A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Mathew Oyerinmade, speaks on his senatorial ambition for the 2023 general election and his plans for the people of Ondo south district, among others in this interview with OLUDAMISI OJO
There had been so much politicking within your party, what are your chances of scaling through the primary ahead of the general elections?
Part of the task I am taking now is to come home to heed the call of my people who have long before now, persuading me to come and seek an elective position to complement what I have been doing for them in my private capacity. As a good listener who’s ready to serve his people at any time, I start to engage my family, friends, and close associates in my new venture.
It was after their positive responses and encouragement that I went deep to meet my people at the grassroots, to meet my party elders, leaders, and local government areas executive committee members, past and present political appointees, and party faithful in all the wards that made up the Ondo South senatorial district.
As you said, I may be a greenhorn in the race, but my early entrance into the race, coupled with my pre-degree, highest standard of patriotism, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, generosity of spirit, loyalty, and maturity that I am bringing on board, I can boldly say to you that I stand tall and soar higher and well above my closest rival, in my party, APC or any other political party for that matter.
The acceptance of my aspiration and ambition by party faithful in the southern senatorial district within these few months of making my intention public, is massive and overwhelming, even beyond human comprehension. That is why this project is tagged “Iyonu Olorun” God’s Mercy.
What spurred you into politics?
I have been operating in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria since my National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) days which I did with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in Port Harcourt. However, during my undergraduate studies as a student of Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti (OSUA), now Ekiti State University, (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, I was actively involved in students’ union politics where I emerged as the Speaker of Students Representative Council (SRC). My role as Speaker of SRC of OSUA exposed me to the national politics of that time of military transition programme of former military Head of States, General Ibrahim Babangida. Nigerian politics then was coalesced around two political traditions deriving from the country’s pre and post-independent periods, the progressive and the conservative.
The military headed by Gen. Babangida created two major political parties; the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) under which the 1993 Presidential Election was held. My beliefs in the ideology of the progressive made me as at that time, join the youth wing of the SDP, and later recruited to advocate for the emergence of the late business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola as the Presidential candidate on the platform of SDP in the 1993 Election. The annulment of that freest and fair election in the history of Nigeria by the military government made me join the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12 mandate.
That was the beginning of my political engagements. At the return to democratic rule in 1999, I was still in active service of Shell Petroleum, but I was passively participated in politics both in my home States, Ondo and Rivers where I worked. I supported my friends who had gone into politics, both morally and financially. And since I retired into private practice, those my politician friends and associates have continued to troupe into my residence at home in Oke-Igbo and Port Harcourt, enjoining and persuading me to seek an elective position in the forthcoming National Assembly election in 2023. I am only heeling their calls to serve my people as their representative at the Red Chambers of the National Assembly.
What are you going to do differently if eventually, you are elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic?
My vision, as I have been telling my people, first is to be a voice for the voiceless and a defender of the cause of the less privileged through legislative advocacy. I assure my people of commitment to ensuring that constituency projects and intervention programmes nominated across my senatorial district are duly executed and delivered according to specifications and within the specified period.
I shall prioritize the welfare and well-being of the generality of the people in the senatorial district, to the extent that a new lease of life and rekindle hope shall replace their present predicament. The kind of youths and women empowerment initiatives that will be put in place will transect the traditional way of sharing motorbikes, sewing machines, clippers, and the rest to a selected few; but a well-researched, formulated, and executed policy that will eradicate poverty and lift the people into financial independence and breakthrough.
