by Allwell Okpi
In this interview with Allwell Okpi, a
former Commissioner for Health in Lagos State, Dr. Leke Pitan, who is
eyeing the Lagos All Progressives Congress governorship ticket, comments
on Lagos politics, doctors’ strike, among other issues
Recently, the
Peoples Democratic Party said it would form a coalition with other
parties to wrest power from the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State
in the forthcoming February 28, 2015 governorship election. What’s your
opinion on this?
Anything is possible. Politics is a game
and I can’t tell you that they can’t. They can, but we are not going to
fold our arms. In the APC, we are not going to fold our arms. I am that
type of a politician who will not underrate or denigrate the
opposition. My belief is that in politics we are free, within the law,
to use whatever strategies that we want and two, to also deploy whatever
strategies we have. If they are talking of coalition it means they have
admitted that they can’t do it alone and that is kudos to us. That is a
plus, even if psychological.
What it means, therefore, is that we
have to ensure that our own household is united and we must also keep
reaching out to quickly snatch the potential members that they may want
to use for coalition before they get there. We will make ourselves more
attractive to those people and we will keep beckoning to those people
among them who are like minds with us to come over and join us. We, as a
party, must not be complacent and so, the PDP is free to deploy
whatever strategies.
We must be ready to counter such
strategies all within lawful means. For instance, they are talking about
men in black uniform and I have been advising my party in government
that they are simply using it as bait for the youths.
They will say, come and line up, we
promise you job, to join the task force. So, there is some hope and
everybody will just come to line up and since they are hoping to get
something out of there. They will necessarily like them to be on their
side. We are on the ground here and we will create our own ‘O Yes.’ If
they do SURE-P, we will do SURER-P. The devil finds works for idle
hands. So, let’s reduce the number of idle hands. It is all part of
coalition. It is like pouring rice on the ground and everybody is
picking. That is the way I see it. If they can, we too can. That’s my
take on that. If anybody says coalition, we are going to do more of a
coalition. If we are 70 per cent and you are 30 per cent, before your 30
per cent can become 70 per cent there will be so much to do.
Do you have the financial muscles to slug it out at the poll?
I rely on well-meaning Nigerians, both
from what I may consider to be rich to ordinary folk like me and you to
also contribute in their various ways. To some, they find it easy to put
down cash. To some, they find it easy to put in efforts, which could be
more valuable than cash. I can go on and on telling you various
possibilities; different things that could happen. It is that collective
effort that we must bring to bear this time around and let it tell on
the system so that, we can now say, we are part of it. We can now know
what to expect.
Are you not intimidated by the practice of ‘godfatherism’ and imposition in your party?
I don’t feel intimidated by any
‘godfatherism’ for now. I feel and I expect that, there will be a
level-playing field. And so far, nobody has been stopped from reaching
out to the people. But thank God now, we have got to a stage in the
democratic experience or practice that even the issue of party labels
are now becoming less important. Rather, it is now the person or
candidate that matters.
I can give you so many examples. When
Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State left the Alliance for Democracy
for the PDP and then the PDP for the Labour Party, the LP was a
non-starter there. There was the old AD, the old PDP, the so-called
giant party, and without understanding the situation of things, we may
be thinking that a party would not be accepted by the people but the
masses may be saying otherwise. It is still part of developing
democracy.
So, every party ought to be very careful
and sit down and properly ensure the emergence of a very appropriate
and sellable candidate that it would presents to the public. A party
that does any ‘wuru-wuru’ (foul play) internally and arrives at a set
answer will have only one day joy, that is the day of the primary, but
three months later down the line, there will be problems. And the
problem will be a problem that they will live with almost from the first
week after the primary; like how do we sell this man?
If you are not careful, before the
election day you may have lost, and you will have to bear the loss for
the next four years. Why bother to work for one day joy of primary when
you know you are going to suffer for four years plus? There is no need
and I won’t advise any party to think that way. They must think of what
is presentable to the public. The question should be: can he or she
sincerely and truly win elections? And so, they must be transparent and
expand the contribution of party members in as much as possible.
As a former Health Commissioner, how do you see to the incessant doctors’ strike?
Well, I want to say that, even when I
was a medical student I would not want to say that strike was something
strange either in the medical profession or other professions, after
all, there were strikes led by Pa Imoudu and so on and so forth. Also,
we had the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers strike led
by Chief Frank Kokori, strikes are not new. I can’t tell you that, as a
medical student then, strike never crossed my mind. They have been
going on strikes before I entered medical school. They had gone before I
became a medical doctor and also when I became a medical doctor. It is
not a strange thing.
Be that as it may, it is something
unfortunate, something I believe nobody wants as far as I know and
neither the doctors nor other health workers want strikes. I can tell
you that I know that workers don’t like going on strikes. I have come to
understand that going on strikes is usually because government does not
move to attend to issues deftly, tactically and promptly that usually
leads to it.
When I was in office, I was able to bump
into union meetings. I would say that I had superintended or supervised
two of the largest sectors of public service, I was commissioner for
education and commissioner for health at different times in the
administration of our great leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
You should know they are the largest and
between the two sectors they carry between 60 and 70 per cent of the
entire public service in any government. Throughout, I was able to
manage, because anytime I got a hint of what they were doing, I would
sit with them, talk to them and we would find a way out.
And together, we would reach a
compromise because they had learnt to believe in me as they realised
that I meant well for them. Whatever advice I gave, they followed it
because they knew I meant well. They didn’t usually see me as belonging
to the other side. Usually, they would hold meetings in the night and I
would go to them. I could remember when I was in the health ministry. I
would meet them at Ayinke House. Even, if there was a threat, we would
nip it in the bud.
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