Chief Henry Oladele Ajomale, is Lagos State chairman of the Action Congress (AC). He is a  Lawyer, seasoned administrator, diplomat and grassroot  politician, who prior to his emergence as the state Chairman of the party, served as Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations as well as Special Adviser on Political and Legislative Matters to the immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In this interview, he spoke on the preparedness of his party for 2011 elections, the ongoing alliance between AC and other political parties that may lead to a change of the party’s name, among other issues.Excerpts

By James Ezema

Majority of Nigerians applauded the appointment of Prof Attahiru Jega as Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC);What would you consider as agenda for the commission under his leadership to ensure a credible election in 2011?

Jega is one of the  highly disciplined persons that we know of  but we pray that he is not polluted by those before him. I know he is a man considered to have a mind of his own and I pray he doesn’t go the way others went. Now, the most important thing for us to do is to have a voters’ register because the present one is as bad  as  thousands of Nigerians are disenfranchised in the last election.  And you cannot consider that to be a voters’ register. Secondly, I also think that to ensure there is free and fair election, it is inevitable that a fresh  registration of voters must be carried out.

The Anambra election showed us clearly that something is wrong with our voters’ register, where you found thousands of people walking on the streets with their cards in their hands and yet they could not vote because there was nowhere their names appeared. Ngige’s family and many of them in their local government could not vote. There are  foreign names like Obama,  Tyson,  Clinton and Michael Jackson in it;  that cannot be considered to be a credible voters register. Prof Iwu  muddled it up. So, the new man should have a clean slate to work with.

If not, he will end up embarrassing himself and embarrass the county because people will continue to shout and protest that they were  deprived of their right to vote. Again, this may pave way for people to steal ballot boxes because you are not even sure of the number of people who registered.

You don’t know because for many of those who have cards, their names are not in the register. So, how do they vote? Also  children who have grown to eighteen, will be deprived of  their voting right ; it is their right to vote because they are eighteen now but when the last  voters registration exercise was carried out they were less than eighteen. Are you going to deprive them? And they are in millions. So,
I think that the first job for him to do is to ensure we have a credible voters register.

How prepared is the Action Congress for the 2011 elections, not only to retain  Lagos but to also take hold of power at the centre in Nigeria?
Honestly, everybody knows that if AC is at the centre, we will replicate what we are doing now in the states we  are ruling. In Lagos State, everybody has seen the changing face of Lagos and in if you go to Edo State now, the state is like a factory because everywhere, there is a project going on in Edo. So, that is what would have been happening at the federal level to ensure that Nigeria is at the top. There is no reason why we cannot be. We have everything
God gave us; human and natural resources, and our people are very brilliant and you find them everywhere in Britain and Europe. Most of their technical companies are run by Nigerians. So, if you have a system , which is working, there is no reason why they will not come home and develop their own country.

The experience they have acquired in Britain, France, Spain and everywhere  can be brought home and you can have accelerated development. There are no conditions that are favourable to induce them to come home. We are just shouting Nigerians in Diaspora come home and yet there is no electricity.  And you expect them to come and stay in a place where there is no security; where their property and lives are not safe? You are expecting them to come, leaving where they are being protected 24 hours? We have Nigerians running the space programme of the US. So, if you have a conducive atmosphere, there is no reason why they cannot come home to develop their country. With this situation, I don’t think anybody will be crazy enough to leave a lucrative job and a conducive environment to come to Nigeria. Once you meet certain conditions, everybody will come home without you asking them to come because you have created that atmosphere for them to come.

Despite continual denial of a rift between Governor Fashola and his former boss, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, rumours of disaffection between them over the speculated  second term bid of Governor Fashola still persists. What are you doing as a party to ensure that such a rumour does not affect your chances in 2011 whether it’s true or not?
Honestly, there is nothing you can tell Nigerians; what they want to believe is what they want to believe. Both of them jointly held a press conference saying that whatever was between them was over. It was a father and son affair.
I have said it several times that there is no way some people will not go and tell  Asiwaju about Fashola and vice-versa .  You see, when people see something good going on, they would want to create friction  to ensure they stop such a noble thing from going on. In order to scatter it, you will see some people peddling rumours here and there against each of them. And of course, if you are not mature enough as father and son, you will quarrel.

But people spreading   the rumour hoping that they will divide the party are disappointed. And they’ve continued to peddle this rumour that they are fighting. There is no reason for them to fight over second term because time has not even come for that yet. But we thank God.

I’m telling you again that there is nothing between them; it’s a question of father and son. And of course, when they know that there are  fifth columnists trying to divide them, they are mature enough to fall back to line. The issue of second term or third term is an issue of human intrigues. But I can assure you that their relationship still remains as father and son.

There is another issue in the rumour mill that the Action Congress is about to change its name and logo. How true is that?

Yes, it is possible. We’re negotiating with other parties because some people are coming to us and we feel that like minds should join hands together to be able to fight in the elections and we thank God that the merger arrangement is going on. It is likely  we would  not change but amend the name of Action Congress.

It will be the same logo and other symbols of our party;  that’s our own condition for us to work together. And what is in a name? The most important thing is to understand where you are going and how you are going to get there. Once you have the same mind, the same way of thinking; that Nigeria must be a better place, and that is your priority, then, there is no reason why you can’t work together. So, that is what we are doing but in due course, we may try to amend the name of the party but I can assure you that the logo will remain. It’ll only be a minor amendment.

The north is insisting on the Peoples Democratic Party’s zoning arrangement and some of them have said that President Goodluck Jonathan must not run under the party if he must contest the 2011 presidential election. Will the Action Congress welcome him if he decides to run under your party platform?

That’s their own business, that’s their own party. We don’t have anything in common. They have their own programme, we have our own. If they like, they can zone it to the north or they zone it to the east. That’s their own business. We didn’t create the problem, they created the problem among themselves, they must solve the problem among themselves. The more they don’t agree with themselves the better for us because what they lose we gain. So, as far as we are concerned, we are not thinking in terms of zoning or not zoning.

Zoning, I think, is dragging us backward.

It is not supposed to be in the discuss now because we are one Nigeria and everybody has a right to contest and the person can come from anywhere. Even, I can stake my neck and go for the presidency.

There is nothing stopping me. After all, those who are there, are they more educated than me? So, I can run for president if I like. I believe that Nigerians should not at this century be looking at sentiment of zoning and not zoning. Any Nigerian fron any part of Nigeria can aspire to become the president of this country.