Not a few people were surprised, when young Hon. Gbenga Abiola was appointed as the Sole Administrator of Agege Local Government in 2016 by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, based on the recommendations of the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa.
Having served his time out and left office in 2017 after the local government elections in the state, Abiola is back as the Secretary to the Local Government (SLG) in the council. In this interview with PATRICK OKOHUE, the young politician speaks on his achievements as sole administrator, why Obasa should serve as Speaker for a second term amongst other issues.
You were the youngest Sole Administrator of a local government in the state till 2017. How were you able to cope, were you ever intimidated?
Intimidation has never been part of me or my life. Most times, I tried to turn intimidation to challenge. I was not intimidated, but it was a big challenge to me. I had to work it out and made sure that I delivered. If I was representing the Youth League of Nigeria, I felt that how would I convince the people that if any Nigerian youth was given such an opportunity he would perform. So, I made sure I did my best.
Can you recall some of those things you did that made you happy as the Sole Administrator of Agege Local Government then?
I was able to outline three major agenda that I was going to focus on, one of which was healthcare. To that end, I made sure that I renovated all the health centres in the council area at least to a reasonable extent, although we were short of funds. We were also able to get a little more hands into the primary healthcare centres of the council so that people could have access to quality healthcare. Also, the environment, you would remember that Agege was very clean at that time. We were able to de-silt waste on a weekly basis, which was an expensive programme. In conjunction with the Rotary Club, we were able to distribute 5,000 insecticide nets to our people to prevent malaria in Agege. We called a stakeholders meeting to sensitise the people. Once they get to the centres, they were treated for malaria free of charge and got insecticide nets.
On youth empowerment, I was able to overhaul and renovate to a certain extent, the vocational centres in the area. Agege has the best vocational centres in the country. A lot of machines were down and a lot of tools were down, so we repaired them. I also noticed that in a vocational centre with a capacity of 400 to 450, they hardly had about 100 students and there are youths out there who had nothing doing. I found out that people didn’t have access to forms, so what we did was to make the forms relatively free. So we distributed the forms to the Community Development Areas (CDAs), artisans, market women, the youths and at the end of the day, we graduated almost 400 students.
During the graduation ceremony, we gave awards and equipment to the best three students in each class. Apart from that, I donated my December salary to the overall best three students at that time for them to start businesses.
We also did orientation for all applicants before they started the training so that they would understand the depth of what they were doing. I spoke to them myself and the CDA Chairman and the facilitators were there. We spoke to them on the need to understand what they wanted to do. So, they were already going into the programme with a mindset that this is what I am going to become at the end of the programme.
Still on youth, I found that the youth organisations were not functioning, so I brought all the youth organisations together and they did a congress and we appointed a coordinator to oversee all the youth organisations in the council area and it is still functioning till now. The last time I called a meeting before I left office, we had about 20 youth organisations in attendance.
Also, we constructed a shoes/bags making and furniture making workshop for the youths. I found out that we had so many training for them in many areas, but we felt that we needed something more handy. We decided to start with shoes and bag making as well as furniture making and the structure is still within the council premises till now, I am sure the current administration would take it up.
On education, we provided over 3,000 uniforms for primary schools pupils in the area free of charge. We covered the 26 primary schools in the council area. We gave them to pupils of primaries one and two. It was supposed to be a continuous programme before election came.
We really tried our best, we fenced all the markets on the roads, especially Ashade Market. All what I am saying were done within one year despite shortage of funds.
Now, you are the Secretary to the Local Government (SLG), how are you coping with your new office, which is more of administration?
I think it is more of rest to me because as Sole Administrator, I was the secretary, the councillor, the chairman, and the vice chairman altogether. Right now, I am resting, but SLG is also the trust of the council whether you like it or not. He is more into administration.
Having served as the head of a local government, how do you think the government can make local governments more effective?
People are clamouring for local government autonomy. I would just say that the best way is for both parties to sit down. This current system was formulated by the government and the council. So they should sit down and look at the challenges and how to solve them.
Even without local government autonomy, some council chairmen are reckless, they would not pay salary. Some of them are behaving well now because they know that the state House of Assembly is there to caution them and the state Ministry of Local Government is there to regulate their activities.
We have local governments that would not pay salaries of workers if there is autonomy, they both have advantages and disadvantages. When the current policies were formulated, some people were in government, but they are no longer there now. Now, the challenges have come up, but they are not there to see the challenges.
2019 is coming, what do we expect from you?
I would work hard to ensure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) wins at both the state and federal levels.
Don’t you have any political ambition?
Yes, everybody has an ambition. My ambition is not tagged to time, if I tell you I don’t have an ambition for 2019, something might come up tomorrow to change that and if I say I have ambition, something else can still change it. My ambition is to serve the people really.
You are very close to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, what is the secret?
I would talk about what attracted me to him. I see a man who looks beyond the present, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa is a very rare leader. Apart from him, another person that has such a trait is the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A man, who looks beyond today. Rt. Hon. Obasa recommended me as the Sole Administrator of Agege Local Government at age 28, which made me the youngest man that has ever headed a local government. So, you wonder what was going through his mind then. It is like saying let’s give opportunity to those who don’t have it.
If you look at the cabinet of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 1999 as governor of Lagos State, all the so-called leaders that we have now were very young. Even, Speaker Obasa was very young in 2003, when he got to the state House of Assembly. So, take out the year from his age, you would see that he was barely 30 years old then. The man that supported him then saw that vision and he has imbibed that. But a lot of people do not think along that line. I wonder why those who are talking about ‘Not Too Young To Run,’ have not gone to Speaker Obasa on how to operate the idea. He is the only one that I know that got me appointed as Sole Administrator apart from the fact that the governor had to approve the nomination. I want to learn from Speaker Obasa and know how he came about it because he is a man that sees beyond the immediate. He is very focused, he is a man with vision and he is very disciplined. I don’t call him my political godfather, I call him my political guardian.
Are you by any means related?
Not at all, he just picked me up from nowhere. I have not had close relationship with him for more than four years, but he sees beyond the immediate, which was why he picked interest in me. May God continue to bless him.
How did you come about the ‘Let’s Speak Again Campaign,’ for Speaker Obasa?
I was one of the first set of people that started that slogan. The first design was that ‘Speak Again, Lagos Would Like To Hear You Once Again.’ I am sure you heard that campaign. After that, a lot of campaigns followed. It goes beyond the state House of Assembly. Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa has been a tool for the greatest development Agege ever had.
The major tool by God that has led to the greatest development Agege has ever experienced. We are not saying let him return, he would certainly return to the Assembly there is no doubt about that. We are saying that, when he returns to the Assembly, he must speak again. The former Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji spoke for 10 years, while his predecessor, Rt. Hon. Jokotola Pelumi spoke for two years. That is 12 years altogether from Epe region alone. So, if someone from Agege spoke for two years and Lagos has experienced a massive development, he has to speak again.
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