Real reasons I should be next Lagos East senator —Abiru

With the stage obviously set for next Saturday’s Lagos East senatorial poll in Lagos State, economist and chartered accountant, Mr Tokunbo Abiru, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), bares his mind to journalists on the prevalent challenges and issues in hissenatorial district and the dynamics in Lagos politics. KUNLE ODREMI brings some excerpts:

 

AT what point did you retire from banking and join partisan politics?

I had already the mindset that I was going to retire at the end of this year. It was not clear to me what I was going to do when I retire. When this opportunity came, I reflected on it and thought it made a lot of sense. And I will explain the reason. In the course of my career, between 2011 and 2013, I was appointed the Commissioner for Finance under the Babatunde Fashola administration. It was a four-year arrangement. After two years, I, on my own, stepped down to wrap up my career. At the time I joined government in 2011, I was just Deputy General Manager (DGM). As at that time, that was the limit of the management career because it is from the DGM one will become an Executive Director. For me, I do not think wrapping up my career in private sector, as the DGM was the best thing a man can be. That is not the way I want to account for my own career. Yes, Commissioner for Finance is a great job with great exposure. It gave me an indication of how government is run and how things are done in the public sector. But if you look at it from the perspective of focus, I needed fulfilment in my own career. After two year, I had to engage the governor that I had to go. I remember my conversation with him. He said to me that my assignment was just four years. I insisted that I had to go. I replied him: ‘You are a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Despite the fact that you are a governor, you got to the peak of your career. How will I write my story in future that from the DGM, I became a commissioner for finance?’ I can always come back to the public service. When the opportunity came this time, it was part of the reasons I had to fast-forward my retirement time to August 31. Coming into public space is not completely accidental. It was occasioned by the opportunity that presented itself. It was also due to the prior motive that I had. I thought it was a better story to tell that I had accomplished one and moved to the other. I have been tested with human and material resources, and I delivered on it.

 

People are saying the way you are going about the campaign is like you are contesting a governorship election. They believe you do not need to go that far because you are contesting on the platform of a ruling party and your chance of winning is brighter than other candidates.  Why the elaborate campaign?

I will not describe it as an elaborate campaign as such. If you are familiar with Lagos East senatorial district, you will come to this conclusion. First, it largely comprises indigenous people of Lagos. We are talking about Epe, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikorodu, Kosofe and Somolu. Outside Ikorodu, which is my origin, I am not sure I am well known in these locations. Second, if you look at the composition of people along this belt, you will find a commonality there. And that belt is composed of Ijebu-speaking people, especially in Epe, Ikorodu, Ibeju-Lekki and Somolu. For somebody, who has spent his life in the private sector, I cannot take things for granted. Let it be that people actually know me. I have to move around and explain myself to them. Also, I crisscrossed all the local government areas (LGAs) in Lagos East. We have five LGAs as constituted under the 1999 Constitution. We equally have 11 local council development areas (LCDAs), making 16. I needed to crisscross all these local councils. Part of what people are saying is that they do not know me. This is what actually galvanise me to move round and secure public acceptance so that people will not think we are taking them for granted. It was important to garner people’s acceptance.

Part of what I learnt on the field is that our democracy may be young, but it is gradually getting deepened. People too are asking questions regarding who their leaders should be. As that was coming to my consciousness, the issue of apathy was also coming up. When you talk to people, you find out that they are remote and not happy generally. The reasons for the apathy are not far-fetched. One is the state of economy. Two is the compounding case in the issue of COVID-19. As a result, there is need to make myself well known. We, also, need to moderate the issue of apathy. This takes me to something critical. I think the bye-election is more difficult than the general election. That is the reality. A general election is like carnival. There are other candidates contesting for different political offices. We have those contesting for the Office of the President. We also have those contesting for governorship and legislative positions at the federal and state levels. It is like a carnival in town that everybody feels. But the bye-election is so tricky. We have to wake people up that something is going on. A lot of people do not even know. We have to let them know. It is not meant to be a presidential or governorship election campaign. We are just doing the right thing a democratic setting should embrace.

 

You are just coming into politics, though you once served as commissioner. Let us compare where you are coming from and where you are going to. What are the things people lack and what are you likely to do to get things done?

If I compare where I am from and where I am going into, honestly, there is a common feature. That common feature is what I can call service. Banking, for instance, is about service. I am sure you will agree with me because all of us are account owners or holders. Even if you go to Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) and it does not respond to you, you know all the crisis you can create. So, it behooves on the bank to just get some arrangement whereby people get their money. Politics, to me too, is about service. That is one belief that I hold. This tells you that I have just handled one type of service and I am getting into another type of service. What do I do to meet the need of my people? First, the answer is almost obvious to all of us. People need all things that can improve Human Development Index (HDI). People need good roads, stable power supply, good governance and accountability, among others. Given my background, what I am going for is not an executive position. So, I will see it in terms of good governance and accountability. All through my career, I have been guided along the path of accountability and good governance. I will also use this as an illustration. If I have had the privilege of saving a bank, it is like you have saved a community. The staff strength of the bank is about 10,000 people. If that bank went under, it means 10,000 people would have lost their jobs. It, also, means over 40,000 dependents would have been in disarray. Then, it was a bank that has four million customers with over N1 trillion deposit. You can imagine what will happen if that bank collapses. That means I am coming with the background of someone, who has been tested both human and material resources. With all sense of modesty, I have delivered on it. With the kind of experience I have gathered over the years, it tells me clearly that part of the conversation around this country today is somebody who can bring quality representation. I must tell you that this is not an executive role. I cannot tell you that I will go and construct road here. I cannot tell you that I will go and provide water there. I see a legislative role as more of facilitation and influencing. The kind of background and pedigree I have will come into play.

Let me give you some examples. When I visited Epe, I went from Ikorodu. I have not travelled from Ikorodu to Epe by road for a very long time. But I was shocked as to the state of the road when I was going. I was really shocked. So, we had this session in Epe. It was a raining day and the journey was tortuous. I was so tired that I told my campaign that if you were returning to Ikorodu, I was going to Lagos. I did not realise that I was going to have another experience. Coming from Epe through Lekki was another bad experience. This is where ones background and pedigree come to play. I just picked my phone and called my former boss, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who is today the Minister of Works and Housing. I told him that if you did not want people to stone you, you had to do something on this road. I equally called the governor and told him the same thing. I told him that Ikorodu-Itoikin-Epe road was a federal road. If you are talking about Lekki-Epe road, it is a state road. I have known the governor for more than 20 years. We were in banking together. Even his deputy, we served together under Fashola. While he was the commissioner for works and infrastructure, I was the commissioner for finance in the same cabinet. Why am I bringing this up? it is because you have a pedigree that has a wide influence; it is going to make the job easier. I may not have executive power, but I can reach out. I can confidently tell you that we have gone far on the Lekki-Ibeju road, mainly from Abraham Adesanya Housing Estate to Epe. We have to mount pressure on the governor to do something about the road. The pressure also gingered him that he could not leave the road that way. For me, we can serve role models for the upcoming youths. We can shape them because they can just assume leadership roles blindly.

 

Governance is a personal touch with the youths, the old, the less privileged and the vulnerable. How can these people in the senatorial district feel your impact?

First, they will feel my impact through legislation and facilitation. Beyond this, I have a constituency office in Ikorodu. It was properly set up with a vision beyond winning the bye-election. I do not hope to replicate the same in other LGAs because it will be a waste in this age of technology. At best, I probably can have satellite offices in LGAs. It will just be a small one so that we do not waste resources we can use for the betterment of the society. But I deliberately set up the Ikorodu Office up because it is important I have coordinating office beyond my campaign office. Beyond the primary roles of legislation, facilitation and influencing, a senator is expected to anchor. I, on my own, will establish an empowerment and endowment programme, having been around and seen the level of poverty, the rate of unemployment and the number of vulnerable people. You just need to go on a campaign trip. Part of it that worries me is the number of young people, young women, older people that are running after us. If these people are engaged or have their means of livelihoods, they will not probably be doing this. If you want to campaign in an estate, probably a well-organised one, you have to look for a weekend or else you will not get any person to attend because these are people, who are engaged. You will not see any person if you go to any organised estate during the week. The number of people that followed us from Ikorodu to Epe was huge. Some will join us on the road on their bikes. This has been my burden. I keep asking the party, what happens to these people after the campaign? It is not something I can do alone. But I believe strongly that I can lead by example.

 

Lekki Free Zone falls within Lagos East. There has been a complaint that most companies are bringing in foreigners to work there while thousands of youths have nothing. How do you intend to handle this situation?

Lekki Free Zone is within the new industrial belt of Lagos State. We have the Free Trade Zone there. We also have Lekki Deep Sea Port. We equally have the Dangote Refinery there. Of course, these kinds of projects will ordinarily, by economic terms, create a lot of multiplier effects in terms of dependencies for those who are into real estate and other sectors. For those who hold this notion that the operators will bring in imported capital both in terms of cash and human being, I think they are exaggerating it. There are laws in this country that regulate who comes and what comes. Just like the laws, economic policy is structured to attract more foreign direct investments into the state, which I think, should be encouraged. Part of what we need to look at policy framework to ensure that there is a balance between the FDIs and its employment components. The owners of the FDIs will show concern in their capital. Restaurants will spring up. Are they going to bring foreigners to work there? There will be a lot of labour needs.

 

Lagos has been on the issue of special status for a long time. If you are elected, how are you going to address it?

The issue of special status has been with us for a long time. We can trace the origin to 1976 during the time of General Murtala Mohammed. He actually initiated the need to relocate Federal Capital Territory from Lagos to Abuja. He also mentioned that given the level of federal government assets that have been invested in Lagos be it seaport, airport and even flyovers, among others, they will continue to be sources of attraction for those outside of Lagos. That is what we call rural to urban migration. He went further to say that there is need for the federal government to have a special arrangement to sustain these assets for the benefit of all. If we cast our mind to that period and to 1990 when General Ibrahim Babangida, we can see that Lagos still remain both the commercial, entertainment, financial and tourist capital of Nigeria. It behooves on us to find a way to continue to enhance the facilities that are attracting a lot of people here. If you speak to the Lagos State Government, they will tell that the population growth rate of this country is at an average of 2.5 per cent. But the rate of people migrating to Lagos is in excess of 3 per cent. So, the pressure is so much. You see traffic here. You see traffic there. It is welcome. But we need to enhance those structures until we get true federalism. We cannot stop the arrangement for special status. We will continue to agitate for it. That is the way they are treating Abuja as well. Abuja is centrally funded from the national budget. The federal government cannot leave Lagos for the Lagos State Government. If you look at the rehabilitation of the road from the seaport to tollgate, it is rigid pavement concrete structure. You can image the cost of that road and you leave that to just one government. Even if you take a look at the budget of this government, this financial year is about N1 trillion. In terms of size, Lagos is supposed to be the smallest state in Nigeria. That tells you the kind of pressure in this state. Also, you see what happened recently. The good intentioned  #EndSARS protest, the hijack and the destruction barely tell us that we do not have a choice than to support the facilities that are attracting people to Lagos State. Special Status, of course, is a just agitation.

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