Seye Oladejo, the Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has stated that the party will not allow a repeat of its loss in the 2023 presidential election.He also mentioned that the issue of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) falls under the jurisdiction of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC). Additionally, he asserted that the economic policies implemented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have ultimately started yielding positive results. Oladejo spoke with OLADIPUPO AWOJOBI in an interview. Excerpts:
There have been conflicting reports that Rt Hon Mudashiru Obasa who was removed and reinstated as the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly is expected to resign, how true is this?
What is happening now is that the rift and disagreements have been resolved. In a situation like this, people would add what they want to the story. As a party, we are not aware that Speaker Mudashiru Obasa is supposed to resign. That is not to our knowledge. What we know is that they came into the party for our intervention and wise counsel based on custodians from our mandate and we did just that and we advised them and it became the position of the House as it was upheld in the chamber. So, we are not aware as a party that Rt Hon Obasa is supposed to resign. The conflict has been resolved for good. We hope they will be able to further clear all the grey areas among themselves. As a party, we will continue to respect the independence of the House and the ability to manage their own affairs.
People are wondering that if the majority said they wanted someone removed and the party says no, it’s like their hands are tied and there are insinuations that President Bola Tinubu is insisting that Obasa must remain the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, how would you react to this?
It is not true, this is the same people that wanted Obasa removed based on some issues, but they changed their minds after reviewing their position, which is normal in life. They all overwhelmingly voted for him to return to his seat as Speaker. You will be aware that he has opposition when he was reelected. The President is not in any way involved in the issue. The President is the father of the nation, he is the National Leader of our party and he is the Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. We will not allow people reduce him to a local leader on the altar of politics. The disagreement in the Lagos State House of Assembly remains a local issue that has been resolved by the local leaders of the party. Our party is known to be a party that makes consensus and that thrives on reconciliation, understanding and unity. It’s a party that thrives on people making sacrifices for all to be together and to deliver on our mandate. That was what just played out, which differentiates Lagos from other states of the federation. We have been known to resolve our differences, even bigger differences, and more pressing differences in the past and this has not been different.
There are insinuations that Lagos indigenes believe that the people that have been ruling the state are not from the state and that a Lagos indigene should be allowed to control the legislature as it has been alleged that your party believes that Lagos indigenes want to hijack the APC, can you comment on that?
The progressives party in Lagos State is not built on issues that bother on divisiveness. We thrive on the fact that Lagos remains a cosmopolitan state where all and sundry are welcome to trade, and play their politics, vote and be voted for. There is no division in the APC along the line of indigenes and non-indigenes. That is not to my knowledge. But because the issue has festered for so long, it has provided the opposition party that has remained moribund for a long time opportunity to start making insinuations and put on their propaganda machinery and to start insinuating all sorts of things. In the APC, we are one, we are not divided along the line of indigenes and non-indigenes and that’s the way we have remained. There is no issue of Lagos indigenes not being given a chance to participate in politics or in governance, that is very far from the truth. That is the position of the APC in Lagos State.
In 2023, the APC in Lagos State lost the presidential election to the Labour Party, people are saying that it’s like the party is losing its grip on Lagos, what are you doing to avoid a repeat of this?
We had our internal issues during the 2023 Presidential Election. You will also recall that two weeks later, during the same national election, APC overwhelmingly won the governorship election in the state. That shows you that we can correct any wrong in a record time. That I can assure you will not repeat itself. The APC will win and win overwhelmingly. Those factors, those issues, and those propaganda that were put forward by the opposition to deprive us of our victory in the presidential election in Lagos State don’t exist anymore and will not exist by 2027. We will not only win, we will win convincingly. That I can tell you. We still remain the choice of the electorate in Lagos State and that will not change in the future.
Don’t you think that what the APC is doing at the centre with fuel subsidy removal, floating of the naira and increase in sundry tariffs might affect the party in the next elections at the federal and state levels with people believing that other parties would do better?
Are we talking of other parties that cannot even manage their own affairs. Are we talking of he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party that are more or less on life support machines with intractable and unresolvable crises here and there? The least the opposition parties can do is to convince the electorate that they can manage their own affairs before they entrust them with the mandate of the people. The issues that they talk about the APC-led government is the economy and it’s not peculiar to Nigeria. There were bold decisions that Mr President made when he got into office and there was no way any other president could have avoided them. The bold decision was the removal of the fuel subsidy and in no distant time, what the President predicted that we may have to sacrifice for a while and that things would change are already happening. In recent times, we have seen the prices of petroleum products coming down and this would get better before the next election. It is time for governance and not time for politicking. Let them convince everybody that they can at least run a political party before they can talk about running the country.
Your government was accused of stifling the opposition and planting mercenaries there, which is why they are having issues…
He who alleges must prove, it’s sheer laziness for them to say that, it shows lack of capacity and incompetence. That is the more reason why people should not trust them. If you are a political party and you say you cannot run your party because the ruling party is not allowing you to thrive, it speaks volume of the kind of people in that party. There is nothing like that. Are we responsible for the oppositions within the party with two people claiming the office of the National Secretary and another two claiming the office of the National Chairman of the party? They should get more serious. Partisan politics and governance are a serious business, it’s not meant for people who want to take Nigerians for a ride.
The local government election is fast approaching in Lagos State and the Supreme Court has ruled that allocations should be given to the constitutionally recognised councils directly, are we going to have elections into the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state?
We are a political party, we are not the umpire for the election, the umpire is the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), we are awaiting their guidelines and we are going to abide by them. As a participating party, we shouldn’t be talking about how and when the guidelines would be released. When they release the guidelines we will obey them. So, when we get to the bridge, we wil cross it. We will abide by whatever decision they arrive at. I don’t speak for LASIEC, I speak for the APC.
Don’t you think that the best thing to do as the ruling party in the state is to scrap the LCDAs with the Supreme Court judgment so that there won’t be issues?
We are the ruling party, but we are not LASIEC, and we are not the Lagos State Government, we are just a political party.
