Dr. Adesola Taiwo, former Treasurer, Lagos State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, is a captain of industry, a Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer of Adefemi Hospital with branches spread across parts of Lagos. He spoke to BASHIR ADEFAKA about how Buhari/Idiagbon policy pulled him and his colleqgues out of the Public Health Service. Excerpts:

In the days of the UNCP and later PDP, you were on ground as celebrated father of Ikeja politics. But now that you are in the ACN, is it still the same?

Of course. I’m in politics, I’m in the ACN now and I’m generally regarded as the father of Ikeja politics. Like I was very active in my UNCP and PDP days I am still very much active even now that I’m in the ACN. If you were here during the last National Assembly and governorship elections, you would have seen my activities as a politician and that I’m still as active as ever. And in future elections in the Lagos State, they will still reckon with me and I will still deliver all the areas I’m supposed to deliver for the ACN. That I can assure you.

I am a proud grassroots politician and I believe in that. Whatever I had done in those days that propped me up as a father of politics in Ikeja, I will still do it for ACN because it is the party of choice; it is the party of the progressives; it is the party of people that believe in the truth, nothing but the truth and I can tell you that is what informed my coming to the ACN. It’s party that believes in the slogan of ‘progress ever backward never.’

Dr Adesola Taiwo, former Treasurer, Lagos State Chapter

That was why I left the PDP for the ACN. I believe in the people there particularly the Asiwaju, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He’s our Leader, he’s our mentor and he’s a leader we can support and he’s a leader we can count on any time any day. Whenever he says anything, he means it because he knows where he’s going and he knows how to get there.

As a grassroots politician, what is your idea of administration for national development?

It is shameful for me to see people carrying buckets on their heads scampering for water. The Federal Government still brainstorm on what to do in ensuring across-board provision of water for the people of the country; while the states make their own efforts in this regard, there is a way Local Government administrations too can rise to the challenge of water scarcity. This is very important because, since water is a basic need and most of the diseases that inflict our people are water-borne, access to clean water will help our growth in many ways.

I’m advising our Local Government chairmen and councillors to gear up to the reality of making tangible contributions to the development of this country at their own level. Our people in the rural areas are suffering. Imagine so many of them buying water before they can do anything all whereas this is one thing any Local Government can do.

Also grassroots administration should ensure good roads. Look at our roads, most of them are bad. Not only in Ikeja or in Lagos State, many of the states of the federation, in so many streets there are no good link-roads, no good drainages in some other cases, none at all.

Recently in Ikeja, it was hellfor motorists to move. In fact, between my office here in Ikeja to my house at College Road, I didn’t get home until about 12.30 midnight. This is a journey that should not be more than 30 minutes. It was that bad. The flood situations occurred because the whole drainages are blocked. So, Local Government administrations should brace up to work on those drainages in their respective areas. It’s not just about building drainages but it must be properly channelled.

What is your party doing to ensure that these problems are solved?

The party’s leadership is on top of the situation and Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, as an epitome of good governance, has started going round the state. He went to Agege, some parts of Ifako-Ijaiye and most of the rural areas to see things for himself. He has even promised most of the people affected by the flood of his government’s plan to compensate them.

One very important thing they have done is that they have been able to assess the situation and come up with how much it would cost them to de-flood Lagos State. They are doing it and I’m sure they are up to the task. If you follow the event, you would discover they have said all structures along the drainage paths will be removed. They know what to do and I can assure you they will deliver.

How did you grow up?

I’m a medical practitioner, graduate of the Univeristy of Ibadan and had worked briefly in Ogun State before coming to Lagos. I worked in Island Maternity and General Hospital, Ikeja before we were pulled out during the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. Idiagbon, the way we saw it, believed that doctors should be poor and not be able to take care of their families. Others believe doctors should be able to do many things that other professionals are doing.

What did Idiagbon do that gave you that hard impression about him?

Tunde Idiagbon said doctors should not engage in private practice. That was some of us who chose between private practice and government practice. When I was in General Hospital, Ikeja, I was earning N300 per month in 1979. Out of this, they would deduct N20 as my car loan, they would deduct N10 as tax meaning that my take-home pay was N270.

So, what went wrong?

We were comfortable but it was not enough considering our profession. We did our jobs well. There was no time, each day you had ten patients for your group to operate on, we would meet the target. We would work 24 hours; from this morning to the following morning and we met our target. Not nowadays when doctors are supposed to be on their normal duties and they would instead be somewhere else. No. We did our private practice only when we were off duty and I see nothing wrong with that.

If you are an engineer or an

architect, or you are a doctor working for government and you are not a lazy professional, when you are off duty, you go do your private practice. I am not a lazy doctor. I started this practice many years ago and today I am grateful to the Almighty God.

I was a residence doctor here at Adefemi Hospital for ten years and I did not go anywhere. It was so because I wanted to make successful practice. I am grateful today that this place you are (a four-storey building Adefemi Hospital) is the headquarters, I have other branches, I run them and it’s very profitable. I am happy today I am where I am. I thank God.

What informed the choice of your career?

You see in those days you stumbled on what you do for a living. I never dreamt of becoming a medical doctor. I had bias for science subjects and in those days, whether you were from a rich or poor background, once you made the cut-off mark, you would be given admission at the University of Ibadan to read medicine. And we paid little or nothing as tuition fees and our feeding was 20 kobo per day at the university. So things were better. Education was better. In fact for those who could not afford to make two ends meet by paying for feeding and buying books, there was what was called Students’ Loan Board. Things are tougher now.

Being a doctor today is due to the grace of the Almighty God.

How do you treat your self in time of illness as a doctor?

Now let me tell you something, whether you are a doctor or a labourer, if you feed well, you will hardly fall ill. I hardly fall sick. I don’t have malaria except little pains occasionally and that is due to hard work. When you run about all the time, definitely you will have occasional aches and pains. Apart from that, I don’t have any major ailment and I don’t fall sick that you would now require a doctor to treat me.