Tokunbo Wahab, a governorship aspirant in Lagos State on the platform of All Progressives Congress, is a lawyer, human rights activist, and philanthropist. He has been a prodemocracy activist since his student days at the Ogun State Polytechnic, where he studied Mass Communications, and the University of Benin, where he studied Law. A native of Epe, an outskirt of Lagos, he grew up under parents who were notable community leaders and grassroots mobilisers in their time, in whose footsteps he has followed. At 42, Wahab is about the youngest among those aspiring to the governorship of Lagos State in APC. He says he intends to continue and expand the “progressive template” his party has drawn up for the development of the state. Wahab tells Vincent Obia how he is prosecuting his aspiration. Excerpts: What are the things you still want to change in the state, given the performance of the incumbent governor, which your party has consistently praised? In 1999, when our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was voted in, the mess he met in Lagos – heaps of refuse, bad roads, insecurity, etc. – was mindboggling. But he was not deterred. Rather, he dug in, got the best of hands, professionally and otherwise, to come on board. In the course of doing that, he was able to build a foundation, set a template. That template was from the progressive platform of the then Alliance for Democracy. Don’t forget that the law of the land does not allow for independent candidacy. So, invariably, you must believe in the vision or programme of a party and align with it. Why I’m I giving this background? Alliance for Democracy is the precursor of what we have today, in a way. It set the template, which the incumbent governor, my senior colleague, both at the University of Benin and as a lawyer, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has come to actualise. So what we are bringing to the table is continuation and consolidation of progressive governance. We believe that Lagos of this century is not Lagos of the past, and that Lagos, as the Centre of Excellence, would set the tempo for other states to follow. We believe that Lagos with $81 billion economic base, which is the fourth largest in Africa, needs a visionary to take it to the next level. We believe that Lagos will be attaining the megacity status in the next few years. Invariably, there must be full-scale infrastructure in place to drive that process. How much of a problem does the issue of imposition of candidates constitute for aspirants in APC? Anybody can go around and drop names that his has been anointed. But APC represents change and if our slogan is change, that change we must reflect in way we do things. There was a meeting of all the governorship aspirants at the instance of the national leader, Tinubu, on the night of Sunday (November 9). At the meeting, he made it very clear to everybody that people should desist from dropping his name because the party could not afford to go into any crisis of confidence, that there was a level playing field for every aspirant, and we should go and work. People should desist from creating crisis and tension in the system. If you go around dropping names, you are going to make your co-aspirants to doublethink about you. And if they don’t pick you at the primaries, and you have dropped names, what happens? For me, the party is bigger than all of us. I am a party man, from Alliance for Democracy, to Action Congress, to Action Congress of Nigeria, and now APC. I believe in the party and on that platform I can actualise my dream and work for Lagosians. And I believe my party, APC, has not anointed any governorship candidate and I believe none would be anointed. The primaries will determine our flag bearer. What is your assessment of the mode of campaigns by politicians ahead of the next general elections, particularly, as regards the attention to issues? The way we run politics and campaigns here is evolving. This is attributable to our longs years under the military. If there was no truncation of the First Republic, we would have crawled, slipped, and stood up again and learnt from our mistakes. But after six years of independence, the military struck. We were able to manage under the military toga, which is authoritarian. By 1979, we transited to civil rule again, but it only lasted for four years, it was truncated by the military. It took us back. In 1991 there were elections, 18 months later the whole thing collapsed, until 1998. It is evolving. On the campaigns, we on the platform of APC have made our agenda clear. They include employment, security, health, education, agriculture, housing, etc. If you go to all the APC-controlled states, you would the touch of our programme in the visions of the governors. Go to Ogun, Oyo, Edo, all the APC states, there is massive infrastructural renewal. Are there people funding your campaign? If yes, are you not worried that these financiers may burden you, if you are elected governor, with requests you may not be able to resist even though they are not in the interest of the state? Before making this move, I had asked myself fundamental questions as to whether I was ready for the contest, and the answer was yes. God has been very wonderful to me as a young man. My needs are minimal. I know I have the resources to put an alternative on the table for Lagosians. But that does not mean that some people who know what we have stood for over the years have not shown interest in this project. I have always said it, if I have a vision, I have to water it before someone else helps me to put manure. We have gotten support across board, from market women, etc. I will draw a parallel, the Obama parallel. When he was contesting, he was an outsider to the Democratic Party structure. But people that believed in his vision sowed seeds. People of my generation are standing up, in fairness, with donations beyond my wildest imagination. That also sends a strong message that you can take money from the till, but that does not guarantee you victory. Nigerian voters are getting more enlightened by the day. Your party is favourably disposed to the idea of state police, contrary to what the federal government feels. If elected governor, how would you handle security under this circumstance? In many democracies of the world, there is county police, state police, and federal police. Policing is a communal thing. You can’t be fighting crime in a community you are not familiar with. The fears of opponents of state police are for political reasons. If you put this side-by-side the gains, if we have state police we will massively cut down crime. Even as it is today, the state governments don’t have control over the police, but they are the ones funding it to cut down crime. I believe state police is the way to go. I believe we must amend the constitution to allow those states that can finance state police to have it. Those that cannot should not be coerced into it. If you post the man from Jigawa to Lagos as Commissioner of Police, it would take him six months to know the terrain. But somebody from the state knows the terrain. If there is something happening at a place, he knows who to call. So we must not throw away the baby with the bathwater. For those that fear it could be used for political witch-hunting, I tell them if we start it, with time the system will evolve. Let us start, make mistakes, correct our mistakes, and achieve what we seek to achieve. For instance, when gun licensing started in America, the shooting rate was high. But when it got to a point, you know I have a gun and I know you have a gun, there was mutual respect. The incumbent governor has been able to deepen the security infrastructure with the Lagos State Security Trust Fund. He has been able to attract the interest of the private sector to the fund. That is why you see a massive, unprecedented investment in security in the state. The citizens and the private sector have been made to see that they are partners in progress with the government. So what I will do as governor is to deepen what we have on ground. What in your estimation puts you ahead of the other governorship aspirants in APC? I will call it breath of fresh air. At 42, I think I am the youngest in the race. I am bringing to the race competence, character, and capacity. Lagos needs somebody who has energy to withstand the rigours and challenges of the 21st century Lagos. The incumbent governor has been accused of being elitist in his approach to governance. Recently, traders in the state held a protest march to complain that they were not being carried along. Okader riders and others among the masses have also made similar complaints. How would you handle this issue of inclusiveness if elected governor? Let me start with the okada riders, and we have to be objective here. The ban on okada is only affecting four per cent of the road network in Lagos. And those are major highways. It is also a known fact that the rate of bike-related accident has dropped tremendously. Thirdly, it is a known fact that the crime rate has dropped tremendously. In as much as the okada ban on some major highways is being politicised by the opposition, don’t forget that the federal government is planning to ban motorbikes all over the country. Some PDP governments have banned okada. To the market men and women, I believe they are part and parcel of the system. We shall continue to engage them, listen to them. We are going to have our differences, but what makes us democrats is that we are going to resolve those differences by dialogue. Whoever accuses the incumbent governor of being elitist is not fair. The massive infrastructure development that has been embarked upon by this government is in areas populated by the mass of Lagosians. Go to the Aboru corridor, Ipaja, Ayobo, Command linking Abeokuta express road. Look at the Okoko corridor, the Blue Line. Are you telling me the elite are the ones
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 21:40:03 +0000
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