Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, former Minister of Works and Housing and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), speaks to TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI on developments in the party on the 2023 presidential election. He also shares his thoughts on threats by his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to stop the reign of the APC in Lagos in 2023. Excerpts:
There has been war of words between supporters of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Vice- President over the 2023 presidential election. While Osinbajo is yet to declare, some APC members are saying he shouldn’t contest as doing so will amount to betraying Tinubu who nominated him for Vice-President. What is your take on that?
That is irrelevant and anti-democratic. Getting power in democracy requires struggle. Nobody can tell me because he has assisted me in the past, maybe 20 years ago, then I cannot compete with you. Saying that is anti-democratic. In democracy, you have to exhibit your skills and show people what you have to offer. Yes, Osinbajo served Tinubu years ago when he was governor but he cannot be subservient to him for life. He has to move on someday. If Osinbajo can bear the brunt and withstand the rigours of contesting for the presidency, nobody should stop him. Let him go out and campaign. Let him and other aspirants, including Asiwaju come out to the field to test their popularity. The race is for the fittest, brightest and the cleverest person. Nobody should beg or threaten anybody not to contest. That is not democracy. Let all qualified aspirants go out and collect the forms. Whoever the party picks, that is our candidate and we will all work for his victory.
Do you think president should support any presidential aspirant as his successor or he should be neutral and allow all the aspirants to test their strengths on the field?
Successor is as important as yourself. We have seen and witnessed all over the world where people make mistake about who is going to succeed them. It landed some of them in jail. So, you must be persuaded that the person succeeding you will continue with your programmes and will like you as a person. The issue of succession is always a big problem. It happened to Obasanjo. That mistake Obasanjo made is the brunt we are bearing in Nigeria today. Obasanjo couldn’t make up his mind about who will succeed him. If he had made up his mind then, we will not be where we are today. He was experimenting instead of being focused. I’m sure in his inner mind today, he doesn’t like himself on the issue of that successor. How can anyone write about the history of Nigeria today without writing about Obasanjo’s successor that brought us to where we are today. It was a succession mistake. If you make a mistake as a leader on who succeeds you, believe it or not, you will regret it for life because people are not predictable. Also, politics is not mathematics. You can’t say if I put this person there as my successor, my future is guaranteed. No, it doesn’t work that way. A new king will rule in Egypt who does not know Joseph. For every successor, there will be new friends, new caucuses and new ideas will be suggested to derail whatever he meets on ground. Everybody wants to occupy the space which was occupied by some people in the past. They want to remove them and occupy those spaces.
So, in essence you believe President Buhari should quickly make up his mind on who his successor should be now and support such a person?
The position of the president of Nigeria is very close to God. The power, influence, authority, the financial attraction, anything you can imagine is with the president of Nigeria. if the president of Nigeria wants to make you a trillionaire in two days, it will happen. If he wants to impoverish a wealthy man in two weeks, he can also do it. He will put all the policies to kill your business totally. With just one pronouncement from him, your businesses is in ruins. So, the power of the president of Nigeria is too enormous to toy with. I hear some people say the president is like a centurion in the Bible. That is the authority vested in the president of Nigeria and there is nothing anybody can do about it. We have to keep on praying that God will give us somebody who loves us. If a leader loves us, his policies will favour the masses and save the country. He will do the right things despite many tendencies that will try to derail him. As far as I am concerned, let President Buhari pick Asiwaju Tinubu to succeed him in 2023. He will never regret it.
Coming to Lagos state, do you think Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu deserve a second term?
Definitely, he deserves a second term for him to consolidate on what he has been doing. Four years is not enough for him to complete all that he is doing. He has so many projects that are ongoing. Also, change of leadership has affected Lagos state very adversely. There is no continuity on project execution in Lagos state. That is a major problem that needs to be addressed. From Fashola to Ambode, it was a disaster. They were quarreling with each other. Anything that belonged to Fashola was nothing to Ambode and that did not work well for Lagos state. The same thing is happening now. Anything that belongs to Ambode, they are just trying to patch it up and that is not working. So, the current governor needs eight straight years for him to complete ongoing projects. If not, we can be in a big problem with abandoned projects littered everywhere.
Culled from the Independent.
