In an exclusive interview by the Publisher of Afemai Reporters, Prince Raf Omogbai, The member-elect for Orhionwon and Uhunmwonde Federal Constituency, Chief Billy Osawaru speaks on his Victory in the last Supplementary Election, “How some APC leaders worked against him”, among other issues.
Can we meet you sir?
Chief Billy: my name is Chief. (Dr) Billy Osawaru, the Obazuhunwa of Benin Kingdom and member-elect for Orhionwon and Uhunmwonde Federal Constituency, Edo State.
You have contested several times to run for House Of Assembly, How do you feel winning this Election?
Chief Billy: I feel good, I feel great looking at the duration of the whole campaign before the primaries to the general election and of course, this is the longest campaign in Nigeria’s political history. This is because after our primaries we had to campaign for over seven months and mine was different because I had a supplementary election which was almost 2-months after the general election. It was tough, it took a lot of time, money and stress but I put that behind me now. I thank God I came out victorious.
As a first timer in the federal house, how do you intend to change the narrative in your constituency?
Chief Billy: There are some few things I want to bring on board. First, I have figured out why a lot of our rep members were not able to perform as expected, because they were not really in tune with their constituents. That I will change by holding quarterly town hall meetings with my constituents. because town hall meetings are usually interactive and it is an easy way to find out what the people need. And I am going to be providing solutions based on what the people need. If you don’t talk to your people that will amount to you giving only water to the tasty and food to the hungry but I will like to change that.
Secondly, Orhionmwon and Uhunmonde is very rural and we have been facing the herdsmen issues where our fathers and mothers could not go to farm anymore. This is a very big security issue that I intend to face as soon as we resume sittings. Let’s see the laws we have now and whether we need to amend them or not. I will be glad to quickly push for the amendments because that matters alot to my people. Most of the things I will be doing, will be based on priority and the security issue is a big priority for my constituency. We cannot leave our security challenges to our security agencies alone, we need to come out with some form of community service which I have been doing before now as a member of Uhunmonde association North America. I actually came up with the initiative where we have been supporting the local vigilantes with gadgets. We just bought them bikes and now we are planning to get them Siena buses for logistics and that’s something I would really like to promote more. Like I said before, looking at the existing laws and see what is not working, we will easily push for new ideals that will help us deal with the herdsmen security challenges.
Thirdly, During my campaign I worked with a lot of youths and I found out that many of them are not gainfully employed and it is very heartbreaking because when you find a graduate who went for youth service and back home still living with their parents is heartbreaking, not because they are not ready to be gainfully employed but because the opportunities are not there. So I have worked out a way we can support some of these youths. I believe if we are able to help one or two youths, we have achieved a lot because the youth will not only be able to care for his or her immediate family, the youth can become an employer of labour, and you will agree with me going by the manifesto of our president-elect “Renewed Hope”, that is part of what’s coming onboard to see how we can get our youths employed. So I will be working with the President elect in that aspect because it directly affects my constituency.
Is it true that some APC leaders and their supporters openly worked against you during the election?
Chief Billy: Yes it is true painfully and it is no longer a secret because we know that before my election some of those leaders were already out bragging how they were going to frustrate me and the party for their own reasons. There are a few ones I know why but I was not distracted , my aim was to be on the field and keeping working. When you have an issue with any leader or they perceive you as someone who would not be loyal to them or they want what you want and they feel if they cannot get it, nobody else should, they will go out to sabotage it and they forget that no man is a god. So as you can see today, we went into the election from a free, fair and credible primaries which I won, went into the main election and supplementry too which was also credible and we came out victorious.
Do you think that the monetary policy helped to fight vote -buying during the election?
Chief Billy: Well it did but however, it brought a lot of stress to the common man and whatever reason they came up with the ideal, I think they would have done better. In a developed society, if I wanted to do something like this, they would have done it differently. Again if you look at the primary reason for bringing the policy, there was really nothing wrong with it, they did it to check vote buying and other things in the society but it brought hardship to the common man.
What will you do to unite your constituency and Edo South APC to avoid losing in the next election?
Chief Billy: Well I am already doing that. It is about reaching out to everybody now the elections are over and as a party we need to win the forthcoming gubernatorial elections. So any party that is not able to win an election should not exist. I have started reaching out to the leaders and I strongly believe too that whatever anybody does there would be consequence but we must be very careful too so we dont start going after the wrong people. That’s why I am talking to everybody and trying making them see reasons why we must work together because my election was a testament to that most especially my supplementary election in Orhionmwon and our leaders there all came out to fight, I didn’t do it alone so I can’t take the credit all by myself.
So all our leaders came out most especially former deputy governor of Edo state, Dr Pius Odubu, our apex Leader, Pastor Osagie Ize-iyamu, the current House Of Reps member, Hon Patrick Asowerien and a lot of them I can’t mention now. They all came out and played one role or the other and the synergy was there and that was how we were able to get victory. I just need to bring everybody together because my election was very unique, very peculiar in that we saw all our leaders that have never worked together before but when it came to my election, they all came together to work for me. That acceptability was something I enjoyed and I will love to replicate to become a tradition in our party: to bring all leaders together irrespective of their personal, ideological or political differences, so that when it comes to winning elections, we come together, believe and deliver whoever is our candidate. Before the primaries we are all aspirants and after the primaries we have a candidate. Where we normally have issues is when some aspirants don’t succeed, those leaders will become very upset and they are unable to bring them together to work for the candidate that emerges. So in my case, I was able to manage the situation.
Looking at what some people describe as the labour party tsunami in the last elections, do you think the Obidient Movement was underrated by politicians?
Chief Billy: Well the truth is every four years we have always had similar things only that this one came from the third force. There has always been this wave that comes with a candidate of a particular party. For example there was a year Atiku came from PDP, I know a lot of people that rode under that wave to the Senate and reps but Atiku still did not emerge as the President and before that we had the wave that came with Buhari in 2015 and produced a lot of members of the National Assembly. So the only difference between that time and this time is that Labour Party came in as a third force, and we underrated them because they were not from from the two major political parties and the way it happened, it was very shocking and we all understand now that it was due to social media and it was an interesting experience.
Beyond Edo Politics, what is your general appraisal of the elections?
Chief Billy: The truth is that some of us will just be deceiving ourselves believing that Tinubu was not going to win the presidential election. Looking at everything that was going on in the country before the general election, it was very obvious that Tinubu was going to be victorious . For example PDP was faced with all their problems like Wike group vs Atiku group and you will agree with me that there was no way Atiku could win that election because it was a divided house. In Labour party, there was no way Obi would have become the President, he was not having any Governor, Senate, rep and even House of Assembly. For example Obi had no Governorship, Senatorial, House Of Reps and house Of Assembly candidates talking to some group of people for a particular election and you have Peter Obi all by himself campaigning for his party for the same group of people. If it was a football match of 5 vs 1, who do you think will win 5 ? That is why politics is a game of numbers and the reason Tinubu won, he was very organized, he started his campaign and never stopped, he was very focused and determined so I was not surprised that APC won. And we are very lucky to have Asiwaju as President and I believe four years from now, Nigeria will be great again.
Finally, What Advice do you have for your co-contestants?
Chief Billy:Well my thank You message I sent out before, I thank them for bringing the best out of me, it was keenly contested because Hon Roland Asoro is a setting deputy speaker, and Hon Ativie was former speaker of the Edo Assembly and I was the least among them. Hon Asoro had come out to say he is a gentleman, he has accepted his defeat and decided to move on and wait for another day. For Ativie there is no need for desperation because after all I stepped down for her twice and if not for anything, she owe me that gratitude. But looking at what transpired in our primaries where Ativie took part and ran against me and Washington Osifo, we all knew how she tried to steal the mandate by going to Abuja to spend money to forge results but she didn’t succeed. Then she decided to run to Labour party and did the same thing to Murphy and engaged in a lot of forgeries and that’s why she lost the Federal High Court suits and she just lost her appeal again. That should send her a message that it cannot be business as usual. She can’t always have her way. My advice is for her to relax and be celebrated instead of being humiliated because looking at what is going on now, I think she is getting humiliated by the day and I don’t know why she is chasing shadows.
I will encourage her to be an elder statewoman instead of engaging in nefarious activities.
For Murphy I didn’t run against him and don’t know him too well but whatever God gives to him, he should understand that I was never his problem. He should take things easy instead of trying to run around when he did not even contested the election.