Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on
The Punch interview the special adviser to the Lagos State Governor
How do you see the political atmosphere ahead of the February elections?
The elections will hold no matter the plans to truncate it. Nigerians are ready to vote.
Are you saying there are plans to stop the election?
Of course, there are. The Peoples
Democratic Party is planning to stop the elections. You saw the invasion
of the All Progressives Congress Data Centre in Lagos where security
agents claimed that the APC was trying to clone Permanent Voter Cards.
They went there twice and when they did not see anything, they claimed
the APC was trying to hack the database of the Independent National
Electoral Commission. How is that possible? They (PDP) are just trying
to cause trouble so that elections will not hold but Nigerians are
smarter.
To
me, I think Nigerians are ready but the PDP know that they have done
nothing for the past six years and they have seen that other political
parties have presented credible people to contest the elections. So,
they want to campaign by telling lies. The President says he is planning
to come up with a new anti-corruption plan but what happened to the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other Related Offences Commission? It shows that they
don’t have the capacity to govern this nation and as a President, he
should have stepped down so that another person could contest in the
PDP. Anyway, they are giving us the opportunity to campaign effectively.
But is there really a difference between the APC and the PDP?
Of course, there is. In most of the APC
states, see what we have done. Lagos is being run by the APC and you can
see the level of development. In Ogun, you’ll remember that a former
governor, Gbenga Daniel, mismanaged the state for eight years. Look at
Governor Ibikunle Amosun today. You can see how he has transformed the
state. You can see the flyover at Abeokuta ditto Sagamu, Ijebu-Ode. In
education, you can see what the APC states have done. But what has
President Goodluck Jonathan done? You can see that the APC has
credibility and has good records to present.
You advise the governor on
education but we understand that the Lagos State University fees were
increased and then a few months ago, it was reduced. The PDP says your
party will increase the fees again if re-elected?
That is not true. LASU has a management
that runs its affairs. It was set up by a law. The law gives the power
and independence to the management of LASU. It is when the management
does not do it right that the state government intervenes. LASU has the
responsibility of fixing its fees which they did and when we found out
that they were unable to manage it, the state government intervened and
that was the only time that the government dabbled into the affairs of
the higher institution.
The students wrote to the state
government and the government set up a panel to look into the matter and
we found out that the students were being charged haphazardly. For
instance, in some faculties where you don’t need to pay for workshops,
some students were paying.We looked into it and we told the governor
that the ideal thing for LASU students should be a minimum of N50, 000 a
year. But having looked at that and the negative economic situation in
the country, we brought down the fees to between N25,000 and N35,000. If
the PDP had done very well, and the economic situation of the country
was good, people would not have complained. So, it is not a gimmick, and
part of the APC’s plans is that education should be free at all levels
and you can see that our primary and secondary schools are free and get
free books except you’re in boarding school.
In the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital today, medical students pay N60, 000. Where in the world will
you pay that amount of money to get accommodation and medical education?
Are you saying the state government had nothing to do with the increment?
As I told you before, the university has
the power to increase the fees and that was what they did. They said in
order for them to improve on the quality of education, they needed to
increase the fees. Let me tell you, in anywhere in the world, if you
want to train a medical student, you spend nothing less than N900,000
and N1m a year. To train a lawyer, it’s about N600,000. In private
schools, you pay about N600, 000 if you are a law student but in LASU,
you pay N35,000. If you are studying a general course, you pay between
N400,000 and N500, 000 but in LASU, you pay N35,000. If you are a
medical student in a private university, you pay between N700,000 and
N900,000 but in LASU, you pay N60, 000. So you can see the comparison.
It is not that we are charging according to the way it is supposed to be
but it is being subsidised maximally by the state government and I keep
saying we cushion the effects by giving scholarships to brilliant
students. When the fees were increased, students who were indigenes of
the state were given between N60,000 and N80,000 in bursary but now it
has been reduced to between N25,000 and N35,000.
You contested the APC Ikorodu House of Representatives primary but lost. What will be your next political move?
I was defeated but not discouraged. I
will try as much as possible to ensure that the candidate that won will
emerge victorious in next month’s elections. Election is not a
do-or-die-affair and I will ensure that the APC wins convincingly in
Ikorodu.
The PDP governorship
candidate, Jimi Agbaje, is also from Ikorodu Local Government. Are you
not afraid that he can ensure victory for the PDP next month?
If you go to Ikorodu, you will see that
Agbaje is not on the ground. Before now, when was the last time he
visited Ikorodu? Yes, he is from Ikorodu but what has he done in
Ikorodu? Let him show us the projects that he has done in Ikorodu. How
many people has he empowered in Ikorodu? I think he would have performed
better if he had stuck to his pharmacy job and left governance to those
of us who have the skill. Even as a pharmacist, ask him if he has any
drug factory in Ikorodu. Does he even have one store or branch in
Ikorodu? I am from Ikorodu and I can show you the projects that I have
done. Every year, I hold a Christmas party for children where I also
give out gifts. I also empower widows on February 14 and I give them
sewing machines and money. Let him tell us how many people he has
empowered.
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