Can we meet you sir?
My name is Kunle-Bolarinde,
entrepreneur, media personnel and corporate business developer, hails from
Ipetu-Ijesha, Ori-Ade local government in Osun State. I am the President of BOA
Foundation, CEO of Cristal Holdings Ltd.
I am driven by the passion to help
make the world a better place; i have over the years been involved in many
humanitarian works and free trainings, a motivational speaker of note and a
trained media practitioner. I am happily married to my best friend Mojisola
Kunle-Bolarinde and we are blessed with kids.
How Long Have
You Been In Media as a Publisher, Because What We See On Ground Is Very Huge?
I have been in
the media field for well over a decade and i have served in various fields in
various organisations, i worked as a reporter for major news papers company
such as Western Voice, The westerner, Project Manager at Glees Concept Limited
a multimedia and digital marketing company, i later went ahead to publish a
couple of magazines (Cristal Magazine and Applauzers Magazine), outside the
shores of Nigeria i am also the Co-founder of Pretoria Music and Video Awards
in South Africa a yearly event under our company in South Africa, Applauzers
Media S.A.
CAN YOU SAY YOU ARE A FULFILLED BUSINESS MAN OR NOT?
I will be very frank with you, i
can’t lay claim to being fulfilled yet, because professionally i believe i
still have a long way to go, yes we have made great impact in so many areas,
yet that doesn’t translate to fulfilment yet, until i am able to meet and
surpass my personal targets i will only say that we are still work in progress.
WHAT BROUGHT
YOU INTO POLITICS?
My advent into
politics was driven by my personal resolve to contribute my quota in helping to
make our country a better place, from my personal research on Nigeria politics
and governance i have come to realise that the only reason why our nation has
refuse to grow is due to poor leadership and lack of discipline. Nigeria is a
fantastic country, if you have ever being out of the shores of this country
then you will agree with me, but our major issue has always been our leaders, i
believe that the people who knows what to do and how it should be done keep
seeing politics as a dirty game hence left the soul of Nigeria in the hands of
people who has little or no idea of how an economy should be run, people who can’t
even run a home or a business with ten staffs, greedy people who lacks foresight and who
can’t see beyond today. I am driven by the passion to rescue my people from
poor representation, i cringe in my chair most times when I hear some of our so
called lawmakers speak, i can’t but wonder how they get there and how deprived
and short-changed their constituent will be. We cannot keep sitting on the
fence and turn our selves to social media warriors; we need to throw in the
towel and go show the clueless people how government should be run.
HOW DO YOU INFLUENCE YOUR COMMUNITY?
I believe every leader must be
ready to lead by example and it is also my strong believe that it is not until
you are in government that you can make impact within and outside of your
community, this were the ideology behind me setting up a foundation called BOA
Foundation, the major activity of my foundation is to create clean drinkable
water for rural communities, conduct periodic free healthcare programs and also
women/Youth empowerment program, a side that we have also taken upon ourselves
extra task to sponsor young pupils who are brilliant but are unable to pay for
their exams which include WAEC, GCE, NECO and JAMB and also select the best
among them for onward scholarship.
Through BOA foundation we trained
over 150 young persons in Oyo state in Graphics, sign-writing and Prints, we
have refurbished large numbers of failed water projects in communities in Osun
State, we have also conducted several free healthcare programs in many rural
areas, we hope to do more in 2018, we have contacted a Lagos based ICT, new
media and software development academy to help train hundreds of young students
in Osun state on ICT, Media marketing and coding, this we believe will widen
their horizon and help them catch up with the growing world.
ARE YOU RUNNING FOR AN ELECTIVE POSITION AND UNDER WHAT PARTY?
Yes i will by the special grace of
God be running for a seat in the Osun state house of assembly to represent the
good people of Ori-Ade constituency, i am a member of PDP, but i will like to
let you know that political party affiliation is not what matters anymore but
what you are bringing to the table, your level of understanding of the plight
of your people and how best you can respond to it within stipulated period. Our
people are now more enlightened, gone are the days when they sheepishly vote
for party insignia, now they look out for names of people they must have
personally ran a background check on.
WHAT IS YOUR ASPIRATION IN LIFE?
I believe every human being is
part of God’s grand plan to continually build and make the world a better
place, my greatest aspiration is to contribute my quota without holding
anything back from humanity.
WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS?
Ironically none of my role models are
politicians and from the feelers i got they don’t even like politics, but these
are people who as young men are able to create a niche for themselves, they
defiled all odds to pursue their dream and today they have been able to impact
the lives of many, they are employer of labours and have immensely contributed
to the development of Nigeria. They are Chief Kola-Daisi, The founder of Kola
Daisi University and Otunba Subomi Balogun, Founder of FCMB Group. These two
people inspire me a lot. To be a good politician you must be able to think like
a businessman or an investor, you must be able to invest government funds
wisely and run government like a private business. That way only will states be
able to pay salaries as at when due without recourse to monthly federal
allocation, loans, grants and bailout funds.
WHAT IS YOUR POSITION ON BUHARI’S FIGHT AGAINST CORRPUTION?
Let me tell you that i happen to
be one of Buhari’s unsolicited campaigners during the 2015 election, because
every Nigerian at that time wanted something different which is logical. But
today what we are getting is a far cry from what we bargained for. I wouldn’t
have held Buhari’s administration responsible if not for the mammoth and
unrealistic promises they made to Nigerians but i don’t need to give you the
score card of this administration because it is written already on the faces of
every man and woman on the street.
On Buhari’s anti corruption fight,
i think it was a project that failed on arrival, so it will be baseless to make
that a point for discussion. It is what i styled the petrol fire approach, it
is more like a stunt, a thriller from a movie that was never successfully shot,
and it is much I do about noisemaking. He who must come to equity must come
with clean hands, how many people working in Buhari’s government are not
corrupt. If you have to withdraw $1B from the federation account to fight a war
you claimed you have already won what do you call that?
WHAT LESSON DID LIFE TAUGHT YOU?
Life taught me as a young boy on
the street not to hold anyone responsible for my falls, not to rely on fellow
human being but to put my trust in God, life taught me to be myself, be focused
and pursue my dream diligently even in the face of distraction, life taught me
how to make lemons out of lemonades, to keep moving even when the destination
is not in sight. Life taught me that at the end of the day it is going to be
all man for himself hence i should learn to take responsibility for my actions
and inactions. Life taught me that dreams are conceived on bed but success lies
in the market place.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUTH WHO LOOK UP TO YOU?
Every young person who is desirous
of making success out of life must first understand that no one i mean no man
on earth owe you anything, whatever good thing you get from people is not your
right but privilege. You must not stop dreaming and while you are dreaming you
must keep moving. Do not work with other people template create a niche for
yourself.
ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE LEVEL OF GOVERNANCE IN THE COUNTRY?
NO! Not reasonable person should
be, how much is fuel per litre, how much is rice per bag, how much is WAEC
Form, how much do tertiary schools charge now, how secured is the country? how
about ease of doing business? How much
is Dollar to Naira, tell just one thing that is working and i will scrap the
rest.
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