Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos State Commissioner for Works, during the week spoke about his aspiration to be governor of the state on the podium of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general elections. Seye Olumide reports.
Wanting to be governor of Lagos
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 had read it before, but I had to read it again because I read a lot of biographies. I could not believe that somebody could write something like that as far back as 1961.
The popular one (quote) 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.
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 with 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, the NPC said we were 9.5 million, but we said we were 17.1 million; 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 based. The tribunal upheld 15 of those 19. So, let us assume that the other four is wrong, but out of 19, we had 14. They did not take Mushin, Surulere, Epe and another one.
Thus, 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, but 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 looked for the best to‎ do the job. Even Dubai, the person managing the Emirate is not a Muslim; he is a white man from Britain.
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 a human being does, you can actually destroy it. The world is littered with examples of such.
I keep saying (repeating) the story of Robert Mugabe. When I was in England after I finished my PhD and I still had some funds to travel, I said I was going to Zimbabwe. From Harare - the airport all the way to Lake Victoria - the road was excellent, but today, the same road is bad, and the same leader is still there. So, our history is littered with such.
To assume that because you started something well, we should take it for granted is ludicrous. We must take governance the way it is; it’s a serious business. That is why I laugh when we complain about our country. When the President wanted to run, he did not tell us he would do anything. He did not even debate his programmes; he only said he didn’t have shoes (when he was young) and all the rest, and we agreed.
So, what exactly is our expectation? The reality is that we can afford not to move forward or we can agree, as a people, that we must not reverse.
I went to the U.S, finished my PhD at the age of 26, and I have seen that Nigerians are probably one of the best people (academically and professionally); there is no single hospital from New York to California that you won’t see Nigerians.
We are people that can pull our weight anywhere. So, what is the problem?
The issue is that we deal with the wrong things at home! We talk about Igbo, Yoruba and South-South; does it matter? The currency we spend has no colouration. The road that you drive on does not know or ask where you come from. When a plane crashes, it doesn’t know if you are from the South or North. 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 solving 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’m presenting myself as a candidate for the office of governor.
Our party, the APC, is lucky because we have enormous number of people who are qualified to do the job. We don’t need to go and hire people from outside, borrow someone or be begging.
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.
Challenges that will confront the next governor of Lagos
THE biggest challenge is not just Lagos State but the continent of Africa. If you read Thomas ‎Friedman’s book, a brilliant Nobel Economist that teaches at Yale University, he asked when is it that we can ascertain that the African nation will actually sustainably climb out of poverty. He answers that it is a time that we are able to reduce the energy deficit in Africa. What does that mean?
Nigeria has a population of 167 million and they said we generate 6000MW but we can only use 4000MW. So, if you divide 4000MW by 167 million people, we will have about 10 watts, which you cannot even read with.
If as a person (Nigerian) all I could get is 10w and a typical South African will get about 200w, then the difference is clear. We will remain a poor nation because the data is there.

That is why I laugh when people talk about the PDP government; they are not doing anything. We are not a nation of morons. When it comes to interactions with people, we will explain. Why are we improvising our people? In a normal society, many of these people should never be in government with what we know.
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, with a population of over 17 million, as at now - if you go about the increase of 2006, we will be clocking 22 million because as we speak, about 600,000 enters Lagos everyday; 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 40 million people in Lagos. How do you build the infrastructure to sustain all these people is the challenge and the way to move our economy to knowledge based is technology.
The challenge will 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 - that is not increasing the tax burden but making it easy for people to pay?
People say Lagos generates N20 billion (monthly) 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 our resources and I think one of the ways to confront it is sustainable technology.
Handling issue of religion in the choice of APC’s candidate
I don’t know where that is coming from. Every time I remember Chief Obafemi Awolowo or (Dr. Nanadi) Azikiwe, I don’t even remember their religion. What I remember Awolowo for is the building of OAU, formerly University of Ife, and setting up the first television station (in Africa).
I don’t know what religion Nelson Mandela practiced but there are many Christians and Muslims in South Africa who took money from the white government and betrayed their people.
I have said that one of the problems of the black man is that we deal with what we cannot measure. How do you measure somebody’s faith? I think Bishop (Hassan Matthew) Kukah said it well that why do we expect our governors to be nice because if you want a nice man, go to the 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. For example, since Ogun State was created, all the governors in that state have been Christians. The first one that would be a Muslim is Amosun. We did not have a single agitation. Why should it have to start from Lagos?
It is absolutely ridiculous and I think, as a people, we must not allow this type of nonsense to happen. What is important is how to move Lagos forward.
We must be careful because this is a state where we have about 40 per cent of bank branches in this country. So, if Boko Haram starts in Lagos, this country is gone. Which nation has dabbled in religious issue and succeeded?
What we must always realise is that it (governance) has absolutely nothing to do with religion. It shouldn’t matter. It’s not important because their (leaders’) job is not to go and preach.
Need for open rather than ‘magic primaries’ to pick APC’s candidates for election
I don’t know what you mean by magic primaries. The truth of the matter is that everybody will have specific interest; so, the leaders like Asiwaju (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) will have a particular candidate. He is a leader, he is a human being, but he has only one vote. It is called lobbying.
The truth is that we all asked for democracy. I am sure in the Congress in the United States, there are lobbyists. If you want anything to pass through the Senate, you go and hire the lobbyists.
Such thing may be outrageous but is the reality. You will start to lobby the senators. Is that good or bad? Posterity will judge.
But what I am saying is that as a candidate, I don’t worry myself with that; what I am worrying myself with is let me present what I represent to the party and the people of Lagos, and you leave your faith in God. So, whatever happens, so be it.
His chances among the aspirants, relationship with the party leadership and reaction to Oba of Lagos statement that a son of an Ogun monarch would not become governor over him.
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. If I don’t believe in my chances, I would not waste my time. In November, I am going to win that primary election.
Two, I wouldn’t discuss Kabiyesi’s issue. I wouldn’t do that. You know what is interesting? Kabiyesi tells me more about my grandfather than my mum does. My mum and Kabiyesi are like a 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 does. I learnt more about him from Kabiyesi. So, I will not respond to what Kabiyesi had said.
But you see, I brought this book (he displayed a book). This my dad and this is a book he wrote: ‘Reflection of A Public Man’. He wrote it in 2004 and 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; 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.
Therefore, 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.
It is very interesting how everybody forgets the dynamism of the 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 things happen. His (my father’s) 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 his mother’s side because his father died.
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 would, of course, relate to them because these were the people there.
So, we noticed that even when he became a king in Ewekoro that you are talking about, his title was Ajiborisa 1, you understand, the same tree. As I said, people move around, but it is the same root in Epe.
The issue becoming a possible obstacle to his aspiration
No, it is not, it will not. You know why it is not because it doesn’t matter. It is not that there is a law that restricts you, but 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, you understand. 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 is a man that was a commissioner in Lagos State. Come on; give me a break (laughs).
Move to another party if he didn’t win the primaries
No, no, no, I wasn’t brought up that way. You must believe in something.
His exact 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. The first one is Building a Knowledge-based Economy. I will give you an example why I say this.
I was working in Mannige, the Tide as the Vice President (IT) and one day, I was working in the office and my Executive Director called me to say, Kadiri - he called me Kadiri. He said, ‘You need to give me 12 names,’ and that we were reducing the workforce from 80. He said those were the people that would stay, including me and the others were goners.
I now said, ‘Let’s sit down and discuss.’ He said, ‘Look, the least paid in that group earns $80,000 in a year,’ which is true. He said my office space was the most expensive in the world; everybody had social security, and we paid health insurance. So, if we added all these together, he said it’s about $200,000 for the least paid. He said, ‘I can get the same value by going to India and pay $20,000. What we are is business before charity.’
When he finished, I truly could not argue with him. The story for me is this. I then said, ‘Look, it is possible for me to take this to Nigeria; why can’t I take it to Nigeria?’ He now said, ‘You should answer the question: can you take this to Nigeria?’
The moment he said that, I knew the answer. He looked at the security, the fact that there was no power and then the IT at that time was not where it was supposed to be. So, if you can build the IT, so that when you plug in the computer, you get the 2G in Lagos, that is knowledge-based economy.
Now, it is also important that we encourage technical education. When we were building the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge, we needed welders. There is a machine that can bend 300mm steel to 90 degrees. They brought that machine here and one of the things I said was that look, we must get LASU students to come and see it because as an engineering student, I never saw a bridge being built.
We knew the theories, the materials and whatever, but if you see it, you will never forget. So, we brought LASU and UNILAG students. We actually delayed work on the bridge a bit because we wanted the students to also know it.
The most profound for me was that we knew we could not get enough welders that could do the job in our country and the company handling the project wanted to go to Togo. So, sometimes, when people ask us when would that road finish, I would laugh.
Is it about finishing the road or about building the capacity of our people? For how long are we going to depend on foreigners? Yes, seriously, we then said no. So, we delayed that bridge for about six months; we could have finished it earlier.
In our vocational schools, we started training welders. You know what is interesting? I didn’t know that oil companies employ a lot of welders; some of those welders today earn half a million naira a month in oil companies.
The problem is that a lot of people don’t do it well. In this country, we used to have City and Guilds Examinations. I remember a Technical College in Oyo and all the rest of them; they have disappeared.
No nation can survive without it; it will not happen. We must make our mark. As a people, we must stop looking at the shortcuts. That must change, that is the reality; it must change for the future of our children. Thus, for education, we must do technical.
Now, the well-being of the people is also a priority. Nigerians spend about $159 billion treating diarrhea; we are second only to India. We spend more money treating the side effects instead of using that money to build water works, among others. Those types of infrastructure must also continue.
The truth is that we have identified seven rail lines in Lagos; we are building one now. And the truth is that no foreign investors want to invest in rail in West Africa, forget it.
Why?
This is because when people invest in such a thing, they want their money back. It is somebody’s investments they want to bring; how do they get their money back?
Rail is a project that is not profitable. So, in majority of the jurisdictions, from New Jersey to Delaware to London, it is subsidised every time by the government. I think they recognise only four that seem to be profitable.
And you know the interesting thing? The metro line would have been one of them. So, a state of 21 million people cannot survive without that mass movement; we must build it. We must learn from people who have done it; we are not pioneering anything. Some people have done it; why can’t we learn it?

Source: http://ngrguardiannews.com/features/policy-a-politics/179599-i-m-confident-of-winning-apc-s-primary-poll

Wow what a lovely piece... Lagos State is blessed with Proven and Intelligent Administrators vying for the Seat of Governor. From Ambode Wunmi to Obafemi Hamzat to Dr Jide Idris and Jimi Agbaje(Why join PDP?). Musliu Obanikoro too would have made a good Administrator judging from his performance in Lagos Island Local Government, his deep understanding of Lagos State and how he managed the Internal Affairs of Lagos State during his days as Home Affairs Commissioner under Gov Bola Tinubu, sadly, he has been radicalized by the PDP. TOO BAD!!!
My Candidates in Order of Preference...
1. Akinwumi Ambode
2. Obafemi Hamzat
3. Jide Idris
KICKED OUT
4. Jimi Agbaje
5. Obanikoro

GOS, Ikuforuji, Gbenga Ashafa, Ade Dosunmu etal should GO AND REST

When the President wanted to run, he did not tell us he would do anything. He did not even debate his programmes; he only said he didn’t have shoes (when he was young) and all the rest, and we agreed.

hahahaahahaha

smh

Lagos is indeed blessed with men of proven integrity and intellect. Personally, I love and prefer Hamzat to govern Lagos after Fashola because I see him as a person who can do well.
The APC primary in Lagos will really be interesting and tricky and will really go a long in deciding who rules there.

I pray the best candidate emerges.

ShehuAba: Lagos is indeed blessed with men of proven integrity and intellect. Personally, I love and prefer Hamzat to govern Lagos after Fashola because I see him as a person who can do well.
The APC primary in Lagos will really be interesting and tricky and will really go a long in deciding who rules there.

I pray the best candidate emerges.

That guy is an Enigma. I will like to have him and Wunmi on the Ticket. But Wunmi remains my NUMBER 1 Preference