Your manifesto is termed Atunto Eko 1.0 (Reset Lagos). What exactly are you looking to reset in Lagos?
Atunto Eko 1.0 is an intentional policy document that we want to use to re-engineer Lagos for inclusive prosperity. That’s what it is. There, we spoke about a number of things that we want to do.
Majorly, one of the projects that we want to embark on that has never been done in the history of Lagos, or probably we didn’t consider, is power. We are going to have IPPs, independent power projects, in all the five divisions of Lagos, which is the Ibile division of Lagos.
And not just that, we also plan that we are going to have our own independent grid that we are going to use to circulate this power, transmit it to each and every home. That’s different from the one of the Federal Government.
So, resetting Lagos is about bringing orderliness to Lagos. If you look at the environment, for instance, you can see everybody telling us that Lagos is smelly. We should not be talking about Lagos being smelly. If you look at where we have our dumpsite, you see it’s an embarrassment. A major entrance into Lagos, that is where we have our dumpsite.
If you say, okay, this thing was done many years ago, right now we should have moved this trash load from that area to a more secluded environment. Lagos has about 22 million people. I don’t expect that in a state where we have about 22 million people, the amount of waste being generated every day should not be more.
Lagos is one of the states where we have a lot of people migrating into every day. But, do we have plans for all of these people coming into Lagos? In terms of employment, housing, transportation and traffic management? These are the major problems we face in Lagos.
It’s embarrassing that recently the pensioners of Lagos had to protest for the money, for the entitlement after serving for several years. How can you work meritoriously in Lagos State as a civil servant and have to beg to collect your pension? These are just abnormal situations that we are also going to correct in Lagos State.
Look at the flooding issue. We claim that we are generating as much as N1.7 trillion every year as internally generated revenue, with about N900 billion coming in from Abuja every year. So all these figures, what are they being used for?
I went around Lagos and they are talking about housing. What is the total number of units of housing that they have done for the good people of Lagos? We are going to create more affordable housing for the people. It’s simple. We have land in Epe, we have land in Badagry, we have land in Ikorodu. We are going to build massive affordable housing units and create an economy around that environment.
It’s not just to say we want to create affordable housing units here. We are going to create a whole new economy around that environment, so that when you are living there, you can work there.
We are going to build markets, stalls and a whole lot of things around there, so that we can begin to decongest Lagos city centre. These are just a few of what we have as part of our agenda.
How will you make your government more people-oriented and ensure that residents have a say in how Lagos is governed?
If we look at governance of Lagos, is Lagos being governed the way it should be done? Lagos is now being run as if it’s in the hands of a cartel that determines a project that is done and a project that is not done.
So we are going to do a people-oriented government in such a way that before we do any budget every year, we are going to do town hall meetings and meet with the people because we cannot think for the people. We must engage the people. We must ask the people.
For instance, Lagos has 57 LGAs and LCDAs and three senatorial districts. We can go to the people of Lagos East and say, Lagos East people, we want to do the budget for so-and-so. We call all the relevant stakeholders and the people, students, traditional rulers, civil society organisations. We ask them: what is the major problem that you are facing in Lagos East, Lagos West and Lagos Central? They will tell us. We will look at it, if it is the road, if it is flooding. We will even share ideas together and say, this is how we can solve the problem of flooding.
It is not because we don’t have ideas, but because whatever we want to build is for the people. So the people must be able to have a contribution into what we are doing for them.
We will engage in public-private partnership. We must talk to people, captains of industries and bank CEOs and look at what we can do in terms of scholarship, education and making sure that we have more educated people in Lagos.
If we look at a whole lot of slots in the Army, how many people do we have who are Lagosians in the Army? At the low, medium and high cadres, how many do we have in the police? How many do we have in all these major security agencies? These are problems we are coming to fix.
What is your plan for the Lagos waterfront, particularly for communities already living there? How will you balance waterfront development with the rights of residents who may be displaced?
It’s a very critical question, and I believe that the answer is simple.
Lagos State, in terms of landmass, is 3,577 square kilometres. Out of this portion, it’s less than 1,000 square kilometres that is dry land. The rest is water. So I understand that that’s the reason why we are trying to do land reclamation and all of that, build waterfront properties and all of that.
According to the Land Use Act of 1978, the major reason why governments resettle people is for overriding public interest. Now, if we have some places that have been occupied by people, maybe it might not be statutory occupation, and the government needs to probably create housing or industry or whatever in those areas, it is not something that should be done in a military form. It is not something that should be done with no human empathy and human face.
In that same 1978 Land Use Act, provision is made for resettlement and compensation, and not just shabby compensation, because we are in government because of the people. So whatever we want to do must be in the interest of the people.
Some of these people may be there because they want to grab land that they feel has become prime land and chase the people away by force and take over the land and build it for themselves and their cronies. I’m not saying that’s what is going on, but it is a possibility.
So if we want to take over this particular land within an already developed environment, whether the people have title or they don’t have title, there must be engagement first. You explain to them, you let them know what you want to do, and you let them know that what you’re doing is for the overriding public interest of building a school, hospital or even affordable housing for them. And that affordable housing must be affordable.
If you look at Oyo State, the government built market stalls. It saw that the place was not organised. It built market stalls in already existing markets and gave them out for free to all the market people. Because the government is in government because of the people, not because of personal gain. There must be that understanding and consensus with the people that I’m coming to serve the people.
Lagos is Nigeria’s commercial capital and technology hub. What is your plan for the tech ecosystem and the wider business environment, particularly for SMEs and young entrepreneurs?
As an entrepreneur myself, I understand what it means to groom a younger Lagosian to thrive. It’s not just in tech. There are so many ecosystems that we have to put together and make our young people thrive.
But because you mentioned tech, we have CcHub in Yaba, we have Computer Village, where guys are doing a lot. It’s just for us to work with the stakeholders and formalise this tech industry, to make it more organised. We need to have more software engineers who can write codes, programmes, blockchain and all of those things, and they thrive from Lagos and export some of these things and provide some of these services in Nigeria and abroad.We are going to invest massively in blockchain, AI, robotics and all of those things.
That falls under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Somebody that is going to manage that ministry is going to be someone who understands the sector. As a matter of fact, if you look at some of the appointments we’ve been making, even in our campaign, which I’m sure you must have been seeing, you see that we try to demonstrate what we’re going to be doing when we get to power. We are trying to put round pegs in round holes. I will not make somebody who does not have an IT background my commissioner in Science and Technology.
Beyond technology, what will you do to make Lagos more attractive to businesses and create an enabling environment?
Lagos is a commercial hub of the country and Africa, and we must demonstrate it through our policies. We can do more than we’re doing. There are a lot of countries and businesses that have packed out of Lagos and left just because of power. I’ve already told you my plan for solving the issue of power.
Now, let us look at another critical issue, which is taxation. Rather than putting multiple burdens on people to kill smaller businesses, we are going to encourage more businesses to come into our tax nets.
We will be able to tap and get more people to pay tax in Lagos State. It’s not for us to increase the tax.
We are not going to increase the tax. In fact, we are going to reduce the tax and streamline them.
Because there are some taxes that they are asking people to pay that are taxes for the same thing but in different nets. So we are going to scrap all of that. The government is to make life easy for people, If people make money easily and better, they will be willing to pay tax. You don’t need to force them.
Of course, I know there will be enforcement. There will be a need for us to track and ensure that we track the businesses, track the growth and track the level of investment coming into the state, maybe month by month. Those are things we are going to do to make things easy for entrepreneurs, so that they can see Lagos as a breeding ground for them to start, incubate, do business and scale.
Some people argue that Lagos’ housing, infrastructure and other challenges are partly caused by migration from other states, what is your view on this? And how do you plan to manage the indigene and non-indigene dichotomy in Lagos?
Lagos is a cosmopolitan and metropolitan city. When we say cosmopolitan, it talks about the people and the culture. When you talk about metropolitan, you talk about infrastructure, the kind of infrastructure that is present in Lagos.
We cannot say because of inefficiencies of other states, that is why we have more people coming to look for opportunities in Lagos. No. That is a lazy-man narrative. A lot of people are in the US, going to the US, are we going to say other countries around the US don’t get it right? That’s why people get there?
Our pride is for us to position ourselves as the economy of Nigeria and Africa and live to that reality. That is what we need to be. It is not our business whether other states decide to elect leaders that are not capable of revitalising their economy. In fact, we want more people to come to Lagos and tell the story that they came to Lagos and they prospered in Lagos.
Under my administration, there won’t be discrimination against anybody based on where they come from. There will never be. We are going to run an all-inclusive Lagos. Lagos where there will be peace, unity and harmony. The people coming to Lagos will recognise that Lagos gave them opportunity.
I said it with my full chest. Lagos is not a no man’s land. Lagos is Yoruba land. I have been saying it anyway. Of course, we are going to ensure that when you come to Lagos, whether you are Hausa, Nupe, Benin, Yoruba, Igbo, whatever, you are welcome to Lagos. And in Lagos, we are going to thrive and succeed and say thank you for coming to Lagos.
That’s the kind of Lagos I am going to build. Not just that, why we have this problem of marginalisation is because the government in power prefers to ensure that the indigenous people of Lagos are not doing well, that they will not challenge them and ask them questions.
I am going to intentionally support the growth of Lagosians. I am going to be deliberate about empowering Lagosians because they feel really not empowered. If they are empowered, they are doing business, they are thriving, they are in ministries, they are CEOs of startups, they do a lot of companies and all of that. They will not be intimidated by people coming from elsewhere to thrive in Lagos.
We must also let them know that the fact that you are a Lagosian does not mean that you should fold your arms. You must also work and compete with the economy and ensure that you yourself put in effort at becoming better.
We are going to invest in our people. We are going to empower them. We are going to ensure that they do well so that they don’t feel intimidated by people coming from outside just like the xenophobia going on in South Africa. All the people that they think are taking their jobs, they chase them out of the country. Is the country better now? The country is not better. So we will not allow such a thing to happen in Lagos.
The opposition is fragmented ahead of 2027. Is there any collaboration among opposition candidates in Lagos State, and are you open to an alliance?
If you look back, we had a summit in Oyo State where different political parties came together and they decided that for the 2027 election, for us to really have a good showing and win, we must be able to try to come together. That discussion is still ongoing. So as it is happening at the national level, of course, it will be cascaded down to the state level.
But we are sure because APM is currently perfectly positioned. We should be able to say, if we are going to do collaboration, on what ground are we doing collaboration? Is it based on your competency, your capacity or your character?
Why do you believe Seyi Makinde, Oyo State governor, is the right presidential candidate for the opposition coalition?
We can see all the data out there. And we also hear what other people say. I don’t want you to say maybe I am trying to be sentimental, but what the public are saying, what Nigerians are saying, is they want a reset.
They want Seyi Makinde as the next president of Nigeria because they believe he can do it. Because he has demonstrated leadership, not just at his state level. He has demonstrated it at the national level with his own conversation, his own ideas and contribution to the national discourse.
Look at how he treated the issue of fuel subsidy, where some people say, ‘Oh, we will remove the subsidy or we are going to return it.’ He said, look, we are the oil-producing state. So why should we buy petroleum as if we are importing the crude into our country? We should take benefit as the owner of this product first. There should be some concession for Nigerians. You can see that this is a man that knows solutions to various problems that confront ordinary Nigerians.
So you cannot tell me that kind of person that gave you a definite solution to a bigger problem that is facing over 200 million Nigerians and say somebody who has not given you a profound solution, has not explained the reason why and how to you, and say, ‘Oh, that is the person because the person kept on creating buzz here and there.’ No. Nigerians are wiser and they are above and beyond that kind of gimmick.
So I can authoritatively tell you that Nigerian people want Seyi Makinde because he has done it before and his contribution to major problems, how to solve major problems, has been outstanding.
Why should Lagosians vote for you in February 2027? What is your appeal to them?
My appeal to Nigerians is to vote right and vote for a reset agenda because we are coming to reset. We are not coming to rule them. We are coming to serve them. I’m going to be a servant leader. I have no reason to fail them.
I am banking on them that they will be the ones to make me the governor of Lagos State. I don’t have a godfather. I may have a mentor, but I don’t have a godfather. Lagosians are my godfathers and my godmothers because I am coming out to serve them.
I am not a candidate that will just say, ‘Oh, vote for me.’ I have enumerated and explained in detail what I am going to do to reset Lagos and make Lagos become the real economic nerve of Nigeria and Africa. The claim or the desire for a megacity has always been a dream and it’s still a dream. It has not come to reality because you cannot have a megacity with trash littered over the whole place.
You cannot see a megacity where they will continue to tell you that Lagos is two metres below sea level. All this is crap. Lagos is not the only city across the world. Technology has come for us to do a lot of retaining walls that are deeper, wider, underground tunnels and all of those things to absorb the water and discharge them back to where they are supposed to be discharged.
We are coming to work for them. We are not coming to rule them because what we have now is rulership. It is a situation where you just see one person say, ‘Okay, this is my anointed candidate,’ and put him there. They don’t have business with you because you are not the one that elected them. They impose them on you.
I appeal to Lagosians to vote for me because I will work for them and I will not disappoint them.