2023 Guber, a fantastic election — Dr Obafemi Hamzat
Needless to say there has been a lot of reactions to the elections and some of them you have just watched. Well, joining us to have this conversation around those issues this morning is Dr. Obafemi Hamzat. He is the Deputy Governor and Deputy Governor-elect of Lagos State. How does that even sound?
It sounds very nice that the people of Lagos decided to renew our mandate and I have listened to all sorts of commentaries about this election and I think it very unkind from Nigerians. Lagos has 13,325 polling units and Alimosho for example has 1,545 polling units and only three violence issues were recorded in out of 1,545. In the whole of Lagos, 349 polling unit had issues with violence and disruptions, 349 out of 13,325, if you figure that out that’s about 1 per cent. We all know that you don’t get 100 per cent in order to get an A.
Where do you think all of these are coming from listening to some of your other contestants?
Unfortunately, people tend to be bad losers instead of re-examining what really happened and how to get better. The PDP candidates were saying we contested against INEC; no, the reality was you lost your party members. Ade Dosunmu left your party, Wahab Owokoniran left your party, also Doherty who is the Chairman of PCC Atiku/Okowa and Jandor in Lagos; the campaign director for the PDP candidate resigned and left, so you lost everybody around you. The question is how did you manage your party? They didn’t do well and the same thing with Labour party. Sunmbo Onitiri who contested for the House of Senate for Lagos Central left the party, the Chairman of the party Salako left the party. So, in reality I will say they are not looking at the real issue which is how to manage the organisation because they don’t have the experience and that’s the bottom line; people left and the house got divided. To now ascribe all these effort. Nigeria’s election is probably the biggest anywhere in terms of monolithic election because we have a single ballot across the country that’s not what happens in a country like the United States of America where each county has their own ballot. You have the same ballot you have in Lagos in every other state in the country. One single body is conducting this election over the country. Over 177,000 polling units all over the country. It is a logistics nightmare. So, you have a country where your infrastructure is not 100 per cent, logistics is not 100 per cent. So, you expect INEC to do a miracle and let everything be perfect.
Is it too much to expect that? Because this is what Nigerians expect. That is why we have had this continuous unbroken democratic process in the fourth republic for 24 years now, and that is why INEC said they can do the job.
The question is, if there is violence somewhere, INEC did not come and cause that. We all have dependencies in life. If I am doing a job, I am depending on some other people for certain things. The reality is what did that component do? The people that are taking dogs to fight other people, is that INEC?
Take Lagos for example, Ago Palace is part of Oshodi-Isolo Local Government. They have close to 735 polling units, 50 polling units had violence. What happened? And that is what I expect from commentators. This is the issue.
In Ago Palace, we have 21 gated estates, unfortunately, INEC did not say you have a monopoly of your polling booth within your estates but there can be 4-5 people from outside the estates voting in that estate.
Unfortunately, these people in the estate locked the gate to stop people from coming in. That is the problem, so some people started fighting against disenfranchisement. Those are some of the issues. So those are some of the issues we need to look at, and look for a way to stop these issues happening in these communities because you place the polling booth inside the estate.
There is the place of figures and there is the place of emotions, and there are a number of people that said that politics is a game of passion and that is also very prominent in the election period. All kinds of passion being expressed and all that which has caused a huge divide amongst us. How do we begin to mend things? Lagos is Nigeria in a microscope literally. We have to find a way around this. Over the years, people come to Lagos to have a good life, no sentiments whatever. And it would seem like Lagos State Government has failed before the election to unite the people’s emotions and focus on the purpose of the State.
I disagree with you, it is not the Lagos State Government. Emotion is never a strategy. The reality is that you do a greater injustice to your brain as a human being when you start to speak without evidence because it starts killing your brain. I can say you are wearing a blue suit, it is the truth but the truth is you are also wearing a white shirt. So, when I describe you, I cannot just say you are wearing a blue suit, I must also say you are wearing a black shoe. So that is why when you go to court, they say you should say the whole truth, nothing but the whole truth. The problem with us is that we take a snippet of the whole truth and we magnify it and diminish our country. Elections all over the world, like the US. It is one of the greatest democracies. “Nobody says ohhh either elections.” The reality is what happened and that is what Congress is looking at to say why are people coming here? Today I just saw on your channel that over 300 people have been arrested. Let them be prosecuted. If you commit a crime, let them get prosecuted. And that’s the way to do it but to say that this election is the worst, is not true. We must establish that fact. It was a fantastic election. The will of the people were all over the country. For the first time, we saw Governors losing their senate seats. Before, people just wrote these numbers. During General Obasanjo, the voting slips were more than the registered voters. That is not the case here. We had BVAS that accredited voters.
The issue of IReV that people are talking about, let us examine it. The BVAS is an electronic equipment that authenticates you. Remember that the database has already been sealed. It is a static database. INEC has already sealed it and is not registering anybody. BVAS checks for the voter’s details if it is available on the database and if it was registered in that particular polling unit. We did not vote on BVAS. They gave you a physical paper, you physically dropped it in the box, and it was physically counted. What are we talking about exactly? So BVAS takes a picture of the results, but the results are counted manually. How do you query a photo gallery? How? For once, as intelligent people let us look at the whole process and not emotion.
Dr. Hamzat, you have quoted figures and you have said 349 polling units out of 13,000 plus polling units, is where we had violence recorded and logistics challenges but 349 polling units could be representatives of 100 voters that have been disenfranchised and that’s just being moderate. So, what value should we now put on one vote of a person that has been disenfranchised as a result of that exercise?
Don’t get me wrong. Violence anywhere is wrong. My point is it should be examined. You cannot isolate voting from society. The people who are voting are not ghosts, they are Nigerians. We have crimes committed in our country every day and election is a microcosm of what happens in our society. To now say that our society should be separate from elections is ridiculous. It is totally ridiculous. For example, if you are a student, you don’t get a First Class if you score 40 per cent but if you score 80-90 per cent you have a First Class. In any society, nobody expects you to have 100 per cent.
Perhaps a more direct way to ask that question is, some of the candidates are accusing the APC, your party in Lagos of being the one at the forefront of fomenting trouble in those 349 areas.
I don’t see any proof in this. The question is, who said that the people that didn’t vote won’t vote for our party?
But sir, in those videos, the residents of those areas themselves were complaining that it was the APC that came to foment violence. In the video of Ago Palace Road, the ones that are being shared aside from the ones we have and you find that in many areas like Apapa.
That is an accusation. I can come here and say anything. If anybody has committed any crime they should be prosecuted. I was Commissioner for Works in this State. I was the Commissioner when Ago Palace Way was tarred. I know how many friends I have there, who have complained to me and these are the people that voted for us. To suggest that our party will now go there to disrupt the voting process is just absurd.
What has really worried people is the profiling which happened in Lagos, being a cosmopolitan state. This has made many people worry about Nigeria knowing Lagos sets the pace for such. For you as Deputy Governor, how did that situation and imagery worry you?
I think profiling people saying that they don’t have a right to vote because of what they look like is absolute nonsense. Like I said, there are videos, people should be arrested and prosecuted. That is the bottom line. My point is, we are Africans, so because we are Africans, we are regional based. That is who we are. For example, you will see a South African saying I am from this part. You will see an Owu man say I am an Owu man, an Igbo man saying I am from Nnewi. There are some people who take these things overboard. That is why Mr. Nwanyanwu said that Yorubas are political rascals. Not all people will say that.
He already denied that.
He can say he made a mistake, but he said it. We heard it. It is his opinion.
We heard audio messages, before the presidential elections, in which party leaders from seven communities from Lekki to be precise were addressing party supporters and told them categorically that if they don’t vote APC, they would lose their livelihood and they would rather leave the community. What did the government do at that time to ensure that non-Yoruba citizens were safe and had a right to identify with any political party of their choice?
That is why we went around the State to campaign, so basically, I said some people take things overboard. I have friends in Alaba market. They are my friends. There are Igbo APC members. For anybody to say if you are Igbo, you won’t vote is ridiculous and they should be prosecuted and pay for it, bottom line. It is stupid.
Are you thereby calling for the arrest of MC Oluomo?
No, I am not calling for the arrest of anybody. I am not a police officer. I am not a prosecutor. In the case of MC Oluomo, he has said that he was referring to one woman, Mama Chinedu or something like that and there is a video that shows that. The woman said, “he was talking to me, we have been friends and he is my customer for years.” So, I don’t know the fact, people must examine the fact and if in truth he has broken the law, he must pay for it. My point is that we all diminish the country when we exaggerate. We have 1 per cent and we now make it look like that 90 per cent.
Elections have come and gone and all kinds of permutations are not just going to go away. Governance never stops. I saw the statement that you put out advocating for peace. What will the Government be doing in communicating with people to ensure that we live in peace and harmony so that the progress and development we have all worked for do not go up in flames?
If you listen to the acceptance speech of Mr. Governor, you will also see that line where he said that is not the people we are, it’s not about violence. It is not about ethnic bigotry… The reality is, that is the way we have been ruling this State for four years. That is the way we have been ruling this State for 19 years. That is why we engage the people. That is why in each senatorial district we have consultative forums, the same thing with religion. That is why we have different sectors and ethnicity in Lagos that we talk to. That is something we have been doing. But as we say, there will be people who will always try to break the rules and we must punish them so that it can serve as deterrents.
There is so much we have to talk about Dr. Hamzat but we are completely out of time. Let’s just hope that one of these days we can bring you back and we can have these conversations.
But one more thing, there is this issue around the Chrisland School that has just been reopened from what we gathered. We understand that the parents were shouting… What’s the latest about that? Is there any deterrent, because that is not the first time something like that will happen?
What really happened? They had inter-house sports. So, they left the school and went outside the school to a stadium. The autopsy showed it was electrocution. So, what really happened? There were a lot of vendors selling things. Unfortunately, the young lady stepped on one of the cables. But the question is, did they follow the protocol when you go outside your school? Where were the vendors supposed to be? Was that where they were? So, the investigation is going on but as you noticed, a lot of people are going to be charged. And of course, the court will decide (presenter cuts in)
But many are wondering if Chrisland will still be allowed to do business in Lagos. As questions are asked why it was reopened in the first place after the first experience?
What happened did not happen in their school environment. They went out and that happened. And they did not follow the protocols. But for me, I don’t see the reason the school should be shut down permanently.
As I said, it is great to have this conversation with you Dr. Hamzat, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State and congratulations once again. Well, that is the much we can take on the program today.
