Otunba Tijani Jimoh Olasunkanmi, Divisional Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Ikorodu Division, possesses the remarkable qualifications of a grassroots politician, a former teacher and former Chairman, Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
The APC Chairman who has handled several positions of responsibilities and critical assignments for the ruling party has been the coordinating Chairman of all the six APC chairmen in Ikorodu Division of Lagos for some years leading the party to victory in the last General Elections and also ensuring reconciliation and rebuilding of the party.
In an interview with Kunle Adelabu, Publisher/Reporter – in – Chief, THE IMPACT newspaper, held at the Senator Tokunbo Abiru Senatorial Office in Ikorodu on the day of the distribution of farm implements to farmers in Lagos East, the APC Ikorodu Division chairperson spoke on the need to retain the LCDAs which he described as the closest to the grassroots people and which have brought about development.
Otunba Tijani also bore his mind on how APC will manage the large number of contestants aspiring for positions at the council level, how his party is mobilising the grassroots and his expectations of the substantive council chairmen. Excerpts:
THE IMPACT: The state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), recently said that the local government elections are going to be conducted at the 20 LGs and 37 LCDAs across the state, what is your take on this in view of the realities on the ground?
Otunba Tijani: It is okay if the party says that we are conducting elections in the 57 councils, because that allows for governance to continue to go down into the grassroots. The local council areas are the closest to the people and the more that we have them, the merrier. Since the creation of Ikorodu local government, we have not been opportuned to have an additional one until we have the five Local Council Development Areas. We had the Irepodun Local Government at a time but it was short-lived. The difference is that we are enjoying more dividends of democracy with one local government and five LCDAs. That’s why I am in support of the decision of our party to conduct the elections in the 57 councils. In actual fact, we ought to have more than 57 councils in Lagos State by now.
THE IMPACT: Since the emergence of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, we have seen the removal of fuel subsidy and other reforms which brought about more funds for the government at the federal, state and local government levels. This has encouraged more aspirants to have interest in managing the councils and resulted into many showing interests for the council Chairmanship positions, how does the party intend to manage these complex situations without plunging into another chaos?
Otunba Tijani: I do not think that we will have any problem in picking who will be our candidates, because, one, the best candidate must be a member of our party. That means that he must have been serving the party before now and not somebody that is just coming because it is election time. No, that won’t happen. We will look very well and assess all the contestants.
We will look at competence, and of course, experience. We want to know where you have served before, if you have the required experience. We want to know if he has served in a position that is really close to the position he is aspiring for.You don’t just come from the blue and tell us that you will do this and that. The question is that: do you understand the system which is the closest to the people in the grassroots?
It is the nearest to the grassroots and we should not make any mistake in picking our candidates. We are going to look at their experience, antecedents, service and level – headedness. You cannot say that we do not have one or two aspirants that possesses these qualities. We will also be mindful of know – it – all candidates.
You cannot know it all. As a Council Chairman, you must be open to other people’s ideas and suggestions and if you feel that you are Mr Know it all, you will be dragging us backward. We also do not want a megalomaniac who will see money and turn mad. You cannot be someone who has only seen N100, 000 before and be clamouring to manage a council with millions, it will make the person become crazy and that is what we are seeing today. I am not saying that the position should be given to the rich and children of the rich, but somebody in that position must be mindful that he is going to manage both human and material resources as a local council administrator.
I also want to state that, all the noise that the government’s patronage is not going round enough is not true, because appointments and elections into offices are same as patronage. These are opportunities that are given to loyal and consistent party members.
THE IMPACT: Well, the coming council elections will not be about the APC alone but other parties – PDP, Labour Party and others will also be showing interest and remembering the recent past when the two major opposition parties threatened the electoral victory of your party in the last general elections, though, they were unable to cause any major upset in Ikorodu. How are you preparing towards mobilization of the residents and also to guard against a repeat?
It is also important to note that some of the present council chairmen got into positions with just 4000 or 2000 votes in the last council elections, are you going to address this situation?
Otunba Tijani: Definitely, we are addressing the challenges. When you talk about voters’ apathy you are talking about people protesting and there should be a reason for that. Probably, they are not well taken care of and I am sure that the grassroots administrators would have learnt their lessons. You do not expect that people that you do see before but no longer see again to come out and vote for you. We are already working on mobilization of people in the grassroots for the elections and that is why you are seeing a lot of gifts going around. You will see Jimi Benson dolling out vehicles, tricycle and many other things that would make people happy and Abiru training people and preparing them for the future and also giving out farm implements. These are ways of encouraging them and telling them that we have not forgotten about them and to whom that much is given, much is expected. This is about the fourth time that farmers will be coming for fertilisers and other farm implements and all these would have effects when elections come.
Secondly, the Labour Party did some crack jobs in the last general elections which have been discovered. People were mobilised from outside the state to register and vote in Ikorodu. That is bad, because we saw many people that are not members of our society. They used churches, sacred places to perpetrate fraud. That will not happen again because we have discovered their bad habits and tricks.
Thirdly, many of our people were deceived to join the Labour Party. They thought that Obi, the LP Presidential candidate then has something to offer but it is now clear from all that he is saying now that he does not understand Nigeria. Many of them are now aware of this and that is why they fought back during the Governorship election.
At the moment, the division within the party is longer there. If a party that has been in control for more than 15 years in a state loses an election, it means that there must be division. We were careless in the party at the time; we felt that we were good to go in Lagos but we have now realized that some people are not happy with us. This will never happen again.
THE IMPACT: Sir, the current council chairmen are going to play major roles in the mobilization and success of your party in the forthcoming elections and going by the realities on the ground, what will you be telling them to be doing?
Otunba Tijani: They should start doing what they were asked to do by putting people’s money in their places and corners. They should provide good living conditions for the people and once they see you performing, they will follow you when you call them out to vote. Nobody wants to vote for a party without disciplined chairmen; and I can assure that people who are disciplined will do the right thing at the right time and would bring about the people enjoying the dividends of democracy which is what people are clamouring for.
