Barely six months to the 2015 gubernatorial election in Lagos State, Dr. Ade Shamsideen Dosunmu (MON), the 2011 candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who has declared his interest to re-contest, says in this interview that the party has overcome the disunity that led to the acrimonious primaries, which prevented it from getting hold of Lagos in past elections, since 1999. He boasts that PDP now has all that it takes to get hold of Lagos to meet the yearnings and aspirations of Lagosians. Excerpt:

BY IKENNA ASOMBA

Ade Dosunmu

WHAT informed your decision to re-contest the Lagos governorship after failing in 2011?
I declared again to contest for the office of the governor of Lagos State because it is my personal conviction that those things that motivated me the first time are still there. The changes I expect to happen in Lagos have not happened. The way I expect government to impact on the people of Lagos State has not happened, more especially the majority, who are at the receiving end of the programmes formulated. The totality of it is the reason I have decided to run again for the office of the governor, more especially since that the incumbent is leaving after eight years. He has done his best but there nothing he could do that he has not done in eight years.

So, someone else needs to come on board and take it from there. And I believe that Lagos is a very special state for the fact that it is cosmopolitan. It is the melting pot of ethnic nationalities. It is the largest in terms of population and complexities. I feel that Lagos requires an experienced person, a professional, not only a politician, but also a professional that has done something in his own calling; an experienced person who has worked in government before, who will be able to understand the dynamics of administering a state like Lagos because a lot of interests will come to play.

You have to ensure that you balance the interests if you want to stay in Lagos as a governor. And you can only understand and appreciate that you are coming from a background. So, these are what I consider as my own strength and the reasons I feel I will be doing a disservice to my people if I don’t re-contest. Summarily, given the fact that God in his infinite mercies has given me what it takes to deliver Lagos and give out the dividends of democracy to the good people of Lagos State, I I am out to give it a shot again.

Looking at the internal wrangling within your party in the South-West, where it has often been said in some quarters that you are not united, don’t you think it may pose a problem for your ambition?
I don’t know those quarters you are referring to but one thing I know is that there are a lot of fifth columnists, who always try to portray PDP in the South-West, particularly Lagos State as a divided party. With all sense of responsibility, I can tell you that PDP in Lagos is united. We are one family now. And even in the South-West, PDP is united. Just like in any political setting, people will have interests and there will be groups because every group will be fighting to getting access to power through their candidates. That is not division. What matters is that at the end of the contest, somebody emerges and the rest will go back to deliver. So, there is nothing like division in Lagos PDP or the South-West in general. We are working as a one big family now. We have mended the fences that need to be mended. We have addressed all issues that were dividing us.

We are now emphasising issues that are uniting us. For that reason we are forging ahead as a one big and united family. And I can tell you that, that will play out in the next election.
The leaders of PDP and the generality of the members are committed to winning Lagos. For 15 years of our democratic experience, we have been unfortunate not to have won the governorship election in Lagos State, due to one reason or the other. And we have sat down among ourselves to look at where we are coming from. We have analysed our problems and we have examined where we are and we have also fashioned out strategies that will take us to where we want to get to.

I can assure you that everybody has bought into this. The leaders, the followers, the women group, the youths, definitely everybody, has bought into the need for us to provide a credible alternative to the good people of Lagos State as seen from their aspirations and yearnings. You can see that Lagosians are yearning for change that can only come through credible and strong opposition.

Looking at all the political parties, it is obvious that it is only the PDP that has the clout to provide that strong opposition. We are quite aware of this fact and we are ready to play that role. I can assure you that all the aspirants within the PDP, about five that have shown interest to contest the party ticket, are all united. We are talking to ourselves. It is no longer acrimonious as it used to be. We have the understanding that whoever emerges among the aspirants, every other person will unite and work with the party flag-bearer.

That is the first step towards victory. So, we don’t need anybody to tell us that. We have realised that ourselves, that that is one of the major reasons why we have been failing at past elections in the state.