Mr. Jimi Agbaje contested as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State in 2015 and 2019 and lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on both occasions. However, the suave politician said he is not tempted to dump his party for the ruling party as some of his colleagues had done. In this interview with OLUDOTUN OSHUNRINADE, Agbaje speaks on issues affecting the Lagos and what he would have done better if he had been elected as Governor.
have not heard much about you after the 2019 General Elections; what has been happening to you?
I always wonder when people say they’ve not heard anything from me after the election. We need to understand that after an election, the candidate needs to step back. He goes to the elections campaigning on what he believes and at the end of the day the people have voted for the kind of man that they felt could do it. For the candidate who is not the winner, he should allow the person that has been voted in to work.
It is not expected of the candidate that did not win to continue on the campaign trail. That is why for me, if you look at what I have been saying, it is the people that will take over after the campaigning. A presidential system of government is different from parliamentary system of government. In a presidential system of government, it is winner takes all and once the winner takes all, it is the people that will now check the winner.
You can see what happened recently, it is the people that responded. People are saying that they did not hear from me, it is the people that will speak and not me and that is how it should be.
I will continue to put my position across; I do through the social media. It is not my role any longer to start saying that the governor has not tarred that road or he has not done some things. That is not my role any longer.
I am particular about issues like education, are we doing it right? In recent times, when Okadas (motorcycles) were banned in Lagos State, I looked at the implications of unemployment, how are we going to deal with that. It is not for me to talk a about the things the governor has not done.
But, how would you assess the government of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu in Lagos State?
I think for me, the fundamental issues in a megacity should be addressed. A megacity is growing in leaps and bounds and whatever you want to do must have a great impact on a large number of people. My belief is that some of the things I stated in the last election should be addressed. Let’s talk about education, for instance, and when I say education, it’s not about university or secondary education. I am referring to skill acquisition, and I will ask what are we doing in that regard? I will talk about health and in the course of the campaign, I spoke about healthcare. I see again the fallout of our healthcare system, when we were challenged by the infrastructure on health and we have just had one year of COVID-19, and we can see what is happening in the health sector. So, I will say we should go back and look at the issues of education, healthcare and infrastructure, transportation and all that. How well have we achieved some of these goals?
Lagos State has been managed by the progressives for over 20 years, and it is seen as one of the biggest economies in Africa, would you say the progressives have done well?
When you talk about progressives, I am a progressive and I don’t belong to the ruling party. Many people that call themselves progressives are not necessarily progressives. Again, during the campaign I spoke about the fact that how many of our children are gainfully employed in Lagos State, so we need infrastructure in terms of education; how good is our educational infrastructure? Do we have social welfare infrastructure for the vulnerable and for the poor? That is the way you judge a government. It is very fundamental that we make Lagos State what it should be.
How would you have managed COVID-19 as the Governor of Lagos State?
If you like at it, the issue of COVID- 19 pandemic management has to do with how you are able to contain it. Look at the social welfare in that sector. If we have a proper public health system, we would have had a structure already on ground to handle that. That was why we had the haphazard arrangement. In terms of response, well they did well, but on the social aspect of it there is still a lot to be done.
Let us look at the 2019 General Elections; do you agree that the APC won in Lagos State?
I don’t want to talk about the 2019 election, it has passed. If you want to talk about it, you must look at what transpired, the violence, the intimidation and all that. Lagos State had the worst turn out of voters, only 18 percent of the voters came out to vote in the election. People were intimidated such that they could not come out for the governorship election; when you are talking of democracy, the percentage of those that came out is poor.
People are looking at the PDP, it’s like you are not giving the APC a good opposition unlike what the APC did in the country then?
You have to look at this critically, the PDP accommodated c r i t i – c i s m s and allowed human rights and civil rights. But the APC is not open to such. You have to look at when you have lost elections after being in power for a long time, it would take time to recover. You had been in power and you need to recover from those things you took for granted. Like I said, this government does not accommodate constructive criticism.
Would you say the problem of the country is leadership after 60 years of independence?
I don’t want to talk about leadership, I concentrate more on followership. I keep saying that if the leader does want to lead, then the followers too should do something. That is why I would say I am happy with what has happened in recent times. You need to insist on what you want. Yes, we have a failure of leadership, what of failure of followership.
What is your take on the last protest against the police brutality and the violence that followed as well as the issue of police reform?
The violence was not done by the protesters. The protests were peaceful. It was believed that some people staged the protest and the hoodlums took over later. We all agree that the Nigerian police need reform. We have been saying that we should decentralise our police and go for police reform. I support police reform, which I think is essential.
Are we going to see Mr. Jimi Agbaje coming out for another elective office in 2023 and is your party ready to take over Lagos State in 2023?
My coming out in 2023 does not matt e rnow, but I believe that my country and state could be better than this. I am not so particular about contesting for offices. Looking at the PDP in Lagos, you will see that a party has ruled the state for 21 years, so you are fighting an entrenched system. I always say that the people would decide that enough is enough and we can see that now.
But have you never been tempted to join them, if you cannot beat them, the way some politicians in the state have done?
Anyway, I am different from them. There is nothing I’m looking for that can make me join them. It is not an issue of whether there have been overtures or not, that is common everywhere.
How would you describe Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, some people see him as a genius as he has been able to have his way most times?
He has been able to have his way thus far, let’s see how it goes.
Would you say the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari has been able to fight corruption?
But you can see corruption everywhere; many people go to offices for personal gains. If you want to do a proper education, proper healthcare, and you want to do real infrastructure and want a state like Lagos have a good mass transit system, then there would be less money to steal. Look at the amount of money they are spending on the National Assembly.
Do you support restructuring of the country?
We should be talking of devolution of power, fiscal federation, weaker centre and strong federating units. We need good governance to make Nigeria better.
Do you believe in power shift and that the South West should produce the President in 2023?
Let’s leave that to the politicians; I just believe that the best candidate should emerge.
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