Former Permanent Secretary in Lagos State Government service now an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant ,Mr. Abdulahmed Olorunfemi Mustapha, speaks with KUNLE ODEREMI, on his decision to run, as well as his chances and plans after primaries.
Party politics is no tea party. How prepared are you for the challenges head?
We strongly believe that our party in the South-West right here when apc was founded in 2014, what we sold to the public was that we had performed in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo states and that we are going to do things different from the way the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was doing them. We believe strongly that the more people listened to our ideas on how to accelerate development in Lagos State; they are coming to our side in droves. And we are not diverting into this, I have been a member and during my days in the United States even before coming to work for the Lagos State government. Most of the major power blocs, even in the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) are people I have known all my life. So, we are not new to this; we might have a technocratic thing, but we have been part of the process that we are known to all the major stakeholders. We have been working with the stakeholders. We believe we will be able to achieve our objectives of being the representatives and the candidate of the APC in Lagos State, come May 2023.
What is so special that you are bringing to the table; something that has never happened in governance in Lagos since 1999?
I have over 35 years experience in finance, information technology and project management. When I graduated, I worked for KPMG, where I was able to counsel a lot of world-class businesses in the united states . The last seven years of my life was working for the city of New York as an assistant executive director with financial information service agency. We provided the support for the application being used in finance, human resources, payroll, debt management system for the entire 99 agencies of New York City. In fact, I was part of the team that led the transformation of the HR and the payroll processes in the city of New York, for which we won an award in 2005. Coming back home, I have been part of the reform process in ICT, the first city programme which attracted more than $200 million investment to Lagos State from IFC, when I was at the office of Overseas affairs. When I was in the ICT, the mass-city project, the land administration, to automate the land processes in Lagos State so that you can get your certificate of occupancy within seven days, the single and centralised system that enables any one to pay to the state from any part of the world; the Land Use charge, which we increased the enumeration that will allow the state to be able to generate about N10 billion a year and we came up with a plan that will enable the state to generate N100 billion for the state a year. And during the Ambode administration, we were able to get about N40 billion when we were managing that project. On power, we connected all the 20 general hospitals and now all of them are getting nothing less than a minimum of 20 hours of power supply. . we also came up with the plan , bringing in the private sector and the public sector to create a power exchange in Lagos , which will allow us to be able to bring in the private sector and public sector so in conjunction with the owners of these stations, the banks, the eateries, we will be able to charge the private sector like $70 per kilowatts of electricity and the public sector like N50 per kilowatts. So Lagos state is uniquely placed to to be able to solve the power challenge in the country in terms of hospital facilities, we looking at working with the General Electric to provide hospital equipment on a lease. So the money that would hitherto used to buy one equipment, we can use to lease 50 to 60. And by the grace of God, we will be able to guarantee that we would be able to equip all the hospitals in lagos within an accelerated timeframe. The same thing with schools, using because when I go back to memory lane, one of the things I am bringing onboard is that my experience in New York city allowed me to be able to understand the framework that helped the city to accelerate development in healthcare, education, security. In education, for instance, the city of New York has an entity called New York School Construction Authority, which allows them to borrow from the bond market to accelerate the building of schools in the city. Therefore, we plan the same thing: to set up the Lagos state school construction authority, using some of the funding from the UBEC, Consolidate Revenues and the school cut from lottery. So, with that, you can put together about N10 billon to N15 billion annuities that are regular. Based on that, we will be able to borrow from the market and build 200 to 300 new schools within an accelerated timeframe. This is part of the kind of thinking, in terms of security, we will adopt the use of drones, Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras, improve the command control infrastructure so that we will make sure that Lagos State is monitored 24/7. Immediately we come into office, we will get a private entity to provide radio, so all the Lagos State security apparatus will be on one single communication protocol and we will establish security monitoring centres in all the five regional divisions in the state,. That will improve the response time for the management of the security apparatus.
Some critics claim that a lot more ought to have been achieved in Lagos since 1999,  given the enormous resources at its disposal in the face of core challenges. What is your view?
One thing you have to understand is the gamut of challenges in the state, looking at the population of more than 20 million people. A large number of people move into Lagos. An average of 86 persons comes into the state every hour. And less than 10 percent of them do go back. You are the only team working. You go our hospital facilities in Ifako and 50 percent of those receiving care are from Ogun State; you go to Isolo, about 70 percent of the people that are receiving service are from the east. This is an empirical evidence and not fiction. So the more we do, the more the pressure is. We can’t push people back because we have an open border. It is not like when you get a permit before coming to Lagos. So, the pressure is enormous. So people are just looking t the money that comes in, but you are not lo the amount of services that needs to be delivered. So what we are saying is that, one, mindful of that challenge; mindful of that pressure, we would now be able to collaborate with the private sector to aggressively outsource funding from international organizations such as the IFC, who will now be able to make available access to credit facilities based on good governance  that will already have in place and we will be able to attract additional funding. We will also look at setting up something similar to what they have in the city of new York, a Lagos state business council which will integrate the private sector into service delivery. . for example, Microsoft is providing about $10 billion for education in the city of new York. So, we will set standard along with the security. Our framework is people, process and technology.
Incumbent Governor is seeking a second term ticket. He has succeeded in lobbying major stakeholders in favour of his bid? What does this pose to your ambition?
We believe that our chances are very higher and bright because the more people listen to us and they know us within the political establishment. So, we are not new; they know some of the work we have done on behalf of the party in the past. So, they are very receptive to our ideas; they are very receptive to what we plan to do for the state because this is not a patronage thing. So, we have an efficient and democratic party structure. And the more they listen to us, the more they share our ideas, the more they read about what we have done in the past, they believe that they would be able to take that leap of fate with us to massively transform Lagos state beyond what we presently have.
I have I had the opportunity of working at the background to support the party since it was formed. We remain stakeholders. The more people listen to our ideas, they are willing to give us the chance. So, we believe in the party; we believe the election will be transparent. And we are ready to live by the outcome.
In the event that your bid for the ticket of Lagos APC is not successful, what will be your Plan B?
I am a professional. And as a loyal and faithful party member, I am not going anywhere. We will stay and support the party in any position. We believe in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and we believe in what he stands for and we will do our best to support his aspiration.
What your attitude to the issue of autonomy for local council, which has almost become the appendage of state governments?
That is controversial; that is the state of the law; there is nothing anyone can do about that. But what I want us to be mindful is that because of the specialisation of service to be delivered; because of the amount of investments that is required in some instances, it is necessary for the state and the local government to collaborate.
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