The Lagos East Senatorial District Deputy Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Anthony Adefuye, speaks on the call for special status for Lagos and regionalism, among other issues in this interview with MUDIAGA AFFE
The call for special status for Lagos State is still pending, what is it all about?
The call for special status for Lagos is because it was a former federal capital. When it was a federal capital, we used to enjoy that special status of getting five per cent of the total budget for infrastructure development. But that five per cent is presently only being given to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory and you can see that Lagos is housing more people in the country than Abuja. The FCT is just a showpiece as Nigeria’s capital, whereas Lagos, by virtue of being a former capital has a population of about 20 million people. It is for this reason that we believe that the state should be granted special status and granted special funding so that we can improve on our transport system, such as the monorail- red and blue lines. When people think of where to settle in Nigeria, it is Lagos they think of, and we believe that such a state should be given that special status so that it can be a modern city.
Why has the call for special status not scaled through the National Assembly despite several presentations over the years?
One of the presentations during the 2014 National Conference was for Lagos to be granted special status and it was approved, there was no much opposition to it. I think this whole thing is a matter of time; the status will be granted. But of course, when Lagos is granted the status, it also means that the Federal Government will have some form of control in Lagos.
Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai recently made a case for the abandonment of zoning arrangement for political offices as currently obtainable in the country, what do you make of that?
Zoning has its advantages and disadvantages. During the military era, there was no zoning arrangement- that generalisation was cancelled during that period. But somehow, it found its way back during democracy. The then Western region consists of the West, some parts of Kwara State and Mid-West. The then Eastern region consists of some parts of Benue State, but the regional status is still there. Some are now clamouring for us to have six vice presidents- one each from the six zones. If we start all that now, it means that we are going back to regionalism. The old politicians have been clamouring for regionalism that each region should manage its own economy and so on. To be honest, I do not agree with them. If we go back to that structure, Nigeria will break up.
Why did you say that?
Those people who are asking for regionalism forget that we would still have the same problems we had when regional governments were in place. Each zone wants to be independent and at some points, they would want to be on their own as a country. If he (el-Rufai) is suggesting that we should cancel zoning, I think what he might be talking about is regionalism because the different zones do not actually think as one. If zoning is removed from our psyche, I think we would feel like one. If you cancel the zones, we would feel like one big national government. We would act like one Nigeria. We have tried from regional to zonal governments, it has not really worked. We even tried to neo-national; it still did not work because those pushing for it also have sentimental attachments to those regions and the zones. If you remove the zones, we would feel like the way citizens of the United States are feeling where you do not zone positions to any zone. We need to enlighten our minds to belong to one big Nigeria, not the class of thought that you belong to a zone. We need to begin to feel that we are just Nigerians who can chose to settle down either in the South or in the North.
But how long will such enlightenment take?
I can tell you that almost 80 per cent of Nigerians from ages zero to 21 are now fully educated. I can, therefore, say that in another 20 years, we would have a good percentage of Nigerians that are fully educated and from that class, they will understand and they will know what zoning is all about. The bulk of my age bracket does not understand what zoning is all about. If for instance, someone says zoning is bad or good, you will have those chorusing to that direction. They really do not understand what they are saying. It is just like the Ruga scheme when some persons said it was a bad scheme and the majority of people just chorused along that line of thought without knowing what it is all about. All they have been saying is that the Ruga scheme is to expand the Fulani colony but nobody has been able to explain the real meaning of Ruga. The Ruga scheme simply means that instead of bringing cattle from the North, the respective states could develop their own cattle. There is no need for someone to transport cattle from one state to the other. Under this circumstance, we can be our own cow rearer. Nobody is saying that the Ruga settlement must be occupied by the Fulani cattle rearers. We are better cow rearer than the Fulani rearers. We are better educated and have better agricultural education than the Fulani herdsmen, so, we can do better. When we had ranches, we were producing our own cows in the West. In the East, South and North, we used to have ranches that they are planning to reintroduce in the name of Ruga. The scheme simply means that each state can produce their own cows; it does not mean that you will have to bring in the cow from the Niger Republic. People think most of the cows come from Northern Nigeria or Cameroon, I can tell you that it is not at all. So, Ruga means to create your own area where people can do ranching. There was a day I listened to the Nigerian Television Authority Channel 10 and it explained what the much talked about Ruga is all about. At the end of the enlightenment, I almost regretted ever opposing Ruga. People condemn the concept with the belief that it is Fulani colonisation, but it has not got anything to do with Fulani. It simply means those who are interested in rearing cow are confined to these areas instead of ploughing other people’s farms. If you want to buy a cow, this is the direction to get it. People always believe that those who lead these cows are always Fulani people, agreed majority of them are, but mainly, they are Hausa, Middle-Belt, Yoruba from Ilorin, who rear these cows. You will not be surprised to find out that 70 per cent of the cows you find in the West are owned by the Yoruba people even though they employ foreigners to look after the cows. In most of our farms in the South-West, the workers are mainly people from the North, South-South and Benue. So, if we remove zoning, we would all feel that we can go anywhere to do our work. Who are the teachers in the North? They are mainly Southerners- same for medical doctors. Just like we have these categories of workers in the North, so we have workers from the North who are doing all these menial jobs in our farms in the South. So, I cannot say no or yes to what Governor el-Rufai has said. We would have to look at it critically before responding.
Now back to your party in Lagos State, what is being done to address the division in the party?
There is no party that does not have factions, it is not possible. Do not condemn people because they have different opinions- that is why we are a party. We must have people with different opinions and we must tolerate every opinion, but the majority will have its way. I do not like when you wave aside someone’s opinion, we must be able to enjoy the communion of everybody. Do you know that you face more danger in your own party than in the opposition party? If things are done the normal way, the party will grow like those in the advanced democracies. But because you say you are a faction and when you win an election you ignore everyone who had contributed to the success of the election and concentrate on members of your faction, it is not good. When we are a party, all of us should sit down to plan how to govern, not to start referring to factions after you had won the election. We have seen parties won in the US and they still pick their cabinet members from the opposition parties. That is the spirit that we should imbibe in Nigeria. It is factions that split from parties whenever there are unresolved issues, I do not think that should continue to happen. We need better enlightenment within the party because when they are more educated, they will understand themselves better. We take advantage of the people because they do not know what to do. If they know what to do during elections, they will simply vote for the right people that they think can govern them. We do not vote for the right people, we only vote for our people- nepotism, tribalism- which has become the order of the day. That is why Nigeria is in the situation where it is. It is just like fighting corruption, you will be fighting everybody because everybody is corrupt. It is only the grace of God that will keep a government that is fighting corruption in power because everybody is corrupt. The executive, lawmaker, justice system, the police, they are all corrupt. Even if you kidnap and you meet a policeman on the road, when you give them their share they will be the ones hailing you. Look at what happened in Taraba State- a set of security personnel captured a suspected kidnapper and another set went to double cross them and freed the suspect. So, we are facing quite a lot of problem fighting corruption and it is only God that can make us win.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is about to constitute his cabinet, what do you want him to do differently from the government of former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode?
Governor Sanwo-Olu should not isolate himself like Ambode did. What Ambode did that saw him out of office was that when he was in the office, he isolated himself. When you called him, he would not answer or reply to your calls. If you wanted to see him, he would not allow you to get access to him. Do you know that members of the party’s Governors’ Advisory Council wanted to see him in the office one day, we went there in our vehicles and we were returned at the gate? Again, he invited us for a meeting in the State House in Marina, we were there and after waiting for two hours, they came to tell us that the governor would not be able to attend the meeting anymore on the excuse that he (Ambode) was busy. We had to leave. So, when you become a governor, you work with the others to ensure success.
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