Lagos residents’ll reject PDP – Igbokwe

It runs corrupt government
The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has said the increasing cases of corruption, impunity and illegality the PDP is perpetrating and with which it is denting the image of the country make any sug­gestion of a PDP challenge for Lagos un­feasible. The party said that having had a responsible, proactive and transparent government that has yielded innumera­ble dividends for Nigerians in 16 years, it would be suicidal for Lagosians to desire a party noted only for corruption, stealing through many guises and impunity.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said that the recent arrest of a private jet smuggling $9.3 million by South African authorities and the laughable way the Jonathan government attempted to kill the is­sue shows that PDP is remorselessly commit­ted to stealing resources that would have bet­tered Nigeria. He stated that it is a tall dream for PDP to think of winning Lagos in 2015 general elections.
How is 2015 general election going to be, PDP is poised to take over La­gos?
It will come and go. APC is not contesting with anybody. Which party is contesting with us? If you say, it is PDP, is that party in Lagos? Does it have roots, tentacles in Lagos? Does it exist and can it stand the heat of APC in the state.
On what basis would PDP take over La­gos, is it in terms of performance? Okay, there are not in Lagos, let’s judge them from their performance at the centre. Have they given us jobs? Did you see the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) stampede, when they advertised for 3,000 jobs and almost one million people came up? Have they given us power, I have been running here for the past 10 years on generator, have they built our hospitals, roads etc, what have they done? What has happened to our oil money? What happened to $20 billion oil money that led to the removal of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) gov­ernor, HRH, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi? What is happening to this $9.3 million they shipped to South Africa? When the President is harping on cashless economy and they were able to move $9.3 million cash to South Africa with an aircraft belonging to a renowned Arch­bishop to go and buy arms, for whose benefit?
So, that PDP rot at the federal level is what you want us to replicate here in Lagos. Let’s get serious; there is no place for PDP in the state. It will never happen. They are throw­ing money all over Lagos, their target is the Igbo votes, at the end of the day, we will re­verse that and tell my people the story of their presence and what they have garnered here. They were able to do that because Lagos is stable, peaceful and friendly. They will never forget that history, our people have made seri­ous inroad in Lagos economy and it was done because people created the conducive and enabling environment for their investments to thrive. Outside South East, the next home of Ndigbo is Lagos.
Somebody made it that way that South East businessmen in Lagos are making for­tune because limitless and boundless oppor­tunities abound. You think our people would forget in hurry the party that created this ena­bling environment. When the time comes, our people will turn their backs against PDP.
Don’t you think that a lot would de­pend on the APC candidate?
We have so many of them but the worst of all the APC aspirants is far better than the best of PDP. They don’t go for leadership training; there have no ideas, no focus, no destination, no training, no capacity and capability. Their thinking is, how do we loot the nation, how do we get money abroad and buy houses in South Africa. I’m sure that $9.3 million was to buy property in South Africa, knowing that things may turn the other way. They don’t have can­didates, we believe in ideas. The moment a governor is sworn in, APC will start looking for successors and starts subjecting them to training and ideas – where to go and where not to go and what to do and what not to do. We check your ideas, faculty, antecedent and what you are capable of doing.
That is why I said that the worst of all these over 20 aspirants is better than the best PDP can offer. We are at peace with ourselves and the moment a candidate emerges, the case is settled?
Just as you are saying that it is im­possible for PDP to win Lagos, so also the ruling party is saying that the op­position can’t win at the centre, what do say to that?
When we get to the bridge, we cross it. You have not tested APC, why are you pass­ing judgment, even if you don’t want to look at that side, go to APC states and open your eyes and ears and see and compare. You can­not judge a man unless you test him. It is only when you give somebody power that you know the kind of person he is, it is only when a party wins power and stays two, three, four years that you know what he wants to do. So, why are they judging us? We have displayed and excelled in all the states that we control. I’m not saying that some PDP governors have not performed, but we are looking at the Fed­eral Government, because you only need to compare Lagos and Federal Government and weigh the balance, because Lagos has almost the status of a country, it is bigger than Cam­eroon, Ghana, Senegal and many other coun­tries. You can place the two and weigh it. This is what we have done in Lagos, give us Abuja and in six months Nigerians will see what they have not seen before; Nigerians would see a different country, if you talk about security, creating jobs, building infrastructure, which is the only way you can open up this economy. Talk about power, and you take our educa­tional system. Between education and devel­opment is a closed one. We want to have a healthy nation and so, we are planning to have world class hospitals in Nigeria and we have the resources to do that.
Our problem is not money, it is not our weather, it is the people we place in position of authority, who do not know where to go, they don’t even know where to start, the don’t know what to offer, they are just parading empty heads. They travel all over the world and they see things and when they come back they don’t know what to do.
We would invest in agriculture and create jobs. We would rebuild our university system, you cannot say you have 100 universities and none of them is rated in 500 position all over the world. You have secondary schools and you call them universities. We are going to overhaul, the country. If Nigeria were an en­gine, we are going to overhaul it, change the spare parts, change the crankshaft; the piston, the crankcase, the house, the rings and the car would not smoke again. Nigeria presently is a brand new vehicle without a driver. We have everything to be an important nation but we couldn’t because of the character of people we place in a position of authority.
What are your fears for 2015?
I fear for 2015 because of the desperation that we are seeing on the part of PDP, Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan himself and his han­dlers. My fears are that if they are not stopped, they may crash this democracy. The signs are there. Even in the face of Boko Haram insur­gency, these people pretend as if nothing is happening and they are going about telling us the story of Jonathan and what he has done. If you cannot secure your people, what is your basis of staying in power; if you are not ac­countable to your people, what is the basis for you to remain in power; if you are afraid to visit your people when they are in distress, when they are in danger, what makes you the President of Nigeria and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces?
When Governor Fashola was to launch the BRT, there was security report against his life that some people went to his father, when he was still alive to warn his son, the governor not to go the place for the launch of the BRT because we would kill him. Fashola said he was going and said, ‘if I die, no problem but this job must be done’ and he went there. All he did was to fortify the security and launched the BRT and nothing happened. When Ozu­rumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island was to be dualised, there were obstacles as people were asked to move their setbacks, military officers own most of the affected and they refused. One morning the governor drove to that place boldly and they were supposed to have a meeting, the generals were there – IGs, AIGs, Air force commanders, naval offic­ers and he told them that these walls must go down because this road is not only for me it is for everybody, and that the walls must go that and if they thought otherwise, he was ready to die. He then asked the bulldozers to pull down the walls. That is courage. President Jonathan could not visit the parents of the Chibok girls because he was afraid. He can’t go to Borno State, what kind of commander in chief is he? He must go in 2015.
Lagosians accuse Fashola of exe­cuting projects in the elite areas, – VI, Ikoyi, while neglecting, area like Ajen­gule, Ikotun, Ojo etc, this they say will work against APC, how do you react to this?
The Lagos –Badagrey 10-lane express­way, whose benefit? The moment you throw that road open, everything from Mile Two to Badagrey opens up and if they were selling a plot of land N40,000 in Badagry, it will jump to millions that is also how government puts money into the pockets of the ordinary peo­ple. The security outfit we have in the state, is it for the big man only? This ultra modern hospital that was just opened in Gbagada, is it for big people only. All the beautiful roads we have in Ikoyi, are they for the big men only, the Lekki – Epe bridge is it for big men, you have thousands of people going to work in Lekki and Victoria Island who assessed the bridge. They are now expanding Ikorodu Road is it for the rich only. The Okota-Itire bridge is it for the rich or for everybody. The Okota – Ejigbo link bridge when they were building it, the big men opposed, saying that it would connect them to hoodlums from Ejigbo. He didn’t listen to them and built it. BRT, is for the rich? I can go on and on, let’s not play politics with this matter because Lagosians are very wise, they see things and feel them. We removed okada from 495 roads out of over 10,000 roads, which is less than three per cent and they are playing poli­tics with it. We raised LASU school fees so that we can build a world class university and they cried and we said, let’s us suffer instead of allowing these people to play politics with it and reversed to N25,000.
Even in kindergarten, fees are up to N50,000 and more. What type of graduates are you going to produce with N25,000; where in the world are you going to see something like that. Lagos is doing all these things so that they would not have anything to play politics when the campaigns start and we would start showing you where we were and where we are now. We would show you how we have cleaned up Lagos for business; how we have opened up Lagos for international investors to come in. If you go to Lekki now, it is not easy for you buy land and you see new cars. One of the ways you measure development is when you begin to see new cars, buildings, offices etc. Go to Lekki and you would not believe it. I took my daughter there and she asked me if it was part of Lagos. So, what are they going to use to campaign in 2015? If they are saying that the government is elitist, they are liars from the pit of hell. They can’t get it. They are changing facts to fit into their base­less arguments; we will daze them when the time comes. Now they are no more talking of okada policy because we have destroyed their argument, as they were barred from 495 out of 10,000 roads in their own interest, for security and safety.