Date Published: 08/11/09

The Governor Segun Oni Interview
Says:
- Tinubu has Hitleric tendencies
- Detractors are not on the ground
- My election was free and fair

The recent election controversy from Ekiti state, South – West Nigeria has introduced an expression into the lexis and structure of Nigerian national languages. That expression is Ido – Osi. Ido-Osiis not exactly new. It is the name of one of the local governments in Ekiti, the state that has an average of university scholars and professors more than anywhere in Africa, hence its pet name, the fountain of knowledge.

Despite its level of educational advancement, Ekiti State can also be capable of hard to verify myths and legends. Some of them are usually politically motivated. For instance, the expression Ido – Osi is now used to denote unscrupulous antics and deals, fraud even for refereeing of kid soccer, essentially because of alleged irregularities at Ido – Osi local government during last May governorship election re – run in Ekiti.

Governor Segun Oni, is the man that has been accused of monumental fraud in the two separate elections in the state so far. All for the sake of the State’s coveted governorship seat.

We felt he must be offered a platform to explain himself. His encounter with our Managing Editor, OLADIMEJI ABITOGUN, was tough and expectedly quintessential point blank grilling.

Governor Oni was able to present facts and figures that he should be celebrated as the authentic hero of democracy in Nigeria. Reason, he said, he had being able to effectively guard ballots to prevent ballot stuffing. This is the never heard before interview in which Oni turns the heat on his critics. Excerpts:

We are here because people all over the world continue to talk about Ido – Osi and the election re – run, non-performance and democracy not delivering on expected hopes. We are here, some of us have cried, on the joy of what democracy is capable of doing. We also have our reservation that is the background.

Sir, you have been accused of monumental fraud. I remember you faced similar accusations in the earlier election. What do you want to tell those who don’t know the real Segun Oni?

Well, thank you very much. When they say monumental fraud, you always wonder what it means and where they are coming from. The elections that we have had, all elections must produce a winner, and maybe, losers. We have had the keenest elections so far in this terrain, since the beginning of democracy. All together the total number of votes that were cast was less than a quarter of a million. Less than half of the vote that brought in Governor Adebayo, less than half of the vote that brought in Governor Fayose. And if there was fraud and if that fraud was monumental, you will now wonder how come the numbers of votes cast are reducing. Because if there was fraud, the number would be increasing and you do not have any proof of an epidemic or genocide that wiped off people that are now…

It does not matter what they say. And if they say there is monumental fraud, we had the first election, we defeated them they tried out the places where we won, everybody talks. Do they talk about the judgment? The judgment did not say that there was fraud. The judgment said that accreditation process was done with red-ink pen. And that, that was not in compliance with the appropriate law. So how does that interpret to fraud? And we also have our own bones to pick about this because some of these places were actually done in blue-ink, yet they were cancelled. In some of these places no evidences were taken and they were cancelled like that. People who are certified riggers, forgers, who should have been accused, always turn round to call other people names. They do this every time. They would talk about forgery, they are the forgers. They would talk about violence, they are the ones who procure thugs. I’m going to show you a short video here that would let you see some of the things they brought for the elections …

They brought in thugs?

Yes (then pushes the button on the video player)

You said the thugs used charms and all sorts. Does that reduce this to some voodoo democracy?

There is no voodoo democracy. It’s the people who are desperate. You are seeing them. It was captured live you know the sanctity of live picture to you journalist.

So, Sir, in clear conscience are you saying that when the opposition resorted to these tactics, you didn’t do that too?

No. we don’t. Nobody would have survived this kind of tirade that we survived, one if they don’t have the grace of God. Two, we would not survive if we didn’t have a very wide margin on the ground. If it was a small balance or a little margin, it would have been wiped off by their antics. But they were not so much on the ground. They cancelled the elections retests of our strongholds. Where in the world do they target a party’s stronghold like that without creating an undue chance for the opponent?

If they had cancelled two or three Obama strongholds, you know that would have given victory to McCain. That is the way it is everywhere that would be unfair in any democracy. We got all their cancellations. Thank God we were given an opportunity to vote again. And in my home local government, they were now complaining they did not want Ido-Osi to count. They wanted to destroy it. Is that democracy? Wanting to destroy the votes of your opponent where you think they are strong?

In Fayemi’s hometown, virtually all the votes were given to him in 2007. We had thirty-four votes. The thirty-four came from all the wards. The ward is made up of three towns, Ilafun, Isan and Ilemesho. In Ilemesho, they destroyed all the votes because it was our strong-hold.

And you never complained about this?

What are we going to complain about? Winners don’t complain. What is there to complain about after I have won? That is going to be like kicking a fallen opponent. Did they tell you that in Ire, for example, I had a majority of over Five Thousand over them and the results were snatched, supposedly by hoodlums? And the hoodlum is Bimbo Daramola whom everybody knew, so that Ire’s votes would not count. Did they talk about that?

You have never heard of that, they gave a whole House of Assembly to the AC with just seven votes majority. From four wards out of six. And the two other wards, Ire I and Ire II where we had a commanding majority, that would have given us a majority of over five thousand, in Ire were snatched.

They didn’t tell you that in Okemesi, three wards had no results in the first elections. They didn’t tell you that in Efon-Alaaye, ten wards, a whole local government, there was no result at all.

So, if they are on ground and all these are there, we should ask them why there were no results in Eda-Oniyo and Iludun in Ilejemeje local government. Three wards and when they have done all that.

When they have done all that and the thing failed, they would now turn round to accuse somebody else. This is very very unfortunate. This is one thing I know, that is very very clear, there is God. No matter what human smartness thinks no matter how smart we think we are, no matter what devices, we think we possess there is God.

When a politician talks about God, when you invoke God’s presence in everything, are you saying that with sincerity of heart?

Let me tell you, let me tell you one thing clearly, I’m not one to fiddle. I don’t fiddle. I don’t fool around. I did not come into politics, for lack of something to do. I have pedigree. I have a bachelor in Engineering and an MBA (Master of Business Administration). I have worked in a multinational outfit.

I have even worked as an expatriate outside Nigeria. I didn’t hang around people to make a living and call it anything.

I come here because I want to change the life of the people. So there was no need for me to be desperate. So if I talk about God like this it is because of what I believe sincerely and conscientiously.

One common thing about Nigeria and Ghana is that democracy has not delivered food on the table. And in your case, how are you taking care of the common Ekiti man, because your critics say that your administration is hollow.

They are the ones who go around with this idea that I didn’t go around the streets to distribute money. I know that would not endure. I won’t go on the street distributing money because I know that would not endure. If you look through what we have and there, you will see that we have given out about one and a half billion naira micro-credit to people. It went to people who are having reasonable things now. With the little credit. So how would they say that democracy does not translate. They think democracy is about going around sharing money. I have not shared the state’s money. I have constructed schools. I have constructed hospitals. I have done more for development than anyone has in the last twenty five years. If you want to do put money in people’s pocket you either do it through subsidy or by giving them access to credit.

In subsidy, we have done over three thousand free surgeries, very complicated. We took a 14kg (kilogram) fibroid out of a woman, in one of the free surgeries. Very very complicated surgeries, knee cap replacements and so on. For people who are vulnerable, for three hundred people who were blind, for cataract, a simple operation that would have been done long ago and would have left them better off.

Find out who these people are, they are the vulnerable ones.

Are they saying I have not given people anything even with the free medical services to these people why are they saying I have not given anything to the people?

Let me tell you before we came here, children were dropping out of school when they get to final year because their parents could not afford the final examination fees. Since we came, we have being paying for both West African Examination Council and the National Examination Council Exams. Is that not something going to the people? We pay for too alternate exams at the same time so their examination is free. Not free of cost to Ekiti State . We give free books. Every child in senior secondary school has free textbooks for the first time. In the history of this state. I introduced a scholarship Board. Nobody had done that before I came.

Last year alone, one hundred and one Ph.D candidates benefited. I repeat 101 Ph.D students benefited. I can supply their names and you will be shocked concerning the Universities they attend. No government ever did that before. We are now even awarding scholarships at both senior and secondary school level and even for boarding. That I am not distributing money on the street is because I don’t believe in that. Simple. But we are doing other things to raise the standard of the people come this October, children in secondary schools, from junior school will have free laptop computers a network environment to give them access to the internet, twenty-four-seven.

So, they want me to distribute money on the street? They must be kidding. I won’t do that! But we would create opportunities for the people. The most vulnerable people first, through health care, we are taking care of.

Let us talk some more about the Ido-Osi Saga. And this is a little bit personal. There were naked women breasts, Sir some people all over the world felt concerned and they complained and said that was pornographic. What did your wife tell you about that incident?

It is very unfortunate. It is not the feeling of my wife now because my wife thought it was crazy of the people who arranged them because my wife knew it was an arranged thing anyway. And the people who brought them did not even show the example themselves by showing up right behind them. Just a few vulnerable women who were poor were put in front and they were marched on like in a choreographer act. The commanders had their own cloth on it is very unfortunate.

I told them, when they said it is a curse wherever they do that, I said there is no curse. I said wait and see how they would be defeated in the elections. So all that now has come to naught. Let me tell you, I was still going to tell you about vulnerability and some of the things we are doing at primary school and senior secondary.

At primary school and junior secondary school level, we are giving every child two eggs and chocolate drink a week. We want to improve their protein intake. When we started, the A.C. people, the people who are now saying nothing is going to the people opened it. They said I had charmed the plate.

They did? They accused you?

Yes. And I now said bring one plate that I had charmed. They could not produce that proof.         

And in all truth you did not charm the plates?

For God sake, how can a plate be charmed? They are plastic plates. How many am I am going to charm. What would I be charming plates for? I have already won an election. And these children are not going to be of voting age in the next election, they are under age children. What do I need that for, but they want all over thinking that they would destroy that program. We insisted and the program is still on the children are fed today. Go to schools, pupils are no longer looking malnourished. The way our children used to look in school, many parents can not afford one egg a week. Even when they can afford it, some of them would not want to give their children that. They would want to divert the money elsewhere and give the minimum possible. I want to tell you, first from the healthy point of view, we have reached more people, at least one in every family has been reached with free healthcare. From the education point of view, virtually every family with one subsidy or the other, whether at primary level, secondary level, and so on, we have reached every family. This has never happened in the history of this terrain that a government directly reaches out to people and subsidizes people. Every child that is going to write exams next year knows that they are already covered.

After that when you leave school and you pass your exam and you have the qualification to go to University, Polytechnic or College of education, you would get a free JAMB (Joint Admission and Matriculation Board) form. Everyone of them that is qualified gets free JAMB form here. In addition to the free JAMB form, they get about 16 weeks of free coaching. So all that going to people as far as they are concerned is not as good as passing bye and throwing few naira down. And they would say there is money coming to the pocket of the people. We have given subsidies to cater for virtually every family in one way or the other. Either from the school point of view, from the health point of view. From the micro credit point of view.

It was said that you sought the intervention of President Yar’Adua to stop the political exploits of Tinubu as a form of internal colonization. People want to know the true story from you.

Let me tell you what is going on here. Ekiti people are not as bad as politicians from the other end are now portraying things. If these were between Ekiti people, amongst Ekiti people, within Ekiti people, it would have been stopped and resolved. But here you have somebody who has territorial aggression, hittleric, somebody who has espoused the hittleric model, that because he suddenly discovered he is the Lord of the Manor in a place outside his origin, all he needs do now is to fight a hittler type war to annex his place of origin, so that he becomes secured.

I don’t think that is necessary. But they believe they can conquer us, they believe they can colonize us, they believe they can bring us into submission. I don’t have to employ the president’s intervention. All I did was to put up a resistance. Of course, we had to fight on the platform of our own political party. And to enlist the support of everybody, within and outside our political party, you will be surprised that a lot of people, governors who were not even PDP came around to support a little and with some of their resources. We know that if we did not put up that resistance, first falsehood will triumph, because what they said was that “ha! They are not there” it is the AC, it is whatever”. They have seen with the kind of rigid support that people exhibited at the grassroots we would not have survived it. They brought all sort of things they spent a whole lot of money and you wonder first how do individuals have access to such amount of money. Crazy money that would have been spent to make the electorate better, and they brought it and we defeated them by the grace of God. So it doesn’t matter what they say. The truth is they are not here. They are not on the ground. They can go on the street. If a people are convinced that they have been cheated, you don’t need to beg them before they would kick, but if you want to play the people by organizing phony nude March, makeshift protest, how many women were there, and if people were so concerned, would the women go back and still rest. If the women are so concerned, they are involved, they would continue the protest, they would not go back home to keep quiet. If you see a protest where people march on the street and they go back home and you don’t hear rumbles again on the street, it means it is a make shift. And that is what it is. So, they can organize as many demonstrations, fake as they are, some of them that is what they have done all through their life, some of them have never done anything reasonable, anything constructive, anything progressive other than being involved in protests and demonstrations all their lives, so that is what they know that is their terrain that is their job. We give that to them. Let them go on the street. I always tell people don’t worry about them. When they are on the street, they would go back home. If the people were really cheated you will see it in them and they would not wait to be told before they react.

You know the culture of pointblanknews.com. We love the world to see that Nigeria does something against fraud and corruption. What is your government doing about that?

Just controls. We have a lot of controls here. First, we are increasing value for money here. If you have read through what we have done, you wonder. It is mind – boggling. We receive the least from the Federation account but because we are putting a lot of controls to ensure that there would be value for money, we have reduced, other people have run this state before. Find out how much development they put on the ground. You can know, you can find out, you can evaluate and find out what we have put on ground in less than two years. You would know that it is an unbelievable phenomenon. We are battling fraud. We are battling corruption. And our way is that we have the right level of controls because corruption and fraud will thrive where controls are loose. I was out of here for three months, and I can say I was not involved in governance for those three months. If there was anything that could implicate me, they would have brought it up.

Not many people would have that kind of record. I was out of state for three months. They brought out a document a few days after I left, they said I stole two billion.

There is a guy, a journalist and their candidate were going round Ekiti State people and leaders to show that I moved out two billion. And I said, look if you are very sure go and swear an affidavit. I would show myself to the police and every authority for trial. They know that it is falsehood. No single agency, anti corruption agency, called me to question on it. That means, they took them there, and they looked at them and they knew that it was overly. And then it bogged my mind, how can anybody, any reasonable person, as half as intelligent as the average people like me are, will think that you can take two billion out of the government account, without, if they say inflation of contract. I can understand, to take the money physically out of government’s account, how will it be possible? What signatories would do it? What concoctions could be used? These people are either bizarre or they are not sufficiently grail – mattered, because you cannot physically take money out of government. There must be processes. There must be process you relate to. It must follow some processes but today, they say I stole two billion naira a few months back. Today, none of them is saying anything about it again. And it is these same people who took a hotel on lease, some of them from government, and they are finding ways of avoiding payment.

You want to be specific?

The Fountain hotel. We leased out the Fountain Hotel for forty million naira, to them, a group and some of them are involved. And it was even the one that was accusing me of stealing two billion who started running in circles to either depress the forty two million that was won in a bid where there was a bid for 40 million. And there was even a late bid for forty five million naira that I cancelled to now get it to become forty two that would take the entire complex that is called Trade Fair which is not a complex that we advertised, or depress what will be paid on Fountain Hotel to 30 million naira. We are still on it. But they have been there for well over one year, not paying anything. And that as far as I am concerned is fraud by style.

What is the name of this individual?

I am not going to name. Go and do some research. He’s there. These are some of the people who are brandishing documents to say that I stole two billion.

Are you aware of the intelligence that alleged that ex – governor Tinubu spent N2 billion to do battle against you? And how much did you yourself spend?

If they say Tinubu spent 2 billion, I would believe that it is underestimated. That is my own. I would believe that it was underestimated; virtually all the hotels in Ekiti were booked, even though they were not used, and they were booked and paid for by them. They brought over ten thousand thugs. These thugs themselves earned money and they were catered for. They bribed virtually everybody, every institution that you can imagine. And so if anybody thinks it is two billion, it is not two billion. And of course we were always cracking jokes about the transfer fees they paid on some politicians, some as high as fifty million naira for them to convert to AC. If a party was convinced that it was cheated in a previous election and its popular, does it now need to go and be buying people from the unpopular party? Of course they did that. Some of them their value is as low as five million naira and some their value as high as fifty million naira. I understand there is a particular guy who was paid five hundred million to do business with them, because he thought he had the clout to swing things. If they were popular, if they were cheated in an election, logic demands, that what they would do is to oil their machinery and say that people who voted for us should go back and vote for us. They would not go back and be sneaking around to see who they would buy, but they knew that they were weak on the ground. I didn’t have to go to AC camp to buy one single person because I knew I didn’t need it. It is already a camp of failure.

If you play a match against a team, you defeated them12 nil and they say NO, and you go buying the striker in a soccer team, you won’t do that, it is the weaker team knowing they are weak, would now start to go and be buying mercenaries. They would buy your striker, your mid – fielder. That is what they tried to do and some people fell for them. Some of them are regretting it now. Some of PDP leaders, they asked how much were they making, they took them away, but it amounted to very little or nothing. They are weak and they know they are weak. They went about buying people. Transfer fees as high as fifty million. So if they say it is only 2 billion, I find it difficult to conjecture. I don’t think it is as low as two billion. They must have spent much more.

What was the monetary cost to your own campaign?

To me, the monetary cost is little to me personally. You should recognize the fact that I was out of here after twenty one months with almost nothing. Let me tell you a story. When I left government, the following morning after the tribunal, because I insisted that the speaker be sworn in that day. Some suggested that it should be the following morning. I said no. There was nothing we were staying to do here. That extra day, we did not need. And the following morning I was sitting and I needed a vehicle, all my vehicles had been reduced to only one. And my wife’s cars, she had dashed out to brothers, sisters and friends. So I had only one car and my wife none. I called a motor company; I don’t want to name it. I don’t want to embarrass them, and I said I wanted to buy a car. Somebody was actually doing it for me. Right there and then, the company said we would give you a car ex gratis that is the grace of God. And that same morning while I was relating it, somebody said I would give you a jeep “we would give you a jeep”. And that same day, less than 24 hours after I left government, I was three jeeps (Sports Utility Vehicles) richer.

So goodwill stake out. And I was here; I sat in my house comfortably for three months. Even with the enemies raging, to find whatever to dent my image, they couldn’t. I wish my father were alive, I would have whispered to him. I told my mother, she is still alive; she is about one hundred years old. I said you must have done a good job that cannot be faulted. I was here, people who wanted to be governors, to be in government at all cost; who were looking for everything virtually under the sun could not come up with one. That is the story.

The University here has a special place in my heart. It is my alma mater. Is it being well funded?

The University has never been well funded as well as it is now through life. I must tell you, the University before General Olurin was receiving 50 million or so per month in recurrent expenditure, not capital. And General Olurin increased it to N65m. When I came I made it one hundred and ten per month. For the first time, the University does not need to go elsewhere to meet its expenditure. Today, the University has started awarding scholarships. They have enough money to cover everything. Go and ask them. For the first time they are funded enough to cover recurrent expenditure. And capital expenditure. Altogether we are giving enough to the University than they were given. There is a table showing how much the University and the College of Education got before I came in and how much they’ve got in a period of twenty one or so months up to November.

The figures are more now because we have appropriated money from another couple of grants to tertiary institutions between October 1996 and May 2007, the University of Ado – Ekiti, your University got 3.826 billion from government.

In 20 months, between June 2007 and December 2008, they received 2.061 billion naira, more than half what they received in eleven years. Figures do not lie.

The College of Education, Ikere, from October 1996 to May 2007 got N3.266 billion in 20 months, from June 2007 to December 2008; they received N2.032 billion, more than half what they got in 11 years.

Of course, we added another University and funded it to the tune of half a billion, N530 million.

All together, on tertiary education in the first eleven years, they gave grants of N7.052 billion. In 20 months, we have grants totaling N4.6 billion. And I am sure that by now, we are doing it at the rate of N110m recurrent for the University and in six months another N660m would have gone into that, apart from capital projects. And at Ikere, we increased from less than forty (N40m) to N90m in a month. And we have done 6 months of that. In addition to that, I had to approve N 160m to wipe off the debt that Ikere owed First City Bank, because the bank, First City Bank, had taken a lien, because when they were desperate to borrow, they succumbed to an arrangement in which all their payments from government would be paid into the account. They found out it was hard and they wanted to back out, the bank said no, an agreement is an agreement. They wanted to circumvent and the treasury said no “an agreement is an agreement”. And because they knew that as long as it is being paid into that account and they had the debt to service, they would not be able to make ends meet even though we have increased substantially what they were getting to N90m per month. I had to pay from government coffers here, one hundred and six million to wipe off that debt so that they can stay normal. So, all that has gone into tertiary education. I am sure that by now we have put more than six billion into tertiary education in less than two years. And that is against the N7 billion that had been allocated in eleven years.

So the Universities are much better funded. Of course there would be virtually no institution that would say they are funded enough, but we believe that we have crossed the money threshold. It is not about money now, it would be about managing it properly, because given subvention at the rate we did, we have crossed the money threshold. And in addition to that, we gave road to Afe Babalola University, they were shouting. We gave roads to UNAN much earlier. The University of Ado – Ekiti has newly constructed roads. We gave roads to UNAD because when we came, we saw the place was not looking like a University. We gave that road that goes round. We gave another stretch of road to cater for the students living off campus, around Irepodun/Ifelodun Hostel area in Iworoko.

I went there to open the Irepodun/Ifelodun hostel during the raining season and I saw the hardship being faced by the students. I felt sorry that they had to pass through the road while going to classes and I said we are going to tar the road. I think it is a little more than two kilometers. It is more than 80 percent completed now. We also gave roads to the neighborhood of the University to ensure that the students are well catered for. We would continue to give infrastructures to be able to help in realizing the objectives of having very sound educational institutions over there.

Sir, are you aware of the allegation that all the cattle at Ikun Dairy farm are virtually dead? Why would you do something like that?

I want to beg you to go to Ikun Dairy tomorrow. Please visit Ikun Diary and do some filming there. The project was on the pipeline and stayed for twenty seven years. All governments that passed through did not do anything. I went there before election, even before campaigns, we did a lot of research; I went there I saw everything intact, and I saw that the environment was well kept and I was surprised in over twenty seven years. It touched my mind that for the people to have protected and maintained the place like that, they really had hope. I determined to help them to realize that hope.

When we won the election to put things in place, we bought cattle and so on. Five hundred million naira had been invested in that place not only for cattle, also for machinery because we had to. The whole thing was not completed; we had to import further machinery for milking and so on. And we bought cattle. We bought seven hundred heads of cattle from South Africa. The seven hundred heads of cattle, of course, we transported by ship, some of them would die due to stress. To date, we have lost up to 60. There have been more than 160 live births. We should have more cattle today, than we bought. The cattle were inseminated before they left South Africa. We now have more than we bought. The cattle are there.

Let me tell you what happened. The AC and Fayose concocted a plan to wipe off the cattle during the electioneering to make a point that none of them survived. When I picked up the information from the security agencies, I had to make arrangements for the place to be properly fortified. I think it must be that the people they awarded the contract for the killing of the animals, who failed, must have gone back to report to them that the job was done because they were talking so confidently that there is no cattle there. In fact, they said it so confidently, I had to go there. I did not send people. Is it true? Are they really dead? Were they able to now carry out their plan in spite of all the precautions? I had to go there myself. But when I got there, I was very happy, the cattle were there. And they are still there. And they are leasing the place out at about N100m per annum. So we are going to get our money back in about four years. And the place will still be up and running, contributing to the economy. All the money we spent will come back. The people who sold us the cattle are even the ones trying to lease the place off us now.

If the cattle were all dead, they would not be thinking of that.

As we conclude, I notice that you have been so slow in constituting your cabinet. How would you describe the state of governance under you?

The state of governance as you can see is excellent. I have been here for only two months. Last Monday, we were only two months. So if we are slow, slow as in two months, and you know what it takes to constitute government in any developed environment.

How long did it take for other governments to be constituted? I don’t think more than twenty percent of cases in Nigeria, you get people put it in place in less than three months. There would be consultations and so on. We were able to do it faster because there was a long gap between election and swearing in. But this one, we won election on the fifth; we were sworn in on the fifth. And our time started counting from there. In spite of the fact that there was a long time between elections and swearing in, in 2007, go and find out how many governments were able to do it in less than three months. And that is after having long period of time, between elections and swearing in. We had no time between election and swearing in and we are two months old. Anyway let me tell you, the list is ready. We have done consultation and next week we will present. I must say that the processes we have taken, takes everybody into consideration, and that is why we are very confident that we have done the right thing. People will say anything. We have a group of people here whose business is to malign government. When we started the round – about, you see around town, we had to employ guards because they were being destroyed at night.

You will not believe it. I did not believe that any opposition would be that dastard. We had to employ guards for those round-abouts, because they were being destroyed at night. We introduced free feeding; they said some people had charmed plates and so on. They are always out to destroy government.

They think it is the only way to make a head way and we commit them to the hand of God.

We are not slow in constituting cabinet. In very few cases in Nigeria would they constitute cabinet earlier than three months after an election. And usually, there is a gap between swearing in and victory. We are ready. And that is the summary. We are not in any way slow. You have to take stock of the state of affairs. The first reasonable thing for any government is to find out the state of health of the treasury, you have to put people to work to do that. And I can tell you in our own accountability and review process; it also falls on a time we have to do the five plus seven review, the half year review of the budget, which is a very detailed and rigorous process and we are going to send the result of the review to the State House of Assembly. If you want to run government properly and it is not government of the gutter, there are some basics and that is why we are always getting it right.