THE MILITARY HAVE MADE NIGERIANS IN THEIR OWN IMAGE -Hon. Olumuyiwa Jimoh (Apapa Constituency 2)

He was elected into the Lagos State House of Assembly for the first term in April 2011, that notwithstanding Honourable Olumuyiwa Jimoh, from Apapa Constituency 2, is a defender of the people. He started off from his days as an activist as an undergraduate and as a member of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) and today Hon. Jimoh evinces confidence in his quest to emancipate the people from poverty and repression.

A trained philosopher and a Marxist to the core, Muyiwa Jimoh is one lawmaker, whose passion for the people and statistical sense is arguably unrivalled.

Last week, the fleshy lawmaker, whose guiding principle is to give the people the best at all times, spoke with Oladipupo Awojobi extensively on issues bothering on his plan for the people, his belief about politics, creation of local governments in Lagos State and of course what he thinks about his political leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who turned 60 years of age this month . The ACN chieftain is a journalist's delight any day.

As a representative of the people, what have you been able to do and in what areas do you think the government can come in to help the people of Apapa Constituency 2

 My area is semi-urban, we have a lots of youths and they have not been getting much, so we want to pre-occupy them in the area of sports. We have problems on employment, the government cannot employ everybody and we want to educate the people on the differences between the legislature and the executive.

The major problems of the area is unemployment, education and the rest, and I can assure you that by June this year, we are starting a computer training programme, we have just ended a sporting programme that started in December last year and ended on February 6, 2012. The other issue is that I want to provide two boreholes in each ward and I have succeeded in erecting in two out of  seven wards and I can assure you before the end of my tenure, I will deliver all.

I have just completed an educative programme on Lassa Fever and there are still a lot of programmes we are doing. I am having a study group for undergraduates. The retrenchment from the ports affected the people of my area a lot after it was privatized. A lot of the youths, who were working under the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as labourers and contract staffers were sacked. The private company has reduced the staff strength, especially those you call casual workers, but as a communist, I won't call them casual workers.

As a young man, did you consider the negative aspect of the Nigerian politics, which is regarded as dirty, risky and even politicians are seen as fetish, before you joined them

I belong to the generation of pro-democracy activists, who fought for the freedom of the people during the military era. I belong to the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR). I was the Public Relations Officer of the students union in the University of Ibadan. I had a training as a socialist in the country through the likes of the late Comrade Ola Oni, human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, these were the people that trained me, when I was an undergraduate. I discovered that if we don't build the nation, we will continue to find ourselves in a mess. It is not by accident that people like Walter Rodney wrote a book titled; “How Europe Under-developed Africa,” it is not by accident that we are in politics. Any game that comes, apart from the game of gamble, you can play it. I don't see politics as a dirty game. I don't dispute the fact that there are dirty politicians, but there are so many neat politicians. As you have the bad ones, so you have the good ones. It was Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to his son's teacher, that told him that as you have bad politicians, so you have good politicians. Not all politicians are bad; to me politics is an advocation, not a profession.

We have 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs in Lagos State and many people believe that the local governments in Nigeria generally are not viable, but you once said that Lagos should have more, how do we reconcile this

Our democratic governance in Nigeria is emerging. The military have made Nigerians in their own image, we are just getting out of that contradiction. As far as I am concerned, we have 57 local governments in Lagos State, not LCDAs. Kaduna was created in 1976, out of that Katsina was created, Kaduna retained 23 local governments, and Katsina has 34, add that together. Lagos has been a state since 1967. We even need more than 57 LGs in Lagos; the state is equivalent in population to other countries. What is the population of Botswana, Solomon Island, Cuba. Let's go to the Scandinavian, the western world, Norway is 9 million, Sweden is 10 million, Belgium is 9 million compared to that of Lagos, which is 18 million. The United Nations enumerated that 419 groups are in Nigeria and all the ethnic groups are represented in Lagos State.

However, the expectation of the people on the local governments is too high; some who are agitating for employment are not employable because they don't have the minimum pre-requisite.

I am not trying to defend any local government, but our expectation, compared to the money does not commensurate. They need to increase the allocation they are being given by the Federal Government. In Apapa area of the state, for instance, I know how many trailers pass through our roads and this affects the bitumen used for the roads, the texture, the soil of the roads compared to other states, who don't have such challenges and they collect more allocations all in the name of fiscal federalism.

Do you agree that the local government account should be separated from that of the state government

Yes, they are the third tier of government, they should be separated, we should give them independence, and unfortunately the 1999 Constitution puts them under the purview of the state government. Until we do that, they will continue to be under the state government, I am aware freedom is not free, not even in Freetown.

As a Marxist, how do you think the gap between the rich and the poor can be closed

What we are doing is part of the process, I can assure you the gap is getting closer because if it gets widened, there will be problem.

But you as a person, what is your guiding philosophy as a member of the ruling class

I don't belong to the ruling class. The fact that I am a legislator does not make me a member of the ruling class. When you are talking of the ruling class, you are talking of the few oligarchy. I listen to the people, what they request for, if I cannot do it, I will tell them, I don't turn them down.

We want you to comment on your leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is celebrating his 60th Birthday this month

Let me start by saying that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a valued leader, I came to know him during the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) days, I was still an undergraduate in the university then, we were the field workers, the foot soldiers for the group. I discovered that he had a lot of visions for the nation then. Even before he emerged as the state governor then, we knew he had a vision, not just for Nigeria, but for Sub-Saharan Africa. He emphasized mostly on nation building. I want to talk about one of his numerous projects, not roads, not transport system, LASTMA or anything, I will talk about Office of the Public Defenders (OPD). That is the first in Sub-Saharan Africa. I met Professor Mahmud Bandani in a conference in the United States of America (USA), he was speaking about this idea Asiwaju started that was completed by his successor, BRF, this was first initiated by Mahmud in Uganda and he said if I see Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, I should greet him on his behalf. It is part of what I am going to say if I see Asiwaju. He said he proposed the same idea to his people as far back as 1989, but it was not accepted, but if Asiwaju can now implement it, he said it is a very good project, a big, gigantic structure along Funsho Williams Avenue. It is one thing to have idea; it is another thing to realize it.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your constituency

I am Honourable Olumuyiwa Jimoh, I represent Apapa Constituency 2 in the Lagos State House of Assembly. I am a graduate of philosophy from the university of Ibadan.

March 23, 2012