By Gbenga Oke
Hon. Olusegun Abubakar Idris is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC and the administrative secretary of the party in the Lagos West Senatorial District.
In this interview, he spoke on issues arising from the recent elections in the state and the party’s plans to sustain its dominance. Excerpts:
HOW will you describe the outcome of the general elections?
The outcome of the general elections was a success because the voting process was credible and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) against all odds conducted a free and fair polls. Even though a lot of people did have reservations about the conduct of INEC before the elections, but we have been proved wrong. The use of card readers gave credibility to our elections to some extent even though there were challenges during the Presidential elections, but there were improvement during the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections. With the card reader in place, the choice of the people eventually prevailed and that is all I can say.
The elections in Lagos State were close. What was responsible for this development?
Lagos State being the centre of Excellence and being a place called “mini Nigeria”, the state has different ethnic and religious groups that reside in here and everybody have their interests.
Segun-Idris
Even the Assembly elections were not walk-over for one party against the other. PDP also had some seats in the State House of Assembly even though our party APC still maintains the majority with 32 members to that of PDP which 8. I think that is the nature of the new Lagos where people are not victimized as against their choices during elections. This development will tell us especially those of us in APC to really work hard and present people of outstanding qualities in the nearest future for our elections.
In your local government, Amuwo-Odofin LGA, your party APC lost both the House of Representatives and the state House of Assembly seat. Also this is the first time a non indigine will be representing the area. What will you say was responsible for the party’s loss in the area?
There were too many factors responsible for that loss. One of the factors responsible was the concentration of the people from South-East and South-South, these people voted for PDP due to their staunch support for President Goodluck Jonathan which automatically made them to vote for PDP from beginning till the end. Therefore, they did not really think of voting elsewhere or another party, they went on to vote for the PDP because they felt ‘our brother is the one going for the Presidency.’
You have enumerated several factors that made your party APC lose touch in Amuwo-Odofin. What is your party doing to ensure some of those problems are addressed before the Local Government elections will take place?
I know we are going to have local government elections very soon and before then, we will be having town hall meetings with everybody including our people from the South-south and South-East to let them know the reason why they should vote for us. We are also going to also look into a situation whereby we can bring about a popular candidate that will represent the party. I know that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his wisdom has always been there to ensure that electoral process within the party and in the general elections are done without any form of bias. The internal mechanism of the party must be able to produce a candidate that will be readily available and that will be acceptable to the electorate of Amuwo-Odofin.
We are planning to have one on one discussions with everybody in this local government including the Igbos, they have always been here with us and they are doing very well with us. We are actually going to talk to them and am sure they will further tell us what their grievances, their mind and interest are. The Igbo’s have always been here and they do have positions at the local government level here, even the Hausas and the South-South people, they have always been here with us in Amuwo-Odofin.
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