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PDP �ll capture Lagos in 2007 � Obasanjo� We�re ready for them � Tinubu �We�ll counter PDP�s excesses �LG chairmen
Tunde Odesola and Yemisi Aina
President Olusegun Obasanjo appeared to have stirred the hornet�s nest with an assertion that the Peoples Democratic Party will capture Lagos State from the ruling Alliance for Democracy during the next round of elections in 2007.
Obasanjo, who spoke at a dinner organised in his honour by the Osun State Government in Osogbo on Friday, said voters in Lagos State would like to experience the kind of good leadership that PDP governors are providing in their states.
However, dismissing Obasanjo�s assertion as a pipe dream, Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, who spoke on behalf of Governor Bola Tinubu, declared that unlike the five South-West states, where the PDP swept into power last year, the electorate in Lagos were alert to counter whatever illegal moves officials of the Federal Government might want to make to get the state into the PDP fold.
Speaking earlier before Obasanjo, the PDP National Vice-Chairman (South-West), Chief Bode George, had lamented the fact that Lagos State was being mismanaged by the Tinubu administration, saying that the state needed a man of the calibre of Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to turn it round.
Commenting on the observation of George, Obasanjo assured party stalwarts present at the dinner that it would not take long before Lagos State would fall to the PDP. The President said performance remained the hallmark of elected members of the party, saying that PDP-controlled states nationwide had performed creditably well in putting smiles on the faces of the masses.
He said, �On your request of having an Oyinlola in Lagos, that would be done in the not too distant future,� averring that 2007 was at the corner. The President specifically commended Oyinlola for initiating populist programmes such as road construction, water supply and investing in agriculture.
Obasanjo�s assertion about an imminent change of regime in Lagos was reminiscent of what George said in 2002 to a gathering of PDP faithful in Akure, Ondo State that the party would sweep the South-West during last year�s elections.
Lagos was the only AD state that did not fall to the PDP incursion in the 2003 elections.
But Bello, who spoke on Tinubu�s behalf said, �They (PDP) have tried twice, and they failed. They tried in 1999, and they tried in 2003, they failed. They can never capture Lagos State from us, and they know it. It is only a pipe dream, which they are entitled to. The only visible thing they can do is to try to use federal might to rig as they did in the other South-West states last year. But we will tell them that Lagos is different. If they try to rig in Lagos in 2007, they will pay for it. The people are waiting for them. Let them try it.
�Even Bode George lost his ward in Lagos Island to us during the last elections. What is now giving them the confidence that people who could not win their wards will defeat us in 2007? Is that why they have been using hooliganism in the name of FERMA to harass our people on the roads in Lagos? In fact, all the things they did about the local government revenue were targeted at Lagos.
�But the people know their leaders. I challenge Bode George and Ogunlewe, who could not win his senatorial seat, to walk the streets of Lagos and see who will be hailed and who will be booed. Whether it is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu or any of these PDP failures, they should take this challenge and let us see whom the people will hail as their leader.�
Meanwhile, the Conference of Local Government Chairmen in Lagos State rose from a meeting on Sunday with a declaration that it would no longer sit back and watch PDP chieftains undermine it�s activities in the state.
The Chairman of the Conference, Mr. Muniru Muse, told journalists at news conference that the AD-led government of the state had been patient for too long.
Musa said, �We will no longer allow a situation whereby political rascals, who neither understand nor believe in democracy, openly insult and assault the sacred mandate reposed in us by the people as Local Government Chairmen, they warned.
�Let it be said loud and clear that our people have a democratic right to self-defense and the right to defend their mandate. If those who have the duty to protect these rights refuse for any reason to do so, the people will defend themselves.
�We therefore call on the President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the entire PDP leadership at all level to call the Lagos State PDP to order immediately. In particular, the Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe, who is the arrowhead of the PDP�s assault against the good people of Lagos State.�
�It is clear that the activities of the PDP and FERMA in undermining the revenue base of our councils throughout Lagos State is an outright violation of the explicit ruling of the Supreme Court.�
He added that the activities of the PDP and FERMA were a direct slap on the face of the judiciary and an assault against the rule of law.
He said, � We are serving a clear notice today that the days of attempting to run invisible parallel governments in the local government areas through Ogunlewe�s special implementation assistants are over.
�We cannot and will not allow a situation in which those who do not have the mandate of the people take over our councils. There can be no separate governor or local government chairmen in disguise for the federal highways.�
The Local Government chairmen warned that if Lagos could be at the forefront of the struggle against military dictatorship, then it could effectively contain any unruly civilian dictatorship in a democratic dispensation.
�We must assure the minister that if the most vicious military dictatorship could not intimidate us in Lagos, he is the last person with the capacity to do so.� Anybody who thinks that the fear of the state of emergency in Lagos State will deter out people from defending their rights is living in a work illusion,� they said.
The Punch, Monday August 02, 2004
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