Tunde Balogun is the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, also a former Commissioner for Home Affairs in the state. In this interview with selected journalists, he says the APC would work with President Muhammadu Buhari to deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians, INIOBONG IWOK was there. Excerpt:
What is your take on the appointment of the new members of the Lagos State Executive Council, considering that three executive members of the Lagos State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) made the list?
Three executive members of the Lagos APC have been elected into the State Executive Council and of course, it is a thing of pride that the party has come to appreciate efforts of these men and women who have done well and the party thought it fit to put them into higher positions, particularly in the Lagos State Executive Council. Of course, these people on their own are men and woman of rich pedigree. One of them is a lawyer of note and a barrister at law, Toke Benson-Awoyinka. Joe Igbokwe is an engineer who has really been a committed member of our party for some time and his efforts have been appreciated. And of course, the Secretary of our party, Wale Ahmed, who was a Commissioner for Special Duties during the Babatunde Fashola administration. He has been appointed now as Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations.
I appreciate their appointments as members of the Lagos State Executive Council and I am happy that the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has done us proud and he has recognised the contributions of all these people to our overall victory of APC in Lagos State.
These men and woman will now be working with the governor in the executive council now as commissioners and special advisers. The appointments of these men and woman had declined our number in the Lagos APC executives but that notwithstanding, we felt that they left for good reasons and I can assured you that there are other party members who can serve as executives of Lagos APC. We appreciate that and we are going to bring new members to replace them or try to adjust our positions in the Lagos APC executives. And of course, it is going to be a plus-plus for us because the appointments will be inspiration to others to work very well, devote and dedicate themselves to the duty of the party so that they can have the same faith like these people had for them to be recognised. We thank the governor of Lagos State and we thank the leadership of APC in Lagos State for what they have done by promoting members of the Lagos APC executives to the executive council of Lagos State.
How soon are you going to fill the vacuum?
The gaps would be filled after I must have discussed with the governor of the state. I will also discuss with the highest authority in our party, which is the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC). We are going to have discussion and nominations will come and we will look at people who have contributed to the party; those who have shown dedication to our party, people who are loyal to the party, people who had experience and know what they can do and what they will do to ensure that we continue to be victorious in Lagos State. Those are the people we will consider.
What are your expectations from the new cabinet members?
Giving the process that has taken place in selecting them because I know they have been carefully selected, we have looked out for people who could serve in Lagos State of the 21st Century and also people who have innovative thinking; people with good pedigree in terms of their educational qualification and what they have done in the past; their antecedents and other things were also put into consideration. I must tell you, we really make painstaking efforts to bring out the best of those who have applied.
As the party chairman, I must have received over 600 CVs from people who were trying to be part of the executive council in Lagos State. And of course only 45 people on the list will now occupy positions. So, it is going to be something worthwhile and great honour and privilege for those have succeeded in getting there. They now that out of a population of about 20million or more, only 45 best men and women have been chosen. We have good proportion and percentage of women in the cabinet to show that we are gender sensitive. We brought men and women of note to participate in running the state for the next four years.
How are you responding to the protests and agitations by Ajeromi/Ifelodun and Ojo people that they were being excluded from the State Executive Council?
Apart from the fact that members of the state executives council that have been appointed by the governor, we are still going to have more appointments. It might not be a cabinet rank but a lot of more appointments will still come. This is Lagos State as a whole; we don’t discriminate. So, no local government should feel neglected. Whichever part of the state is protesting now is because they want good thing to come to their side. Today, Ajeromi might be protesting but in another four years that a set of commissioners are appointed, many of them might come from Ajeromi. We selected people from all over the states putting many things into consideration; apart from picking people from different senatorial districts, we also picked people from different local governments; looking for people who have contributed immensely to the victory and growth of the party.
So, Ajeromi feel that this time they don’t have anybody; they have people in the past. They have people in the former cabinet, whereas a place like Badagry had nobody in the last dispensation. There was no complain and today, they have an appointee without much agitation from them. There are other places too; Amuwo-Odofin never had any representation; today they have. It is on-going process anyway and people will always serve at any given time. We are not done with appointments of people who will work in this government.
Nigerians are agitating and they don’t know what to expect from the Federal Government because they believed there seem not to be any difference in the last four years. With new ministers coming on board, do you think your party will get it right this time to convince Nigerians that the government want to consolidate on what they did in last four years?
Yes of course with the caliber of men and women who have been chosen by the Federal Government, specifically by President Muhammadu Buhari. They include people like former Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who had been a governor of Lagos State. We all know that he is a workaholic apart from thinking and working. He has done great things for this nation and given a chance again, continuing as Minister of Works and Housing will be better for that ministry.
He will consolidate on what he has done so far. We also have many of the ministers who worked in the first term of President Buhari returning for second term. Of course given the chance back will make them to do more than what they have done in the past. I am very sure that it is going to be a plus for the Federal Government. They only need to be focused to know what this government is all about.
We are talking about going to the Next Level to have a change in our infrastructure, development of vital areas like housing projects and power which has been a major problem for this country. They need to work on that. With the men and women on board, I have so much confidence in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and what they could do in the next four years.
How would you react that the perception of some people that some of the ministers are ‘expired’ and ‘recycled’ politicians?
I don’t know about that but what I know is that age is quite important in trying to show mobility and capacity to do some works but experience sometimes counts too. Relatively, they are old but not too old for such work. They worked on this project before and they shown capacity in the last four years. So, in the next four years I don’t think it is going to be a major problem. I don’t see somebody who is so old that would not to be able to continue.
But many see some of them as people who are being recycled in public office having served as former governors, senators and members of the National Assembly?
I think the President has found them worthy of working for him and that is why he has chosen them. They are his own choice and I don’t think he has bad choices. He insisted on choosing people who have worked with him, whose capability and capacity he knows. That was why he chose them. He has the constitutional right to choose whoever he feels to work with him and I think to our party, we will worked together to support such people to ensure that they perform well.
What do you want Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to do differently so that he can gain more attention of the people in term of dividends of democracy to Lagos?
This governor has a clear vision of what he wants to do for Lagos. He has been commissioner of Lagos State for sometimes and also served as special advisers to some past governors. He knows clearly the exact things that he need to do for Lagos State and he has a political agenda. He launched these as ‘THEME,’ which includes Traffic Management and Transportation to have an integrated transportation system that will lead to maximum use of our roads, water ways and rail that will be coming up very soon. The same thing for the medical care; he has a comprehensive medical care scheme which he will brings about. The same thing is for education, technology and entertainment industry too. He has all these as parts of what he intend to do. So, it is a matter of time and as time goes on, all these things will start to unveil and you will see that we have a governor who has an innovative thinking and he is the man we feel and we know for a 21st Century Lagos State.
Does the Lagos APC have a tradition of monitoring the government that it midwifed to ensure that the government fulfils its campaign promises?
The political agenda was formulated by the party for the governor. We worked together to come back to the field. Before that we have a 10-point agenda for Lagos State. Out of these we have a lot of programmes that had led to the development of Lagos State in the last 20 years to what it is today. Part of such agenda has been the creation of Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA). There was no LASTMA before 1999. So, it was part of what came out from such thinking by the first civilian governor we had in 1999, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and a group of a committee that were elected who put together such agenda for the state. We arrived at that and we are pursuing that all along. And we will continue to do so for as long as we remain in power.
I am chairman of the party and we are on the same page with the governor. We know what he does and he reports to us. After settling down, we would be having some periodic meetings to look at what he has done so far; how far has we gone in achieving some of the things we want to do. Everything cannot be done overnight. A lot of Lagosians have high expectations of this government and we don’t want to disappoint them. We want to make sure that we are on the right track to developing the state further.
Did members of APC still pay dues to the party in Lagos State?
Yes. Some of them do when they go for their local government meetings which they hold every month. It hold every third Thursday of the month at their local government.
Before the election Lagos APC used to be active every day and people hear a lot about the party. There is different between governance and politics. Now that it is about governance, as a party, how do you intend to become more relevant as you used to be before election?
Like you have rightly said, the time for campaign is over; it is time for governance. What we want to see are visible achievements and development in the state. That is what we expect. You don’t expect me to be shouting APC all over now when you are supposed to have your roads fixed; when you want to see rehabilitation of roads, traffic management and waste management. Those are the things people expect now, not somebody raising flags up. Of course, that cannot be put aside. Since the elections of governor and members of the legislators, we have had an array of politicians from different parties coming into our party. We are going to celebrate them in the next two weeks.
Some of the politicians who are in our party now came from different political parties, particularly from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). They joined us and they want to associate and work with us. We will celebrate them soon and the media would be invited to see the kind of people who have defected to our party to know that our party is growing in strength. We want to give chance for governance to take place.
Elections are over and when it is time for election, of course, you will see me making noise again. I have been quiet for some time now because I think we should allow those who are supposed to govern the state to work. I believe what should be taking place now is governance not campaign.
