•Akinwumi Ambode. Photo: Idowu Ogunleye

What is your vision for Lagos?

I believe strongly in a clean, secure, and more prosperous Lagos State that is driven by service, equity and justice.

As former Accountant General of Lagos, how were you able to keep Lagos financially buoyant when Obasanjo seized Lagos statutory allocations in 2005?

The cornerstone of that achievement was driven by the effective financial management of those resources that we have. It is not as if the resources were just everywhere, but there was the application of the efficiency of usage. Don’t forget where this whole story started, money was seized, with no inflow coming in at all. And you can try to imagine when a child is not fed for one month. Even before that one month, the child will die. Now, also try and imagine when a government is not fed with its own natural resources or allocation for months. That government is designed to die. But rather than dying, with the little resources coming to the state’s coffers, we redesigned a template that allowed the local governments to survive by making sure they were able to pay salaries, maintain their environment and keep life going, without necessarily delving into capital expenditure, by way of rearrangement. We kept government going by taking the little resources in the state’s coffer and bringing life into all those local governments and Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs, without anybody knowing we were squeezing ourselves. There was a balancing act, that we refer to in financial parlance as a bridging that allows every element in the whole state to have a life. We knew that it was just a matter of time. And when we had extra resources at the state level, we gave it to the local governments to execute capital expenditure at the point. Three and a half years later, when their money came back, they were able to execute the capital projects they kept waiting. Now, it is all history. Rather than having 20, we now have 57 councils. You can imagine what that means to development and growth, and in terms of job creation; there is a multiplier effect on productivity, and more families that are feeding from those structures by now having 57 councils. It is a thing of pride that one is able to sustain those structures with financial acumen, and that is what we are craving for now. As we speak, Nigeria is going down the drain because resources are falling below expectation. As we speak, the price of crude oil has gone below $50, yet the budget for 2015 is being estimated at $78. We have never had the kind of crude oil revenue we had in the last five years in the history of the country, when crude oil was trading for over $120. So, it is not as if the money wasn’t there in the last few years. It is about what we just spoke about now, which is the effective management of financial resources in an equitable and fair manner, so that all citizens will have a share in it. What we are experiencing now is the squandering of all those resources that came in. The resources should have been useful to us now. What we need to do is to put people who can manage our natural resources more effectively in places of authority. That is what this next election is about.

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 Accountant 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.

Is there any cooperation going on between you and those who contested against you?

Immediately we won the primaries, even from the acceptance speech, we embraced all the aspirants and we went on to salute them and all Lagosians for winning that primary. It wasn’t won by Akin Ambode. This democracy is not about one person, it is about the future of Nigeria, Lagosians and those yet unborn. So, I have singlehandedly liaised with other aspirants that we must salvage democracy in Lagos State, and that we must create the enabling environment for our people to participate in government. As I speak, one of the aspirants is the divisional coordinator of my campaign. One of the aspirants has even collapsed his resources and structure for our purpose. All the aspirants have nominees in our campaign team and we are one family. Just today, I met with all the candidates for the House of Assembly and Representatives; Senator Ashafa and others. We are one team and we are going to change the face of politics in Nigeria. We will work as one family to effect positive change on all our citizens. This is what this project is. We want to make politics an enjoyable game for everyone. We are all members of the same party and we profess the same ideology and that is what this 2015 election is about.

People say some of the policies of the past administration did not go down well with Lagosians and that there was not much consultation with the people. Are you going to do things differently?

It is very clear inside the manifesto of the APC that we are giving governance back to the people, the community and the local government. The Community Development Associations, CDAs, and the Community Development Council, CDC, will be involved in everything we are doing at the local government and at the state level. We intend to run an open government and it is going to be a government of inclusion. The only way we can say we are practising good governance is to live by the tenets and principles of good governance. Everybody should have a voice. I am one of the people propagating the fact that government should not be against the people. The people are the ones deciding that one or a few of them should go and help them take care of the resources that belong to them, so we are not to have a situation where the government thinks it is the landlord and the people are tenants. The citizens are actually the landlords while we are the tenants. We are just going there as caretakers and tenants on their behalf and their voice is what we are going to propagate and this is the direction the APC is going in this election. And indeed, the next administration that is coming is going to give voice to the people and do whatever they want. Whether in our policies or budget preparation, we will be giving back to them. That is what we want to do.

From when you emerged as the governorship candidate of the APC in Lagos State, did you feel a burden of history?

I wouldn’t say there is any burden of history. The truth is that I have always been ready for challenges and leadership positions. And if you go through my profile and career, you will see that I have always been in positions of leadership. Winning the gubernatorial primary was just one of those challenges I saw myself going through.

• Originally entitled “Ambode: We Will Change The Face Of Politics In Nigeria, was published in TheNEWS hard copy in January 201g before the governorship election and on this website on Jan 20 2015 – 3:00pm.
Read the full interview as published then here: https://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2015/01/ambode-we-will-change-the-face-of-politics-in-nigeria/