Chief Dr. Billy Osawaru is a financial expert and consummate entrepreneur. A very well traveled financial Analyst that doubles as financial Adviser and senior marketing Director with World financial Group, Trans-America financial Advisers in Atlanta Georgia, U.S.A.
Dr. Billy Osawaru is a consistent politician and a loyal party man who believes in the collective development of the people of Orhionmwon / Uhunmwode Federal constituency, hence his desire to seek their mandate to represent his constituency at the Federal House of Representatives.
The ebullient Chief Obazuwa of Benin Kingdom bares his mind to the trio of Tunde Eigboremolen, Oboh Sylvester, Editors, Special project and Ken Abu in Benin City.
Exerpts:-
Kindly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Chief Dr. Billy Osawaru, the Obazuwa of Benin Kingdom. I am a Financial Experts, you can call me financial analyst or Financial Adviser.
I am a Senior Marketing Director with World Financial Group, Trans American Financial Advisers in Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A.
I am aspiring for the office of the House of Representatives to represent the people of Orhionmwon/Uhunmwode Federal Constituency. Yes, I am aspiring for this office because I believe strongly that no nation can stand without good laws. And I believe we should send responsible men and women to handle and make laws in a sane society. Yes, you will agree with me that Nigeria is not where it supposed to be because, even though we might have some good laws in the books, but we really need to use oversight functions to see that those laws are being executed by the executive.
So, I decided to throw my hat in the ring because I can deliver for the good people of Orhionmwon and Uhunmwode in particular and the good people of Nigeria in general. Like I said before, going there to make good laws is not something every single person is able to do. It is something you should have a passion for, first of all, and it is something may be you should have done one or two things in that aspect.
When I was in college, I was a student union president. When I was doing my masters in Ashyla International University in the U.S, I was the Head Delegate to the United Nations on the Model United Club. And part of what we used to do there was making laws. At that time you could call it the youth making the laws. Yes we used to do a lot of role play at the UN building in New York. And I led a lot of delegations while I was Student Union President. It is something I have done in the past. And it is something I have developed passion for, because, I see how good laws can transform a nation. Having said that, because a lot of our people might come up with some good laws but we still lack in the oversight function of it.
Well, my people just make laws and they walk away that is one aspect. I want to make sure you actually put the executive feet to the fire because, when you set up good laws you want to make sure those laws are carried out. Moreover in our system here in Nigeria, the legislators actually have a provisions where they are able to execute certain projects they call constituency projects. So I don’t’ think I want to be a lawmaker with this kind of responsibility and I be able to attract those projects to my Federal constituency. So I want to be able to do that as well because my Federal Constituency, Orhionmwon is the second largest producer of gas in Nigeria; so I don’t see why Orhionmwon should not be compensated when it comes to what is being gotten from Orhionmwon and Uhunmwode. As we speak right now, it is so close to the seat of power called Benin City, but it is still far from development. We still have communities today in Uhunmwode and Orhionmwon not electrified and that is very unacceptable because from the bye-pass in Benin – City to Ehor which is the capital of Uhunmwode is just about 15 to 20 minutes.
So it is a shame to find out big communities there where we still don’t have electricity. They have never been electrified before and no good roads. A place like Abudu that is the headquarters of Orhionmwon still cannot be elevated to the status of a city. T to me that is a shame!
So, I should be able to attract capital and infrastructural development to those kind of places. Because I believe whatever you are able to attract to those places will attract markets to those places in form of bringing people.
From the way we spoke, from the insight about your background, it is clear that you are an elitist politician. How close are you to your people? You have been away from home for a long time. How connected are you to your people?
Am not the type of politician you want to term a Diaspora politician, because I am fully grounded. I am in Nigeria every other month. And to be frank with you, this is my fourth journey. This is not the first time I am journeying for elections. Twelve years ago, I ran for the State House of Assembly, and I was stepped down for Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Ativie which I obliged because in politics you have to be a party man. When the leaders see that 2 or 3 people are running for a particular office, yes you should be magnanimous to respect the leaders when they take those kind of decisions. The second time I was equally stepped down again because at that time, Governor Oshiomhole said that they had some issues where APC members who left for PDP and Hon. Ativie did not leave, that we should allow her finish her second term. Which, painfully I had to comply again, coming over time trying to do all this even though I was promised that the next time, those same people will allow me but it was not like that. When it got to that time and we saw how some leaders came and said they have the candidate and that they will not let me scale through.
But again this is my fourth time and there is nothing, and I repeat, nothing for the past 12 years politically that is happening here in Benin City, Edo State or Nigeria that I have not participate physically or financially or otherwise. So I am not somebody you want to say is far from his people.
Am sure if you have seen my declaration of my intentions to run this time, you will agree with me that I am on ground because my people are there to always support me. They are very excited because, all the time I was stepped down, they were so scared and worried that I will leave and never to come back. But they have seen that I have always been consistent and persistent. That is the kind of person they want to represent. So this time they actually came to me, pleaded with me to go to the House of Representatives to represent them because I have been doing a lot of things at my level on my capacity for my own people. Talking about who is grounded, I can tell you, I might have my job outside the country, but it really does not stop me from playing politics in Nigeria, because my business is such that it can run itself with or without me. And I am always here to deliver and to serve my people.
And that brings to the level of consultation. How was it when you declared your intentions to run based on your level of acceptability?
The Consultation actually started from them. They consulted me to know if its something I would accept and I told them that I am always ready to serve them. They invited me to come talk to the people at home which I did and before I started anything I had to reach out to some apex leaders at the two local governments. They all encouraged me that I have sacrificed for the party and they believe it is my time to come serve the people. And the leaders found out that they feel like they owe me and that they are indebted to me because of my sacrifice all these years. So far, I can tell you almost 80 to 90 percent it has always been the same story. They know I am capable, they know I am qualified, they know I have all it takes to deliver. Now they just feel this is the right time for me. So up to the local government level, I have done consultation. As a matter of fact, last Saturday which was about 4 days ago that was when I declared my intention in the Local Government. Sunday was Orhionmwon and Saturday was Uhunmwode. So everything is looking good so far because I am getting overwhelming support from everybody.
With good laws, a nation can develop. As a lawmaker, do you think you will be able to bring dividends of democracy to the doorstep of your people?
Yes, you can, like I said before, I just enumerated some of the responsibilities of a lawmaker as it pertains to Nigeria as a country. Firstly, you are going to be making good laws right. Again whether it is a town, village or city, good laws can transform any of these. What are the good laws? Good laws that are pro-business, good laws that will be pro-employment, good laws that will be pro-women, doing all the stuff that they need to do.
When I say “pro” I mean creating conducive environment for these different categories of people to actually survive and flourish. Once the good laws are there you take it to the level of oversight function. When they know that there is a lawmaker that put the executive feet to the fire, trust me, something will be done. It is always going to be better than where you don’t have this kind of oversight function. A lot of things can be taken for granted especially by the executive. Right? So if as a lawmaker I am always making sure those laws are being carried out by the executive and if they don’t, we are going to get the judiciary that will interpret those laws for them.
You see, a lot of things don’t work because of little or no resistance from the quarters those resistance are supposed to come from. So, if I am a lawmaker, that is my job. That is my duty to make sure those laws are carried out. So when they are doing anything, trust they want to get me off their back by just doing the right thing. But again, wherever they can take things for granted, they will always do, yes that is one.
Then two, I talked about constituency projects. Constituency projects, the way I understand is more like the executive portion of the lawmaker. Wherever they are going to give him some allocations maybe to providing clean water for your people, providing good roads for your people, providing electricity which is basically what the executive primarily should do; but again it they providing those options for us as lawmakers of course, we have to take advantage of it. Do you think I want to connect all the villages in my constituency? Of course, I want to. So what do I do? Because a provision where I can put roads construction on the budget? Of course, I will be glad to do that. Do you think my people will be happy to see that there is no village that is electrified in Uhunmwode and Orhionmwon? Of course, they will not be happy. What do you think I will do? At that point I need to actually build a relationship with whoever is the minister, Federal Minister of Power to see that we bring this home. Same thing with Federal Ministry of Water Resources. So those kind of relationship is what I am talking about. Being able to attract the facilities that will attract businesses to your people. That is how you can transform a village, a city and a town or country.
Developments all over the world are driven by technology. Do you think your party is disposed to bringing all these technology into actualizing these goals you have enumerated?
I am going to take your question talking about how technology savvy my party is. You see as a lawmaker going to the Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T) the National Assembly to make laws, I am sure this has gone beyond a political party. Going there, I am going to be making laws with 359 others.
Again, it now depends on some of us that are widely traveled, that really understand. We really understand and we believe in it. So it is now the convincing power that we have to actually get some of our colleagues whether you are APC or PDP to believe some of those things that we believe in. That is what really matters here. You as somebody that has really went far and wide trust me, I live in one of the greatest country in the world, which is the United States of America, number one in technology. So I am living it as well. So you think if I want to come down here to make laws for my people, it is not something I want to embrace.
Yeah, it is something I want to embrace because I have already embraced it over there. And these are some of the things that will make people like us, assets to our party and the country because we have seen it and we have live it somewhere else because we really believe this is where to go. This is the 21st century, the world is seen over there as global, why because of technology. So this is one of those things somebody like me am going to be pushing for through bills. I will sponsor such in form of bills because, I want to use my Federal Constituency as a pilot project to see that I am creating a technological hub in Uhunmwode and Orhionmwon that can actually become a model for other Federal Constituencies. Why because, I know it is the way to go. I can tell you we are already 10 years behind in Nigeria behind other developed societies.
So we are trying to catch up so that it becomes a priority of mine to make sure whatever we are doing right now, let us start from the elementary. You have to catch them young with technology. So whatever we are going to be doing everything will start from the nursery, making all those gadgets available to those kids. Making it a priority for our kids to be able to use technology to solve problems, to do critical thinking and so many other things.
You know showing interest in anything technology, I will be willing to sponsor people from constituency on international programmes that have to do with technology and I will be willing to invite technological experts to Nigeria too when we are having events that has to do with technology so that our people should always be exposed to the benefits of technology so that they can embrace it.
Any plans for youths of Orhionmwon and Uhunmwode?
I believe in a country like Nigeria where you have 60 percent population are youths. You can not do a whole lot without carrying the youths along. Most of the things are pro – youths. Like you talk about employments and all that. A case in point is the National Directorates of employment.
I have been sponsoring that program for the past 6 years and what I do is make some money available for these people to get/or receive training of youths in my local government.
They are able to do that successfully up to a point of being able to secure soft loans from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). I received a call last week that one of my participants received a loan of 3 million naira. I think that is what we supposed to be doing more. If a youth cannot be gainfully employed, then he can be the employer.
Part of how you do that is giving them those opportunities. Another thing we are doing right now is that we actually came together, you an call it the who- is-who in Uhunmwode Local Government Area not really the old ones but the young ones like us too. And part of what we are doing for our youth is to help them source for opportunities everywhere both in Corporate and government, and we get those opportunities. We can go back home and get some of those youths. Bringing those information to those youth is one way to help them out. As a matter of fact, I just collaborated with the lady mechanic that has a very huge program and is able to get a lot of grants from German, Italian and U.S.A governments all over. We just collaborated, and I have just been able to secure some slots for Uhunmwode and Orhionmwon youths to be able to embark on trainings even abroad. There is one currently going on now, they are taking them to Cyprus.
It is a four years program where everything is going to be paid for and that student get some stipend and by the time that student comes back, he or she is gainfully employed by BMW or COSCHARIS or other. Again those are things I will continue to do because some of the youths if they begin to see how others youths are taking advantage of opportunities we are bringing that I am part of; I think a lot of them would want to key into these kinds of things. And that is how countries get better.
Without putting any numbers to it, I am just one man, am not part of government mind you. But again, I just believe this is how we start. If I am able to empower one youth, I have achieved. Putting a number to it, may be I can still tell you we have not empowered up to one percent of the population of youths. We still have a lot of work to do because all I am doing now is reaching out to other notable bodies and successful Uhunmwode and Orhionmwon men and women to join to support this kind of gesture.
When I get to NASS, my goal is am able in 4 years to empower 40 or 50 percent of out youths.
