*Says “I am not a spent force”
*Reveals strategy for the defeat of AC in Lagos
*Insists leaders of Lagos are being humiliated

Chief Dapo Sarumi is a typical Lagos politician. But beyond that he shook this nation between 1991 and 1992 when he sought the governorship ticket in Lagos.  The contest arguably remains the fiercest yet in the history of gubernatorial primaries in Nigeria.
At the end of the day, both Sarumi and his competitor, Professor Femi Agbalajobi, were disqualified from further contesting, not because they did anything bad but because it was a No-Retreat, No-Surrender scenario. But Sarumi was to shock the establishment of his party, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, when he backed Yomi Edu to clinch the guber ticket against the choice of the establishment.  Sarumi recalls those days with relish but he remains a sad, very sad man.
Hear him:  “Therefore, I would never have expected anything less from a Bola Tinubu, for whom our struggle ensured his emergence against the establishment which always had its own way of dictating and determining for the people who should represent them Dipo Olaitan would have been the candidate for the seat Tinubu eventually got in the senate but we resisted and said the party members must vote and decide on who they wanted and we ensured that Tinubu won.
Therefore, it was expected that Tinubu, too, would uphold that.  But when we got into that party I was unbelievably shocked that what we had unwittingly built was a one-man party, a one-man company called a party, that what we had developed was the promotion of an emperor or a conqueror whose word was law and who had no room for other inputs from anybody”.
Excerpts:

By Jide Ajani , Deputy Editor

You left the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the Action Congress, AC, and now you’re back in the PDP.  What was the attraction again?

One of the major attractions is the emergence of the current President and his declared intention and which is also an extension of the previous declaration by the former President; that is making votes count and counting votes.

The second is the commitment to a major issue: the resolution of the unrest that has completely enveloped the Niger Delta.  There is also the need to beam attention to other infrastructural challenges.  If you overlay that to the expressed commitment to internal democracy, these make for good ingredients that make coming back to PDP more attractive.

Everything you’ve said is like a manifesto but beyond that, your movement from PDP into AC in the first instance was occasioned by certain events.  Was  your stay in AC a waste of time in terms of expectations?

May be you are a very excellent mind-reader.

I didn’t go to AC with you but you know what you went through?
You have placed it in a format that is acceptable but let me expand for you.

If you look at my pedigree, my days in the Social Democratic Party, SDP, my days, prior to that in the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, I have always been a very strong and unrelenting reformist, in terms of the voice of the people and internal democracy because I believe the voice and choice belong to the people.

The people should be made to determine their destiny.  It was because we found out that people were being deliberately deregistered: that facilitated our exit from the PDP and we thought Nigeria should not be a one party state and that a strong opposition platform should checkmate this excesses of power and I believed at that time that AC had majority of those who, particularly in Lagos State, were beneficiaries of our long standing struggle to make sure that the voice of the people materialized, was heard and, therefore, wherever they find themselves, they would uphold the ethos of internal democracy.

I mean these were people for whom we succeeded in helping them overcome, say, a clique or cabal that would just sit and decide on whomever they wanted.

Therefore, I would never have expected anything less from a Bola Tinubu, for whom our struggle ensured his emergence against the establishment which always had its own way of dictating and determining for the people who should represent them. Dipo Olaitan would have been the candidate for the seat Tinubu eventually got in the Senate but we resisted and said party members must vote and decide on who they wanted and we ensured that Tinubu won. Therefore, it was expected that Tinubu, too, would uphold that.

But when we got into that party I was unbelievably shocked that what we had unwittingly built was a one-man party, a one-man company called a party; that what we had developed was the promotion of an emperor or a conqueror whose word was law and who had no room for other inputs from anybody.

Internal democracy meant nothing; primaries were never allowed to be held because to hold them for true emergence, there was simulated violence to enable them declare that holding primaries was impossible.  To even select candidates by consensus was meaningless.  You had to be a minor shareholder, if there was any, or a minor, hand-clapper, in a company that is owned and managed by one person.

So, I found that it was worse in terms of internal democracy than what existed in PDP.

I found even access to leadership, difficult, arrogance of power had crept in I found that it had become an insulting outfit and I found that, as a matter of fact, my state and the leadership of our state were being humiliated.

How do you mean?
When you humiliate the number one citizen of this state you are, by implication, humiliating me. When our royal fathers can’t call somebody to order but instead you humiliate these royal fathers, you are humiliating me, you are humiliating Lagosians and I felt, if you look at it from the premise that all politics are local, there was no way I could just sit there and watch my governor and my elders being humiliated by something that I could have been said to have promoted or produced.  It was just impossible for me to tolerate that; real Lagosians would not tolerate that.

You mentioned the commitment of Jonathan to reformation of the polity as one of the reasons why you went back to PDP.  What other option would have been open to you as an AC member in Lagos, even within this morass you have described?

It was obvious to anybody who has been involved in politics sufficiently enough, as I have, to recognize that whether we accepted it at that time or that we even accept it now, the AC as constituted, given its level of acceptance, was at best, a regional party and it gradually shrank to become a one state party.

Sarumi

In the context of this country, that isn’t good enough for Lagos State and Lagosians because Lagos, over the years, has suffered for being in opposition to the federal government and it has not been able to access its rightful entitlements because of the considerable contributions we make to the national economy.  I was minister of communications and I know that with NITEL and even about 70million mobile telephones, Lagos constituted a considerable percentage of that number and even PHCN.

That should be enough for Lagos to attract substantial Federal Government’s investment and attention into Lagos, not to mention the issue of investors who come in for investment. Lagos must draw the same, if not more attention than Abuja in recognition of its dual position.  If we put in an administration – and that is what we have done – that thinks it should continuously compete, prohibit, slide itself with the federal government in the delivery of service, then you are not doing the right thing.

What options did we have if Jonathan had not come? 

We were planning, recognizing that AC had to be transformed, a much broader base platform because I believe in a two party system and we know what we did in the days of SDP and the National Republican Convention, NRC.  59 political parties is not the way to go, it is a waste of time.

We need to promote a strong opposition and I had engaged myself with others in the development of an alternative platform that would be a strong opposition but I found that this alternative platform had several frustrations and betrayals.

Frustration and betrayal from which source?
Again by those who were supposed to be my friends or my co-players in the days when we were fighting against imposition and the type of thing happening in Lagos and we were left with no other option than to go back to the house we had before and for so long as that house is now amenable to reform itself.

These our friends in AC are only interested in a local government party, I am not – what they are left with is a local government party and I couldn’t allow my Lagos to be because I am a Lagosian and Lagos is too strategic both for its citizens and the country to be run by a local government-like party.

A time there was in this same your Lagos that you could move mountains; the followership was massive.
(Cuts in) We made Bola Tinubu a senator.

Yes, that’s where I’m going.  In your words, you said he has become a monster.  Perhaps, looking back, would you not agree that you may have made a strategic error in political calculations because when one looks back, PRIMROSE group and its potency in the political arena?

Like you and I and most people who carry the designation, homo sapiens, man makes errors and we take decisions which, when we were taking those decisions, we did not set out to make.  But we took those decisions based on information at our disposal because there are always factors, factors beyond your control, and a decision that you take based on information you have at your disposal which could be tainted information, limited information, defective information and after the event could turn out not to be the best.

Just look back and mention one event because….?
(Cuts in) I’m not looking at just one event because it didn’t stand out like I deliberately set out to make mistakes but knowing what we now know, based on advancing age, knowing what we now know about people, knowing what we now know about people in power and their susceptibility to tale bearers, the role of lazy tale bearers in polluting and contaminating the environment, knowing what we now know about the lure of power and money, knowing what we now know about the complexities of human beings and how they relate to you in matters of principles – if there are any.

So, you look back and say, for instance, that if I knew that this is a monster, in the first instance, there was no way I should have allowed him to pass through the gate – and I can tell you stories that I have heard just sitting with former leaders who said ‘we had a problem when we were interviewing a captain for the rank of a major and we were almost at the verge of saying this wasn’t a major material but the guy eventually became a major and even became a General.  I would stop at that.

In 1991/1992, Lagos was shaken to its foundation by the governorship primaries in the SDP between you and now late Prof. Femi Agbalajobi.  The event of that era was an epoch?

Yes.  I enjoyed that era because it was an era where people said you can’t but we said, Yes! We can.  I enjoyed that time because when people said they wanted a level playing field, people got a level playing field and when the field was not level, we leveled it for ourselves.  I enjoyed that era because, look, we allowed people to speak and we represented their voice and we knew how to relate to them.  I enjoyed; I enjoyed it; oh! I enjoyed that era.  Those were the days when all these efforts meant something concrete for the people.

We are having this interview as a product of that era.  We are talking about some key players of that era who have now become something out of that era.  It was a success story.  We probably didn’t wear the crown then, but we are wearing the crown now because those people who were part of it know what we stand for.  PRIMROSE Vanguard, Sarumi Vanguard, we were the ones who fought whoever they are on principles.

That was more or less a do or die affair.  When you look back, wouldn’t you say, well, for the sake of the party, may be certain things shouldn’t have been done in certain ways; or what would you say you took away?
It’s unfortunate that I’m not the only major player; my friend and fellow contestant of blessed memory, we had so many things in common because what do I need to take away from that.  It wasn’t a do or die from my side and what we were only saying then was that let the people’s voice be heard. In a situation where the examiner and the invigilator were on the other side, we defeated the examiner and the invigilator in the questions that they set and whatever it was, they said we should both step aside, after we had re-confirmed our dominance, what else do I need to say?

My group came up and took somebody who did not win in a single ward then, we had 195 wards, Yomi Edu.  We put our forces behind him and those who were challenging us put their forces behind Ogunleye, we still won.  What am I driving at? It is just to show that we were on ground.

Okay, let’s look at it this way, should we say because we did not want the opposition to defeat our party then we should succumb to the minority in our party?

What would I have done differently?  It should have been what should the leaders of the party have done.

The leaders did not have the boldness to admit their error because they had stuck their necks out for their person and that whatever they did was law but we said no.

In a more civilized environment, knowing what we know now, there are things they could have done.  For instance, that Dapo Sarumi who did not have the support of the establishment had done what he did and demonstrated that he had the people behind him, and he had shown that he can not be ignored, he didn’t control the structures in three quarters of the local government, but he prepared for the primaries and won.  May be they would have said okay, ‘you Dapo, go on and be the governor, you Agbalajobi, be his deputy’.  They should have found a creative way of doing it.

It was an era where personal ego of those leaders who unduly stuck their necks out and said this is my way and we’re almost about getting back to that era again. And even when they see clear failure striking them in the face, they will not know how to beat an accommodating retreat.

You’ve now returned to PDP but your party in Lagos is in shambles and people are yet to see how the magic would be wrought for your party to win?

If I give you an answer, it is either you believe it or not. Look at my pedigree. I was not in the establishment in Lagos State and my leader then and he is still my leader, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, was in perfect control; he was excellent and he is still excellent, has things he could point at.  Two others and I formed a group and insisted that people’s voice must be heard and people’s votes must count.  We did what we did at that time.  If there was any politician who could be said to be more of a grassrooter, it was Alhaji Jakande.  But if I could do what I did then, who says I cannot do it again.

You’re talking about some 19 years ago but events have passed you by?

Forget about that I’m here.  I know what we did then and I know what we can do now.

How would you respond to a suggestion that you are a spent force?

I’m not.  Leave that talk; I am not a spent force.

But sincerely times are different; age, strategy….?

(Cuts in) They didn’t get it.  They didn’t get it.  People are wrong. Now look at this.  Lagos State currently boasts about four million people on the voters’ register.  The last election got out about one million voters.  If an aggressive grassrooter comes into the scene and I grant to them that every person who voted the last time should vote one block, I will go after the remaining three million and I think I have the skills to bring out 1.2 million, 1.3 million or 1.4 million, would I not win?

Lagos State, in the last four, five elections has not been able to project more than 25% of the voters.  The last local government elections, average of 20 or 30 or 50 people coming out to vote in a polling unit where you have 500 and you say something is not doable!

Please don’t let me talk about my strategy.  This is politics and when I say something is possible, with the Grace of God, it is possible.

Lagos is winnable and it is winnable because we are talking about things that people are not looking at.

Lagosians are being humiliated by a guy who sees himself as an emperor.  Our Obas and our chiefs are being humiliated by a guy who thinks he has Lagos in his pocket.  With the right message, with the right platform, things can change.  When somebody believes that he has our number one citizen in the state in chains and that he can do whatever he wants, is not possible.

Lagos is a place where a bulk of people are being displaced and this displacement is not being addressed and we are not talking about the elite who ply Bourdillon Road; we’re talking about the ordinary people whose roads are not like Bourdillon.  We’re talking about people in Ayobo/Ipaja; we’re talking about people who are even in Ikoyi but who do not have roads like Bourdillon.

We are not ready for campaigns yet and when we are ready, we will campaign.  The resources of Lagos State, vis-à-vis what we now get, a PDP would put in an administration that would succeed and such an administration would do roads even better than the specifications of the World Bank because most of what people see today are World Bank assisted projects.  The cost per kilometer of those roads you see is the highest on the continent of Africa and what that tells you is that with the resources that we have, we could equally every year turn out more than 1000 kilometres of road and that is assuming that we only assign a tiny portion of the resources to roads.

We will run an administration where the state governor would not be in shackles; we will have an administration where the governor is not being humiliated; we will have an administration where one man, just one individual will not believe that he has the governor of a state in his pocket, forgetting that not one man voted but over 600,000 because people must be made to understand that democracy and governance is about delivering the greatest good for the greatest number of people and not just for one man

Would I not be right to conclude that you politicians enjoy jumping from one platform to another once you do not get what you want?  At least you’ve jumped?
A lot of people have said so many things and I’ve also read on the facebook and the internet about what is going on and I laugh because these people do not have full information. Take my own example.  I am in a party with those we can say, in all modesty, are my own people and things go on in that party and I do not know about it.  You are in a political party where people say they are open but when you say you have ideas and you are in a party where you can not even express yourself.  Some people say we are jumping because we didn’t get what we want.  Participation is the issue.  Internal democracy would go a long way to remove the attraction for moving up and down because we have micro and macro emperors.

Local government chairmen behave like micro emperors while the state governors behave like macro emperors.  There are times when it is easier to see a minister or even the President than to see the state governor.  How did we create a situation like that?  Some of the crisis in the party is simulated just to continue to give that impression that they are the ones in charge.

People are being shut out.
I have tried to watch the shenanigans going on around me and I’ve just watched patiently and then some people will come out and say I am a spent force.  I am not a spent force. I tell you, they don’t get it; but they will get it because whether they like it or not, they will be made to adjust their ways and when they adjust their ways, we believe we are making useful contributions to democracy.

You talked about the right message and the right platform.  I hope you were not referring to your party, the PDP as the right platform?
Yes of course.  It is the PDP.

People will just laugh it off and they would have good cause to so act.  What has the party done at the national level?
Democracy! PDP has been able to stabilize the polity against all odds.

Things are getting better.  There are some performing state governors of the PDP scattered all over the country.  When Chris Ngige was governor of Anambra State – forget how he got there – didn’t you see what he achieved there? There are many governors like that.  Before Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State had his problems, Ekiti State was being transformed massively.  People merely move from wherever they are domiciled and then move to Abuja and for them, that is Nigeria.

Say whatever you like, the PDP administration wiped out Nigeria’s debt.
No matter how you look at it, 70 million Nigerians can talk to one another today and it is because of the pursuit of the GSM telephony.  People can say whatever they like but things are being taken for granted today because they are there.  Just look back at those days when there was nothing like GSM and tell me that things are not better.

But you will agree with me that that same PDP is such a big problem to this country with the way its leadership conducts itself?

Things can get better in our party.

What possible ways can the party re-position itself because the party is seen as one of no do-gooders?
First let me dismiss that profiling of no do-gooders. Every family has its own elements of imperfection but it would be wrong to just label everything in that family as imperfect.

But beyond that, I will not use this platform to begin to talk about a possible way forward for the party because to do that would not make me a good party member and leader.  There are platforms where we as party members can make our suggestions for the way forward but not on the pages of newspapers.  That is not the way to go as a party leader.

Exuberant leaders can open their mouth to begin to talk but that is not proper since I am not the spokesperson of the party. I would expect you to see the things we are coming out with in terms of reformation.