God has made me greater than my father– Rasheed Ladoja

Former Governor Rasheed Adewolu Ladoja will definitely not fizzle out of Oyo State politics, due to several variables which he created and the ones he does not have control over. The first is that he has a large number of political followership in the state, thanks to his Accord Party which won seats at the state and national assemblies. The other factor is the ubiquitous challenges that former governors face in terms of performance in office. In this
interview, he bares his mind on the orgy of violence in Oyo State, life at 70, governance in the state
since he left office and his reasons for planning to come back to Agodi Government House, Ibadan
having emerged as the gubernatorial candidate of his party ahead of 2015.

What is the dichotomy between leaders and rulers, which you highlighted as a major challenge and
vacuum lacking in several segments of the country?

Well, have you ever seen people contesting elections saying they are coming to rule you? They will just say they are coming to serve but the fact is how many of them do serve? Most of them serve themselves, they do not serve the people. Even the
new governors, how many of them go back to their old houses when they are through, even in Oyo State. Once they get to the office, they think where they are coming from is no more good for them. They either change it or expand it. And that is not
the issue because what is most important is the service you give to the people. And we have been
able to prove to the people that we are the “Oselu”and not the “Ojelu”.

People are the focus of our government, serving them is also our focus. And that is our issue with
the present administration. We are not saying don’t build infrastructure or don’t take people off the street but create those places first and make it
affordable for them. What is the essence of the new place you get for them, how are they going to fill it
up after you have destroyed all their wares? And some of them even died in the process. The road side traders, they borrowed money from micro
finance, the thing is so painful. Most of them died, most of them went into shock and they can’t come out. That is not the essence of government. That is why we are saying that we are coming here to serve the people.