Chief Ola Apena is a former chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State. In this interview with ANAYO EZUGWU, he speaks on why he defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and why ex-governorship candidate of PDP in the state, AbdulAzeez Adediran, should be encouraged in Lagos politics

You were among those that moved from the Lagos PDP to the APC, what informed your movement?

As you know, life is dynamic, so whatever you do as a human being, you have to appraise and reappraise your position. Also, like you know, I have been in the PDP from the world go and I have contested election twice on the platform of the party. I have been one of the managers of the party. In fact, specifically, our team then, when I was a deputy state chairman, still remains the best. We produced eight House of Assemblies and six House of Representatives.

But you will agree with me that the PDP of then is not the PDP of now. The party has been systematically demobilised for many reasons, most of which are personal because when you talk about demarketing the party, it doesn’t just start now. It’s been there right but it has gotten to a crescendo now that the party has been rendered comatose. You can’t even say who the leadership of the party is. At a point, the party was so decimated to the point that you don’t even know who the national secretary of the party is.

That is talking about the national, but talking about Lagos State, I think it is even the worse. During the 2023 elections; one of the supposed conscience of the party, a member of Board of Trustees (BoT), went public and can asked for public support for a candidate of another party, while claiming to be a member of Board of Trustees? The state chairman then, Philip Aivoji, maybe he’s still, I don’t know, also went public with a press statement, saying that members of the party and supporters of the party should vote for Labour Party.

You now ask yourself, what kind of a party is that? I worked with our gubernatorial candidate throughout the campaign and eventual prosecution of our petition at the at the tribunal, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. We were optimistic that something good would come out of it, but the Nigerian factor prevailed.

So, there was no other way to appeal to than to leave it in the hands of God Almighty. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor), like any other human being, is not a perfect person but I see a very bright future for him politically. I salute his courage, his tenacity of purpose, and I feel people like him should be encouraged, particularly in Lagos State because of his passion, commitment and dedication.

Did your camp make any effort to resolve the internal crisis in PDP before joining APC?

Yes, we tried as much as possible after the Supreme Court judgement to see if the party could be salvaged. In fact, it led us to a lot of voyages, a lot of meetings and a lot of back and forth. But in the process, we realised that even what we are looking at is even on the surface.

When we now saw the depth of the damages and the level of commitment of those doing that damage to do more damage, I felt we should chart a new political course. Of course, there was this talk about coalition then. We held some talk. We met some of the proponents of the coalition but our major problem was that our focus is on Lagos. Our principal, who is Jandor, is not aspiring to be the president of Nigeria.

The moment you have a diluted team; one committed to winning election and the other committed to diverting money to personal use, you can guess the outcome

He is aspiring to be the governor of Lagos State. Even if the coalition would be able to make some impacts at the national level, I doubt the possibility of them making any impact in Lagos. Strategically, for those of us who believe in this aspiration, and given the fact that we now even look at it that this coalition will even bring in some of these useless elements in Lagos PDP, and we will still be in the same boat, it will still come back to the same thing.

As it is now, most of them have jettisoned the coalition. These are the same people who ruined PDP. In politics, you cannot determine who joins you and who doesn’t join you; it’s all commerce affairs. So, when we now looked at all the pros and cons, we concluded that APC, like any political organisation, has its shortcomings, but let him go back there, we’ll follow him.

Now that you have moved to APC; was there a promise made to Jandor and his group?

You see, in politics, any agreement is not justiciable. It’s not enforceable. You cannot take it to the law court and say this is what they promised you. So, any sensible and intelligent politician will not pursue that line of an agreement. You can reach an agreement that if you come in, you will become A, B, C but the moment you are in, the agreement is breached. So, what we just did was to reach to the top echelon of the party and even up to the presidency, intimating them of our intention to come in and to be part of the progress of the party, with an understanding that they will do the needful, wherever and whenever.

You can only extract patronage, so to say, if you have a formidable standing. If the other party that you are joining realises that you are formidable, you cannot be ignored. So, our approach is: We’ve showcased ourselves. At least Jandor has showcased himself and I think they are happy to have him back. They are very happy to have him back and by implication, those of us that followed him.

Did they give any slots to Jandor and his group in the last local government election?

Well, we never asked for any slots, and it would be ridiculous for us to start asking for slots. We barely moved in and it wouldn’t be reasonable to be expecting that those who have been on the queue for donkey years will now sideline them to give us slots for chairmen and councillors.

Since we are talking about the local government; what is your assessment of the July 12 council elections in the state?

Local government election is a different ball game. You don’t compare that with the general election. It’s a localised election and it has its own supervisory agency unlike the nationally conducted election. And, of course, it comes with its peculiarity Since the enactment of independent electoral agencies all over the country, a pattern has emerged, which is any party that controls the state apparatus takes everything. So, to me, the local government election cannot be used as parametre to judge the mood of the people because it is always winner takes all. If you look at it, the turnout was low; people felt why must I they waste their time.

Talking about coalition, some opposition leaders have moved into the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Do you see them making any inroads into Lagos State?

I do not see ADC making any inroads into Lagos State because you only make inroads into a state if you have credible, reliable and committed leaders. I do not see such. What I see are leaders who have rushed to join ADC; people who are used to waiting for election money and diverting it into their personal pockets. So, like I said earlier, God is the final decider of everything but when you look at it from a human perspective, I do not see ADC making any impact in the state.

Who are the leaders there? Just tell me one or two of them and I will tell you their antecedent because most of them are coming from PDP. Maybe, those who will follow Rauf Aregbesola from Alimosho will come too, but will they be the only ones to dominate the leadership? The answer is no. The moment you have a diluted team, one committed to winning election and the other committed to diverting money to personal use, you can guess the outcome.

Now, you have joined the APC. How do you assess President Bola Tinubu’s administration in the last two years?

I have my perspective of his administration. If I want to assess the administration, not as a politician but as an analyst who follows governance activities, I would want to look at the economy and security because economy encompasses infrastructure and what have you. It’s just basically economy and security, when you look at it from an economic point of view.

Yes, the withdrawal of fuel subsidy though painful but at the time that subsidy was withdrawn, it was absolutely necessary. But what was done with the withdrawn subsidy is another topical issue. And, you realise that after withdrawing the subsidy states and local government allocation went up. So, if we want to look at the economy, we don’t have to look at it by isolating just the Federal Government.

Let’s look at it down the line. State governors are now getting triple of what they used to get before the withdrawal of subsidy likewise the local government. The question is: What are they doing with those allocations because Nigeria is a federation? We have the local, the states and the federal governments.

So, every component unit has its role to play. What are the governors doing with what is allocated to them? What are the local government doing with what is allocated to them because all these factors will come up to define how healthy the economy is. If the governors are deploying the triple resources they are getting under this withdrawal of subsidy regime, infrastructure development would be going on virtually in all states of the federation and that will have a multiplier effect on the economy.

If more attention is paid to education, both in terms of infrastructure and the welfare of students and teachers, it will have serious multiplier effect on the economy. If the state governments are spending more money on agriculture to ensure food sufficiency, it will have a multiplier effect on the economy. So, everything should not be done by the Federal Government. When you look at even the structure of our country right now, we have the constitution that has three separate lists of areas of responsibilities.

There is the Exclusive List, which is exclusive to the Federal Government; the Concurrent List, which is for both the federal and the states and the Residual List, which is exclusively for the states. When you look at items on the Concurrent List like agriculture and some others, we expect the states to make meaningful impact. Particularly, when you look at it against the background of the Land Use Act of 1967, which was a decree before that has now been turned into an Act of Parliament, all the lands in the states are vested on the state except the waterway and the coastal areas, which are federal in nature.

So, when you even look at it from the point of view of serious infrastructural development, you will come to a conclusion that the states have a lot of roles to play. Of course, the Federal Government formulates policies that will impact the economy Like the management of our foreign reserve and stuff like that.

So, basically if I have to assess this government, not necessarily only Tinubu, I will conclude that a lot of the actors, particularly the states, are not doing enough. It’s not as if the Federal Government too is doing more than what it has to do. But the states are not doing enough. If the Federal Government could give them triple of the allocation they were getting before, definitely, they have more responsibility to ensure development at the state level. Than to worsen the situation, the governors would not allow the local governments to breathe.