What is missing in Lagos is good leadership — Agbaje

Mr. Joseph Olujimi Kolawole Agbaje, was the governorship candidate of the Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) in the 2007 governorship contest in Lagos State. He has pitched political tent with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2015 general elections. In this interview, he explains why he believes Lagos State for over 16 years has not done well. Excerpts
By Bartholomew Madukwe
Whatcould you do to improve on the achievements of the present administration in Lagos State?
For Lagosians, they would look at it that the party in government for over 16 years has done very well. When you compare it to many states in the country you could say yes there has been a measure of performance. But then the way you move forward is to benchmark yourself, not with those things because in the first place Lagos is not at the same level with other states.
Lagos State has been said to be the 5th largest economy in Africa, what is your view of its growth so far?
Yes they say Lagos is the 5th largest economy in Africa, that is not exactly correct. It may be the 5th largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa. If you look at it, it is probably the 13th largest economy in Africa. When you look at the economy of Lagos, you begin to see Lagos as a nation in itself.
The 1st thing is to begin to have a long term vision for Lagos. We should not be looking at Lagos for four years, we should be looking at 15 years and say where do we want Lagos in 2030. Whoever that is coming to office must have a vision to sell to the people and they will know where you are going with regards to Lagos. It is against this background that you ask “what do I want to see in Lagos?”
Jimi Agbaje
Some people have decried multiple taxation in the state, how do you intend solving this issue without it really affecting the economy of the Lagos?
What we will do is to balance it by reducing the pressure and employ more hands, this will as well increase the state’s tax net.
It will bring less burden on Lagosians who are weighed down with multiple tax. These are some of the things that you begin to joggle so that you can have more people employed.
There seem to be too many people in Lagos State, what plan do you have in terms of housing?
We will begin to look at residential housing because 90 per cent Lagosians are in the middle class. Every middle class wants to have his or her own home. To address that different things come to play. You will need land and fund. In leavabilty index, in terms of acquiring property in Nigeria, Lagos is number 36 out of 36. The most difficult place to acquire property in this country is Lagos State. Now the question is if you want people in Lagos and they cannot acquire property for themselves, are you really working towards having them in Lagos? Are you not driving them away to other places? People always move to where there is a good residential scheme. We have our neighbouring state, Ogun, by the time they put their heads together Lagos would be a loser. And once the rail system starts working, most people won’t stay in Lagos again and it begins to loose tax.
Before now, some politicians have given the electorates hope but once they get the power they make the people hopeless, what would you say about that?
Lots of the problem we have in this country is about leadership. Not so much that the plans are not there on paper for the leaders to follow, it is that the leadership is wrong. Leadership is about vested interest. And so you find out that a lot of things that should be done in the interest of Lagosians are only done when it benefits those that have vested interest. For example, the light rail system for example that has been on, we have no idea when it will finish. It is because of the way it was structured. Officially the blue line which is being done is a Lagos State project. There are interests that are affecting the quick completion of that project. Also, like the BRT system that started well but is collapsed, it is because of vested interest. The BRT today is not different from our molues and they breakdown often. Good leadership is what is missing because of vested interest. In other words, it is in PDP that nobody tells the governor how to govern a state.