Engineer Adedeji Doherty, is a former National Vice Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one of the governorship hopefuls in Lagos State. He has been in the political terrain since 1998 and one of the strong contenders for the state’s topmost job. In this interview with Prestige international Magazine, he expressed his views on various trending political issues.
If you have the opportunity to be governor of Lagos State what will be your agenda?
As a governor of Lagos State I will follow Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Lagos Development White Paper, which is the Lagos Megacity Development Agenda. I don’t need to be in APC to follow Tinubu’s era. I don’t need to be a member of APC to create continuity of Tinubu’s programmes.
On Lagos state Tax policies
It is good and applaud able that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has chosen to retrace his steps in astronomical hike in Land Use Charge. However it will only be humane for him to revert back to status quo if he wants peace and tranquility in Lagos State. The Ambode’s releases of invoices on Land use Charge is already sending people to hospitals because of shock; it is even sending them to their early grave or giving them stroke, because Lagosians are no more happy with it. The reversal of the old land use charge shows that members of Lagos State House of Assembly are not exercising their oversight functions. Also they are not contributing as good ambassadors to the governor. How can a law be passed in December and reversed that law in March.
The issue of Visionscape
Visionscape is one of the worst policies that I see that has been executed by any governors in Nigeria. How can a sitting governor go and hire a foreign company to come and manage waste collection in the state. That is tantamount to anything good. You know very well that LAWMA with PSPs have created an empowerment within the state when that agency was put in place by the then Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We know how many years it took it to get to the stage it has gotten to. The issue of waste collection in Lagos is not an issue that can just been taken care of just like that. The population of Lagos has been moving in exponential sequence. And the infrastructure has not been moving in the same rate. The way garbage is coming in is not at par with the rate it has been coming out. Visionscape is a programme that is not gone down well with Lagosians. I believe it is something that governor should review and revisit. A PDP government in Lagos State will definitely give the local government a lot of attention especially in the area of infrastructural development and finance.
Why are you so consistent with PDP?
If you have been around political environment since 1998, you will know the ideologies that created all the parties we have today. When there was PDP, there was APGA in the east and there was AD in the West. If you look at it PDP is the only nationalistic party. PDP from day one has national spread. All the other parties did not have the national spread. For those of us that believe in united Nigeria, we cannot do regional party. I am still in PDP because there is no other party that is nationalistic than PDP.
What is your take on the present state of PDP in Lagos State?
PDP in Lagos today is much better than it was a few months a go, even though there is still one or two hiccups. I believe leaders of the party like Chairman, Alhaji salvado and Chief Bode George are able to resolve some little issues on ground. It is going to be a kind of give and take situation. The most important thing for the leaders is to stand on the side of truth. Number two is that we should look inward rather than outward to take care of ourselves.
Are you saying that PDP will sack APC in 2019?
Yes, that is what I’m telling you, PDP will sack APC in 2019.
