In an interactive session with senior journalists on Tuesday to mark his 50th birthday, he gave reasons for his aspiration to serve the people of the state more as governor in 2015.
Excerpts:
Why do you want to be Lagos governor?
You have asked a very serious question and about nine months ago, I asked myself this same question. All of us learn through various means. I was reading the speech of President JF Kennedy in 1961. I could not believe that somebody can write something like that as far back as 1961. The popular one is, “ask not what your America can do for you but what you can do for America.” That is a nation that has done so much for its citizens. But he went further to say that as a nation, whether you wish us ill or you wish us well, we will at any point in time go through all hardship and rigours to make sure that we defend freedom of human beings across the world. For me, I see that the challenge of the black man generally is lack of sustaining development. Of course, there are different reasons why we don’t sustain development, but one of them is that we deal a lot with things we cannot measure. And people say if you cannot measure something, you cannot manage it. As a nation for example, we don’t know our population. That is the truth. That is why in 2006, I was privileged to coordinate the Census collation for Lagos state. NPC says we are 9.5m, we said we are 17.1m; the disparity is too much. We went to the tribunal set up the federal government and we challenged 19 local governments. We did not challenge Ibeju-Lekki. It was 20 local government base then. The tribunal upheld 15 of those 19. So, let us assume that the other four is wrong, but out of 19, we had 14. So, we deal with things that we can’t really measure, for example, we deal with my faith. How do you measure my faith when even the Bible says we cannot judge? You said you are a Christian or Muslim, I don’t know what you did this morning before leaving your house, only God knows! Since I cannot manage it, it’s not my business. That is why the nations that have done well don’t consider religion. Even Dubai, the person managing Emirate is not a Muslim, he is a white man from Britain; they are looking for the best to do the job. Looking at all these, you must now say how do we make sure that what we started as a people is not reversed because the truth of the matter is that whatever human being does, you can actually destroy it.
We must take governance the way it is, it is a serious business. So, what exactly is our expectation? The reality is that we can afford not to move forward but we can agree as a people that we must not reverse. When a plane crashes, it doesn’t know if you are from the South or North. So, why then do we focus on the wrong things? That is one of the reasons I said we must look at the right approach to solve our problems. We must have somebody that possesses the experience, humility, integrity and what it takes to do the job. I believe I represent those values. That is one of the reasons I am presenting myself as a candidate for the office. Our party, the APC, is lucky because we have enormous amount of people who are qualified to do the job. Within that number as well, there will also be ratings based on various factors that as a people we must determine, in terms of experience, background, education and the rest. But I believe that at the end of the day, I will carry the day.
What exactly do you have as Agenda for Lagos?
It is very interesting as you can see, it is a document I keep reading and writing. It is called, Building A State That Lasts. This will be the manifesto. Now in there, there are four major pillars, okay. The first one is building a knowledge based economy.
Now, it is also important that we encourage technical education.
So for education, we must do technical. Now, the well-being of the people is also a priority. Nigerians spend about $159billion treating diarrhea, we are second only to India. We spend more money treating the side effect instead of using that money to build water works, among others. Those type of infrastructure must also continue.
The truth is that we have identified seven rail lines in Lagos, we are building one now. The truth is that no foreign investors want to invest in rail in West Africa, forget it.
How would you assess your chances among those who are jostling for governorship and what is your take on the indigeneship issue?
First of all, in answering your question, I take myself serious. If I don’t believe in something, I don’t do it. I take myself very, very serious and I have been lucky in life, I finished my PHD in two and a half years, the first anybody had done. Whatever I want to do, I face it. So if I don’t believe in my chances, I would not waste my time. In November, I am going to win that primary. You know what is interesting; Kabiyesi tells me more about my grandfather than my mum does. My mum and Kabiyesi, they are like family. My mother is from Ija Egbe in Lagos Island, my maternal grandfather is Pa Collins, he (Kabiyesi) tells me more about him than my mum. I learnt more about him from Kabiyesi.
But you see, I brought this book (he displayed a book), this is my dad and this is book he wrote: Reflection of A Public Man. He wrote it in 2004 apparently he would not have expected that his son would run for governorship. I was not even a commissioner then. Now this is what he wrote, he was talking about his father. He said, “my father, Chief Oyeyinbo Ajiborisa,” so my name is actually Ajiborisa. So, Hamzat is a middle name. You know with religion, Faleke becomes Olaleke and those things. So in their own case, they dropped Ajiborisa altogether, that we would not be Ajiborisa but today there is Ajiborisa in Epe. General Leo Ajiborisa, the first Military administrator of Osun State is from the family. We are the same family, they are in Epe. So it is the same tree and at the right time, we will talk in the public about it. It is the same root, you understand and they are there in Epe today. So it is very interesting how everybody just forgets the dynamism of Yoruba race, very interesting how we all forget. So the reality is that my tree, my foot, my leg is in Lagos.
You know when tragedy happens, a lot of thing happen, his (my father) own father died when he was nine years old, the grandfather died when my father was nine, so what do you expect? He related more with hismother side because his father died. Now that is why he lived in Epe all his life, he went to primary school in Epe, with the current Olu of Epe. But like I said, he will of course relate to them because these are the people that were there so we notice that even when he became a king in Ewekoro you are talking about, his title was Ajiborisa 1, you understand, the same tree. Like I said, people move around, but it is the same root in Epe.
It is not going to be an obstacle because it doesn’t matter, it is not that there is a law that restricts you. It is okay for anybody to lie about his root. I will never lie because, where then do you get your integrity from? If you lie about your heritage, or root, then you will lie about anything. I cannot even lie because a lot of people know my dad and if my father had said he is from Epe, nobody can dispute it because your integrity is key. This is a man who in 1962 was secretary of the party in a ward that is now Mushin and Ode Olowo put together. That was a ward then, it is now two local governments and one LCDA. This is a man that was a councilor in Mushin, this is a man that was a member of House of Assembly in Lagos State, he was a man that was a commissioner in Lagos State, common give me a break (laughs).
What are the challenges that will confront the next governor of Lagos?
The challenge for Lagos is resources. Many people have the notion that Lagos is a rich state but it is not. The budget of Lagos is about $2b, population over 17m, as at now; if you go about the increase of 2006 we will be clocking 22m because as we speak about 600,000 enter Lagos every day, they are coming in, they are not going out; it is legitimate. Therefore, the resource to manage all these people is the challenge because they said that by 2050 we will be 40m people in Lagos. How do you build the infrastructure to sustain all these people are the challenge and the way to move our economy to knowledge base is technology? The challenge would be how can you raise the profile of the state to make it friendly to investors. How do you raise the revenue of the state in such a way that you don’t paralyse economic activities again by not increasing the tax burden but making it easy for people to pay? People say Lagos generates 20b but they don’t say how much you use to generate it. If the cost of recovery is high then the net does not make sense. Our challenge is how we would convince people on voluntary taxation without needing to pursue people. The challenge is given the enormity of the infrastructure deficit, population increase, how do you match your resources and I think one of the ways to confront it is sustainable technology.
How would your party handle the issue of religion in the choice of who emerges as your candidate?
I don’t know where that is coming from. Every time I remember Chief Obafemi Awolowo or Azikwe, I don’t even remember their religion. What I remember Awolowo for is the building of OAU Ife, setting up the first Television station. I don’t know what religion Nelson Mandela practised but there are many Christians and Muslims in South Africa who took money from the white government and betrayed their people.
I think Bishop Kukah said it well that why do we expect our governors to be nice because if you want a nice man, go to Mosque or Church. He said what we want our governor to be is efficient. The job of a leader is not to call people to come and worship, his job is to deliver irrespective of anybody’s religion, ethnicity or class. So, let us look at the job description then we can fit in who can do the job. In my view, it has absolutely nothing to do with religion and I think we are getting it wrong as a people especially when we start that in Lagos. It is absolutely ridiculous and I think as a people we must not allow those types of nonsense to happen. What is important is how to move Lagos forward.
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Lagos 2015: I want to build a state that lasts –Hamzat |
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