The
governorship candidate of the African Democratic Party in the 2019
election in Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Gbadamosi, speaks with MUDIAGA
AFFE on the need to expand roads in the metropolis and other national
issues
How can the government tackle the problem of gridlock in Lagos?
The
gridlock has always been with us, it is just that it has become far
more intensive now. During the 1970s, the military tackled the gridlock
the best they could. They expanded the roads from the original two-lane
express to the 10 lanes that it was from Jibowu to Ketu, among others,
to be more precise. I think that subsequent regime in Lagos, starting
with the late Gen Mobolaji Johnson did a sterling job and after him,
many other governors did theirs. They did the best they could under the
circumstance in terms of road expansion. The military, under the
Olusegun Obasanjo administration, started the Third Mainland Bridge
project but I think for some reason the civilian administration of the
late Shehu Shagari was not too enthusiastic about it, and also the
regime of Muhammadu Buhari did not also look into it until that of
Ibrahim Babangida. In my opinion, a lot of the roads that are still dual
carriageways in Lagos today ought to have been expanded to 10-lane
expressways just like we have in Abuja- that is what Lagos needs without
a shadow of the doubt.
Under the present economic downturn, is the expansion of road networks feasible?
Yes,
we must expand our road infrastructure and we must expand it properly.
We should start with the proper engineering of the roads. What we have
at the moment is bad. We need to go back to the drawing board and
re-engineer the roads, we are building for the future and not something
that should last us for three or four years. The only way to do that is
to do it the same way it is done globally. Give the road a concrete
foundation on top of a rock layer to ensure that the coming generations
will only need to scrape the surface asphalts and relay it if there are
potholes.
Why did you defect from the PDP to the ADP?
I
did not defect from the PDP. I resigned from politics when I left the
PDP. I was in my house when the ADP came calling and I had left PDP for
up to seven months then. When they (ADP) came, I gave them my conditions
and they met it and so I joined them.
Do you have plans to go back to the PDP?
My
foray into partisan politics started with the PDP. I did the best I
could for the PDP; I worked very hard for the party. At this point, the
situation in Lagos calls for a bipartisan approach or perhaps a
non-partisan approach in solving the problems of Lagos. To that end, I
have been giving advice publicly to the APC government on the things
that they need to do and how to do them. That does not mean that I want
to join the APC, it simply means that I want the best for Lagos. I have
good friends and leaders in the PDP whom I have a lot of respect for and
at the last election there was some synergy that came very late in the
day, but it came. Perhaps if it had come earlier the results might have
been extremely different. There may be a continuation of that synergy
based on the fact that the monster we are facing in Lagos cannot be
conquered unless there is unity amongst the opposition- that much is
clear. Anybody that says otherwise is not a realistic politician or not a
politician at all. So, there will be some synergy. As to whether I am
going to join the PDP, I do not know at this moment. I am a one-way
person, I have already joined the ADP and I have not seen what would
make me leave the ADP at this point. If I leave the ADP, it is more than
likely that I would be leaving politics again.
The polity is
already over heated with debate on the 2023 election and where the
presidential candidate should come from; don’t you think it is too early
for that?
No, it is not too early to start discussing the 2023
presidential election because in my opinion, we made some foolish
choices in 2015 that have led us to where we are. When I say, we, I mean
members of the PDP, the public and Nigerians in general. We ignored the
antecedents of General Buhari. For whatever reason, many Nigerians
refused to take account of his (Buhari’s) antecedents when they were
going to vote in the 2015 election and more especially the millennials
were deceived because they formed the bulk of the electorate. Of course,
we also knew there were irregularities, under-age voting in the North.
We know that the majority of the votes that came from the North will not
ordinarily count in a real democracy. Unfortunately for us, we are
where we are today because of those decisions. So, if we are going to be
talking about the presidential election in 2023, we had better start so
that we can interrogate the past of the people that would want to take
us to the ‘extra level’ because we are now in the ‘next level’. We need
to bring them into the cold light of the day and examine their
antecedents. If any person is presenting himself for public office he
needs to be scrutinised and investigated otherwise some of these things
impact us as people when they get into office. Look at the disgraceful
scenes in the villa where the First Lady is being locked out from some
rooms by some people who were not elected to be in government and yet
they have an immense amount of power in this administration. How much
more lowly do we want to drag the seat of office in Nigeria? We need to
know who our leaders are, their family, children, economic lifestyle or
extravagant displays of wealth. We need to know if they have done
anything in the past that could bring the office to disrepute.
There
are also arguments as to where the presidency should go to. While some
believe that it should come to the South and specifically the
South-East, some proponents in the North believe it should remain in the
North, what is your position on this?I think it is unfair
that the Igbo people have been shut out from the office of the President
of Nigeria for as long as Nigeria has existed. I think it is grossly
unfair and it is deliberate. I think it is also to the detriment of our
unity if indeed we want to remain a united country, then we need to give
everybody a chance because if we are not ready to do that, we need to
break up and everybody should go to their separate ways. We say we are
one united country; everybody must be given a chance to steer us in the
direction they think would make a place for everybody. The northerners
have had their chance from different parts of that region
(North-Central, North-East, and North-West).
But those
canvassing for the North to continue in 2023 are looking at the
situation from the onset of the Fourth Republic, is that a good
assessment?We cannot cut any period out of the history of
Nigeria unless we are being foolish because the actions that were taken
impacted on us. The constitution was written during the military era,
are we going to throw it away? If that is the case we would need to take
the opportunity to write a fresh constitution that makes more sense.
You say we are a secular state and yet the word Sharia appears in the
Constitution uncountable number of times, but our country is not a
theocracy. Who are we playing with? Is it some kind of joke of some
people playing with our intelligence? We also have a Chief Justice of
Nigeria that has made some statements that are triumphal like a
conquering invader that they are more in number and can change the laws.
So, what kind of justice can the Christians receive from his court?
Some issues need to be addressed- let us rewrite the constitution so
that the one that was written in 1999 can go out of the window. You
cannot apply something that we did not approve of all of us. Even in
countries where they have one major religion like the United Arab
Emirates, for instance, they are fighting hard to deemphasise religion
in matters of the state. These are countries that want to make progress.
We need to wake up to decide whether we want to live together or live
apart. If they say the Presidency should not come to the South in 2023,
then let us end Nigeria and stop deceiving ourselves.
Are you saying it is not feasible for the North to retain power in 2023?It
is not. If they insist then let us break Nigeria. Let each region go
their separate ways. It is either that, or we have a loosed
confederation with an option to secede, depending on the available
option upon the start of the confederation. I disagree with those that
say the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable because there is nothing in
this world that is created by humans that is not negotiable. It is only
the law of God that is not negotiable. Are they saying the unity of
Nigeria is some kind of gods that we must worship? If the concept of
Nigeria is not serving the people that live in that space then let’s
break it and let each person go and paddle their own canoe. Those that
are saying if we break up some of us would go hungry let us go hungry
because it is the hunger that made Singapore what it is today. Singapore
has zero oil and yet they have three of the biggest refineries in the
world. We have this problem of being unified with people who have no
ambition. If Nigeria is not working, just like the Soviet realised that
the USSR was not working and they broke up and allowed each country to
go and do their own thing and are making huge technological advances, we
should do that. It is not about size for those that keep arguing that
we are better when we are bigger.
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