By Agatha Emeadi
Funso Doherty is the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Lagos State.
Throwing his hat into the political ring, he believes that 2023 will likely be a different political year.
In this interview with the Sunday Sun, Doherty, a Lagos boy, says because of observed gaps in quality leadership, government and Nigeria generally, he wants to contribute to good governance based on his verifiable competent character built for over three decades.
What is that gap you want to close as you aspire to become the governor of Lagos State come 2023?
I made a decision to step into the race for the governorship of Lagos State as part of a recognition that we have a gap in quality leadership, government and Nigeria generally. If I can just give a quick example, recently, The Economist intelligence released their 2022 livability ranking’, this is a ranking of cities across the globe on certain criteria based on five areas: stability, infrastructure, health, education and environment. From that ranking, Lagos is ranked second worst, at 171 out of 172 and only Damascus is ranked lower than Lagos. This is almost after 25 years of precisely one administration under different guises. It is clear that Lagos is not working, it has less to do with limited resources because Lagos is blessed far better than most other states. It is clear that this is a failure of leadership over an extended period and almost one generation we are talking about. Some countries have left third world status within this period of time and moved on. So, my entering the race is my own attempt to say that I have something to contribute based on verifiable competent character for over three decades.
What background are you coming from?
I have three decades of experience in the private sector. I have run three companies as a managing director; and they are ARM Pension Managers, Value Alliance Assess Management and Pensions and Alliance. These are nationwide companies with staff across the countries. I have a verifiable track record leading with integrity. I have also led industry groups. I was the pioneer chairman of Pension Funds Operators Association, body of all license entities and its responsibilities. These are the experiences and background that give what is most needed, and they include principles leadership, having interest in people.
Guess you have been in this contest over a period of time
No, this is my first time.
What then is the push, what do you want to do for people of Lagos State having identified their problems?
The challenge in Lagos is very clear. What we need to do is to improve the quality of lives of the citizens, and the quality of life is felt in this key policy areas we talked about which include infrastructure, transportation, waterways etc. In Lagos, people spend hours on the traffic, Lagos has one of the highest daily commuters time in the world and that is the function of the state transportation infrastructure. Health? What kind of health facilities do we have? Good value, good quality and people opt out of those systems because they do not trust those systems and, in fact, go to the less qualified places and so is education. We are all aware of the decadence in the educational standard. I went to Kings College, Lagos and University of Lagos. An important reason many of these failures exist at the policy level in each of these areas is because of the failure in decision making by the leaders and a lot of time that failure in decision making is not because people do not have technical knowledge of what to do, but sometimes and oftentimes, the decisions that are made reflect not in the interest of the people, but vested and self-interests. I think fundamentally, this is the foundation upon which our administration will be built, foundation of accountability, transparency, integrity and discharging public office and the trust that it represents in the interest of the people for development. When one does that, the pattern of decision over time in different policy areas will reflect the best use for the benefit of the people, and the past resources which I explain will then be reflected in the outcome of the decision and ultimately in the quality of the life of the people.
You are trying to achieve all these, not through the political dynasty – the ruling party – said to have a robust structure, can you give a perspective to this?
There are two perspectives. There is a ruling party that has more or less been in power, and people feel that is an incumbent power that is difficult to dislodge. There is also the argument that the party has a dominant position in electoral process and seems too difficult to unseat; one may also view it that they have been around for some time. Well, if you look at the last governorship election in 2019, the total votes cast by all voters and all parties were about one million votes. The incumbent government won his election by about 700,000 votes. Lagos as of then had registered voters of about six million, which might be significantly higher by next year because of the continuous registration exercise, but even then, one million votes out of 6p six million meant that there were five million people who did not cast their votes. So, for every one person who showed up, there were five people who did not show up; the dominance is all in one person that showed up. That tells you that the dominant influence is outside; and the question is how do we mobilize them and what is the reason they have stayed outside the voting system. One begins to address it and that is where the key to democratic dividend lies.
We are seeing a lot of changes in this political dispensation. For once, the youths are awakened, they now know their rights and want to take back their nation, how do you look at that together with the Electoral Act and processes.
Actually, there is a ground swell of interest engagement in a broader section of the election. Youths are important component of the new ground swell that we see. Out of it, maybe the post- #EndSARS energy, because part of the things that were said to them was that “come out and vote during elections, it is not enough to come to the street.” I know that 2023 will be a different kind of election that we have not seen in this country. The other reason I am hopeful is that some of the provisions of the Electoral Act have the potential of further reinforcing this acceleration to a proper function of democracy. The electronic transmission is a game changer entirely because a lot happens in collation processes, which if the electronic transmission is properly implemented will address many things. As we know, the introduction of technology anywhere creates efficiency, improves transparency and enables things that are difficult to be accomplished. This is another reason we have great confidence in 2023 general elections. In my opinion, I see the electronic transmission as a significant move for growth and development of our democracy.
For the three key contestants in the presidential election, we have seen a lot on the social media, how do you see them in terms of age, health, education, competence, past and track records-wise etc?
Well, I do not believe that the ‘two masquerades’ from the dominant political parties represent the best that Nigeria can afford; they just happened to have emerged through the primaries; and it is part of the larger problem we have in the country in the functioning and growth of our democracy, we are learning how to implement it. People can only vote in the general elections for the options of the election, if someone is not on the ballot for the general election, the process of emerging on the ballot depends on the primaries, and that primaries process is often flawed and produces what it produces. The primaries process of the two dominant parties tend to produce certain kinds of candidates because of the nature of the process. In that sense, we have to move into a situation where we are not always thinking about the two parties; because of flawed narrative which the people have realized. The reality is that they would be more engaged with other options. So, it is important to understand that candidates will emerge through the different parties and in different ways and the whole of the electorate are to look at all the options and then vote what their conscience tells them and worry less about whether the other person on a platform will win or not. There are five people who are not voting, it’s two people taking their time to access the candidate and vote their choice.
Since Peter Obi emerged the presidential candidate of the Labor Party, there has been attacks on him, how do you see that?
The process is that people will attack what they perceive to be threats. If something is not perceived as a threat, nobody will worry about it; but as a threat, very quickly, you want to deal with that so it does not become something that you cannot contain. But it is part of the normal political process. I think that 2023 is likely going to be a different year and a lot of people who understand it are positioning themselves, even the incumbent parties have this recognition too. There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come. On the recognition by the people that power is in their hands, and that they can do something is indeed an ideal stand.
How was growing up like?
My father was the late Dr Henry Aderomu Aremu Doherty and my grandfather was the late Josiah Henryson Doherty and we were all born in Lagos. My father was one of the early medical doctors and my mother was a civil servant who retired after 35 years of meritorious service. She will be 91 soon. I am married with children.