AS a key stakeholder in the state, what do you consider as the core challenges before the new administration in Lagos State?
The challenges include traffic management. They need to address it because it costs a lot of production hours, with the attendant ripple effects on our economy. So, we have told them. Of course, we are equally involved and we have to address it together. Interestingly, they have declared zero tolerance for driving against the traffic and non-compliance with traffic lights. Again, they have to address environmental issues and declared zero tolerance for bad management of refuse like throwing refuse into the drainage and abandoning refuse in front of houses and shops. They should be put in well-prepared refuse bags at clearly designated places for refuse trucks to clear, so that we can have a very clean environment. Potholes also cause traffic jam on our roads. And the government has directed those concerned to start fixing them. This is the first set of challenges facing the new government, and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his team are capable of handling them.
Lagosians expected that a new cabinet should have been put in place. Do you think the governor would pull through his cabinet and what is your expectation of the composition?
We expect a mixed grill in terms of the membership of the next cabinet. We expect professionals and technocrats to be involved. We expect politicians that know the people and can really interact with the people who voted us into power so that it would not be only technocrats who would not be able to interact with the people to know their needs. In short, we expect a cabinet of mixed grill. A situation, where those in government don’t interact with the people to seek their needs and their aspiration should be avoided because it is not good enough. We suffered it under the immediate past administration and the new team has learnt a lot from it. They are not outsiders in Lagos. They have been part of us since the last two decades. They know what we are talking about and that would not happen again.
There are cases of abandoned projects across the state. What is your take on the issue?
The Ambode issue is a wonderful issue. There is continuity in governance. The same citizens Ambode served are the same people that Sanwo-Olu is going to serve. There would be no abandoned projects in Lagos State. He (Sanwo-Olu) has said that severally and the party encourages that there should be no abandoned projects. Once the projects are studied and considered to meet the needs of the people, the government would get them done. The government is ready to prioritise them and pick all the abandoned projects and accordingly complete them. And many of the projects are on roads and other infrastructure. There is the need for many roads to be constructed in Lagos State and I can vouch for the new administration that it would not leave any road under construction unattended to. On rail and water ways, the two systems will always complement the road/vehicular transport system. I always say that it is better to synchronise the three; to let them work together. With water transportation, people exercise a lot of fear. But if the needful is done, it is one of the safest and fastest ways of travelling in Lagos State. I am sure the current administration in the state would take advantage and study it with a view to providing better safety elements for using water as a mode of travelling. On the rail system, Sanwo-Olu has assured that the rail line starting from CMS to Okokomaiko would be completed, and you can be sure that they are already thinking along that line; that only the vehicles on the road cannot eliminate congestion in the city without the compliment of other transportation means like the rail and water systems. So, the government should consider working seriously on the rail and water modes of transportation.
The increasing wave of insecurity has triggered persistent calls for state police in the country. What is your view on the matter?
My advice again is that we should encourage state police. We should put in place, as quickly as possible, machinery for the establishment of state police. If the personnel recruited are 80 per cent indigenes of the state, there is no terrible hot spots they would not know and to curb crime and arrest criminals promptly would be very easy. But that cannot be said of non-indigenes, who would have some considerations and sentiment for their kinsmen involved in crimes. State police will be beneficial to Lagos State as well as to other states in other parts of the country. With that system, Nigeria will be safer and more secure for all the citizens and non-Nigerians alike. Apart from the federal police, state police would complement the federal police and by that, the country would be better for it.
Lagos has been clamouring for a special status over the years. Do you envisage the desire coming to pass at all?
It will not be too difficult to get a special status for Lagos State this time around. One, the APC is in charge at both the federal and state levels and luckily, we have put in place the leadership of the National Assembly that should cooperate with the Executive to achieve the desire of the people. So, I am looking forward to something better this time around. With a friendly National Assembly, Nigeria will now go through a better experience because, as the members of the parliament are looking into the needs of the people, the executive arm of government will be also put its ears to the ground anticipating that when it sends bill to the National Assembly, it will get the priority attention.
With such development, Lagos will get the best because the state had been the federal capital and a lot of infrastructure that belongs to the Federal Government are here unattended to for the 16-year rule of the PDP. You can see that things have changed in the last three weeks that Buhari assumed his second term in office. The Federal Ministry of Works has been around, surfacing and resurfacing the roads to tackle the menace of the Apapa gridlock. So, all of us can look forward to better things this time around. The relationship between the National Assembly and the Executive would turn out to be better. Lagos State is the country’s economic capital, so you cannot abandon a state where you make all the money to maintain the rest of Nigeria. About 75 to 80 per cent of the Value Added Tax (VAT) comes from Lagos.
But between the granting of a special status to Lagos State and the demand for true federalism, which one would serve better?
The issue of federalism is very important in democracy. We are not in a military regime, where the head of the government is a military man that believes that every state is another battalion; that he controls absolutely. That is why we are saying we need a true federal system. Let a state plan how much it can pay its workers. Let it determine how much it can collect from the people as taxes. Let a state decide and agree that when it has money, this is the way it wants to spend it. A lot of things are in the Executive List that should be moved to the Legislative List. Let states generate their own power. There should be no exclusive interference on that matter. Railway should not be on the Exclusive List. The states must have rights to a lot of things put on Exclusive List. And that is why people are saying that we need complete federalism.
On the issue of local government system, we must encourage autonomy for the councils because they are the arm of the government that is closer to the people. What Nigerians should encourage the (local councils) do is to continue to champion openness, transparency and accountability on funds that go to local governments. Government should publish the funds on a monthly basis. Those in charge must tell the people what they would do with the money. It is better for the Local Governments and the states to have a better share of the Federal Revenue. So, if we do that, the country will be better for it.
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