We learnt that recently, President Goodluck Jonathan advised PDP governorship aspirants in the state to choose one person that will be acceptable to the public even the opposition.
As a leader of the party in the state, do you have a preferred candidate for the position of governor?
The issue at stake is of importance to the future, because it is about those who will manage resources of this state to the benefit of the people of the state. It is very apt and I am happy that you asked such a question. I would answer it exactly the same way the president answered his own when he came to visit us in Lagos.
I think it was Senator Bucknor-Akerele who asked the same pertinent question. She said to the president, ‘Mr President, I am told that you have a preferred candidate’. President Jonathan said, no, ‘I don’t have any preferred candidate. But everywhere I go, I hear one name, to my left, right, centre and even back’. He also said that some of his friends outside are mentioning the same name. Now, you see in this game, all members of the party, as a leader, are your children. Politics and military operation are similar although they are not completely the same, but they are similar.
He said he didn’t have any preferred candidate but if there is one name that is reverberating all over the place including the other side, that kind of person will also be his own preferred candidate.
Meantime, because it is a lot of money to get the forms for the aspirants, he said they should tarry awhile and be careful that they should go into serious retrospection and do a deep-seated thinking and don’t waste their money. They also heard like everybody that it is what the public is saying.
As a naval officer, I would say don’t swim against the tide. That is putting it in a milder
form. He said they should also hear like he heard and they should try and work together and we should ensure we turn it round.
For me, that was purely advisory. The voice of your Papa, when he is advising you, you don’t throw that into the dustbin. Listen to the voice of your leader and the voice of your elders. All along, as I told many of them, this game is not just us alone doing election; it has a link all the way. So, the first step is very important and you watch your leader like we say in politics. The leaders are also having
meeting with them, those that you can convince. Let’s reduce the number because N12 million is big money and is non-refundable. He said he would still come back and see how best we are able to manage.
Let the aspirants discuss among themselves and let the elders do their best and that he will soon come back because Lagos is so strategic for the government of this country. This is because Lagos State is the economic nerve centre of Nigeria and also the economic nerve centre of West Africa. So who governs Lagos, should not just be the business of the Lagosians alone, it has to be the business of the whole nation. All eyes are on Lagos. If we get the right candidate with the right
attitude, pedigree, educational qualification and whatever it is, because not only the downtrodden people are affected, the middle level people also and the business community is also affected.
How many aspirants is the party leadership talking to?
Since the president left after he advised the aspirants, by my reckoning, we have about seven or eight who came up, but now we have about three or a maximum of four who are still in the race. We know at the end of this day, the elders are still meeting and we want people to look at it dispassionately and you don’t force it down on them.
We learnt that you are queuing behind Mr. Jimi Agbaje and we also learnt that Obanikoro said he is supported by the President. With this, it seems we are having a two-horse race. There is also this belief that there is a third force coming up in the South-West, if not in Lagos where
your likes that are elders are giving way to the young generation?
No matter the amount of clothing that a young person has, he will never have as many rags as an old man. You don’t buy that. You live through it. When a child goes to the bush to cut the tree, it is the old man that will know where it will fall. As I said, this is the season of rumours. They can flex the muscles.
That he resigned because the president endorsed him, that is the greatest lie. I think the President who came and made the statement I told you is still very much alive. Are you saying that Wike too, it is the president that said he should resign and he endorsed him, who signed the papers? Was it the president that signed the paper?
I have defined the type of candidature we should have. A man with sound pedigree, who you can trace his lineage, with sound education, a man who has shown semblance of top management, who is respectable, responsible, acceptable and manageable, marketable to all the three tiers of existence.
He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Any skeleton in your closet, just ease yourself out quietly. Nobody will come and cover up here. We will expose all of them to you, the media. You will fire questions at them and you check out on them.
The president didn’t endorse anybody. You know when he was giving the valedictory speech at the Federal Executive Council Meeting, he said let me advise you, those who want to go should think deeply, look at it dispassionately. You still have room between now and Monday to submit. So, if he is endorsing, he would have just said ‘well done my ministers, you have done well, go. People are saying Chief Bode George has endorsed this one. The same thing is on the street of Lagos that I have carried Koro (Obanikoro) on my head. That I have endorsed Koro. But I can’t endorse anybody; the people will endorse who they want very soon.
Among those that have come out as aspirants, does any of them possess these qualities you enumerated?
Also, is the party going to set up a committee to screen these aspirants?
Oh yes! The first thing is you get the form and fill it. They will appear before a screening committee and the qualities I mentioned earlier are the things they will look at. Even if they go and cover, will the media cover them? Like facts can be verified just with a punch on your computer or handset.
They will do screening, thorough screening. This is because INEC rules are very clear. The opposition too is waiting for you to bring a wrong man, so that they can have an easy win. When you go through that screening process, there would be an appeal also. Then you now go for the real thing. And what I have said now include those vying for the State House of Assembly, House of Reps, Senate, the governors and the presidency.
There is this clamour for a Christian governor in Lagos in 2015. Will your party be toeing this line? Will your party zone the governorship to a particular zone in the state?
You know the beauty of Lagos State; I tell you, is that you find people whose parents came from Epe or Ikorodu and they have lived on the West Senatorial District for years. Lagos is big in population but it is very compact.
What are you zoning? The fluidity of the people is not as serious as if you go to the next state, Ogun. In Ogun, the Yewa people are Yewa; the Ijebus are Ijebus and the Egbas are the Egbas.
Then you go to Ogbomosho, Oke Ogun and then you come to Ibarapa area. The areas are well defined. But Lagos is a melting point. And we have had to accept that because on the flip side, we enjoyed the economic activities.
In the last registration exercise, Lagos had 5.8m registered voters. That is the highest in the country. If you look at the number, how many are indigenes? But the population is high because it is the commercial nerve centre of this country. This story about zoning the position to this place or that, you will just be getting into more trouble.
Pentecostal, the Catholic, tons and tons of them. If they are demanding for it, whatever it takes, you follow the waves. Don’t swim against the tide. And we didn’t start it.
The Emperor in Bourdillion too quickly anointed somebody. Ambode’s father was a Cherubim and Seraphim member. It is just like what the Number one was advising when he came. He said anywhere he goes, this is the name he is hearing and if you remain deaf to it, you remain deaf to it to your detriment.
So, if they said that is what they want, everybody will comply. Though it is not like a Berlin Wall. But it is a strong parameter in the equation and we must follow it if we want to win the minds of the people.
Is your party desperate to win Lagos?
The people of Lagos State are desperately in need of a new government. They want a change, 16 years on a bridge that has led to nowhere. It is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, you can’t go forward, and you can’t jump off. So, the people are tired.
Look at the whole belt of Lekki, the amount of money you pay on toll. Governance is about easing
the pressure on the people, but they had turned it into inflicting more pain on the people. People are tired and they need a change.
Why has it been difficult for PDP to win in Lagos State, or put differently, how will PDP handle the crisis that always thwart its efforts to succeed in Lagos?
Because the tempo rises towards election, we have a management methodology of easing this. This time round, those attributes, extraneous forces that used to destabilise Lagos, we will make sure
that forces will be clipped. When you have people who think that they know your house more than you but how can they solve the problem in your house. That is simply put. But you will sit, you will plan.
They will do some counter planning and manipulate the process and somehow pomp up some ‘unpopular’ candidate. That is it. But you can’t know my house more than me. But what we are doing now is to avoid this pitfall to ensure that such extraneous forces that personalised
things that were never the interest of the party and of the people of Lagos State, we would not allow them to come.
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