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The end has come for APC in Lagos –Pearse |
In an interview with VINCENT KALU AND TONY UDEMBA, Dr Pearse, highlighted what he intends to do to make a Lagos true mega city and also support the quest for non-indigene being deputy governor.
Excerpts.
What is your unique selling point?
Number one is integrity more than anything else in that the resources of the state will be used to develop the state and not my own private estate. The IGR of the state is robust enough for us to truly develop our state into a mega city. If we have a sincere governor, which I hope to be, I will not use the resources of the state to develop my family; but will plough the money into education, health services, transportation, housing, etc and we will have true development.
That is what I will do differently from what have been done so far in the state by corrupt, selfish and greedy people who have used government money for themselves and not for the development of the people.
How do you think that APC that has been in power for nearly 16 years with grassroots followership could be easily uprooted?
It only appears that APC is deeply rooted but APC is not deeply rooted as it claims to be. After all, it is people that will vote and they are now disenchanted with the government. According to them, they are not interested in this government because they have seen that this APC government for 16 years has paid only lip-service to development. The rural areas are not developed, they call this place a mega city but the outlining arrears of the state whose development will translate to mega city are not developed, that is, Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, and Alimosho, etc. They are in the same state they were decades ago.
It is the people that are saying they have had enough of this corrupt, inept government and they want a change to PDP.
Lagos residents are praising Fashola for his great works. How can you reconcile that with your position?
The people, who are saying this, have low expectation. The reason for their low expectation is because before Fashola, Tinubu did nothing for eight years. For eight years, Tinubu was just grandstanding. He would do few things and went to the media to praise himself for doing wonders. It is true that Fashola has done better than Tinubu but what exactly has he done?
He has only performed to the level of people with low expectation. He has built few major roads, but what of the neighbourhood roads. He claims to be the governor of a mega city but he only has one small area of the city developed and that is Lagos Central. Even at that, the other parts of Lagos Central – the Ikeja areas are parts of Western Region development that he took over as part of this expanded Lagos State.
To be a mega city, all the outlining areas of the city have to be developed so that you have cities within cities. Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and Alimosho must be cities; you must develop them as much as you develop Lagos Central, which was developed from the colonial days and he took it over and now people say he has done so much, what has he done?
If you have money to waste, anybody can do any development. You built 1.5km bridge at the cost of N29 billion, which is N20 billion per kilometre. It is the most expensive bridge in the world, in the history of mankind and a crime.
Some people say the bridge is beautiful and we should not talk about the price. This is criminal; you have been wasting the people’s money. What is the state of education in Lagos? The schools are not developed, no water running in the schools, no toilet facilities. He has done something but in comparison with government before him that did nothing.
If you become the governor, what specific programmes do you have for the state?
You can take it from different sectors of the economy. Take housing; we will do mass housing. The deficit right now in Lagos State alone is about 650,000 housing. We will make sure that every year we do over 100,000 units of housing. This is the kind of number you should have before you begin to talk about achieving result for people in Lagos. It is not when you built 10 houses, you raffle them and begin to make noise in the media that you are doing housing. Jakande did housing and it is the kind of thing we would do with modern technology.
I’m very passionate about education because without education there is no growth. We will invest money in education. UNESCO recommendation is about 25 per cent of the budget. Right now, we are spending between three and and per cent on education.
We will invest heavily on education to provide modern facilities in every school.
On health, every local government must have robust health facilities. This government said it was gong to build one per local government but to the best of my knowledge, it has built not more than 10 so far out of 57. We will aggressively build these hospitals.
My guarantee in the first year as a governor that the health facility in the state would be second to none and would discourage our people going on health tourism abroad.
Lagos that was superior in development in virtually every state in Africa has now become a state where the little health challenge is referred abroad. People will be coming here for medical tourism.
You don’t have a mega city when you don’t have a mass transportation. Road transportation cannot move so many people; there are a lot of constraints. We should be talking of monorail. We will build the rail to have proper transportation of the people in mass as befitting a mega city. Lagos is not like any other state, 75 per cent of businesses in Nigeria are conducted here in Lagos, and 60 per cent of energy consumed in Nigeria is in Lagos. This is a major state for the development of the country itself.
Lagos is an island and if you want to move people faster, it is by water. Right now, the transportation on water is so unregulated leading to people dying anyhow on water.
My government will be directly involved in making sure that like other islands across the world, we would use what God has given us – water and move around fast and make it safe for our people.
So, in these sectors of the economy, we would do things that would make a difference.
It aches my heart when I see the state of development in Badagry, just as it was 100 years ago, the same with Epe, only Ikorodu is picking up. We will develop these areas by bringing in foreign investors to build, operate and transfer.
APC says its programmes are in line with Awo’s but you are saying they have done nothing?
Which programmes are they talking about? Have they done mass housing? No; have they given free education? No; do they have health facilities? No.
They are impostors; it is a crime to use the name of Awo in vain. They just claim to be Awoists. I have told you what Awo did and if after I did those things and you say am an Awoist, so be it.
All I want is to provide a good quality life for our people, which they have not been able to do.
How can a capitalist like Tinubu say he is an Awoist. How can you build a bridge for N29billion and you say you are a welfarist.
Scientists say the Atlantic City project is doomed to fail; you still invest in it and waste taxpayers money.
We are supposed to have free health insurance for everybody up to the age of 19. That is what we call Awoist programme.
Everything I told you I will do on health, transportation, housing, and education is Awoism. They have no right to claim Awoist.
If APC were genuine welfarist as AWO in many of what he did they would win election in Nigeria hands down.
You build few houses and you raffle them and you say you are doing housing. You have not even started to scratch the surface and that is why they would loose the next election.
Given the huge numerical strength of non-indigenes in Lagos and their clamor for deputy governorship, what is your position on this?
Non- indigenes by their voting pattern and interests over the years have been PDP. If you go to the various states of the non-indigenes, particularly South East and South-South they are mainly PDP. In Lagos, they have been betrayed in the past but if they could stick to their words, because the numerical strength is there, their support for PDP will take PDP for victory. Since the number is there, naturally they will get whatever they want in the party in terms of negotiation.
The APC in Lagos has succeeded in delineating the non-indigenes community. We will never forget the deportation of Igbos from Lagos to Anambra; that wasn’t the first time that the party has shown disregard and disrespect.
The way it treats Igbo traders in the markets is enough to show that the support of non-indigene would come to PDP. If it comes to PDP and we win the election, then the non-indigene is a full partner in the government.
You seem to support this position but will your party also buy into it?
The party is pragmatic and I am pragmatic. It is doable based on the strength of the non-indigenes. If we are full parties we will share the benefits together because together we will govern the state.
I know that the various markets have been under-developed. I will put in investment so that they will be first class markets attracting businesses all over West Africa. They deserve it and deserve to be deputy governor at this stage of development of Lagos State.
What are your expectations for 2015?
Lagos residents should not be deceived again by APC propaganda Mr. Lai Mohammed and Joe Igbokwe will tell their lies and before you know everybody will start thinking the party is doing something when it is not doing anything. Don’t forget the burden this administration has placed on Lagosians, which include multiple taxation, lack of respect for landownership, deporting people, setting ablaze market. So, PDP is the only alternative and I will be the next governor. I am going to improve the quality of life for all Lagosians. 16 years is enough trial period for us. APC has not delivered; we are poised to give all residents irrespective of ethnicity quality life.
At national level, APC is planning to unseat PDP, what is your feeling?
As a real democrat, I am not unhappy that the APC is giving us some challenge but when you look at what is going on, because APC has no ideology, focus and genuineness it is having problems all over and won’t make any headway.
Yes, they are giving us challenge, before we were 90 percent in control, now we are about 80 percent and still in control. PDP will definitely continue to be in control because the APC is not a credible alternative. Most of them are religious bigots; anti-democratic; autocrat; cutthroat capitalists. People will not vote for them. So, I am not worried as PDP member; I am not threatened because the people are not on their side.
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