Mrs Olufolahan Olubusola Emmanuel Tella is a member of the Labour Party and a strong believer in the Nigerian nation. She told BODE OLAGOKE that she clearly heard from God that she will be president of Nigeria in 2015
You were supposed to be a candidate in the forth coming elections, but as it stands now, you are not. What went wrong?
Last year, the Labour Party had a national convention and just as you know, it is at the national convention that the Presidential candidate emerges. On October 11, we had the convention where the new national executive emerged. However, a second national convention could not hold because of the funds. It cost about N200 million to fund a national convention.
The convention is normally funded by the party and if it is big enough, it will just take the funds from the account and also task some members of the party holding positions. The Labour Party is one of the big parties in Nigeria, but we could not do a second national convention and so, there was no Presidential candidate emerging because of the funding.
We are aware that the Labour Party is divided at the moment because the founding fathers of the party, the NLC and TUC did warn against holding the convention. So, which faction of the party do you belong to?
NLC and TUC are Executive members of the party in accordance with the constitution. However, as a party the Labour Party still stands. There was an election on October 11th which produced an executive and that executive is still in place.
In other words, you don’t recognize the caretaker committee put in place by Organised Labour?
There is no caretaker committee, what we have is a National Executive. But organised Labour has a caretaker committee in place for the party. NLC as I said is an executive member. An executive member cannot put in place a caretaker committee. If has to be the executive that runs the affairs of the party.
You said in your profile that you heard clearly from God that you will be President of Nigeria in 2015?
Yes.
Is it not a contradiction that God told you that you will be president in 2015 and yet, you are not a candidate in the elections?
There are many ways God works. It was natural for me to be an aspirant, but is that the way that God wants to handle things. The natural mind says go and get the nomination form and do this and that. That was the natural mind. That was why we even bothered t write the expression of interest. From the look of things, that is not the way God wants things done. We will still do things the way God wants. This is the beginning of 2015 are watching to see how thing will happen.
You think you will still be President in 2015?
According to God’s plan.
Will that not be God creating confusion in the mind of his people?
God does not create confusion. What God does is that before something happens, He has already planned it years ahead. For example, when children of Abraham were to go to Egypt and be slaves for 400 years, God even planned it before Abraham had one son. So, God has a way of planning things and He has a way of executing His plans.
The General elections are billed to start any moment from now, but there has been allegations that once has not done enough to hold the election, especially in the area of the PVC. Don’t you think this can affect the conduct of the elections.
In 2011, INEC did a good job. However, the plan and schedule of events is where I fault INEC. As at 2013, I believe the INEC should have given those registered voters their permanent voters card. By December 2014, it is those who have just turned 18 or those who have changed their address of were not able to register in 2011 that INEC should have been focussing on now. That is one area where I fault INEC. The shift in the election has given INEC ample time to ensure that everybody who registered actually get their PVC. So, I believe strongly that the elections will hold on March 28.
The controversial issue on ground at the moment is whether to use the card reader or not, what is your take on that?
Card reader is technological improvement. If is an excellent way of ensuring transparency in voting. So, it is necessary to use it because it is an improvement over 2011.
But some people believe that the people who are supposed to take charge of this card readers have not done their job and not experienced in handling it.
Maybe you would have been right on that point in February. But now that INEC has six weeks extension, people who need to be trained have been trained. I learnt that about 700,000 people have been trained. So, I believe that using the card reader is an excellent thing to do.
What is you take on the state of the Nigerian nation at the moment?
The insecurity in the land is still worrisome. I believe that the way he government is handling Boko a Haram is, good, but not good enough. I would want to categories Boko Haram I to five or six categories. Number one is the original Boko Haram which actually started in 2009 by killing police officers. The second category is the abducted and conscripted into Boko Haram.
These are people who were unwillingly forced into Boko Haram. You have the category of the Sympathisers, and the category of the financiers. You have the category of the foreigners who came in from Chad and Niger. What government should actually be doing in addition to the military offensive is what I call the mind game technique. Every battle begin and end in the mind. In January, Zakaria Ahmed of Al Shabab Somalia turned himself in. He was the Finance and Intelligence Director of Al Shabab. Why would somebody in that position turn himself in? It has to do with mind game.
If our government can actually focus on a mind game which will make the other four category see themselves as Nigerians and as people who still has a stake in this country, with very little money, we will stop this Boko haram war and there will be peace again in. Nigeria. Anytime I hear about suicide bombers, I am sad. These are things that can be stopped within few months when the mind game technique is added to what government is doing now.
Would you say the government has done enough in fighting this insurgency?
I will say the government has been focusing too much on the military. They should focus also on the mind game. Focus on the mind of the people who willingly give their 10 year old daughters to be suicide by bombers. The financiers who thought at the beginning that it was okay, but are now tired and don’t know how to pull out and have become ensnared.
So, focus on the mind game. Those who are forced and conscripted into Boko Haram do not really have a choice because they have become prisoners in the Boko Haram camp. Still talking on national issues, 1.8 million graduates are released into the labour market every year. Already, there is an existing pool unemployed people. So, the unemployed are in them millions. I hear government say we will create jobs which is fine. But creating jobs should be based on production stimulating ideas and businesses.
How creative are your own employment solutions?
We have our own unemployment solution. We realised that to create jobs that will remain, jobs that will be in millions, you would need to construct a new city in each geopolitical zone and this will require man power. We planned to construct a new city in each geopolitical zone based on the raw materials available in that zone. In the south west, we have water.
If you construct a fish city, there will be fish ponds which will require manpower to construct and will be managed by people. Fish will be processed and there will be factories and because it is a new city, there will be houses constructed, banks will be attracted there, petrol stations will be attracted there and so many other businesses. That is serious job creation. There are other cities that we have in mind and with that, we reckon that within four years, 12 million sustainable jobs, dignified jobs will be created. That is one plan that can be implemented when it comes to unemployment.
Last year, we heard that Nigeria became the 26th largest economy in the world. During the same period, the real sector contribution to GDP declined from 49 percent to 26 percent. What that means is that factories closed shop and jobs were lost while people became unemployed. We are the 26th largest economy in the world, but jobs were lost, unemployed people increased and poverty increased. So, there is business decline in Nigeria. One way to ensure that businesses come back is creating the market and this market is created when the jobs are created for people to have purchasing power. When they have purchasing power, they will be able to patronize businesses. So, job creation is the most serious challenge the government should actually tackle.
You talked about developing therapeutic food product for HIV and cancer. What is the level of that product at the moment?
We started work on the product in England and came and finish the work here in. Nigeria and we are very satisfied with them. We are in the process of registering the patent. The products have been based on locally available raw materials with a few items being imported like vitamins and minerals. But we are very excited about this product.
Is the product available in the market now?
If is not in the market yet. That is why I said we are in the process of patent registration because when you don’t patent and register and you launch I I to the market, anybody can steal the idea.
Why the delay in the patent process because from available information, you started work on this product 14 years ago?
We are more into research and development just as this product has come up, there are others and when you are trying to patent one, you can as well patent others because it is the same hassle that you pass through for one that you pass through to patent 10. We have other products and we are patenting all of them at the same time.
