By Wahab Abdullah
Dr  Ade Dosunmu, until recently was the Director General of NIMASA, a federal government maritime agency. He is now aspiring to fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the 2011 governorship election in Lagos. In this interview he discloses why he is the right man to govern Lagos. Excerpts:

Considering the keen competition among the governorship aspirants in the PDP, what are your chances to pick the party’s ticket?

I believe that in any democratic process, there are likely to be so many interests just as it goes for the governorship race in the PDP, which is the essence of internal democracy that our party is hammering on now. This will allow the best candidate to emerge and brighten the chances of the party in wining the governorship seat of the state. Don’t forget that everything we are talking about is still internal. So, the issue of what you can offer the people and your experiences and pedigree matter most now.

To answer your question, I have been in the race for sometime and I have gone round the local governments, I have my coordinators in all the 245 wards in the state. I am a foundation member of the PDP. Apart from that, I spent 24 years of my life in the public service. I also studied public administration up to the doctorate level. So, my calling is how to run the machinery of government. I studied it, I practice it, and I also teach public administration in the post graduate school of the University of Lag
os . So, I believe that I am well prepared and grounded for the job.

If you look at the history of those who have governed Lagos state over the years, none of them has the public service background; most of them are from private sector. I believe these are very strong points for me, coming from the public service background, rising through the ranks. I started as a level 8 officer, 24 years ago. I rose to become a Director General of grade ‘A’ parastatal of the Federal Government. I have also had the opportunities of having versatile exposures. I was in the Nigerian Ports Authority, I was in NIMASA, I was in the Lagos building company limited, I was in the National Productivity Center as a research officer. These have really exposed me.

Your party has made three failed attempts to rule the state, do you think your party has what it takes to dislodge the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN in the state?

Political contest is all about perception, we don’t need to narrow it down to political party. Our emphasis should now be shifting away from party to personality. As a ruling party, it does not mean that all the people in ACN are credible. This is also applicable to all other parties. What we are saying now is that we have to look at the personality that is the flag bearer of a party, and what he can offer.

That will influence the peoples’ decision as to whether they are to vote for a party or not. Looking at the previous elections, I don’t think the ACN has done too fantastic, compared to the number of registered voters. If you look at the 2007 election, we have more than six million registered voters; Governor Fashola scored little above 800,000 votes. That is not a pass mark, our candidate scored a little above 400,000. I believe that is not the best that one can score in Lagos. I believe somebody can come and score more than 1 million votes, depending on the perception of the voters about that person. So,
I feel that our party has learnt a lot from our previous attempts and we have identified those areas where we can improve upon and we are not going to allow those mistakes to repeat themselves.

Looking at the recent development in the south west where the ACN is now in the majority, do you think the PDP has the chance of winning more seats in the forthcoming elections?

Without being critical of the judiciary, I believe that winning election through the court of law does not mean that, that political party is popular. It may be as a result of technicality. Just like in Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi did not contest any election, it was Celestine Omehia that contested, but on technical ground the seat was given to Amaechi by the court. That does not mean that if Amaechi had contested, he would have won. I don’t believe that these judicial victories are enough to say a party is well grounded.

If the Judges had ordered for a rerun, then we would have been able to say this is a popular political party or candidate. The court cancelled 10 councils in Osun State to declare somebody as winner. Results from two local governments alone can change the entire process. These are just technicalities that are not enough to measure a popular party.

What are your selling points that would make the voters and your party delegates votes for you?

I have said it earlier that my selling point is that we want to run government the way government should be run. I have an orientation of public service. Also, I have elaborate programmes to address the problems facing the people of the state. For instance, we have a programme of building affordable houses for the people of the state. The last time we had that was the time of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, when he built 5, 475 flats in the state within four years.

These houses will be affordable in the sense that it would be supported with single digit mortgage facilities; this is because government has no business building houses. We see houses built by the Lagos State Government, with some of them going for N14 million or more. Government has no business building houses for somebody who has N14 or N18 million. Government’s involvement in housing should be a social scheme for those who ordinarily cannot afford building such houses. Some of the wealthy people buying these properties are buying and selling or letting it out at exorbitant rates.  These are parts of the programmes we are going to look at. If all administration that came after Jakande emulated his idea of providing accommodation for Lagosians, by now there would be no accommodation problem in the state.

Many people don’t understand what mass transit meant. You can imagine somebody buying 18 passenger buses, calling it mass transit. The only means within the category of mass transport is the rail, where many commuters are moved at a time. What we need to do in Lagos is partnering with the Nigeria Railway Corporation, to move people across the state. Also, the road system will be developed, but not at the detriment of the rail or water transport systems.

We also need to develop satellite towns to ease congestion within the city. This can be done by decentralizing infrastructures for development. Everybody wants to live in the city because that is where they have access to good roads, electricity, their business and offices. There are lots of virgin lands in Badagry, Epe and other areas in the state that are crying for development.

Another area that needs development is the civil service system, for them to deliver dividends of democracy. Everywhere around the world now is talking about retooling.

Education is another area we are going to develop. Apart from the fact that I passed through public schools all my life, I also teach in the university for the past eight years. So, I understand the running of the public schools, I know where the shoes pinch and I know the solutions. There are so many other things that are in pipeline to bring Lagos to the state of our dreams.