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Interview publisbed courtesy Tribune
Senator Ganiyu Solomon is the Minority Whip of the Senate. He was formerly Chairman of Senate Committee on Capital Market. He is seen as a grass-roots politician having cut his political teeth at the local government level. He is the very first aspirant to declare interest in the Lagos Government House. He speaks with Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA, on his ambition and the claim that a particular candidate had been endorsed to succeed Governor Raji Fashola in Lagos State.
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YOU’VE made known your intention to run in the APC governorship race in Lagos, but there is this feeling in some quarters that the business of governorship in the state is in the hands of a few people with whom you’re not in reckoning, and that they may not look in your direction. Which means, when the chips are finally down, you may be asked to return to the Senate?
Well, I am going to take that to be a comment and not a question. Nevertheless, I will try to respond to it. The business of governorship cannot be left in the hands of a few people. Let me quickly say that democracy translates to participatory governance, which means everybody gets involved; you participate. And that differentiates it from a dictatorial government. Dictatorial government is just about a few people, and that was what we had during the military era. So, when we are talking of democracy or, in this instance, governance in the state, it cannot be in the hands of a few, no matter how enlightened, no matter how ‘powerful’ they are. It has to be in the hands of everybody. I am sure nobody has come out to say we’re not looking in your direction; we’re looking in this other direction.
We may have some perceptions, or interpret certain utterances, but the level we are now – for instance, in my party – we are in a new party, and the leadership of that party, from day one, in response to cynicism from some people, said, ‘look, we are guaranteeing internal democracy.’ Because there was the accusation that, ‘all these parties, you’re not allowing internal democracy.’ And they kept saying, ‘yes, we’re guaranteeing internal democracy.’ I remember when Chief Akande spoke on this, because he was the first person to give something close to a manifesto of sort, before the official launch of the party. And part of what he said, apart from fighting corruption, is that in this our party, we are going to make sure we imbibe the culture of internal democracy. So, anything that will make the party look in another direction, instead of a particular direction, will make it short on internal democracy.
So, to me, it’s about perception. Some people may say the body language of the leadership is tilting towards this person; at the end of the day, it’s about perception. I say this, because I relate with the leadership; none of the leaders has said, ‘I don’t think you can go,’ or ‘you’re not going,’ or has sent somebody to me to say ‘you’re going back to the Senate.’ As far as I am concerned, anyway, the issue of the Senate is closed; I am not going back to the Senate. Maybe we should start with that. I am not going back to the Senate; that is settled.
You said you’re not going back to the Senate, but recently the Oba of Lagos practically shut the door on other aspirants when he endorsed a particular aspirant, in the person of Akinwumi Ambode. What effect do you think this would have on your ambition? Are you not considering shutting the door and working with Ambode?
Let me say that in making the pronouncement, Kabiyesi was expressing his preference. He has also expressed his personal opinion. We’re talking of a party now; I don’t know which part or provision of the constitution of the party says a traditional ruler endorses or can endorse. Whatever he says is his personal wish, which is not the same thing as the wish of the generality of the people. At the end of the day, we have a party structure. Let me also tell you that he made the pronouncement at a time when we had not even concluded putting party structures in place. So, it couldn’t have been in consultation. With who? Is it with the political leadership? Is it with the traditional leadership? We’ve had different opinions since then. We deliberately did not come out to say anything about it, because we felt it was a political statement. And what do you do with political statements? You either respond or you leave it. In this case, we decided to leave it. It has happened a number of times when a traditional ruler in one state would say, ‘this is the person we want.’ At the end of the day, the man would not go anywhere. It has happened several times. I don’t want to cite instances. Even in Lagos, it has happened. In our own case, such statements would not deter us. It will not deter the party man. You go around, meet them. They are determined. This time round they want to have a say in who becomes their candidate, and who eventually rules their state, because we are all stakeholders, just like any other person. What is the weight of a vote? Every vote carries the same weight, regardless of the status of the individual. So, what anybody can do is to go behind his chosen, preferred, aspirant, mobilise people behind him, and provide a level playing field. It is not even for them to do that; that is the provision of the constitution and the tenet of democracy – provide a level playing field. And there must be transparency. Whoever wins becomes the party’s candidate, every other person queues behind him. It is not by pronouncement; it is not by proclamation; yes, they were using proclamation years ago to annexe, to cede land, to cede society, to cede country, but not now. That is now out of vogue; this is democracy, you can’t do that. So, we’ll just leave it at that – it is political and we, politicians, take it as political, and consign to its proper place.
Consensus or primaries, which would you recommend to your party?
Now we have a much more bigger party; that means it has also increased our stakeholders. And let me also remind you: recently, we had a very aggressive membership mobilisation drive which brought a lot of people into this political party. These people now are interested; how do you do consensus? Do you do consultation down to the grass-roots? Do you do consultation up to various sectors of the political parties? Because you need to do that. Then, how do you now aggregate their opinions? If you meet a particular group, they would have somebody. If you meet another group, they would have a different person. So, you have to meet various groups at different levels, up to the lowest rung of the ladder, from the top to the bottom. How do you now aggregate their preferences? You have to do it; it has to be very scientific. Whatever you do, you must make sure it can stand the test of time. What is that test of time? The election. So, you don ’t take things for granted. What I will recommend is to have primaries. It will put everybody’s mind at rest. What we’re saying now – maybe I should let you know the thinking of party members: they are not talking of gubernatorial election alone; they are saying, at every election, presidential, governorship, national and states’ assemblies, let there be primaries. We’ve done it before; we did it in 1998/99, the heavens did not fall. Nothing happened, and that was how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged. It was direct primaries, everybody voted in his or her ward, and they collated everything and he emerged. At the end of the day, everybody else queued behind him. So, that’s my recommendation any time, and it is in line with what the party has already started doing. They’ve done it in three states: They did it in Anambra, they did it in Osun and they did it in Ekiti. Even in the cases of Osun and Ekiti, it is very instructive. There were unopposed candidates, but because the party insisted that whether you are half or one, there must be direct primaries, they still went ahead and did the primaries. That is how it is supposed to be. That is how we can groom this democracy; 16 years after, we can’t be stagnant. We must grow it. If we compare ourselves with the old democracies, England, the US, and even India, we must try to imbibe what they do, do it the way they do it. The recent election in India, we all know the outcome. That is how it should be. Everybody took it; because it was transparent, everybody accepted it. That is what we must do. If we’ve not been doing it, we must pardon our past lapses and begin to do it now. It is the duty of this generation to start doing it so that we’ll hand it over to the next generation.
We believe you’ve been consulting with political leaders in the state. Have you consulted with Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and what did he tell you?
Yes, I’ve consulted with him. There’s no way you’d want to run for governorship, or any serious political office and you don’t meet your leaders. I met him and he said, ‘well, you can go ahead with your ambition; at the right time we’ll roll out the party programmes and so on, but right now we are busy putting up the party structures.’ We agreed that putting up party structures will not stop me from meeting people, going ahead with my plans. That is it.
Have you met him after Oba Akiolu’s endorsement controversy?
No, because he (Tinubu) came out to say the party had not endorsed anybody. That was an open statement. The party itself came out to say, ‘no, we’ve not endorsed anybody.’ So, whatever Kabiyesi said was his personal opinion. So, I saw no need meeting him again on the same issue. I’d take whatever he said openly. He’s been the leader of the movement, our party, from AD to AC to ACN, and so on. He knows what is right to do and what is not right to do. Even if, and where, he has a preference, he cannot now say he has a preference. He cannot say that, he cannot. I trust he would not say that.
There are some issues that may shape the primaries – people are mentioning zoning, they are mentioning religion; we want your opinion on these issues, zoning and religion.
I always try not to go into discussing religion, because people can be very emotional about religion and, given what is also going on round the country, it is a very sensitive issue. In this particular part of the country, we don’t discuss religion when it comes to governance. This is the very first time some people are bringing it up. And I can tell you that they are bringing it up because of their own selfish interests. I don’t want to go further, but look at the average family here, you have Muslims and you have Christians. I have a cousin who is a reverend; my sister is a deaconess; go to Methodist Church, Palm Avenue; that is the church our grandparents attended. That is where they had their burial. So, how will I do anything against a Christian community, for instance? It has never been an issue. Some people have come out to say governance is not about religion. Religion will not put food on your table. You’d have to look at people you believe have integrity, who have what it takes to govern. And I will not also want to go into comparison, as some people would want to do. The moment they succeed in bringing this, and somebody comes on board, and the only credential he’s waving is ‘I am a Christian’ or ‘I am a Muslim,’ his loyalty, whether we like it or not, will go to that group, first and foremost. And it will now exert a big influence on his policies, on his roles, on anything he does, because he would now think he’s obliged to that community. That is about religion – like I said, it is very very sensitive, people can be very emotional about it. Now, about zoning. Again, in the history of Lagos – I challenge anybody to prove me wrong – this would be the first time that anybody would sit down and say ‘we’re zoning to this particular person’, and they made a mistake. Those people that were doing it made a mistake of saying they were zoning to a particular town. You can only zone to a senatorial district, because that particular town does not constitute the whole district. And when eventually they said, ‘Okay, Epe.’ It’s part of the East. We have some other towns, some other divisions, as part of the East. The other divisions rose up and said, ‘no, it’s our turn, because Epe has done it before.’ These are things that are avoidable, if we ourselves had not inadvertently brought it up. Let me tell you, it has never been an issue; people would think it may go this way or that, but it has never been the position of a political party. Our party has no provision for zoning in its constitution, no provision, whatsoever. In 1998/99, let me tell you about the candidates: Tawa Williams, she was from the Central; Dapo Durotimi-Etti, he contested for the Senate, from the Central; Wahab Dosumu, he was from the Central. Wahab Dosumu later moved to the West because they said, okay, go to the Senate, the only one available – and that started the fluid movement from one district to another. He was from the Central. Funso Williams, he was from the Central. The Only person that was not from the Central was Bola Tinubu. He registered, he came back, as from the West – he made everybody believe that he was from the West, and because there were primaries, he won the primaries, regardless of the fact that all other aspirants were from the Central. Anybody would have concluded that it was zoned to the Central. But he emerged because a level playing field was there. However, in my own case, if they think that would be a deterrent, no, I also have a root in the East. And also because they’ve made it possible to move from one senatorial district to another, or move across – move from a senatorial district, jump over to another senatorial district. So, it’s all well and good. Whatever I am saying is not new to Lagos politics; there are precedents. It is accepted, it has become a norm, so we do it.
You said you’re also from the East. Where?
Ikorodu.
How?
My dad is from Ipakodo. You go to the palace, they will tell you. They will tell you also his role in upgrading the Obaship. My mum is from Ituwolo, and my maternal grandmum is from Ibeshe. So, whatever way you want to push it, I am there. They can’t talk of zoning as a way of stopping anybody. It is also not a provision of the party, which means anybody, even from the Central, can run. It is the party members that would say, ‘no, we prefer this person.’ I have given you an example of Bola Tinubu beating all other aspirants from the Central. Anybody would be pardoned then if he’d concluded that the zoning arrangement now is to the Central, but he came from the West and clinched the party’s ticket. He defeated all of them. So, whosoever comes from the Central, from the West, is also free. That is my own opinion. It depends on who the individual is. You go ahead, just leave party members to its thing, that again would promote democracy. It would make the candidates to talk to people, to talk to people across the other senatorial districts. You just don’t fold your arms and say because somebody has zoned it to your area that is the end. You also need the other districts. At the end of the day, you’re not going to be governor of Lagos East only; you’re supposed to be the governor of Lagos State.
You’ve been chairman of a local government, member of the House of Reps and member of the Senate for two terms; what is next? It is either you become the governor or you return to the Senate, which you have ruled out. If you’re defeated in a free, fair, and transparent primary election, will you accept the results? What are your chances of getting the party ticket, given the possibility that you’re believed to be independent-minded, which is seen as one of your undoing?
In all modesty and humility, I am being asked now to assess myself and I’ll say that I stand a good chance of clinching the party’s ticket in a transparent, free, and fair primary election. I have gone through that route before, and I know what it requires, I know what it takes. And I have also said that it would be foolhardy of anybody to join a political race without doing self-assessment. In Lagos State, anybody from our party who threw his hat in the ring in 2011 would have been foolish, because there was no way he would have defeated the incumbent. In the same way, I think I have done my own assessment, and with respect to members of my party, I know their thinking; I know where they are leaning towards. And I know that they are agitating very strongly that this time they should be allowed to indicate their preference. With that in place, I stand more than a good chance of clinching the ticket, and finally by the grace of God.
Have you also talked to Governor Raji Fashola?
I said any serious contender will do a far and wide consultation with the leadership of the party. And when you’re talking of the leadership of this political party, by the time you mention a few names and you’ve not mentioned the governor, you still don’t know where you’re going. You’re joking. He’s a leader of the party, both at the national and state levels. Definitely, he’s one of those I’ve consulted.
What would you do if there was a free and fair primary election and you did not win?
A free and fair primary election? Oh, I’ll queue behind whoever wins. If there was none – we ‘ll leave that to that time. We will act accordingly. Even with the first one, it is not settled. It is the beginning of a greater work, because we still need to sell our party; we still need to sell our party to the general populace, which is much more important, and that is why I will not engage in a bitter fight, because at the end of the day we still need to come together to fight a greater devil. The second option, where there’s a close margin, where there is free, fair transparent primary election, the people would have spoken and there nothing you can do. It becomes our party issue. You rally round whoever emerges, and try to work out things together. As for the last scenario, where some people think they can outsmart the others, we’ll act accordingly.
You’re so passionate about governance; what is driving that passion?
If you find yourself in a vocation, in a trade, in a calling, you want to move ahead, you want to make an impact, you want to get to the top of that calling. I started as local government chairman even though my first election was House of Assembly. But even as a local government chairman, I realised how ‘easily’ you could impact on your community at the executive level; moreso when you have access to them, they have access to you, you relate with them, you can solve most of their problems. I know what the problems of the majority or the average Lagosian are, and the solutions to them are very simple; you don’t even need to go to Harvard; you don’t even need to go to Cambridge, just relate with them, and you have the civil service behind you, you’d go places. You’d solve the problems and you’d create a legacy even successive governments cannot change. Because if a policy is good, if a programme is good, nobody changes it; they just pass it on and on. So, that is my drive. That is my passion. I believe I can serve. I believe I have what it takes to govern Lagos, not just to govern so that they call me ‘His Excellency’; It’s not about ‘His Excellency’, it is about impacting on the lives of the people. At this point in time. it is the uppermost thing that should be on the mind of anybody. Look, this is 2014. In 1959 when Chief Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, when they mounted the rostrum, they would say ‘we’ll give electricity, we’ll give you road,’ they would clap. We should move beyond that now. They would say, ‘we’d give you education, and it would liberate you from ignorance.’ We don’t say that in 2014, we’ve moved beyond that. We should impact positively on people’s lives; we should develop them. You cannot reduce such investment on people to Naira and Kobo; it is invaluable. So, that, to me, is governance.
