Otogee.

Otogee, as I have said earlier, is an aborted revolution. Otogee was meant to give us good government. But it is no longer so. The difference is that the people behind this one have decided to come together, know the problems of Kwara, as we did previously but directly, more involved. I can tell you that the man who is the governor of Kwara today was imposed on us at that time. And if he was imposed on us back then, we have decided that there will be no imposition this time in any party that we decide to adopt as our own platform Do you know one thing in Nigeria now is that there can be sub-national party, there can parties only relevant in states and local government, so why can’t we have such in Kwara? Let me say that there will be a re definition of relationship.