Talk of a politician who knows his onions, then the name of Hon. Olalekan Mustapha, prominently known and addressed as Parakoyi and tipped as the leading Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ogun East, comes to mind. A political son of Senator Jubril Martins - Kuye, the humane federal lawmaker bared it all in this interesting interview with GT at his country home in Ijebu Ode, just last weekend.
Enjoy…

Can we meet you officially?

I am a member of House of Representatives, a native of Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State. I still have my parents, Alhaji and Alhaja Mustapha, though they are old, but still healthy.

How was your growing up like?

I attended Answar-deen Primary School. For my secondary education, Molusi College, also in Ijebu-Igbo. On leaving there, I tried my hands in teaching, I taught for a while then I went to Ogun State School of Health Technology, where I trained as a public health worker and came out as a Public Health Superintendent. With the training, I worked in the Local Government Service for almost six years before I finally left in 1986.

How and when did you come into politics?

Politics, for me, came by accident; I was not really determined to go into politics, rather I was doing community services, assisting people in my own little way. It was people of my area that started clamouring that I should go into politics and seek elective post. In a little way, I was involved in 1979 politics; though I was young, I used to follow my parents to attend party meetings and you know, in the Southwest then, almost everybody was in UPN, so we were involved either as polling agent or other political assistance. It started that way till now.

Tell us one or two people that influenced you.

There are quite a number of people, but the most prominent is Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, because by the time I met him, he was into paper business that time and we were also trying to find our feet in paper business. So, he was full of assistance to me. We built a relationship which was great and till date it is still infact.

Do you agree that he is your mentor?

Yes, apart from being my mentor business wise, he is also my political mentor and everything you can imagine.

Give us a brief on your political career?

Like I said earlier, I was briefly involved in UPN activities in the late 80s and early 80s but I became a full politician around 1989 during the time of NRC and SDP. In 1991, I was urged to contest for the chairmanship of my local government but at the end, I did not because the older politicians did not believe the younger ones could make an impact. So, I was told to withdraw for somebody that was nursing the same ambition before me. I agreed and he became the chairman. Despite that, I was still very active in SDP, I was elected national delegate for our local government to the national convention. In 1996, I contested for the chairmanship of my local government and I won. I became the chairman of Ijebu-North local government in 1996 till 1997 during the zero party era. The tenure was just one year before the advent of UNCP and others. Then, I pitched my tent with UNCP, we were going on with the programme until Abacha died, so we had to start all over again. Then came PDP, ANPP and some others.