Prince Amid Adekunle Oduborisha is an Environmental Consultant who retired from Chevron about 12 years ago. He is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a community leader. In this interview with Kunle ADELABU, the Chief Reporter/Publisher, THE IMPACT, he spoke on the state of environment and roads in the state, efforts of Igbe community in rehabilitating the collapsed Igbe road, completion of Oriwu Central Mosque, crisis between Ikorodu and Oriwu Central Mosque and also denounced the rumour that he has decamped into the All Progressives Congress (APC). Excerpts:
IMPACT: Environment is one of the cardinal points of this present administration in Lagos State, as an Environmentalist, how will you describe the state of the environment in Ikorodu and the state generally?
Prince Oduborisha: The state of the environment in Ikorodu is something that I really do not know how to place it because we don’t have environmental management system in Ikorodu and even when we look at the state in general, we are still struggling. There has been firefighting on the part of this current administration. Firefighting in the sense that it’s trying to take us back where we were before. That has not been successful so far but they are trying. If you go to Olusosun, any day any time, you will see Compactors queueing in hundreds. We claimed that Lagos is a Mega City but are we really a Megacity? What constitutes a city to be Mega? According to my own knowledge, there must be a sound waste management system, both solid and liquid. We do not have an engineering landfill in Lagos. All we have are dumpsites. As you know, Lagos is a high water table. The linkages of those solid, liquid, chemical wastes and indiscriminately dumping are hazardous to human consumption. Those are key parameters to measure a city as a mega. If those claiming that Lagos is a Mega city are looking at Victoria Island, Lekki, Ikoyi and the rest, they should show me an effective drainage system. I don’t see any that drains water into the Lagoon unimpeded. A small rain of water in Ikoyi, Victoria Island or Lekki usually flooded the environment and we are claiming to be a Mega City. Is Ikorodu not part of Lagos that they are claiming is a Mega City? Can we say that Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and Shomolu are cities? Unfortunately, most of our people have turned everything into politics. This is not politics, it is about our state and town. As a reporter that lives within, try to report online objectively about the activities that are happening in the town. I am not happy about the state of our environment, infrastructures, schools and hospitals. A community with population of four or five millions of people is still having one General Hospital as the main hospital. What is the capacity of this general hospital in the aspect of a doctor per a patient? Do we have potable water? The one done by Jakande is gone. No potable water and yet, government wants to start taxing people that dug borehole water systems in their premises to access water that the government cannot provide for them.
IMPACT: Still on the issue of the environment which is very key to development in Ikorodu and the state at large, the current administration has been trying to address the infrastructural problems in the state, especially roads, how will you rate the government in terms of rehabilitation of roads. Also, what is your opinion on the state of the Igbe road which has been abandoned for over a decade and now being rehabilitated by the community in which you have played a major role?
Prince Oduborisha: Let’s look at the state in general, you will recall that I mentioned the problem with our drainage system earlier. The problem is not only peculiar to Lagos but the sad thing for us in this country is that when a road is put in place, it’s usually out-of-sight, out-of-mind. What do I mean, no maintenance plan. The road will only last for five to seven years maximum and after that, we go back to square one. I expect the successive government in Lagos state to have changed that paradigm. Igbe road was done by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration and it used to be the best road in Ikorodu. He opened that road to link all the communities in the then Irepodun Local Government comprising of Imota, Ijede and Igbogbo. The intention was to make sure that those that reside in these communities do not have to come into their places through Ikorodu, hence, the construction of the road from Igbe junction to Oreyo. After Jakande left, DFFRI, under the military regime, also enhanced the road but after they left, there has been no maintenance or anything which is not peculiar to that place but everywhere in the state. Have you seen any new drainage aside from the one Jakande did? Is there any new drainage in Ikorodu? When you don’t maintain things, it goes bad over time, then you start from the scratch. There should be maintenance budget for every facility. Igbe road used to have streetlights, where are they? This is because we don’t maintain anything and that’s our problem. Igbe road has gone bad in the last 10 years. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came to our aid. In 2005, he awarded the rehabilitation alongside Kaliat Oduborisha road to CONSTENG Construction Company. That was soon after the company finished the construction of the Sekumade (Ogolonto to Ikorodu Lighter Terminal) road. I was one of the facilitators in the completion of that road which is on record and on the day of the commissioning, I was the one that spoke on behalf of the Ikorodu community because of my interests and contributions in making sure that the road comes to reality. Unfortunately, CONSTENG couldn’t accept the award of Igbe road which I told was N90million. From that Igbe junction to Gintin, I was told it’s about 9miles. It’s the longest internal road in the state. During Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration, I went to Alausa with our people in the community. I wrote my first memo in 1999 and Asiwaju Tinubu was consistently auctioning the memo but unfortunately, Lagos State Government did not put their mouth where its money was at that time, now, the road may gulp billions to be reconstructed.
Since nobody comes to our aid, the good people of Igbe road and some of my friends have contributed in cash, materials, kind, labour and expertise to making the road motorable. We are looking at about 20million. So far, we have realized over five million in cash. We have built two major culverts on the road as I speak. The road is motorable from Igbe junction to De Sleek from where you can connect Bola Ahmed Tinubu way where the government destroyed several houses in the name of road rehabilitation. Where they are calling Igbe road now (Bola Ahmed Tinubu former Agbele Road) is not Igbe road. Igbe road start from lgbogbo junction to Oreyo and Gintin. But I don’t know what Ambode was thinking by destroying houses. Even if you want to construct a 10 carriage lane on each road, you don’t need to destroy houses. It’s not consistent with World Bank requirements. What is the replacement/relocation plan of Lagos State? World Bank and IFC stipulate that people come first in any development. Development over people is a no-no.
IMPACT: Just yesterday, the governor of the State signed the 2020 budget worth N1.168 Trillion naira into law, what is your view about this budget?
Prince Oduborisha: Even if you have triple of that budget, it will not be enough for Lagos State because of the amount of infrastructural decay. My prayer is for them to utilize it for what it’s meant for. I can mention some state roads in Ikorodu that will gulp all the budgetary sum. There is Igbe road, Bola Ahmed Tinubu way, Agric-Owutu-Ishawo road and Ijede road. “Owo ti tan” (with all these roads, the budget would be completely consumed). I pray that what they have budgeted will not end up in somebody else’s pocket. It must be geared towards human and infrastructural developments. We need bigger hospitals and projects that will impact on the people of Ikorodu and Lagos State at large. Projects that improve the lives of people in schools, that will save people’s properties against flooding and erosion, as well as security. These and others are the real parameters to measure if a state is a Mega city that everybody will be willing to come and live in and do businesses.
Over taxation is another thing that I will like to talk about. I am an entrepreneur and I have retired but l am still paying Personal Income Tax. I have about five engineers in my place of work and I do pay Pay As you Earn tax on them, but there is no stable electricity. We have 6kva and 5kva generators that we use in powering our office and in the process burns diesel. Computer Village should be the bedrock of Lagos economy because there we have Middle class and small scale businesses. The state government should take that area and other industrial areas seriously because they are the engines that will power its economy. You don’t need to over tax. Economy does not run by killing people with over taxation. In Nigeria, we run our economy based on taxes aside oil which is supposed not to be so. It is the people that will create jobs and grow the economy and it’s not good to make tax a burden on them. It’s better for people to have the money and use it in creating further jobs and opportunities for others. Lagos State needs to look into that and tap into other areas where revenue can be generated without destroying the fabric of our people.
IMPACT: You left Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which is now All Progressives Congress (APC) some years back, but there are rumours that you have now left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC. This, coupled with the fact that you were announced as the representative of the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as the chairman of the occasion at the commissioning of the Oriwu Central Mosque in Ikorodu recently, could you please clarify this sir?
Prince Oduborisha: It amused me because about four months ago, people were asking me if I will not join APC because they heard that Jimi Agbaje has begged Tinubu and is already back in APC, but I told them that it’s not possible. Responding to your question, I am a believer in development. When I was a close associate of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu between 1999 and 2007, late Alhaji Mufutau Ajisebutu and I were the vocal points of the party in Ikorodu. At that period, the journey towards the completion of Oriwu Central Mosque was on and Tinubu had always assisted the Mosque due to my intervention every year that we had annual lecture that was usually delivered by Sheikh Muhydeen Bello. The lecturer never gets tired to ask every year when we are going to complete the mosque. I always talked to Tinubu and he always sent his donation to the mosque which is on record. He did his best for the mosque. Some people even pressured him to revoke the building plan for the mosque which was unrevoked by Gov. Michael Otedola after Col. Raji Rasaki revoked it during his military administration in Lagos State. Some people lobbied Tinubu to revoke the approval granted for the construction of the Oriwu Central Mosque. Ajisebutu was a pillar in seeing that that did not happen and also worked for the completion of the Mosque. We cannot say we are commissioning without mentioning his name and others like Alhaji Bamisedun Adamson, the immediate past Baba Adinni of the Mosque, Chief Imam Ganiyu Amokomowo, late Oba Salaudeen Oyefusi and Alhaji Musbau Majolagbe. At the commissioning, I said that it was Tinubu that was supposed to be the chairman of the occasion as stated in the programme of the event but the leadership of the Mosque felt since I have played prominent roles in the completion of the mosque and was present at the occasion, I should stand in for the chairman of that day who was Tinubu. Tinubu did not call me neither did I talk to him but I stood-in for him on the request of the leadership of the Mosque. I need to make that clarification. I am not an APC person and I am still in PDP. Beyond all that, Ikorodu comes first for me. That was what actually happened and l am glad to have contributed my quota to the completion of the mosque. I also want to thank Oba Shotobi for inviting me to the last Ramadan lecture organized by the mosque. It was at the lecture that the Chief Imam of the mosque, Sheikh Yahya Oshoala, asked me to assist in funding the construction of the Mosque’s dome worth N3million. I thank God that I was able to do it for him. That mosque is our small Kaabbah considering the fact that the site where it is located was once a shrine. The struggle to acquire that place for the construction of the mosque was a war that claimed lives. That is why both indigenes and residents alike must be happy about the completion and commissioning of the mosque.
IMPACT: The Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba, did express his displeasure openly on the non-inclusion of the Grand Chief Imam of Lagos State, Alhaji Olowo-Oribi, in the commissioning of the mosque despite his and other people’s interventions in settling the feud between the two mosques (Ikorodu Central mosque and Oriwu Central Mosque). What do you have to say to this sir?
Prince Oduborisha: I am not going to comment on what my brother, the Chief Judge, said on the day of the commissioning. I will see my learned judge to discuss about it because I have little insight into the matter. I know that the Chief Imam of Oriwu Central Mosque is a man of great Islamic knowledge who wants unity of the Islamic community. He wants peaceful co-existence between Ijomu and Isele. By the way, I am from the two sections in Ikorodu. We want to witness again the unity among the muslim communities in Ijomu and Isele which led to their joint efforts in building Shamsideen School. Whoever is saying that he’s a true muslim and always doing God’s bidding must embrace peace and unity. Ikorodu is big enough to have as many Central mosques as possible. Anwar-Ul-Islam, Ahmaddiyyah, Shamsideen, Ansar-Ul-Deen and NASFAT all have their own Central Mosques.
My attention has also been drawn to the report that the leadership of the Oriwu Central Mosque brought road unionists into the commissioning. What really happened was that Kabiyesi called some of us to join him at the palace in welcoming the Sultan of Sokoto and Emir of Ilorin before going for the commissioning of the mosque. A member of the Sultan entourage, who is an Hausa man and also a Lagos resident, happens to be the chairman of the road union. It was when we came out of the palace that we discovered many people were wearing yellow jacket with the inscription of road union. I think that the man must have informed them about his coming and they were there to welcome him. They came to honour their chairman and that has nothing to do with the management of the mosque, Chief Imam, Alfas or Kabiyesi. That was how NURTW came into the picture, it has nothing do with the mosque.
IMPACT: What is your new year message to the people?
Prince Oduborisha: My message for the new year is such that we appreciate our people for what we are. I want to advise our political elite to be more focused on our community. Our community is the second largest in the whole of Lagos State but we have only one representative at the House of Representative; only two members at the State House of Assembly, whereas, if you compare Ikorodu with Somolu, Kosofe, Epe, we are nowhere in terms of representation. So, the pressures are on those three people. Instead of us to have like four representatives at the House of Representatives, we only have one and instead of having like six at the House of Assembly, there are only two representing us. At the same time, can they walk freely among their people after the expiration of their tenures in office? Can they walk with pride that they have truly empowered their people? Can they say to themselves that they have been able to influence the legislatures, federal and state levels, to bring X amount of projects into Ikorodu Division? That is how I can quantify the success of any legislator. Legislature is a collaboration, networking and reaching out to your colleagues in order to make things happen in your own constituency. How far has those representing us gone about this? People should not be in government for themselves. I want to appeal to the three representatives and the Senator representing the Lagos East Senatorial District to give Ikorodu the dividends of their votes.
IMPACT: Thank you for your time sir.
Prince Oduborisha: You are welcome.
