ANPP ensured victory for Fashola – Oyebolu, Lagos ANPP chairman
By TAIWO OLUWADRE
Saturday, April 19, 2008

Lagos state chairman of the ANPP, Honourable Adetunji Oyebolu has declared that the AC gubernatorial candidate in the last April polls and incumbent governor, Raji Fashola owes his success at the election to the collaboration of the ANPP stalwarts in the state. According to Oyebolu, the DPA candidate, Jimi Agbaje would have won, if he had ben supported by the ANPP . He praised the collaborative efforts of Senator Afikuyomi, who played a pivotal role to ensure victory for the AC.

Excerpts:

ANPP is strong in Lagos State
The issue whether ANPP is a strong party depends on individual perception. I can assure you and confirm to you now that we have our presence in all 20 local governments in Lagos State now. Mobilization is the main concern ;at present and I know that we are well mobilized and well grounded in the past and coming elections. If anybody is telling you we are not strong, they are only fooling themselves. In the last gubernatorial election, it was our effort that made Fashola to win the election.

I will give the reason. At the gubernatorial election, the total number of votes that took Fashola in was 885,000 votes. And the next person to him which was Obanikoro had 300,000 plus, votes. then at the presidential elections, where we did not have any collaboration with any party, AC had 500,000 votes compared to 885,000 votes they had at the gubernatorial election in Lagos. Thus, it can now be judged that it was our collaboration with them at state level that made them won. If we had worked with DPA, Jimi Agbaje would have become the governor of Lagos State today. If we are not on ground, we would have not been able to give such amount of votes to AC at the gubernatorial election.

Why Senator Afikuyomi stepped down
That to that extent is a personal question that can best be answered by Afikuyomi himself. It is unfortunate and I don’t like going back to the issue. We have believed Afikuyomi to be a sellable, reliable and responsible candidate, only at the last minute, about 5 days to the election that he said he is not running again. At that point in time, it was too late for us to bring up any other candidate. Even, if we had had another candidate on ground, it was constitutionally and legally too late because INEC has already placed nomination on candidates.

And for that reason, we just had to play along Afikuyomi and he was more or less a facilitator of our collaborative deal with AC.

Rating Fashola’s 300 days in office
I will always say as opposition leader that I will always have constructive engagement not frivolous criticism with opposition parties. Lagos before now requires a drastic solutions due to some decadence that is so much around in the state.

The situation in Lagos is a case of everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. Everybody desires a cleaned environment and healthier city but nobody wants to pay the price it requires. And the price is such that Fashola is doing now by demolishing and cleaning place. The only thing I personally will have admonished us to exhibit is the mlk of human kindness in Lagos. What do I mean by that? All of those that they have demolished their building, they would have found an alternative ways of accommodating them before demolishing their buildings.

In fact, most of them got their means of livelihood from the demolished property. And you can imagine what will amount to, if ones means of livelihood is terminated abruptly. It will not only affect them economically, it will affect them health wise. I know some people that due to the termination of this their source of livelihood have developed hypertension and therefore degenerated into stroke which has eventually sent them to their earlier grave.

What he is doing is good for the larger society but some are seriously affected by the decision. This is what I want Fashola’s administration to look into. We agree that some of them occupied the place illegally but we need to look at the underlining factor that made some of them to have occupied the spaces ,illegally. We know that this economy is bad, level of unemployment is high and people are living below poverty line. Thus, I would have expected the government by the people and for the people to look at the welfare of people by making sure that there is alternative accommodation for these people.

Buhari not a failure in seeking redress in court
I disagree absolutely to the statement that Buhari is a failure. Also, ANPP has never contributed to any failure in the redress he is seeking in court. Buhari has not failed at the tribunal. As to the fact of his case, it was thrown out on technicality, that is why he went to the Supreme Court. You can not come to the conclusion that he has failed. And by the special grace of God, you will see what is going to happen at the apex court.

What people don’t know is that, case like this is very good for democracy. It is creating a healthy environment for democracy. If I know that if I go into an election and I believe I’m unfairly treated I have a recourse to go to the law court. But if I’m unfairly treated but I have nowhere to run to, there is no way democracy can grow. What Buhari is doing is good for democracy and I support it absolutely. As an individual, you have an inalienable right to seek redress in the court of law.

ANPP in GNU
The support for the Government of National Unity is a decision reached by the National Executive Council (NEC) of ANPP. And the position of the party is that ANPP is patriotically in support of GNU for the stability of the country at that point in time. Otherwise, what we would have witnessed around the time of election and immediately after, would have been Kenya’s case. And to stabilize the country and make peace to reign, ANPP believed that we should join hands with Yar’Adua to build a peaceful national government.

ANPP, not a collaborator
Well, ANPP is not a collaborator with PDP.. We collaborated on the issue of patriotism to Nigeria as a nation because as the time the election results were released, of course some people were willing to cause chaos in order to fight for their rights. When ANPP came in, everything subsided. It was Yar’Adua himself that called us to join him in GNU by writing us a letter which was brought before the ANPP’s NEC. We agreed for stability of the democracy and the polity. We don’t want the military to come back which made ANPP to join hands to stabilize the polity. And I see it as a patriotic action on the part of ANPP; we are not a collaborator with PDP.

In support of Obasanjo’s probe
I absolutely support it. In fact, I’m calling on EFCC now, not to even wait for any petition again. We have all evidence abound. They should not wait any minute to pick up Obasanjo to let the whole world know all that has been coming out in his 8 years in administration. We all believed he is a clean person until now we discover that he does not deserve all respects and accolades given him in the past.

How we are preparing for LG election
I have told you that in all the 20 constitutionally recognized local governments, we have our presence there. We are still demanding that nothing outside constitution should be done in conducting local government election . I’ve been a local government chairman before. Of course, Kano State population is less than what we have in Lagos.. But let’s do things appropriately. We are clamouring for ideal and egalitarian society, but nobody wants to pay the price.

And Lagos is a pace setter, whether anybody likes it or not. When Lagos sneezes, all Nigeria catches cold. If we are the pace setter, let’s live by example. Tinubu has done greater things for Lagos, but my advice for Fashola is to allow the National Assembly to ratify his creation of the new local governments. The local government election must be done, but let’s do it into 20 local governments that are recognized by the constitution.

Then, we can seek for the ratification of National Assembly to make the 37 local governments certified local councils. Thus, anything short of that, ANPP will go to court to stop the election into 57 local governments. Anyway, I trust governor Fashola as a SAN, he won’t want to do anything illegal because he knows better.