'MY ASPIRATION IS MY CONVENANT WITH AWORI LAND' -- Arizona

-- SAYS THE EXPECTED HARMONYY IN ALIMOSHO IS STILL ELUSIVE

IF the axiom that all politics is local is a gospel truth of the heart, then the locals are supposed to be the ultimate voice in making their own leader. This should simply sumarise for the message of Honourable Arizonal Olorunwa Akinsulire form the interactions he had with Civics Weekly a while back. He said it was high time that experience and competence would make the foremost requirement to determine the next bearer of the green pen for the council administration of Igando/Ikotun LCDA under the prospect of complete local government autonomy.

Getting to sit with this old Alimosho veterans was never a herculean task. This goes for a testimony to the basis for the people's clamour for him to throw his hat into the ring for contest in the approaching 2025 local government elections in Lagos State. “He is one man we can guarantee our easy access to his office if becomes the Council Chairman”, a resident of Egan who is also a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) told Civics Weekly.

Answering a question in regard to this popular demand, the light complexioned six-feet high enviable man confirmed his presence in the race already. To him, however, his aspiration for office has a deeper meaning than people might think or know. He said: “Yes, I’m aware of the wish of the people that I should come out to lead their governance in Igando/Ikotun. I have heeded their calls – like a servant they expect me to be -- and so, I’m already in the race. But I must say for open declaration here that it is a covenant I hold with the Awori Land I am about to uphold".

He explained that there was much more to winning elections and it should start with the presentation of the right candidate by the party, adding that "understanding" of the local terrain is a needful factor to determine the right candidate.

He said: "If you are contesting, I mean, if you are coming with ambition, you must understand the terrain. We must know that our people are learned and politically matured. The suffering of our people has raised their consciousness to their political sovereignty and they want to demand their right to that effect. The people are no longer happy with what is going on in the council and they have resolved that it should be me they could rely upon to bring them out out of shackles. Go and ask all the leaders, in Ikotun here, they are behind me.

"Given this fact, if we should attempt to contempt the people and impose someone without the right pedigree on them we may not see ourselves winning this struggle in totalit. Our mission should be for us to take over the administration of the council. And to do that, we must call a spade a spade. We would have to put sentiment apart".

He went ahead to outline his past experience along the line of creative works he had added to enhance the value of council administration's in Igando/Ikotun.

He went further: "Let me tell you for free, the philosophy that drives my interest in the council chairmanship is that it is in this land of Awori I have made myself and I am not ready to see it go bad with a consent of silence. I want to strive to make it better than I met it. That is my covenant of payback to the Igando/ikotun land. Ibi tI eda ba ti n s’orire o gbodo tun ibe se ni – wherever a man has found his breakthrough, he must strive to make the place habitable with adequate maintenance and commitment to renew it. With my experience of council administration; with my pedigree of public service hovering around the grassroots governance of this Igando/Ikotun LCDA, I think I owe much to the residents – the party members and the public alike – to ensure that they get the benefit of good governance.

"I am loaded with ideas of what to do when I get there. Things that the people will see and the party would begin to wonder in blame of why they have not given this guy the opportunity all this while. Now, let’s go down memory lane for a review of my experience as my political pedigree. To start with is to tell you that all the area offices we have operating today was my idea initiated under the administration of MAO. Then, I was supervisor for works. Two term supervisor for works. When I was giving effect to the area offices, the council chairman then did not want to buy the idea, saying the place like Okerube here was a rural area. Now what do we have today? That is what we call the leadership vision.

What brought the idea? It was to curb the excessive corruption we met in the council at the time. I told the council chairman that the council workers were holding back the council revenue. They were short changing the council in revenue returns. If the council announced that it had generated N50,000, the amount that would have gone into the private pockets of the civil servants that went out would have been over a million naira. How could you collect N10,000 from people and pay in N1,000 to the council. I discovered two problems that the council was having with this: first, the problem of excessive and arbitrary billing of the traders. This created the second problem on the part of public: evasion of payment of their due levies. The people were not willing to pay. So, when we created the area offices, we did a big Tarff Billboard where we listed the trade and payable levels for the public to know. We then advised the people to pay their levies directly into the council purse. This was my idea that eventually gave the solution of voluntary compliance by the people and it has endured to date.

"How did I generate this idea? It was from the experience we are talking about. I had worked with the pioneer chairman of the council, the late Jimoh Ajao, as committee member. It was after this I became the Supervisory Councillor under MAO, going further to serve Williams, and yet the Supervisory Councillor for Budget in this administration of Hon Akinsanya. So, you can see that I’m loaded with ideas and I understand the terrain of Igando/Ikotun politics very well. This is the experience I am talking about. This is the right pedigree we are saying. The pedigree of integrated politics of the area, which can connect the people with the government and the progressives party sustainably".

Arizona went ahead to observe that from what had been playing out from this council administration under the opposition faction, the harmony being expected in the Alimosho progressives is still some distance away from the reality. He said the conducts of the council chairmen were not giving any sign of interests in carrying along all bona-fide party members.

He said: "Talking about integrated politics’, what I mean touches directly on how you can carry along all the party members as part of your government. The right democracy is the one with thriving internal democracy. We call it factions or party caucuses. That will continue to exist as long as there is politics of democracy. But what must be at the back of mind of every party member should be the larger interest of the party. This is especially for anyone aspiring to hold a public office. You must understand that your primary duty is to use the office to unite the party when you get there. Unfortunately, we are not getting that in this administration of Akinsanya in Igando/Ikotun.

Akinsanya is rather dividing the party by seeing members of our own group as his enemies. He has empowered his group more than five times with about 20 each from each ward. He continues to neglect our group. The last time they did it, they gave me five slots as a supervisor. But on the empowerment day, they removed the five names. Of course, I went to confront the Chairman about this. He said he did not know about it. He said it was the work of Sandol -- the chairman of their group -- who doubles as the CDC chairman of Igando/Ikotun LCDA. Should that be an excuse from the Council Chairman if he truly wanted to show the right leadership? The normal thing was to call those people in charge and query them. He never did, but continued the politics of disunity with another one he did recently. How can we get the harmony they are saying with the Batco-Mandate caucus with this kind of behaviour?