Senator Musiliu Obanikoro is a household name in Lagos and an enigma. He is poised to represent Lagos West Senatorial District at the National Assembly. In this interview, he traced his roots to the zone and highlighted some of his achievements during his first stint, giving reasons why he is in a vantage position now to serve his people.
THE news is everywhere that you are aspiring to represent Lagos West in the Senate. How true is this?
Yes. I am running and it is important that I do this. I am not contesting out of desperation, rather for the preservation of our heritage. I am not desperate because I believe power belongs to God. In addition, i am running because I believe having served at various levels and increased in stature by the grace of God, I can do more in the service of Lagos.
During your first stint in 2003, you represented Lagos Central. Why Lagos West now?
Well, firstly, do not forget that Obanikoro is originally from Lagos West. It is actually my ancestral home. Obanikoro is originally from Ojo Local Government and our fore-fathers created and named Idoluwo in Lagos island after Idoluwo in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State. I am also from Ikare, Oriade LCDA area of Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency. So, that is where my forebears came from and there is a saying in Yoruba that, no matter how sweet a place is, you can never forget your home. Therefore, it is homecoming as far as I am concerned. I am a son of the soil whether it is in Lagos West, Lagos Central or Lagos East; more so because my wife is from there. From whatever angle you view it, I am connected to the three senatorial districts in Lagos. Don’t also forget, Lagos is a cosmopolitan state and if people can come from other states to contest in Lagos, why can’t I, a bona fide Lagosian choose where I want to contest in my own state? As I have said, Lagos West is truly where we came from to settle in Lagos Island.
You are sounding so passionate about Lagos, what is your driving force?
I wasn’t too young when Lagos was created in 1967; hence there is history to Lagos which a lot of people do not know. Lagos is the bye-product of hard work and resilience of our founding fathers, who were hell-bent on removing the stigma of ‘no man’s land.’
At a point, they were so agitated to have their own state. To drive home the urge and the significance of the creation, they were ready to accept just Mainland and Lagos Island to ensure its creation as a state. Leaders like Brigadier-General Mobolaji Johnson, Justice Teslim Elias, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, the late Adeniran Ogunsanya, the late TOS Benson, Senator Sikiru Shitta-Bey and a host of others led the struggle for this state to be created and we lived through this struggle and the joy which followed when the battle for the creation was won.
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Can you highlight some of your legislative achievements during your first term in 2003?
We did a lot then and if I want to go on by way of record, I was the first senator from Lagos to demand a special status for Lagos on the floor of the senate although it did not pass. I must also commend the efforts of Senator Remi Tinubu, because I followed keenly her efforts in ensuring special status for Lagos which was in tandem with what I tried to achieve as a senator. I want to commend Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for finding a lasting solution to the ocean surge at the bar beach. I was also responsible for moving a motion that brought the Federal Government to Lagos to find a lasting solution to the perennial ocean surge.
The issue of casualisation of workers, which is strongly engaging the attention of the leadership of the labour union was one of such motions proposed as a law when I was in the senate. Engaging workers under this condition, to me, is slavery. When you employ an individual on casual contract, they have no right to anything and they work for years without any benefits accruing to them. Everybody knows that as we age, the capacity to work reduces; so it is an abuse of their productive years knowing fully well that when these casual workers get to their off peak, they will not have anything to fall back on as gratuity when they are old. To me, that is sheer cruelty and wickedness. I tried to ensure that we pass the law at that time to put an end to casualisation, but unfortunately, I think it went as far as second reading.
Also, if you look at the national stadium in Abuja, it is to the glory of God and my efforts that there is a velodrome covering the indoor area of the stadium today. There was a very severe thunderstorm, which blew it off when I was in the senate. It took two motions on my part to get it restored by Julius Berger. I had to move the motion twice because it didn’t get the desired attention at first. When the contractor, however, realised that I wasn’t going to back down, they moved in to fix it. I also introduced fuel pump certification bill. The amount of money that the average Nigerian loses to pranks played by fuel station owners is unimaginable and criminal. Most of them have tampered with the pumps with the sole aim of making undeserved/illegal profit on the back of hard working Nigerians and therefore, stealing their hard earned income, thus wrecking untold economic hardships on them. This bill would have eliminated that. The idea behind it was to make it a law to recertify these pumps every six months, but unfortunately, that also got to second reading before the end of our tenure. We did quite a lot and we achieved a lot in terms of motions and bills that we put in place. We were able to pass couple of bills but they did not have direct bearing on Lagos; but they did particularly for Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Being a grassroot politician that you are, have you thought of involving the youths and women folks in your campaigns and programmes?
For me, that is automatic. You cannot have effective politicking without involving women and youths. In fact, what I achieved as a young man struggling to be known politically is far more than what I am doing presently. I believe that the youths of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and so the earlier we engaged them, the better for the society. Any leader without succession plan must be a fool. So, training and mentoring them is part of the succession plan, because it is natural that you will quit the stage at some point and you want to be sure that the people who will succeed you, have the required capacity to also pass on to the generation that is coming after them, a better society than the one they inherited. I also believe in the engagement of all stakeholders; the spirit of the more the merrier is at play here. Bringing every segment of the society together is always a winning idea. Sidelining or marginalising any segment of the society for the other is always detrimental to the good of the society and no leader does that and succeed.
Do you think you can win with the direct primary which the party just introduced?
Let me start by informing you that it has always been in the party’s constitution, but the activation was, however, championed by Asiwaju and strongly supported by the president and the new chairman. We must thank the trio for returning the party to the people. This will give hope to the hopeless; ensure respect and pride of place for all.
Do you have the consent of the national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu on this ambition?
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the father of us all and politically, we are all under his umbrella. So, when your children are contesting for your attention, you try to be as fair as possible. Even if you prefer one to the other, you cannot show it. He is a father and we have to respect him for that. He is our benefactor. He is responsible for what most of us are today by the grace of God. We have to respect and honour him at all times.
What should the people of Lagos West Constituency expect from you?
The Lagos West is the most populated senatorial district in Nigeria, and apart from the fact that Lagos itself deserves special attention; we must begin to challenge our society to the reality of paying more attention to where the population is. If you look at civilised societies, they pay more attention to where they have large population, because if you do not take care of your people, they will resort to self-help and self-help can come in different shapes and forms. It can come in a positive or a negative form; but where people are neglected, most often we have self-help coming in the negative form. So, this is why government needs to invest more where our population is concentrated and there is no better place to jumpstart that kind of thinking, than Lagos West. We must come up with programmes that can engage the people and there are so many such programmes that we have thought of and we intend to work with other senators to ensure the programmes are initiated and passed into laws.
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