FUNSO DOHERTY is a former managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of Pensions Alliance Limited, one of Nigeria’s foremost Pension Fund Managers, where he led a nationwide team overseeing a large portfolio of assets. He was previously managing director of ValuAlliance Asset Management Ltd, a member of the African Capital Alliance (ACA) Group. Doherty served as the pioneer managing director and CEO of ARM Pension Managers, which he led from its inception to become one of Nigeria’s most successful Pension Fund Administrators. During that period, he was elected Pioneer Chairman of the Pension Fund Operators Association (PENOP), the umbrella body of all licensed Pension Fund Managers and Custodians in Nigeria. Doherty is aspiring to contest for the governorship of Lagos State in 2023. In this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, LOLADE AKINMURELE and OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA, he shared his plans for Lagos State. Excerpts:
Some people say ‘Lagos is working.’ If that is the case, what is your motivation for aspiring to contest for the governorship this time around? Again, you are from the private sector; what are you bringing afresh to change the narrative?
I think it is increasingly clear to many of us and to me especially that we have faced a weakness in leadership; governance in Nigeria in the public space generally. I think you can argue that some have done better than others. I think there is substantive room for improvement. It is also clear to me that the only way that would change is if you have people who have the heart to do the right thing which is the character and the competency; that is the ability to bring to the task.
Historically, people who fit into that mode have shied away from the public space because they think it is a field they don’t understand. They think it is filled with challenges. Many think politics is a dirty game. But it is also clear to me that the future that we desire would come when the people who fit the role step into the game. You have to contest to make that change. Power is not given but contested for.
In your question, you started off by saying Lagos is working, some may view it that way. Some may argue that it depends on the yardstick you use. Lagos has been given a lot. Therefore, a lot is expected from Lagos. Lagos cannot be compared with most states. Lagos’ budget for 2022 is about 1.7 trillion; that is the budget of several states put together. The question is what do we have to show for it? That is after many years of a running budget of substantial size.
By 2023 we would be one year shy of 25 years of the present ruling administration in Lagos. That is a quarter of a century; a generation; when a nation has moved from a Third World nation to a First World nation status we have examples.
When we look at Lagos, we say how have we done in relation to what we have? If the budget of Lagos had been managed well in each year in the last 25 years, I think where Lagos is today would be quite different from where we would have been. For me, that is the motivation. I think Lagos should be a leading light for Nigeria. I think Lagos should be a city reckoned among the leading cosmopolitan cities in the world. That is the bar we should set for ourselves in assessing how we are doing, in comparison with other cities, with the same potential and opportunities, not with those who don’t have what we have.
There is no provision for independent candidacy in the Electoral Act; what political party are you contesting on?
I belong to the ADC (African Democratic Congress) and it is on that platform that we are going to contest. A declaration was made some weeks ago. We know there is no independent candidacy; many would argue that there is a big gap between the two leading parties and the other parties; but it is important that we know there are alternatives and the more credible people come on to stand on these platforms, the more people would see what they can offer. There is an alternative and it is the power of the people to determine how strong the alternative would be or not. We argue that the results that have been produced under the two major parties have been questionable at best, and it is important for us and me to run on a platform that allows you to pursue a part to office. A platform that does not compromise your ability when you do get to office to prosecute the changes you feel is needed to bring the reform that is needed in Lagos, and reform is a big part of what we are going to do in Lagos.
You said there is a gap between the two leading parties; what do you think is required to let Lagosians know that there are viable alternatives to the two parties?
If you look at the last election in Lagos State, it was decided by a million votes. Lagos has a population of about 20 million. It has registered voters of about 6 million, but only one million voted during the last election. That is to tell you that the so-called dominance that you are talking about in the main two parties is not there; how dominant are they?
Because that whole battle has been fought for the one million people; for every five voters that show up in the ballot there are five people who are registered voters who are not there. Those guys are not there for a variety of reasons; they may feel that there is no viable alternative. They may feel that their votes may not count. But those five people are an opportunity. When you talk about money politics there are no novices. This whole money politics is still being played among this one million people; it is fair to assume that the five people who did not show up are not motivated by that money, but that they have raised up their hands and say this system does not work for me. I don’t see why I should be part of it. I would not be part of it. So, the challenge for me is to get people to see that whether there is an alternative platform or not, it is in their own hands.
Do you think you have the time between now and the next election to change that mindset?
We think it is possible. I would tell you why. I believe we are at a critical moment in our history and people are fed up. The heart of the electorate is in a place that is receptive; even, they are struggling to find hope. This is because they are fed up. You know when you are approaching a task there are two things that determine your outcome and one is the resources that you are redeploying and time is one of the resources you are redeploying.
The other is what is the context on which you are pursuing that endeavour? Is it an endeavour that is conducive to the endeavour you are pursuing? Is it an opportune time? Because, if you pursue something at the opportune time; you can accomplish it with fewer resources than when you are pursuing something when the conditions are not right. We think it is important to contest and demonstrate to the people that an alternative exists and our slogan is; ‘we believe we can be more. Lagos can be more.’ What we are trying to do is to get people to a place where that fire of hope is and realise the resources that they have. They realised the resources of this state are owned by the people, because we can’t say the resources of this state have been used exclusively for the benefit of the people in the past twenty-five years that we are talking about and that is a big problem and we would change that.
What do you see wrong in the running of the state and what are your key programmes?
In assessing the government of Lagos State, if you think of the democratic ideal; government of the people by the people and for the people, we believe that in Lagos, it is probably true of Nigeria in general. But I think in Lagos State certainly, we have seen more of what looks like the government of the people by some people for themselves.
And the people have benefited only partially. You talked about the poverty rate of five percent; it depends on how you measure the poverty rate right now. Anecdotally, when you think of our own individual ecosystem, that five percent rate in a city of twenty-plus million people seems like an understatement. But I think it is important to start from the place of reforming the public sector in Lagos. We think it is important to bring in accountability, transparency and eliminate corruption and waste and self-dealing on the part of government agencies and individuals.
We think it is critical because it is a drain on the resources of the state and a state that has resources like Lagos and also a population that Lagos has must be considered a rich state, if all the resources are deployed for the benefit of its people without waste, without self-dealing on the part of government officials and corruption, and that is a message that has to be set from the top.
As you know in any organisation the tone is set from the top and it is difficult to push a message, a cultural institutional mechanism entity if it does not start from the top. We think this is a gap and it is something we are committed to do. And that is number one; it involves every process that these leakages occur in Lagos at the top. It is a big problem in Lagos, because you are not beholden to people outside government and vested interest, you can pursue a meritocracy agenda. You can bring the best minds on board like we do in the private sector, and you can pursue an agenda that is people-driven with the interest of people in mind. The decisions are not driven by self-interest. When you do that you free some funds that can be channeled to other areas that need intervention in Lagos.
First, I think we need to pursue a business-friendly agenda in Lagos, especially for small and medium enterprises. I think part of the issues we have in Lagos is because the SMEs, which are the engine of employment in any economy like ours, should be supported to stand up, rather than setting high tax regulatory burdens for them at the initial stage of their business. What you have is that the government itself often appears to be pursuing a predatory agenda against the people, inclusive of SMEs. So, instead of supporting them we have seen officials of government agencies actually preying on those businesses. We think thirdly we need to change. We have to support small and medium businesses to grow and stand. Part of this challenge is that the public sector message is that folk in the public sector need to be compensated. Because part of what is going on is that people are not well paid, but they are given agencies and given a lot of powers; from there they use those agencies as a predatory platform on the public.
So, that is not good for the people and the revenue does not necessarily go to the state. In many cases, the revenues end up in private pockets. So, we have to change that narrative. What we are saying is that we will do everything to ensure the ease of doing business; pursue tax and regulatory reforms to support those businesses to do well. It is an economic agenda, it is a growth agenda, and it is an employment agenda. They are necessary for economic growth. Where you have an orderly system; where the government is making decisions for the best interest of the people, we then have a room to make decisions in the other areas that are needed.
Read also: 2023: Osinbajo to meet Reps in push for APC ticket
We would take the issues one by one. For health, we can say health in a city of 20 million people, it is critical that if you don’t have healthy people you can’t have a better society. We think primary healthcare is important and not enough is being done in this area and as you know if you have good primary health care, other issues would be taken care of. For instance, we will ensure Child care to stop cases of new born that are lost; I mean the number of mothers and new born babies that die for reasons which ought not to be just because they did not have access to primary health care.
We thought these are basic things that people should have, the state should have the resources to deploy to that if they manage the resources well.
One of the things we noticed is that in chronic diseases like high blood pressure we are doing well in managing them because we have the infrastructure and personnel. But in Primary Health Care, we are not doing so well. Also, in critical care we don’t have the infrastructure in place; that is the building, which is the system, technology, the process, the people and the training in those facilities. So, when people need critical care you can stabilise them and get them to the place where chronic health concerns are taken care of. Lagos is not a huge state geographically; there is no reason why we cannot have healthcare infrastructures across the state. It is doable.
We will also focus on improving the quality of education. I studied in Kings’ College, my father studied in Kings’ College, I entered the school, 65 years after him; by the time I entered; the school was still one of the top schools everybody want to send their children to whether you are rich or poor.
But Within 20 years of my leaving that school, the story is completely different. So, we maintain something for 65 years, how we did it I don’t know and for 20 years it got worse. And you can go from sector to sector, it is a trajectory.
So, education; we need to focus on quality education. A lot of that depends on deploying resources; you cannot give what you don’t have. If you go to some of those schools and you interact with the personnel you would be surprised with the outcome. But that is not universal. We have a lot of good people in those schools. There are lots of dedicated schools, but we need to assess, measure to understand those who are adding value or not and help those who are not adding value to transition to other things. And not put our children and the future of our children at risk.
Infrastructure is another area we would be focusing on, infrastructure in Lagos- there are multiple dimensions to it. There is the transport infrastructure; the outcome is the transport traffic situation in the state.
There is power infrastructure and some may say power is primarily a federal issue but there is room for the state to intervene in power; to what extent have we done that? Lagos is a compact state, and that lends itself to these solutions that may not be available to others and it is also an industrial and financial capital.
There are things that could be explored in Lagos that may not exist in others. The transportation infrastructure question is a complex question and there are very many dimensions to it. But I think this question about conflict and vested interest is also a central part of the story. That is why I started from there because everywhere you go it is like a cancer that touches everywhere. I lived for some years in Boston, when I went for my graduate studies and I lived there for some few years before coming back. Boston is like Lagos; a coastal city. I worked in downtown Boston, in the financial district. In my office at Goldman Sachs then you can divide it into three; where some people came by roads, rail and ferry to work. Lagos should be a model of that. There is no reason Lagos cannot have that, I know we have rail infrastructure that has been in development for decades now.
Ordinarily, we should know why that is so. This thing is not rocket science. We are not the first country that would be developing rail, it is not rocket science. So, having this multiplicity of things, let me just say at regional planning, how do we make sure that traffic is not coming from the same place? You have to work in VI, and then everybody from Agege, Ikeja, Ikoyi is converging in that place.
There would be an element of that because it is a financial centre but we need to have a viable city where people can live and work. Very importantly, even to the transport infrastructure- that we have an element of disorderliness and indiscipline makes even the infrastructure we have far less efficient. If people are encroaching on the road; if people are driving on the runway, even as you build more roads, people continue to have problems.
So, you need to have an orderly society and that starts from people in government. You can’t expect people to be orderly when the government is not. It is also the character of people enforcing the laws, not as if we are not enforcing the laws, but the character of the people enforcing them is the issue here.
What are you going to do to reduce consultants running some aspects of government to the detriment of the state and to their own advantage?
If you go back to what I said; that decisions of the government have to be taken for the sole interest of the people. Public office is a sacred trust. I have spent a large part of my career in the investment management industry, as an investment manager as a CEO of a company managing hundreds of billions of dollars, you have to put first the interest of the person you are working for. Oftentimes, a lot of decisions are not taken for that purpose with the mind of occupying sacred trust. If you don’t do that, you start to see some arrangements where consultants do what ordinarily the government should do. Government should collect its own revenue because that is what the government is there for. There is nothing wrong in PPP (public-private partnerships), but what we call PPP there is a range of things you have to consider. What are we contracting for? Why has it been contracting this way? What is the contracting arrangement? Are they favourable to the government? Are they favourable to the people? We have to understand all that. It starts from the mind set of whose interest is to be served. We are open to working with the private sector, but not to the extent that it would damage our primary responsibility to the people.
If there is capacity that is outside government ability we would go for them, but we would only do that with transparency and with the best procurement transparency so that people have a right to know.
If we are building roads, people have a right to know how much it costs. There are different ways in which you can increase that alliance between the action of the government and interest of the people.
What is your final message to Lagosians
Now is the time, we are at the threshold of the next phase of Nigeria’s history. We have an opportunity to make the change that we have all been looking for. I am personally convinced of it and I have voted with my feet and step to the ring and just asked them to allow that spark of hope that had been extinguished to arise in their minds and to loom with objective eyes with the options that they would be presented in 2023.
Not to operate from a place of helplessness to hopelessness; but from the perspective that they hold in their hands the power to make a change of all the things they are pained about. They should understand that our candidacy is about the people in the best tradition of democratic government; which is government of the people by the people and for the people, if that is what resonates with them then our candidacy is the choice for them.
