By Lukman Olabiyi
Hon. Dayo Bush-Alebiosu is a former lawmaker representing Kosofe Federal constituency at the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2015.
In this interview, he bared it all regarding his exploit, gain and pains as former lawmaker and why he is aspiring again to return to the lower legislative chamber.
It is almost seven years since you left office, what have you been doing within this period?
My business, education and politicking; all those are things we have been doing. I have made it a point of duty to develop myself even before we left office. I went back to school, did a few degrees and at the same time put in a lot of efforts into my business and also politics. I have used the last seven years to develop myself, to reinvent myself and to re-establish myself.
Would you say your two tenures in office have been surpassed by the incumbent House of Reps member?
I wouldn’t say so in any way; he did his bit and I did my bit. I have chosen my words carefully by not saying I have done my best. I tell people that you must first know what to do before doing your best. For us to be able to work to that level while in opposition, we were able to establish and maintain a fantastic relationship when it came to legislation and oversight. I had a very fantastic relationship with the previous speakers even though they were on the PDP. They even visited my constituency as members of the opposition, they saw the working relationship and the acceptance not just by party members, but by the constituency at large and we were able to really bring home the things that were needed then; transformers, and all of those things, projects worth over half a billion. We are grateful to God for that. We couldn’t have gotten to that extent without their support and that’s just by the way. The major duty that we were elected to there was to make laws and to legislate which we were able to do fantastically well. We were able to do that fantastically then because of the good relationship we had with other members; PDP, ACN (we were ACN then), until we metamorphosed into APC. You remember we were the ones that fought for APC in this country. Then, it was my set that convinced our colleagues to switch, to come over and it was like a world championship bout where the whole nation sat at the edge of their seats, paying attention to how many people had moved to APC from the ruling party and we kept on pushing until the acceptance spread from the center to across the rest of the states in the country. I would say that we had a fantastic win. The situation then is completely different from the situation now. Today, we are in the ruling party; our representatives are in the ruling party. We never sponsored a motion that failed. If you remember, a lot of the motions that we moved even as member of opposition, we were able to get the support of all the members of the PDP.
Some are alleging that your under-performance, coupled with not being a good party man, was the reason you were denied the party’s ticket to return to the house in 2015?
How do you explain rejection? What is the meaning of under-performance? What is the definition? That’s what we need to know. It was simple plain politics. At the end of the game, we got a short end of the stick of the game. We didn’t lose. We all know how it played out. And for you to say that we over-performed. You see, in life, there are two things you see. You either see the devil or you see the angel. Some watch you and see the devil, some see the angels. Remember, I still have the highest number of votes not just in the constituency but in the federation. How did we get all of that? You remember when I didn’t return or get the ticket, it affected our vote drastically. When you say under-performance; is under-performance making sure that Lagos-Ibadan expressway concession agreement where lot’s of women and children died was revoked? Is that under-performance? The serious fight we had rather than losing all Nigerian 32 villages inclusive of Bakassi under-performance? There has been lot’s of plane crashes before I went to the house before I became the chairman of treaties and agreement and it was while we were there that Dana crashed and we were able to put Montreal convention in place, we were able to get 100 families compensated. Even Dana didn’t want to pay them a $100, 000, we made sure that they were compensated at the current exchange rate of the IMF currency structure to the dollar; each family member got a $171,000, is that under-performance? Is under-performance making sure that our youths, our children in a presumption that I saw that fatalities of tobacco consumption would come from Nigeria, the highest in developing nations. Which nation tops the league of developing nations? It’s Nigeria, of course. We are the largest black nation in the world. Against all odds, against all blackmailing, we have the law – the tobacco law in Nigeria today. We rose up against caffeinated energy drinks. The consumption was targeted at young people and not old people. We fought it to a standstill, the consumption; you can see that it has even affected the distribution today. Is that under-performance? The bird flu, we curved it to make sure that the spread is not as fatal as this COVID-19, when it was still seen from afar. The motion was mine, to make sure that we move as quickly as we could. Is that under-performance? I can go on and on. The question is, how do you gauge under-performance, for those who think that we under-performed, how do they gauge under-performance? And then when you say not being a party man, what is the definition of a party man? We had our differences in the party, like human beings would have their differences. Every social animal would have their differences and at the end of the day, whatever played out, played out. So, some chose to see the devil, some chose to see angel. We had motions that were not just for young people, but old people. The Intercontinental Bank, Access Bank takeover which eventually led to the issue of Honourable Hembe and Ms. Aroma Otteh of SEC, that incident, that motion was mine, to have it looked at because a lot of people who had their retirement benefit invested in it, were seeing it going down the drain, so how do we protect them? Is that under-performance?
Is transfer of liability bill where you live in a house and when you leave with owed money, they now tell the next tenant to come and pay under-performance? We started it and thank God Gbaja (Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the current Speaker ) completed it. He took it up. If we had returned to the house, we would have completed it. I still have some of the bills that I did not complete. The Aluu 4 students who were falsely accused and killed, I made sure that I got justice for them. To make sure that this jungle justice had to stop. All these accusers needed to do was accuse you and you lose your life. We fought from Kosofe here and made sure that justice was served. The court passed a judgment, they were convicted and sentenced to death. We can go on and on. I respect their opinion, but their opinion is not reality. The major issue of electricity, they said is generation, then it was transmission. When we came out, we went to every community and ward, it was the same problem we had – transformer. Every ward got a minimum of three transformers. As a matter of fact, there were projects we fought for in the 2015 budget which we concluded in 2014, but because I did not return in 2015 our people still enjoyed those projects through the current member. So he served but I just believe that I have a better experience to serve the people of Kosofe not just about what I stand to gain, but what I stand to give.
Did you mean half a billion naira?
Yes! Very well over half a billion attracted to Kosofe, even while in opposition, so you can imagine what we would do as a Rep from the ruling party. That’s how you gauge performance!
Do you want to read them out?
Yes, we will send them all to you. I remember they were quite a lot they are something you cannot count at the top of fingers. It’s only when they are few you can count on your fingers. They’re the full list of things that we have done. You can verify them and not just take my word.
Some constituency members believe that the mini buses, motorcycles, tricycles, grinding machines and giving grants are the best tools to measure performance. How would you rate the new representative’s performance?
For me, we were not elected to do those things. The role of a legislator is to make laws and to legislate. But outside of those ones, we are still able to do things like the transformers I mentioned. Remember, our traders who trade in drinks couldn’t even get ice-blocks on those days, if you have cold rooms there was no light to power it, hairdressers and people who have shops had issue of power. Restaurants, bars, hotels even those who were into manufacturing had to connect to those transformers and that is how we were able to identify those things. Please note, when I ran for office, I ran on party’s platform but I was elected by the entire people. I became the representative of the entire Kosofe and my focus was for everybody. There are things you also enjoy when you are part of the ruling party I guess, but in our time we didn’t have those things. All of these things being distributed are in the budget. So we are attributing those things to individual performances. For ‘korope’ buses and all that, we should say thank you to President Buhari, the same thing was done in Ikeja, in Somolu, Ikorodu, all over. The 360 representatives enjoyed that. I think what President Buhari has done now through the various agencies, especially the SDG under former deputy governor; Adejoke Orelope, is alleviating poverty like he promised through the Senators and House of Representatives. Not everybody will be a transporter; however, we will do things differently.
We have many of your contemporaries serving as governors, senators and ambassadors today. So, why did you decide to run for the House of Representatives again?
I have always asked God to place me in a position where I will be of good use in my constituency. Remember I was born in Kosofe; I grew up in Kosofe and live on Kosofe. The only time I had to leave Kosofe was when I was developing myself, when I had to travel abroad for a while and I came back after a while. I have always told people that in politics, you should always pay attention to your terrain, your political terrain and also what fate has thrown your way. If we look at it, Senator Bayo Osinowo passed after just a year in office and we had a replacement. I decided to re-run, having spoken to some people, of course, this is my political base and I saw that the direction I was also being beckoned to run was the House of Representatives. So, going back there would mean that I would be a cognate member; the experience is there, the understanding is there, the known colleagues with whom I have worked with in the past. So, it’s just taking it from there.
If given the opportunity, what are you going to do differently this time? Don’t forget that seven years ago, Nigeria was not this developed; give us a brief of what you’ll do?
I’ll tell you for brief without sounding arrogant; I can humbly say that I am one of the best legislators in Nigeria. I will rank amongst the top five in this country. My past records show that. For the last seven years, I have studied in one programme or the other; I have sharpened and prepared myself. People have asked me why I have done programmes. I have been to Harvard; I have studied Leadership and Decision Making. I have been to Northern Island University where I studied a degree entirely and another degree in Leadership and Management. I have been to Warwick University, Newcastle and have several leadership courses. I was not doing those things because of the certificate, but to keep myself abreast. I am employing Western legislation, don’t forget we are talking about policy making which is what I love, it makes any country: wherever you go. How do you stand the test of time? You can imagine going to oversight someone like a Babatunde Fashola you don’t know. How do you know what you are over-sighting? Iron sharpens iron and not wood. I just gave an example of what I will do with mini buses; we would set up a company. Don’t forget that last year, we have increase in online shopping, it moved from 30 to 40 to 50 million pre-COVID. A lot of people don’t have to go out but can work from home. How do we do that? Does it make sense to say that we ordered food or something else through Jumia and it is delivered within Kosofe? We are the second largest local government in Lagos. When people come and say that we need money to go into education, I asked to do what? Are we getting the results? There are so many things we can look on like health.
We have two federal wards in Kosofe and Agboyi. For the past 20 years they’ve been promised a link bridge but as we speak, the design is yet to be conceived. Secondly, annually we have flooding at Ajegunle axis. On several occasions, we heard that the Federal delegation visited that environment. If elected, what are you going to do towards addressing it?
I acknowledged the fact that you saw their presence there. It was a fight we put up there. Some things were sent from Ogun- Osun River Basin. They even contributed to what is helping us there today. There are various factors causing the flooding and those reasons need to be revisited. I am sure if that area were Ikoyi, they would have sorted it out. We tried a lot when we were there. We visited, the governor visited and we found out that we had unusual rains during that period, effect of global warming plus man made issues; building along drainages and blockages. I think this is a time where we have to look at that much more seriously. The two wards that you had mentioned, things have changed. Of recent, even the council chairman in Agboyi Ketu had to do some projects in those places. So, there are signs that they are not being neglected, but some things are coming our way. There are some areas we need to hold on to the Federal Government. It’s a good thing that today the party in government in Lagos is the same party in government at the centre. I am aware that the current member through the SDG is building a health centre for us in Ojota and Agboyi as well. Hopefully, we should get it before the end of this tenure. It shouldn’t be just health alone, but the same kind of representation of schools there, so they’ll know that they are not being abandoned. I believe by God’s grace, when elected into office next year, it would be a top priority getting those things sorted out.
I think there’s an abandoned primary school (Ajegunle Primary School), the school too has to be looked into.
Absolutely, I agree with you. I think we have to accept blame sometimes for taking some things too thick, but it’s all in quest to making our presence felt. While we were in office, we got a block of classroom, VIP toilets and all of that are at Expressway Primary School, we had the same seamlessly in Oworonsoki, and we had another one in Agboyi too. But with hindsight, if we were able to have a good working arrangement, I mean a good understanding; we would have done them in batches and not spreading little portions. You can imagine if we had those three blocks in one place, it would have really solved a huge problem rather than how we had done it then. This problem didn’t arise then, had it been the case then, we would have known how to resolve it. I agree with you that we need to look into that.
The federal constituency since the last two general elections, recorded a general apathy. What do you think can be done to improve in the coming election?
We just need to pick the right candidate. Like I said, I enjoyed tremendous support while I was in office, on both occasions if you remember, every election had been done twice. My first election on 2007, I did it twice, the second twice, even the primaries was done three times and my worry would be people’s turn out, it was amazing. I believe that was why we were able to record the highest number of votes. I had a fantastic relationship inside and outside of the party. Take Magodo for example, I will just cite that, I responded to what they wanted. It was the then DPO who had written that there was security issues there and a lot of people were attacked and we were able to influence streetlights valued at N40 million. When the street lights were installed, we extended to smaller areas down to NEPA.
You just mentioned something now on your past primary elections, now that election is drawing nearer and your last two participation were marred by violence, what advice would you give to your party?
I would never be party to violence, I have never yelled at anyone. I am human being, I look for other sources, I have never done that. My party does not engage in that, yes some people were engaged in it, but they were individuals. I dont think anyone would try that now. No one is playing around with that anymore. Some intentionally make it violent to keep good people at bay, but their right must be protected. But we know those who involve in it, it’s a community. People are smarter now; their right must be protected to cast their votes.
What is your role in the reconciliation of the party leaders?
I grew up in Kosofe; that is the home town that I know. I would be a mad person to see Kosofe go down the drain. I have children, I have daughters, it is my duty to protect them. Some of the things we are doing is to reconcile all parties. It is good seeing our GAC members being reconciled. I like peace; that is only when we can make progress. It is good Baba Bush and Baba Sosanya are on the same page. It is also good to see all the elected and appointed officials are on the same page, so we can be united. We started a little over a year ago, at Raddisson Blu, it broke down, thank God it is being resolved again, everyone is happy, I am grateful God has used me as a tool for reconciliation.
What’s your message to the party delegate for the May 19 National Assembly primary?
The important thing is to put Kosofe in focus. Our slogan is; ‘Nigeria on my mind, Kosofe in focus.’ Now it is Nigeria on my mind, Kosofe still in focus. This is where we live, this is our abode, this is where we play and practice politics. It is where we raise our children, it is important we raise the right people to represent us.