Posts
by Eniola Akinkuotu
In
this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, the Peoples Democratic Party
candidate in 2011 Lagos State governorship election, Dr. Ade Dosunmu,
speaks on the politics of the state and other issues
In 2011, you ran in the
governorship race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party but
lost by a wide margin to Governor Babatunde Fashola of the All
Progressives Congress. Presently, the APC controls all elective offices
in the state? Now that you are running again, what do you think went
wrong?
Between the last election and now, a lot
has happened. Don’t forget that the APC had about one million plus votes
just like the PDP had during the presidential election and that number
is less than 30 per cent of the total number of registered voters in
Lagos. So, it cannot be said to be the true reflection of the wishes of
the people. Again, that time, we had an incumbent who was enjoying a lot
of popularity and typical of any human being, they will tell you better
the devil you know than the angel you don’t. So, that must be one of
the reasons why the elections turned out that way and they also had a
structure in place but that is not the issue. In Ekiti State they had
all the members of the House of Representatives and Senate but Governor
Kayode Fayemi still lost the election. What matters in a contest like
this is the perception the people have. Once the people are ready for
change, nobody can stop it and that is what we are witnessing in Lagos
today. Just go out and do an opinion poll and you will observe a lot of
disenchantment all over the place about the policies of the government;
talk about students, civil servants, health workers, transport
operators, ‘okada’ riders and all other segments. Even business
communities are groaning over high tax regime and all these are what I
believe can present itself as a major challenge to the APC because the
people have seen that it is time to try something else and they are
ready for that.
Again if you look at 2011, that was my
first election ever and my result was over 300,000 votes which was what
some people had in some other states and they are governors today. The
same goes for Oyo and Edo states. Even the last election in Anambra, the
governor, Willie Obiano, got only 180,000 votes. Although we can say
the outcome of an election is subject to the number of registered voters
but that means that, at least, over 300,000 believed in my candidacy
despite the fact that it was my first showing. There are some people
whose first showing was not up to 100,000. So, if my first showing was
300,000 when Lagosians were seeing me for the first time, know that my second showing will be far better.
Were you aware of the deal
between the Presidency and the APC government in which it was agreed
that the APC would support Jonathan while Jonathan would leave Lagos for
the APC? This has been confirmed by former Minister of Works, Adeseye
Ogunlewe.
I read it in Ogunlewe’s newspaper
interview and in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s open letter. Well,
I don’t know but despite the supposed deal, I still had over 300,000
votes but we are believing that this time around, such won’t happen if
it happened in 2011, more especially when our people have decided to
take their destinies in their hands and we are the ones that know where
the shoe pinches. No one outside Lagos can tell us this is the way when
we are the ones here.
But do you think the PDP will be accepted in Lagos given the fact that it has never ruled the state before?
One of the issues in Lagos is the fact
that contrary to general feelings and perception of our party by members
of the public, I want to tell you that the Lagos PDP you used to know
is different from the one of today. We are more united, focused and more
determined and, as a party, we are also operating on the basis of
teamwork. Lagosians have seen that and that has been
demonstrated. If you cast your mind to the last local government
elections we made an impact but unfortunately, you know what happened in
most of the places. Even places where election had been announced by
Returning Officers, the powers that be in the APC refused to allow our
party to take its mandate. As a peace-loving party, we did not want to
cause crisis or make the state ungovernable so, we used the
constitutional means, the tribunals, set up by the APC government but at
the end of the day, you see how the case went despite an overwhelming
evidence and that shows a level of political intolerance because to a
large extent, we were all living witnesses to the fact that the PDP had
conceded defeats in states that we even control but lost. We have 57
councils in Lagos, if the PDP wins six and you refuse to give it that
shows the level of political intolerance on their part.
The PDP both at the national and state
has shown a high level of responsibility. We have conceded defeat and
congratulated them. Even when INEC declared Fashola as winner, I
congratulated him and our President has always been doing that even when
they defeated our party, he would be the first to come out and say
congratulations. So, why can’t they imbibe this same spirit of
sportsmanship? So, these are some of the things Nigerians have been
seeing and making their own deductions that the PDP seems to be more
responsive and people-friendly and probably that is the reason why you
are seeing a sudden change about the perception of PDP, particularly in
Lagos. Everyday people are joining us in preparation for change because
there is no imposition in the PDP
You spoke on influx and no
possibility of imposition. However, there is a rumour that the
Presidency is supporting Jimi Agbaje. Doesn’t this affect your chances?
One thing I know very clearly is that
there is nothing like imposition in the PDP. Anybody is welcome in our
party. We will receive the news of his defection with joy. Even today,
if the Governor of Lagos decides to join the PDP, we will jubilate and
say, yes, come in. In politics, the school of thought I belong to is the
‘more the merrier.’ Joining a political party is one thing, ambition is
another thing; you must first join and then belong, contribute to the
development and building of the platform that you want to use. If you
come and you want to contest, you are free as long as you meet the
requirement of the constitution. So, we have no problem with anybody
coming in.
Oba Rilwan Akiolu has
endorsed an APC aspirant, Akinwunmi Akinbode. Isn’t this going to affect
you or whoever the PDP presents considering that politicians and
governments need the cooperation of traditional rulers?
The Oba of Lagos is a father of all and
as somebody, who also comes from that lineage, I believe that to a large
extent, he was expressing his personal opinion, not the opinion of the
people of Lagos. And he has a right to do so. I feel he was talking for
the APC not the PDP. Maybe tomorrow, if the PDP also picks its
candidate, he will come out and say, yes, before the candidate of the
PDP came up, I anointed Ambode but now that PDP has its candidate, I am
also supporting him. So, let us leave everything open, it’s the people
of Lagos that will decide, not the Oba.
As a Ph.D. holder in Public Administration, how do you see the current administration in Lagos?
When I see things happening at the level
of political authority, I get worried because a lot of people don’t have
the orientation for the office they are holding. Some look at things
from the point of view of a businessman and certain things in government
should be looked at from the point of view of the government and that
is why democracy is defined as government of the people, by the people
and for the people. Why is it not government of the elite or government
of the few? So, my driving point is that I intend to run a government
that will focus on the people. I believe in policies, not politics
because if you get policies right, you will run a government that will
have an impact on the people and to a large extent I believe whatever
government we run will address the basic reasons we have government:
public education, public health, infrastructure, welfare and security.
We pay tax because we are empowering the
government to be able to provide those basic responsibilities that are
entrusted to it. Nobody is asking government to put food on his table
but government should be able to build public schools and
infrastructure, roads; it should be able to provide public health, that
is why we have general hospitals, then welfare and security.
Government should provide good social
housing scheme. It has been done before. Alhaji Lateef Jakande did it,
he built over 14,000 flats within four years and he did not tell them to
go and bring something. He sold each flat for N6, 000 and each
beneficiary was paying N1, 500. That is social housing scheme.
Government has no business in any other kind of housing apart from
social housing. Today they build one house there for N40m. You don’t
need to build a house for somebody who has N40m; he can go and build his
house. Government housing should be for those who cannot ordinarily
afford it. The Lagos State Development Property Corporation is still a
corporation and a corporation is not supposed to make profit by
definition. LSDPC which Jakande used to deliver N6,000 flat each is the
same that is building N52m per flat today.
What of the many infrastructural developments of this present government?
See a situation where we have three
tollgates in one local government. That is not good governance and I
don’t know how anybody can justify that. There is one linking Ikoyi to
Lekki, two along the Lekki-Epe Expressway. It will cost about N25, 000
every month to each motorist in Lagos. Government should be mindful of
these things. We have the resources, we just need proper planning. Why
do we need to go into 30 years concession agreement with a company? Was
the bidding for the contract even transparent? The 48-kilometre
Lekki-Epe road cost N50bn, over N1bn per kilometre and they are still
going to collect tolls for over 30 years; that is bondage. So, many of
these policies need to be reversed.
You mentioned policy reversal
of the government. Will it include turning the transformed Oshodi back
to what it was and allowing okada riders to return to the highway?
During his first term, Fashola did some
things to endear himself to the people. We will change some of the bad
policies and retain the good ones. The Oshodi thing is an excellent one.
On the issue of okada riders, it
is not in Lagos alone that they were restricted. In Akwa Ibom, about
three years ago, they were banned but what aggravated that of Lagos was
the manner in which the government went about it. In Akwa Ibom, the
governor told me when I visited the place that after banning okada,
he told them to bring their bikes in exchange for N50,000 each. They
came and personally submitted their bikes. Don’t forget that some of
these okada riders took loans to procure these bikes. Some of
them have made some payments while for some it’s the N50,000 they will
use to start another business while those owing will offset their loans
with it. It was done in Kano but over there, the governor bought a lot
of tricycles and introduced a policy. In Lagos, they were seizing it and
crushing it. We are all living witnesses. A man who bought a bike on
loan that has it crushed is left with two pains. The pain of repaying
the loan and what he will eat. That is where I disagree with that
policy.
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