At the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, just across the road from Skypower Grounds, where mayhem visited his campaign flag-off last week and claimed three lives, Babajide Sanwo-Olu stonewalled and dodged key questions troubling the minds of most Lagosians.
The event was Monday’s governorship debate organised by the Lagos West Diocese of the Anglican Communion at the church’s cathedral in the Ikeja area of Lagos. The debate presented a platform for Lagos governorship candidates to sell their manifestoes. Gladiators, 12 in all, did not handle the assignment with levity. But amidst all the seriousness, doses of comic relief flowed now and then. The Archbishop Vining Cathedral had hosted a similar show in previous elections.
Unarguably, Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party and Babajide Sanwoolu of the All Progressives Congress, were the unquestionable stars of that day’s show. The previous day, Sunday, they had similarly squared off in another debate hosted by the Covenant Christian Centre at Victoria Island. But on Monday, Sanwoolu and Agbaje faced sizeable competition from the likes of Owolabi Salis and Babatunde Gbadamosi, who had also featured at the Sunday event. Earlier the previous week, Agbaje and Sanwoolu had debated each other before the business community that had invited them under the aegis of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Apart from Jimi Agbaje’s Deputy, Haleemat Busari, who accompanied him, only the Young Progressive Party had a female flag-bearer in the person of Adebisi Ogunsanya. All others featured men, including: Labour Party’s Prince Awamaridi Ifagbemi, Action Democratic Party’s Babatunde Gbadamosi, National Conscience Party’s Venerable Funsho Awe. Others were: African Democratic Congress’s Muyiwa Fafowora, Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party’s Dr Segun Musa, People’s Democratic Party’s Jimi Agbaje, Alliance National Party’s Ladipo Johnson, All Progressives Congress’s Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Social Democratic Party’s Adetokunbo Pearse and Alliance for Democracy’s Owolabi Salis.
They all bristled with so many quality ideas tailor-made for a world-class mega-city that at a point, the Moderator, Prof. Dapo Asaju, Vice-Chancellor of the Ajayi Crowder University, advised that whoever won the governorship election in March should accommodate other candidates into the government by allotting them cabinet positions.
Gbadamosi offered to raise the pay of medical doctors to an entry point of $50,000 in order to check brain-drain.
Agbaje marketed his pet idea of an insurance scheme that would include the majority of Lagosians. Instead of decreeing it as a compulsory system, Agbaje said he intended to make it so attractive and comprehensive that citizens would find it irresistible and voluntarily join up and pay their yearly premium. The Pharmacist said: “We will build it around the private clinics and hospitals. You can choose your GP and if he does not satisfy you, you change him and you move on to another hospital. The government writes hospitals their cheques every month for services rendered to the public.”
However, for the entire five hours that the event lasted, Sanwoolu of the ruling APC came under some barrage, directly and indirectly. Fellow contestants appeared to consider him as the personification of the status quo they wanted upstaged from Lagos. He too did not make things easier for himself as he flaunted his credentials: three times a Commissioner in different ministries and lately the CEO of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation.
QUESTION 1: Would Sanwo-Olu have the political will to dump a company (Alpha Beta) that was overcharging the state government the sum of N17 for gateway services and hire another firm (Interswitch) that had shown capacity to render the same services to the government at the rate of N2?
QUESTION 2: Would Sanwoolu be his own man if elected Governor?
While he cleverly evaded the first question, Sanwoolu, in tackling the latter question, offered an answer that appeared most diversionary and dodged the question. This provoked murmuring through the gathering, which included secondary school students.
Would you be your own man if elected Governor?
Sanwoolu: “I am 53 years old. I have four children with two trained to Master’s Degree levels abroad and a wife who is a medical Doctor.”
One of the contestants pointed out the high cost of executing government contracts in the state. How come the N1 billion cost of building a kilometre of road in Lagos State was far above the world average of N257 million per kilometre?
One candidate said Lagos must end the reign of agberos, motorpark touts and thugs; upon which he went on to cite personalities like Kunle Poly and M.C. Oluomo.
Such questions appeared to ruffle the APC candidate’s feathers, and he protested the “personalising” of issues.
Oluomo was the biggest fish in last Tuesday’s APC meltdown in which two died and several were injured at the Skypower Grounds. Although he survived, the well-heeled motor-park chieftain is still being nursed back to health in a closely guarded location at state expense.
Jimi Agbaje also faced his nemesis. Someone challenged the PDP candidate’s FREEDOM mantra.
“I know that I am not under slavery. Those days are gone. So why are your billboards and posters talking about FREEDOM, freedom from what?”
To which Agbaje explained that FREEDOM meant loosing, unshackling and unfettering Lagos from the domination and dictation of a single man who saw himself as the Alpha and Omega of Lagos and its administration. Freedom, he said furthermore, meant ridding Lagos and Lagosians of traffic holdups, inefficient waste management and double taxation. Freedom for the local governments to perform their constitutional roles was also what he meant, he said.
Agbaje won applause as the crowd showed appreciation for his “Freedom” gospel.
For applause, the Sanwo-Olu team appeared to have learnt from the dismal outings of times past. On Monday, it showed up at the Archbishop Vining Cathedral with a battery of vociferous cheerleaders to tackle the superior applause that Agbaje seemed to always gather any time he and Sanwo-Olu attended forums together.
But none of Sanwo-Olu and Agbaje provoked the loudest racket at the Cathedral on Monday. A most unexpected participant would win if there had been a medal earmarked for that performance.
The unknown man came when the panel yielded the floor to the audience to ask questions. About 10 people queued up to fire questions and suggestions at the debaters. When the man’s turn came, he took the mike and commended all the participants for their erudition and the highly idealistic programmes they espoused. Next, he went on to recommend that the aspirants should all combine their programmes and submit them to Sanwoolu whom he rated as the “incoming Governor.”
The entire hall dissolved into laughter. Organisers retrieved the mike from the man and he slid away. Alawada. The Jester. What a way to throw comic relief into a serious conversation!
. Oboagwina is Media Director, Jimi Agbaje Campaign Organisation.