11th June, 2010
Newly appointed Nigeria’s Minister for Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins Kuye was on Sunday honoured with a grand reception at the Omo-Ilu Foundation Secretariat, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State. At the well attended reception turned rally organized by the Elders’ Council of the Ogun State Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in conjunction with the Omo Ilu group were the party chieftains led by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. This list include former governor of Oyo State, Dr. Omololu Olunloyo, the Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Tunji Egbetokun and his deputy, Remmy Hassan; Prince Mushafau Buruji Kashamu; Dr. Doyin Okupe, Chief M.O. Asenuga; Senator Lekan Mustapha; Chief Tunde Osunrinde; Senator Tunde Osholake; Chief Lekan Ojo; Hon Biodun Akinlade, Hon. Dare Salako and Chief Bisi Rodipe among others. The celebrant, Senator Jubril Martins Kuye found time to speak with Political Train on his new posting and sundry issues
Q: How do you see the honour being bestowed on you today?
A: I feel extremely great, I feel extremely delighted. The conventional wisdom is that prophets are not often honoured in their communities and among their people, but what I’m seeing today excited me, being a prophet with honour in his community. I am also delighted because I can see the unity of our party, PDP at work.
We have three tendencies, we have the Majiyagbe group, the people who supported the state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and felt marginalized ther after; we have the Omo-Ilu group and we have the government functionary PDP.
The Majiyagbe and Omo-Ilu groups have come together today, and I will tell you that, that’s the beginning of total unity. What I desire, what I want is total unity for PDP in Ogun State. With these two groups coming together, I think the time is ripe for the third group (government functionary PDP) to also join the train, so that we can have one indivisible and united PDP.
Q: How do you see your new call to service?
A: I find it exciting, I thought I had retired, but the call to service is a great honour. Power and service taken together are never ridiculous, so I feel great, I feel happy. It confirms that one is still relevant and also confirm that when one serves with large heart, the grace of God and mercy of God shall follow the person. It’s a revelation of my past good performances while serving the people.
Q: Reports have it that you initiated a peace move with Governor Gbenga Daniel on Friday 4 June, 2010 in Obasanjo’s hilltop residence, is it true?
A: It is partially true. The meeting was not at my instance, it was at Chief Obasanjo’s instance. Obasanjo you know, is a leader in Nigeria, leader in Africa, therefore in Ogun State he cannot be anything other than a super leader. He is also the chairman, Board of Trustees, BOT, of the PDP, so he is the highest person in the party in Ogun State as far as we are concerned.
So, he then called us, because his own interest is that the party should be in unity in Ogun State. He called the governor because he wanted the governor to honour me by attending today’s reception here in Ijebu-Igbo.
But after full discussions we kind of agreed that the governor should stay away. I assured Baba Obasanjo that no matter how large the crowd might be, I’ll do my best to control the crowd so that the governor would be given his due honour, but Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the wise man that he is, said that in a large crowd you are bound to have some mad people.
He persuaded the governor not to come, so the governor stayed away on Chief Obasanjo’s instruction. Of course, may be he wouldn’t have wanted to come, but Obasanjo offered him some kind of soft-landing mechanism to stay away.
Q: What’s the secret of your strength?
A: The secret of my strength is the love of service, I love crowd, I love to be with the people, I have no stress playing politics, and once you have no stress, you look youthful.