INTERVIEW: My Father’s Disposition To My Political Ambition – Accord Senatorial Candidate, Kola-Daisi
Accord’s Oyo South Senatorial Candidate, Mr Kolapo Kola Daisi was a guest of Olayinka Agboola on Splash 105.5FM, Radio Show, Parrot Xtra/Ayekooto on Radio on Tuesday. During the interaction, he revealed the…. among many salient issues… Excerpts
*How can you describe the personality of your father?*
My father is a typical Ibadan man; he is strict but very fair. We have been fortunate enough to have somebody like him as a role model. When I graduated from the University, the day after my graduation, he called me and said, Kolapo, what do you want to do now? I told him that I just graduated and I am thinking of traveling for relaxation and fun.
He said well, ‘my responsibility over you is finished now that you done with schooling, I have finished paying for your education, you are now solely responsible for your life, you can now do whatever you feel like doing’. He is the kind of person that wants you to learn the real lessons of life, we have been very fortunate to have a father like him.
*I was at the media briefing when you declared your interest in the Oyo South senatorial district seat. You spoke about your dad’s reluctance to endorse your political ambition. Is he now on the same page with you?*
Well, the reluctance you can imagine is not far-fetched. My father gave me one condition before he could support my aspiration; he stated that he is going to support me if I will not tarnish his image. He said that any day he senses that I want to put a stain on his name, he would take the name back and then I will be left with no last name. That is the basis on which he has agreed to support my ambition.
*Why did you personally decide to join the turbulent waters of Nigerian politics? What personal attraction do you have for politics?*
There is no personal attraction there for me. I think the ultimate attraction is to be able to make sure that the people of our constituency, state and people of the nation benefit from good governance and good leadership, which I think, has been lacking for many years.
Personally, I think that at the juncture we are in this country, we have tried in so many ways to make this country great but severally we have fallen short.
People of my generation like to comment, share opinions on social media but they do not like to get their legs wet, but some of us who have been trained by people like my father always try to look out for the less privileged.
I must salute your courage in the first place for joining politics. I am sure you have been baptized with what they usually call ‘political gunshot’… Which one hurt you the most?
I am also surprised at myself on how well I am taking it, and enjoying the whole process. It is part of the job, and if you allow yourself to get affected by it, you may start thinking of quitting.
*Is there any regret for leaving the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the Accord?*
No. That is the short simple answer to that. There is no regret leaving the APC for the Accord. The ultimate goal is to provide good leadership experience that has been lacking for many years and to be able to initiate good works for our people generally. If you examine the process that led me and some other politicians out of the APC, I think they have even lost candidates that would have made the party more popular because if you look at the candidates that we have in the Accord now, they are qualified candidates with good experience and rich political backgrounds.
Just like I mentioned about my dad earlier, in our party presently, we are family and there is no discord among us. Everybody is working together to affect lives positively which is the ultimate aim for the people of our state and constituency.
*Some people even alleged that most of the tickets given to candidates across all the major political parties in Oyo state will survive legal scrutiny. When you left the APC why didn’t you decamp to PDP?*
The ideologies are different. Majority of us that are in Accord now are progressives and we are looking for a platform where we can express ourselves in unison and togetherness in such a way that our message will be similar. We cannot go to a place where our message will be different.
Unfortunately, the electoral laws say we need a platform to contest for election before we can be voted into office. The white people always say that the definition of insanity is doing things repeatedly in the same way and expecting change. We want our people to see that the change is different and it is in their hands, once they stand up on February 25, 2023 to vote for KKD, and vote for Accord, change will come.
*What is your unique selling point that will make people vote for you?*
I recognized that there are political bigwigs in Oyo State politics but there are things that they see as our disadvantage that has become an advantage to people like us.
They regard us as childish but if you look at Nigeria’s population, 90% of the people are still under the age of 50. Will it be good if 90% of the populace end up not having a representative in government?
Secondly, they say we do not have the experience that we are newcomers in politics – for those that have the experience what have they done for us. Like I said, change is what we need now, we must not get tired of it and one day we will get it right.
*Specifically, what are you planning to do differently especially for the youths?*
The first thing is that politicians have made politics very uninteresting, we are the ones that are making people not to come out to vote because the people do not see any benefit of their voting.
Our people have complained of inadequate representation. Everywhere we have gone to, they always made it known to us that they do not see their elected representatives until after four years when it is time for another election.
How will someone who is not close to the community, religious leaders, marketers and artisans, know the needs of the people and perform up to expectation?
The first thing we have to do is to bring back the real meaning of representation, the town hall meeting, the constituency offices, in order for the people to contact us and tell us their various challenges so that we can represent them effectively.
Secondly, we need to concentrate on the youths; our population consists of folks under the age of 50.
Right now, looking at our demography, in our country there is no social security. It is when we take care of ourselves that we have the opportunity of taking care of others. If we focus on the 90%, invariably we have taken care of the entire population.
In addition, we are not going to get involved in the politics of empowerment, which is the plan of our politicians to keep people poor.
*So, these are the reasons why the people in your Oyo South Senatorial should vote for you?*
For our youths, we will organize training that will be beneficial for them.
Secondly, we will introduce financial empowerment, and through this, they can find a way to form a cooperative society where they can be opportune to borrow money and invest in businesses. There will be guarantors to make sure that they do not defraud or bolt away with the money.
*What admonition do you have for your fellow politicians?*
In today’s politics, the number one thing to note is that political parties have disappointed many people. People are no longer interested in political parties and politicians need to know that moving from one party to another does not guarantee victory.
Let individual politicians engage the public and do their personal campaigns, then the people will decide with their votes on their most preferred candidates to vote for.
We need to educate ourselves and because of the poverty level in the country, there are many people that are interested in what we call instant gratification and once we give it to them then, we will punish them for another four years.
Let our people forget about the monetary part and talk about what politicians have to offer in terms of good governance.
