Minister of State for Defence, Senator MUSILIU OBANIKORO, in this chat with Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, speaks on his next political move, security challenges in the country, why APC must be rejected in future elections, among other issues…
PDP as an alternative for Lagos
Musiliu Obanikoro
We have a party in All Progressives Congress (APC) that is running away from its record and the reality of life. The site of the Lagos State Polytechnic in Ketu is now owned by one of the chieftains of APC. I grew up knowing Ikoyi Local Government. Today, the secretariat is owned by a chieftain of the same APC. Lagos people can open their eyes to see what is happening. I have never seen this kind of recklessness and impunity that we are seeing in Lagos in any part of the world. The normal practice, if you want to sell a government secretariat, is that there should be a referendum where the tax-payers have a say whether the government property should be sold or not. But they sold an entire local government to themselves. I am well-travelled and I have not seen anywhere where a shopping centre is placed beside a secretariat; but it is happening in Lagos because of vested interests. I have never seen in 16 years of governance that a single house is built for the poor. You cannot tell me that an average worker in Alausa can afford a property of N8 million. In this state, we don’t have a fire institution that can respond to a serious emergency. This is supposed to be the most populated state in West Africa, yet no capacity to confront emergency.
Our educational system has gone down completely. Parents can no longer afford school fees because nobody cares. What you now have on top of all that is the mortgaging of the life of our children by accumulating debts running into trillions of naira in the name of the people they have refused to serve. I think the campaign is out there, without the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saying anything. But it is when we win that they will say that we brought soldiers. But that is not so. We won because the people are dissatisfied with the APC deceit. The APC in Lagos has militarised the people. When the governor doesn’t interact but speaks as if he has answers to all issues, that is not governance.
PDP campaign train running foul of INEC election guideline
It wasn’t a campaign but a celebration of what happened for us in Ekiti. There is no law that says we cannot celebrate our victory. Lagos is like the centre where we have the convergence of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. So, there is no better place to celebrate than Lagos, and to also serve them a notice that what befell them in Ekiti is moving to Osun and then Lagos.
Significance of PDP rally across South West
The victory party is a way of serving a notice to the APC that we are coming to take over the entire South West. So, what we are doing across the zone is a celebration of victory in Ekiti State. We have a winning formula that we know will win Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo for us. The APC has made our job very easy because of its anti-people policies. In 16 years, you cannot accumulate that kind of debt they have accumulated in few years, especially in Lagos where close to N1 trillion is hanging on the future of our state. We have seen accumulation of debts in the United States, and we saw the consequences on the economy. Some of us being aware of the danger ahead are afraid with what our governors in the South West are doing. Look at the pension scheme that they signed for themselves, particularly in Lagos where a governor who has profited from a state for eight years will leave office and ask the state to buy them two houses of their choice either in Ikoyi or Abuja. That package in itself will cost the state over a N1 billion just for one man that we put our resources at his disposal for a while. This is insensitive and unfair. They also woke up one night to increase school fees from N25,000 to N300,000. That shows they are insensitive because they don’t want to give opportunity to the poor. Our secondary schools are dead; healthcare is in comatose, and the ambulance they are celebrating is better meant for rams than human beings. When you want to have ambulance to deal with emergency situation, it must have the capacity to deal with trauma. But these are just empty ambulances. Most businesses are moving out of Lagos because taxation is killing them. Recently, my 92-year-old mother got a document to come and pay levies to Lagos. You can see how insensitive they have become. We are with the people, we know where we are coming from and we can’t forget the people.
Politicisation of insecurity in the country
We must remove politics from the security challenges that we have because terrorists do not know PDP, APC or Labour Party (LP). We are all Nigerians, and this is our fight. Some people are trying to change our way of life and we cannot allow them to succeed. So, it is not about PDP. For us as a government, we must be ready to put an end to this insurgency. There is nowhere in the world where terrorism has been a 100 metre dash, but a marathon. All of us must be prepared to win it. We need the support and understanding of Nigerians; we must come together and be vigilant. This terrorism is not about Jonathan or the PDP. We should not politicise this unfortunate challenge.
Diffciculty in announcing names of politicians linked with the Boko Haram
The opposition political parties in Nigeria today have the biggest propaganda machinery that you can ever imagine anywhere. Recently, they said they had hired an American for about $30 million in their propaganda war. To fight such is almost difficult. You don’t conduct security issues on the pages of newspaper. You strategise and then go out to implement. Few days ago, the stretch of forest between Bauchi and Jigawa was reclaimed by our military; they deserve kudos. The governors of Jigawa and Bauchi were full of praises for our men in uniform. While you knock us when there are incidences, you must also give us kudos when successes are recorded. The media also have a responsibility to assist us in projecting what will unite us other than that which will divide us.
Ambition, speculations on 2015 governorship race
I am a grassroots politician. I have supporters and I understand the language of grassroots better than most of these elitist politicians bandying around with nothing to offer. They believe we didn’t go to school because we identify more with the commoners and they identify more with the elite. I won’t stand here and tell you that the recent array of activities and awareness in Lagos PDP is about my interest in running for the governorship of Lagos State. If I decide to run, the media will be the first port of call and I will tell you that I want to offer myself again for the office of the governor of Lagos State. So, don’t equate banners with posters.
