Fayose thinks I will be out of control as a government - Ex-AG, Ajayi

Former Ekiti State Attorney General and Social Democratic Party leader Owoseni Ajayi in this interview tells ABIODUN NEJO that the former governor Ayodele Fayose did not choose him as his successor in 2018 because he was afraid that he (Ajayi) was out of control

What inspired your recent call for more lawyers to get involved in politics?

If you want to shape society, you have to participate in governance. You cannot be behind the bench and remain critical. You have to get involved, and lawyers, as learned people, are in the best position to guide the direction of government. Lawyers have gone through many training segments in schools before being admitted to the bar.

In their daily legal practice, they listen to other lawyers in court; others listen to you; judges make statements, all have intellectual and exhibition auras.

So if they don't give society back their endowment, they shouldn't complain about bad government. This is why I advise more lawyers to join politics at all levels and stand for election for various positions.

Are you satisfied with the contributions of lawyers already in politics?

Certainly you will see the difference in a few lawyers who have distinguished themselves in legal practice and politics. For example, the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) is a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association. You will see its activities in governance; he is always aware of everything he does, and he is aware of the fact that he is Nigeria's leading lawyer and a former NBA president. He is aware that he is returning to legal practice, and you can see most of his statements on Nigerian politics regardless of who is gored.

On Amotekun Corps, as Chairman of the Southwest Governors Forum, he has made many high-profile statements that Governors deserve the right to protect the rights of their people when the Federation Attorney General Abubakar Malami said Amotekun was an illegal association that governors had no right to establish. Akeredolu returned it, saying that governors, as chief executives of their states, have the right to protect the lives of their people. He didn't deflate. Amotekun is now fully operational.

Again, he made it very clear that the next president should come from the Southwest. He did not change position. In his party, the APC, he was one of those who helped Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerge as a presidential candidate.

Als, look at Senator Bamidele Opeyemi; he is a lawyer and, as president of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, he everywhere defends the course of human rights and justice. We want more of these lawyers in government.

You have been through the People's Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress, and the Social Democratic Party; why and should it be so in an ideal situation?

The constitution allows freedom of association. Not only that, as human beings we are dynamic in nature; even friendship is not static. Your bosom friend today may betray you. So you go and choose another friend. You can withdraw if you are not satisfied with the conduct of an association. It is part of our fundamental rights as human beings. You find yourself in an association with a group of people and for some reason you find yourself unable to move forward with the association, what do you do? You move on.

In the PDP, when I was with Governor Ayodele Fayose, where I served as Attorney General for two terms, we had to select the 2018 gubernatorial candidate, so many of us want to succeed him. Senator Dayo Adeyeye was a candidate and I was contesting at the instigation of Fayose because when I was the general manager of his campaign, who won the primaries for him?

Before that, I had been his personal lawyer, representing him in several cases, saving him from several embarrassments as a lawyer and helping him return to his duties for a second term.

Because of closeness, of his own volition, he promised that if he won the election, I would be his deputy governor. I was the CEO of his campaign. Immediately after winning the primary for him; he reneged, saying he didn't want a politician as Deputy Governor, he wanted a Deputy Governor they would serve together. He called a meeting of PDP leaders to discuss me, and he confirmed that even though he had previously promised to appoint me deputy governor, he would settle for a technocrat to complete his term with him as running mate. That's when he said he wanted me to be his successor from Ekiti Sud. He then said that I should...