Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity Secretary Joe Igbokwe spoke with reporters in Lagos on the succession battle in the Centre of Excellence, the threat by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ‘capture’ Osun State and other partisan issues.
What preparation is the APC making for the next year’s general elections in Lagos State?
Lagos APC is leaving no leaving no stone unturned, given the setbacks we had in Ekitti State recently. More than ever before, we are fighting and digging deep as if we are in the opposition. From state to the 57 LGAs, and to the 377 wards we are playing the real politics, realising that all politics are local. Since the setback in Ekiti State, Lagos PDP has been granting Press interviews, issuing press releases and conducting press conferences as if that is what it takes to win elections in Lagos State. Now, these idlers must be told in the strongest terms that Lagos State is not Ekiti State. We are living witnesses to the build up before the Ekiti governorship elections on June 21 2014. We saw the intimidation and harassment of APC leaders. We saw it all and if we tell you that we learnt nothing, we will be deceiving ourselves. We are waiting for the PDP in Osun, Ogun, Oyo, and Lagos in the Southwest. We will play the real politics and politics of the stomach too. Yes, that is what Ekiti people taught us in the 21st century.
How is the party and the government tackling the challenge of stomach infrastructure in the state?
I have told you that Ekiti people have added new words to our political lexicon and that is stomach infrastructure. We will play the politics to the letter. We will face the challenge with all the energy at our disposal. We have rice in abundance, especially the one produced in Ikorodu, Lagos. We are doing other things, which time and space will not permit me to recount here. Lagos has the capacity to carry out any assignment without let or hindrance. Thank God, we got seven months notice from Ekiti people that political equation in Nigeria has changed from politics of ideas to politics of the stomach. The PDP has impoverished Nigerians in the past 16 years and they are now using stolen money to buy votes. The new trend in Nigerian politics is to get to the office, create poverty and steal as much as you can. Return four years after to use the same stolen money to buy their votes and life goes on. If this does not worry you, I wonder what else can.
What are the qualities you expect from the next governor?
Governor Fashola is leaving behind big shoes and anybody who will occupy that exalted office must be a leader of leaders. He must be lettered in the art of governance. He must be bold, experienced, firm, strong, courageous, wildly traveled, wildly exposed and very deep. He must have passion for service. He must be a good mobiliser, friend of the poor, and must have a third eye. He must have a developmental orientation, he is not a hut builder. He must have a big heart. He must believe in government of small things as well as government of big things. Only the best is good for Lagos because Lagos is not a place for mediocrity.
What are the challenges that will confront the next governor of Lagos State?
Development is work in progress. He will continue where governor Fashola will stop. The next incoming governor will have 25 million Lagosians to contend with. Building infrastructure will continue to pose a big challenge in Lagos, until every road, every street is upgraded in Lagos. Astronomical growth in Lagos population will continue to be a challenge, Security will always pose a challenge. Transportation, housing, refuse disposal, jobs etc will continue to be the big issue. The challenge to make Lagos to remain the Centre for Excellence will always be there. Critics will be there to put him on the hot seat. The challenge to make Lagos the first destination among African cities will always be there.
There are, at least, 14 governorship aspirants on the field. Will the candidate emerge through consensus or primaries?
Please leave this great assignment for the party leaders. Lagos is not in short supply of great leaders but only one out of 14 governorship aspirants will be victorious. In taking the decision a lot is going to be considered. If we make a mistake we may end up with a meretricious mediocrity. The leaders must be extremely careful now that ethnic and religious politics are taking the front seat in Nigeria. Our leaders must shine their eyes because Lagos APC will not go into 2015 elections with a divided house.
The PDP is threatening to capture the Southwest . What is the APC doing to prevent the repeat of that electoral defeat in Osun?
What happened in Ekiti State will never, never happen in Osun State. Ekiti State was stolen and that robbery is unacceptable in Osun State. Even though we know PDP very well and their ugly antecedents we thought they will respect themselves in Ekiti and play to the rules but a leopard cannot change its skin. They will meet their waterloo in Osun State. In Osun State, the PDP will meet a lion in Governor Aregbesola. They will meet a man who is on ground, a cgovernor and an honest leader. He is in touch with his people both the high and the low. He has shown leadership class in the state of Osun. Please take it from me. The PDP will never capture Southwest of the Fasholas, Ajimobis, Amosuns and Aregbesolas because light and darkness has no meeting point.
What is your party doing about this tag a ‘Muslim party’
Ordinarily, I would not intervene on this stupid tag, which the PDP and its supporters feel will win them the sympathy of the same Nigerians they have raped and bestially decimated in nearly sixteen years of corrupt and visionless government. What makes a so called Muslim party? Is it a party created for Muslims? If so, why is there large number of Christians in our great party? Our National Chairman, His Excellency, Chief John Oyegun, is a Christian and so are many of our governors and party chieftains. Come to think of it, how come that at this age and time, the PDP is more interested in dividing Nigerians into Christian and Muslim tendencies after it had failed to use the enormous resources Nigeria has made in the last 15 and half years to make Nigeria livable for both Christians and Muslims? In a religiously heterogeneous society as ours, it is disheartening that a ruling party will spend its energies, not in bettering the worsening lives of Nigerians, but in stealing and inciting Christians that it is stealing for them. What a shame!
The PDP is a big failure and it desperately want to plunge Nigeria into a big crisis by fanning the embers of religious intolerance and hate. The members of the PDP believe that Nigerians have short memories and will not ask how a PDP government stole $20 billion in one fell swoop, stole N3 trillion through a phantom petroleum subsidy, stole N1.6 trillion through a fake kerosene subsidy, stole billions of dollars through a fake power rehabilitation project, stole the hundreds of billions of naira Nigerian workers saved as pensions for the rainy day, stole the pensions of policemen, stole trillions through sham road contracts, stole billions through aviation votes, stole trillions from security votes while Nigerians live in the worst ever form of insecurity.
Let me ask you. Did Diezani Madueke spend N10 billion hiring planes for Christians? Is the fate of Christians better than those of Muslims in this holocaust of the PDP’s government? Are Christians spared of the array of plane disasters that has marked PDP’s infection of the nation’s aviation industry? Do Nigerian Christians travel on better roads than Muslims? Are our collapsed educational, health sectors courtesies of the PDP’s thieving government, benefiting Christians more than Muslims? I can go on and on and on to enlist the shameful failures of the PDP. Indeed, Senator John McCain summed it when he dismissed the Jonathan PDP government as non existing. Senator Hilary Clinton summed it up when she summed that the Jonathan government is riddled with corruption and lack of clue. These are facts known to world leaders.
APC states are shinning examples of performance and progress and it is the best way to showcase what we will do with power at the center. Be it Lagos, Imo, Edo, Ekiti, Osun, Kano, Nassarawa, Rivers, Sokoto, Adamawa, kwara, Ogun, etc, we are proud to showcase what the APC has done with power at a smaller level. The positive effects are not limited to Christians or Muslims alone. They are both for Muslims and Christians in these states. Lagos caters for all Nigerians, there is nowhere you see any policy of Lagos State favouring Christians or Muslims alone.
That is what the APC is all about. Conversely, the PDP met 55 million poor people in Nigeria in 1999 and today, they have created 130 million poor people, PDP met Nigeria reasonably secured, today they have turned Nigeria into one of the worst countries to live in. The PDP met about 12 million unemployed Nigerians in 1999 and today, they have created 75 million unemployed Nigerians. Look at the Immigration tragedy some weeks ago. That is enough to lead to the resignation of any government with any iota of shame, but here is the PDP inciting religious hatred among Nigerians in a bid to stay in power.
When is the next local government election holding in Lagos?
Please leave that decision for the Governor and the leadership of the Party in Lagos. When the time comes the elections will hold.
Could you shed light on the zoning of the governorship in Lagos State?
Going by the thinking of the party’s leadership in Lagos, the Lagos West has produced a governor, the Lagos Central has produced one and now is the turn of Lagos East to occupy the exalted seat. I think this is a wonderful development that borders on justice, equity, and fair play. I am inclined to think that it is good for the commonwealth. I have no doubt in my mind that the Lagos APC will key in to this development. It is fair to all concerned and it is going to be beneficial to all.
