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Accord Party governorship candidate in Lagos State, Hakeem Onikoyi Dickson, has explained why he wants to become the Lagos State governor. He stated this at a media briefing with a group of journalists in Lekki, Lagos.
He reeled out his seven-point agenda which covers all sectors of life, promising to turn Lagos the mega city, to a smart city with American style of government. VIVIAN ONYEBUKWA was there.
Why did you abandon All Progressive Congress (APC) for Accord Party?
Each time I wanted to go for House of Reps, I would be asked to allow Femi Gbajabiamila to go, with the instruction that I must deliver Femi. It happened once, twice, third time, but I’m the one that has the grassroots. I delivered him first and second time. On the third time I said no, enough is enough. Let’s go and do proper primary. The other primary was held in their administrative Local Government on the Island, while they took mine from Surulere to Mainland in front of Panti in case I did something stupid and they would lock me up. At the end, they gave it again to Femi. At the next election, I said, no more. This time they knew we were determined. They took the primary to the party secretariat in Agege. When election was going on in other local government areas by 10am, our own picked up at 1am the next day with a red light, and with heavy police presence. After the election they refused to count the ballot papers, and suddenly, they gave it to Femi again. I said, no problem. But that was what gingered me. The Obas, Chiefs, Bales, and politicians can’t talk. Then when are we going to start talking? The more we want to talk, the more they silence us. So I said, if I am the son of Onikoyi, I need to stand up because we are warriors, and I was born as a warrior. I decided that I don’t want to be part of problems again.
Again, when the then Lagos State Governor wanted to make Lagos a megacity by creating more local government areas like Kano, I asked a question that if we make this state a mega city, what are the problems that come with it? I was told to leave that one. I told them that we would not be able to get more allocation from the federal government. And till today, we have not been able to get new allocation from federal government. We are overpopulated in Lagos. No houses for them. See the amount of refuse we have. Crime has gone up. Every bad thing that needs to come with overpopulation affect us, and nobody is doing anything about it.
The 1999 vision for Lagos was to make Lagos a mega city. The pioneers of this vision did not foresee the aftermath of a mega city. The resultant effects of a mega city are overpopulation, incessant crimes, environmental pollution, insufficient employment opportunities, an increase in illegal activities, insufficient housing facilities, an underfunded medical care system, insufficient health care centres, and so on.
Notably, Lagos is already a mega city. What we seek to do is to ensure that Lagos becomes a liveable, safe and sustainable city, and to provide realistic solutions to the defects that come with the mega city. We will ensure that we hand over the ruling of Lagos state to the youths, to make Lagos a smart city.
With the seven-point agenda, we look forward to changing the thinking and mind-set of every individual in Lagos State, to reason with us and work together to achieve a safe city.
Moreover, If the original Lagosians are leaving Lagos to go to next door Sango Ota, Ogun State to live, leaving their family houses, selling or renting them because they have to find where they would be able to maintain, it is one thing I don’t like. And I said to myself I need to stand up. The Oba and Chiefs can’t talk, because they imposed them there. Some of them are not the right people to be there. I don’t want to be a governor that will be carrying my bag to the past governor to tell me which road I should do, and who I should give the road to. I can’t give contracts. We need to get that freedom.
What do you intend to do to curb the problem of touts in Lagos?
Agbero definitely will go. I don’t need them because they are the ones causing more traffic. They are collecting funds not meant for them, and that is why the cost of transportation is high. I will chase them out completely. Believe me, you will not see Danfo and Okada. I will increase the number of buses. In Canada, the buses are owned by the government. You would only buy board pass for a week, and you can use it for buses and trains. This is what we want to introduce. A minimum of 6, 000 buses will be available for Lagos. Again, we have over two million hawkers in the entire Lagos. Lagos is not a city for hawkers.
How will you solve the issue of incessant collapse of buildings
Cutting corners is the major issue with building collapse. We have a lot of people that want to build storey buildings in six months. Most of the collapsed buildings are old, the materials used are substandard and expired. My own style is different. There will be no more engineers in the office. Every building must have a civil servant engineer that must report to that place. The only time he might come to the office is maybe once in a week to write the report. There will be no more buildings without approvals. No more overnight casting.
What will you do about insecurity?
No matter where you live, there is law. We are going to make use of the law. I will establish state police, community police, school campus police in all our university and secondary schools, so that we will be able to drive way all those people disturbing the children there. If it is not called police, they will give us a name, but they will do the same job. So crime will reduce 100 per cent. I did it when I was the local government chairman in Surulere. I am going to do it all over again. We know how to use intelligence very well. We know who are causing problems. The bad people live in the same community, but nobody talks. But when you make your voice heard they will respect that. A lot of matters will go to court but at the end we will win. If the constitution will allow me, I will build a prison centre. Then we will be able to do more finger printing.
