February 21, 2009
Dear Joshua Iyo: I apologize for letting you down. Believe me, mine was a tale of internal torture that you could not begin to imagine. The problem with a lengthy interview is that often the published excerpts contain omissions and hence, inevitable unintended distortions. When I confessed to "joining them", I was not saying I enriched myself. Rather, I was saying that I fell below my own standards. I was in the National Assembly for four years three out of which I refused and fought against the obscene reward system. As the 2007 election approached, I was faced with the choice of giving up the struggle for a better Nigeria or to take the allowances and use them to fight the system. Those who claimed to admire me offered very little or no financial support. Indeed, many blamed me for refusing the allowances which, they argued, I should have been using to fight the system. Many turned against me within my own party and constituency. In the end, I took the decision to take the allowances and used them to fight the system.
I earned more in my last one year in the National Assembly than I did in the previous three years put together. Even so, I did not deceive myself that the power merchants would allow my candidacy to succeed. Rather, I supported and donated substantially to the campaign of worthy candidates all over Nigeria. I gave endless scholarships to indigent students. I do not regret that decision because it was taken with the best of intention. I have no house anywhere in the world that I did not have before I went into politics. The choice parcel of land I was allocated in Abuja remains unclaimed because I could not find the money to make the purchase. I bought only one car during my four-year stay in the National Assembly- a Kia Sorento. My second car is the same Ford Windstar van I have had since 1996- six years before my return to Nigeria. By the time the election was over, I did not have the money for the airfare to return to the USA. Indeed, I could not even pay the rent for my apartment in Lagos! If I had gone to Abuja to make money, today, I will have at least two million dollars to my name. On the third-term agenda alone, I would easily have made 100 million naira. Today, I have picked the pieces of my life along with the bruises of a hard battle. In a nutshell, I gave it my all but failed. However, I have learnt some lessons and the struggle continues! Sola Adeyeye
I earned more in my last one year in the National Assembly than I did in the previous three years put together. Even so, I did not deceive myself that the power merchants would allow my candidacy to succeed. Rather, I supported and donated substantially to the campaign of worthy candidates all over Nigeria. I gave endless scholarships to indigent students. I do not regret that decision because it was taken with the best of intention. I have no house anywhere in the world that I did not have before I went into politics. The choice parcel of land I was allocated in Abuja remains unclaimed because I could not find the money to make the purchase. I bought only one car during my four-year stay in the National Assembly- a Kia Sorento. My second car is the same Ford Windstar van I have had since 1996- six years before my return to Nigeria. By the time the election was over, I did not have the money for the airfare to return to the USA. Indeed, I could not even pay the rent for my apartment in Lagos! If I had gone to Abuja to make money, today, I will have at least two million dollars to my name. On the third-term agenda alone, I would easily have made 100 million naira. Today, I have picked the pieces of my life along with the bruises of a hard battle. In a nutshell, I gave it my all but failed. However, I have learnt some lessons and the struggle continues! Sola Adeyeye
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