Chairman, Board of Industrial Training Fund and Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Olatunde Obanikoro, held a session with select journalists at the weekend, where he shed light on some of the pertinent issues in the country. Olawale Olaleye was there. Excerpts:

Many would have hedged a bet that you’d contest the 2011 governorship election in Lagos State. Why did you opt out?

I was on a national assignment at the time in 2011. I was the country’s representative (High Commissioner) in Ghana. There was no way I could abandon the responsibilities given to me by the federal government and come home only to be chasing a political office. Now that I am home, I am strongly reflecting on the last 15 years of Tinubu and the present administration in our state. I will not sit down here and tell you that we don’t have few things to celebrate in the state but, by and large, there are still many holes to fill up and I can honestly tell you that as a citizen of Lagos State, the overall decision I will take in terms of performance of Lagos government in the last 15 years, for me, is slightly below average.

Don’t you think many people will differ on your assessment?

People may be saying they have done some new roads; that they have done this, they have done that. One, we must look at the costs of these roads and then, a state that its debt profile is about N1trillion as we speak today. I schooled in the USA, the biggest investment that country made that is still working for them and it is in education. We have not done such in Lagos State despite all the noise they have been making. As we speak today, people of Lagos are not interested and they will not voluntarily send their children to public school in the state.


That to me is failure on the part of the government after 15 years in the saddle. People are interested in sending their wards to private schools. Some people who could not even afford the private schools always strived to ensure their children attend private schools. Public schools in the state are not functional in the true sense of imparting knowledge in our children. So, how one governor can just stand up and beat his chest that he has performed still marvels me.

Today, our hospitals in the state are mere consulting centers. Even the consultation is minimal in the true sense of it. Everybody that is somebody now goes overseas for ordinary medical check-up. Even the governor himself, I do believe without any iota of doubt, does his medical check-up abroad. Their leader and ex-governor of the state had a medical challenge recently. He had knee injury and he was flown abroad to take care of ordinary knee injury. This minor health challenge could not be treated at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) after billions of naira they claimed they have sunk to upgrade the facility. In the area of health, Lagos government has equally failed.

Today, Lagos State does not have the required capacity to handle emergency situation. And you know how much this state generated monthly as internal revenue? They are still struggling in the area of refuse management. Looking at the Olusosun dumpsite at Ojota and the level of pollution that is injected in the atmosphere on daily basis says a lot about the state government that has been in power since 1999. Where have you seen such a big dumpsite operating in a metropolis anywhere in the world? They did not only dump refuse at Olusosun but they burn refuse there every day and the dumpsite was surrounded by residential communities.

In addition to that high grade of environmental pollution in the middle of the state capital, there are various kinds of reckless reclamation going on in the state right now. After the reclamation, what they often do is to sell the land to themselves and their cronies. Whereas, during the time of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, he did reclamation in Lekki and the land was sold to members of the public. Except for the reclamation at the Atlantic City, there is another reclamation that is going on secretly without the knowledge of the people. The one going on right now in Ikoyi is being done quietly and secretly so that members of the public don’t know much about it. As I am speaking to you now, the level of industrial pollution in the state is at alarming proportion. There is serious environmental degradation in the state and nobody is saying anything about it. These are serious issues that will affect resident’s life span and nobody is talking. Honestly, I don’t know what this government is celebrating every 100 days.

I was one of the beneficiaries of Alhaji Lateef Jakande’s Housing policy. In 15 years now, the Lagos State government has not built one house for medium income earners not to talk of the low income earners. Go and check the cost of the houses they said they built for the people. How many workers can afford to buy those houses? Go and investigate the cost of renovated markets at Yaba, Oshodi and others, you will understand if the government in the state since 1999 is for the masses or the elite. There are basic needs of life and housing ranks very high among those basic needs. Those basic needs for a stable society is lacking in Lagos under the government that has been in power for 15 years running. That to me needs urgent change.

You were once in the system for about six years. At what point did you discover these things about the Lagos government?

One of the reasons I left the AD was when my eyes were opened and I saw the character that was leading us at the time. I am not a member of ACN; I had left before they formed their ACN. With the benefit of hindsight, I did a right thing by pulling out of AD. There was no internal democracy in AD in those days and they carried this style to ACN. You can recall that in ACN and other parties that now referred to themselves as ‘progressives’, they don’t do primaries. What they usually do is anoint candidates. Their leader will just stand up and say this is the party’s candidate and his word is the final. It still happens till today and that is why they worship the so called leader.


I decided on my own to quit AD when I saw some of these shortcomings of the undisputed leader of the party. I saw naked abuse of opportunity as an insider and I felt that some of these things could not be defended anywhere. You all saw firsthand what happened when my son won the chairmanship election of Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA as a PDP candidate. The ACN under the guise of Lagos state government went to Appeal Court to go and impound the victory of that young man. That shows the type of people we are dealing with. That level of impunity shouldn’t exist in any society; such recklessness should not exist in any civilised society.
Somebody won an election that was free and fair and a judge sat somewhere and on technicality, said the person should not be sworn-in. To me, that was the height of which all well meaning individuals in the state ought to have risen up and spoken out because that was another June 12 that took place in Lagos- the annulment of the mandate of the people of Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA by the powers that be in the state.

Have you pondered the lack of unity in Lagos PDP?

Well, they are not united either. What you are seeing in their party as unity is peace of the graveyard. An honest member of their party will tell you all is not well in that party either. All what you see them do is make-believe. With time, you will also come to this conclusion. They will turn apart. In a system where a single person determines the councilor, the council Chairman as well as members of the national and State Assemblies including the governor, then you should know that the alleged peace in their party is that of the graveyard. Did you think the market women and men in the state are happy that the same man anointed his daughter to become leader of market women and men in the state? People like us cannot just stand by and allow all these to go unchallenged.

If you contested the Lagos governorship in 2007 and in 2013, you’re still reflecting on whether or not to contest in 2015, does it not show that you are not a serious contender?

No! You get it wrong. Let me tell you that I am eight years older than I was when I contested in 2007. A Yoruba proverb says agba o ki’n soro bi ewe. It means an elderly person doesn’t act like a child. I have focus. Don’t forget that I have also done other things since 2007. I’ve served my country meritoriously as an Ambassador. May be the diplomatic part of me is having a greater share of me this morning. I want to let people know that we in Lagos PDP are serious about 2015 and we have what it takes to dismantle this oppressive, insensitive and elitist government in Lagos State.

You spoke about corruption in Lagos State, what about the one at the federal level?

What is good about the federal level is that whatever the people of the country complained about, we don’t hide them nor put them in the closet. We are dealing with them; people are being arrested and put in jail. Tell me, how many local government chairmen or councilors have they tried for corruption or put behind bars since 1999 that they have been managing affairs of this state? There is a cesspool of corruption in Lagos state from any angle you may look at it.


I can tell you of so many local government chairmen in Lagos state that do not own a motorcycle when they were appointed into office but today, go and see the number of houses they have built and the type of cars they ride. That is not the kind of dividends of democracy people are clamouring for but a dividend that will ensure their children can attend school without any injury to their pocket; that water will run in their taps; that they will not suffer toiling all year round paying exorbitant house rents; that the environment will be clean and that they will not be dying so early as it is happening now. Sit down and think of the challenges confronting ordinary people in Lagos now, it is bigger than what people can think of.

But has the federal government done anything to assist the people and government of Lagos?

The federal government has done a lot to assist Lagos. For instance, our government at the centre ensures that the 3rd Mainland Bridge does not collapse. We have done that continuously in the last five years. Yar’Adua did it, Jonathan has done it. There is the expansion the federal government is doing along Apapa-Oshodi expressway to ensure access in and out of the harbor. There is also the massive renovation done at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja. The arrival and departure sections have been expanded. And the interesting thing about all these is that if you google the Ministry in-charge of these works to get how much was expended on each of the project, you will get them stated clearly. But that does not happen in Lagos here.

What about the current Stella Oduah scandal in the Aviation sector?

Oh yes! Accusation has been made in the open. Panels have been set up to look into the matter and the president has received the report. I am sure in good time; he would come out with a position. Be that as it may, nobody can sweep under the carpet what PDP had done to tackle corruption. Their party has not done anything. That is what we are saying. Everything they have accused us of doing, they are worse off. They accused Stella Odua of buying two armoured cars for N255 million. The one the Lagos state governor is riding up and down is more expensive than Oduah’s cars. He is a public officer too who draws his salary from tax payer’s money.


It is the same standard, it doesn’t matter. It is even more damning for the governor because he is elected by the people and he is supposed to uphold the trust and confidence of the people of Lagos. So, their own is even worse in that case but it is unfortunate the media refuse to look at that area. I am in the know of the cost but I am putting it to you to do the investigation on the cost of those two jeeps which our governor uses as official car.

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