Do you see the PDP Governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje as a threat to your ambition?

There are 15 gubernatorial candidates contesting the February governorship election in Lagos and Jimi Agbaje happens to be one of them. There are 14 of them contesting against me. You will recall that during the primaries, there were 12 aspirants who contested against me and we came out victorious. This is not going to be different, but let us even narrow it down that the competition is between APC and PDP. Jimi Agbaje has been here for a while and I hear people say he has been in politics for the past 20 years. But here is a man who has never had any political appointment or any political victory. Here is a man who does not have a structure. Here is a man who is just up for experiment. Does he have the passion or is it just a motive? He has never made any major contribution to uplift Lagos State, even in his political history. What has he really done that we can refer to as his contribution to Lagos State? I have contributed for 27 years and I am ready to do it for another four years. This is a man that has moved from being a progressive to become a conservative. It is just too clear that he moves from one political party to the other to satisfy his interest, and not a passion. He wants to be a governor at all costs. He moved from APC to DPA, from DPA to PDP and from Afenifere. Afenifere is a progressive movement, so when you have somebody who is a progressive in Afenifere going to PDP, you start asking, is it about motive or is it his passion for Lagos? What are his credentials? Has he done something for Lagos State or he just wants to become one of the gubernatorial aspirants? He is just one of those aspirants and he does not have a structure here. We are in this because we have passion for Lagos State. I have toiled all my life, I started my entire career in Lagos State public service. I toiled on it for 27 years, I stood for Lagos State and I am standing for Lagos State. I am about people and their issues. How do I help them? That is all I am about. I am here for people and people will choose us. It is not about PDP or something, what does he stand for?

People have been saying that you are simply a stooge to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, how will you react to this?

A lot of people have been asking me this same thing. You have gone through my profile and we have been through this interview thus far. I am a competent person on my own and I have the capacity to be the governor of Lagos State. I have the character to be the governor of Lagos State. I have served Lagos State and the people for close to 30 years now and I have not known anything than serving people. So, if it is in terms of having a strong leader as the governor of Lagos State, I am qualified to be that person. Let us leave that aside, there is no issue about a stooge. We must give credit to whom credit is due and we need to talk about it here. A true test of a good leader is when he is able to choose a good successor. He must be able to make the sacrifice by saying that rather than being there, I will always find good successors to carry on with the vision of making Nigeria a prosperous country. So, if we find in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that leadership quality that is so scarce in the political landscape, of being able to choose people, stand by them and support them, we must give him that credit. In 2007, against all odds, when he decided to stand by Governor Raji Fashola against other aspirants, we all cried out, asking why he wanted to do that. But he stood his ground because he knew what he saw. Eight years down the road, we are the same set of people who said Fashola was Tinubu’s stooge and we are all crying and shouting that Fashola is the best thing that has ever happened to Nigeria. This same man stood behind Aregbesola in Osun State and Osun State is the better for it. He stood by Oshiomhole, and Edo State is the better for it. He stood by Amosun, and Ogun State is the better for it. He has the knack for always choosing good achievers and he is ready to sacrifice himself. He is standing by Buhari and Osinbajo now, and Nigerians are excited that this is an alternative to Jonathan. Let us give such leaders their due credit, but beyond that, I have that vision and leadership quality to take Lagos State to the next level. We are nobody’s stooge.

There is this notion in some quarters that you were forced out of the government of Babatunde Fashola, how true is this?

When I came into this gubernatorial race, I came in as an underdog. I was never given a chance but my competence and integrity spoke for me. They have nothing against me, that is why they came up with such allegations and rumours, but we need to respond to it. I have told you that I am the unusual civil servant. I joined the civil service at the age of 22 and reached the peak of my career at the age of 37 as the Auditor-General for Local Government. I became the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance at the age of 43, and I became the Accountant General of Lagos State at the age of 44. I had my Masters degree and ICAN at the age of 24. I was a graduate at the age of 21. I have lived a life of quiet achievements. Having been Accoutant General for six years, I felt I needed to break another record and decided on my own to retire at the age of 50. Go and check the records in the civil service. I actually retired in 2008, it is in their record. I put forward my letter of retirement in January 2008 and I was already an Accountant General then. I needed to go back to school. I had an admission at the Massachussets Institute of Technology. I retired in 2008, and it is this same present governor who refused and asked me to stay back because of the kind of contribution I was making to the State Government. So, when I decided four years after that I needed to move on with my life, I had already achieved a lot and decided to give other people a chance. I wanted to become the first Permanent Secretary to hold such a sensitive position and retire voluntarily and I also wanted it to go into the records that somebody retired voluntarily at the age of 49 when he still had about 13 more years to go. That is why I retired. Let us put it straight. Could someone have done something wrong, maybe stole or did something else and then give them three months notice of voluntary retirement in May to be effective from 1 September? If you stole money, why would they allow you to still sign their money for three months? They will kick you out. So, they had three months’ notice; having even left, four months after, this same governor gave me a letter of commendation which I refer to as my ‘Gold medal’. That was the only thing given to me and I cherished it. They put it in there that I served them meritoriously, and that in my future endeavours, they will do anything to assist me because I served selflessly. And it was signed by the governor. If it was so secretive, would the 12 aspirants who contested against me not have brought out something against me? If I did not retire with clean hands they would have brought it out. But it is just a political game and I am happy that I am going back for more services to the people of Lagos.