Exclusive Interview with Dr. Ifeoluwa Wole-Osho (PART 3)

Dr. Ifeoluwa Wole-Osho

Welcome to the part three of our exclusive Interview with Dr. Ifeoluwa Wole-Osho.

If you miss the part one and two of our interview, kindly view it on the following links 👉👉 link1 and link2. 

Section 6: Accountability and Transparency

How do you define accountable leadership?

Accountable leadership means that authority is accompanied by explanation, evidence and consequences.

A leader should state what he intends to do, disclose the resources available, report what has been achieved and explain what has failed.

Public money is not a personal gift from an office holder. Citizens should not be made to feel grateful for receiving services financed with their own resources.

If elected, how will constituents measure your performance?

My office will publish a constituency baseline and a four-year performance framework.

Residents will be able to assess me through legislative attendance and participation, bills and motions, oversight activities, federal projects attracted or completed, constituent cases handled and periodic public reports.

The measurements must be agreed publicly. A politician should not wait until the end of four years and then invent the criteria by which he wants to be judged.

Will you publish periodic reports of your activities and achievements?

Yes.

I intend to publish quarterly activity updates and a more comprehensive annual constituency report. These reports will cover legislative work, projects, meetings, expenditure within the constituency office, partnerships and unresolved matters.

The reports will include setbacks as well as achievements. Accountability becomes meaningless when reports contain only success stories.

How will you remain accessible to your constituents?

There will be a functioning physical constituency office, digital communication channels, scheduled town halls and ward-level liaison structures.

When legislative responsibilities do not require my presence in Abuja, I intend to spend significant time in the constituency, including designated weekly periods for constituent engagement.

Accessibility should not depend on knowing my relatives, party leaders or personal assistants.

What is your stance on corruption?

Corruption is not only the theft of money. It is also the manipulation of appointments, contracts, opportunities and procedures for private benefit.

It destroys institutions because it teaches honest workers that competence is foolish and teaches citizens that every public service has an unofficial price.

I will not demand percentages from public projects, use constituency opportunities as personal patronage or conceal conflicts of interest.

If members of your own party engage in wrongdoing, how would you respond?

Party loyalty cannot be superior to public responsibility.

Allegations should be investigated fairly, and due process must be respected. But where wrongdoing is established, I will not defend it simply because the person belongs to my party.

A political party loses moral authority when it condemns corruption only when committed by opponents.

Section 7: Economy and National Issues

Nigeria is facing economic challenges. What policies do you believe can improve citizens’ welfare?

Nigeria must move from an economy centred mainly on distributing revenue to one focused on productivity.

We need reliable power, better transportation, support for manufacturing and agriculture, access to finance for small businesses, technical education and a more predictable policy environment.

Economic reform must also include targeted social protection. Citizens cannot be asked to endure every adjustment while the cost of government remains untouched.

What is your opinion on the current state of insecurity in Nigeria?

Insecurity has become both a security problem and a crisis of trust.

Law-enforcement agencies need better equipment, training, intelligence and accountability. Communities must believe that reporting information will lead to protection rather than exposure or extortion.

Nigeria must also address the conditions that make recruitment into crime easier: unemployment, weak justice systems, local grievances, drug abuse and communities in which the state is barely present.

How can lawmakers contribute to economic recovery?

Lawmakers must scrutinise budgets, remove legal barriers to enterprise, oversee government agencies and ensure that borrowed money produces measurable public value.

The National Assembly should examine whether programmes are working, not merely whether funds were released.

Lawmakers must also reduce policy uncertainty. Businesses cannot invest confidently when major economic rules change without consultation, evidence or transition planning.

What reforms do you think Nigeria urgently needs?

Nigeria needs deeper fiscal federalism so that states and regions are encouraged to produce rather than depend almost entirely on federal allocation.

We need police and justice reform, reliable electricity, a renewed technical-education system, transparent public procurement and stronger electoral credibility.

We also need a culture of open government in which budgets, projects and performance information are available in forms ordinary citizens can understand.

Section 8: Character and Integrity

Politics is often criticised for lacking integrity. How do you intend to be different?

I do not expect people to accept my integrity because I say I am different. They should judge me through systems that make wrongdoing more difficult.

That means transparent reports, clear project records, open communication, conflict-of-interest disclosure and a constituency office that does not operate as a private network.

Integrity should be designed into the way an office works, not left entirely to the personality of the office holder.

What personal principles will you never compromise?

I will not knowingly steal public resources, demand kickbacks, falsify results or deliberately deceive constituents about what my office can achieve.

I will also not treat citizens as though public projects are personal favours for which they owe political loyalty.

There will be pressure to compromise, and I do not pretend that every decision will be simple. But the purpose of entering office cannot be sacrificed merely to remain in office.

Have you ever made a difficult ethical decision? What happened?

One of the difficult decisions in this political journey has been refusing to build support entirely through financial transactions and promises that cannot be sustained.

That choice makes the process slower. Sometimes another person appears more attractive because they are willing to promise or distribute more immediately.

But I do not want to begin my public career by practising the same transactional politics I intend to challenge. The method used to obtain power often determines what a person must do to keep it.

How do you handle criticism and public scrutiny?

My natural instinct is to argue, especially when I believe a criticism is unfair. I have had to learn that not every criticism requires an immediate response.

I try to separate the tone from the substance. Even an insulting statement may contain useful information.

Where I am wrong, I should correct myself. Where the facts are false, I should respond with evidence rather than anger.

What does servant leadership mean to you?

Servant leadership means that authority is justified by what it enables you to do for other people.

It does not mean weakness or the absence of standards. It means that decisions begin with the public purpose of the office, not the comfort, ego or political survival of the office holder.

The leader is not the owner of the institution. He is its temporary steward.

To be Continued....

Visit his campaign website on https://ifewoleosho.com.ng/