Lagos APC will emerge from primary stronger – Tinubu

Statement by former Lagos Governor, Senator Bola Tinbu
on the Lagos Governorship primaries

Tomorrow, our party and the people of Lagos will have an
encounter with destiny. We shall hold our governorship primary.

With the holding of direct primaries to elect governorship
candidates in Lagos and other states, the APC takes a
groundbreaking step toward greater internal democracy and
progressive governance for the benefit of all people. While our
party is young, it has grown fast and has travelled far in a short
time. This speaks well of the character of you, the party’s
rank-and-file members.

What, in other nations, has taken political parties generations
to achieve, we have done in a few brief years. No other party in
Nigeria dare attempt what we have already dedicated ourselves to
do.

I thank and commend all APC members and all Lagosians who have
lent their support to this historic and humane mission upon which
our party has embarked.

We are democrats in the truest sense of the word. As such, we
forever search for what is good and right for the people. With this
ideal as our guide, tomorrow’s primary cannot be shaded by selfish
ambition or the perceived personal grievance between this or that
person. Something much greater waits in the balance. What is at
stake is nothing less than the future of the people of this state
and how we can best maximise our collective destiny.

By resort to direct primaries, the party places the people’s
future soundly in their hands. As democracy would have it, you
shall be the authors of the party’s nomination and hopefully our
next state government.

I trust in the wisdom of the people and will abide it. However,
as a leader of the party and as a former governor of our beloved
and excellent Lagos, I would be remiss if I did not make a few
observations regarding the primary.

My goal is and shall always be a better Lagos. To this
objective, I have dedicated the greater part of my public life.
Roughly 20 years ago, a corps of dedicated and patriotic Lagosians,
put aside personal interests and rivalries, to put their minds and
best ideas together for the good of the state. Out of this
collaborative effort, was born a master plan for economic
development that would improve the daily lives of our people.

Bestowed on me was the honour of a lifetime when I was elected
to be your governor in 1999. My administration faithfully
implemented that plan. The government of my immediate successor,
Tunde Fashola, also honoured this enlightened plan.

Where state government remained true to that blueprint, positive
things happened. During my tenure and Governor Fashola’s, Lagos
state recorded improvements in all aspects of our collective
existence, from public health to public sanitation, from education
to social services, from the administration of justice to the
cleaning of storm and sewage drains. Businesses, large and small,
invested, hired millions of workers and thrived.

All Lagosians were to fully participate and justly benefit from
the social dividends and improvements wrought by this plan. From
the common labourer, to business leaders, to professionals and our
industrious civil service. We all were to be partners in a
monumental but joint enterprise. None was to be alienated. None was
to be left out. And none were to be pushed aside. This is
especially true for those who contributed so much to our
development, whether as a business leader who has invested heavily
in Lagos, the homeowner who struggles to pay his fair share of
taxes or as someone employed in the hard work of keeping our
streets and byways clean so that others may go about their daily
tasks unimpeded.

I make no pretence that the master plan is perfect. It can
always be fine-tuned. However, whenever a government departed from
this plan without compelling reason, the state and its people have
borne the painful consequence of the improper departure.

To ignore this blueprint for progress in order to replace it
with ad-hoc schemes of a materially inferior quality contravenes
the spirit of progressive governance and of our party. Such
narrowness of perspective does not bring us closer to our appointed
destination; it takes us farther from that destiny.

For reasons unknown to me and most Lagosians, we have
experienced such deviations from enlightened governance
recently.

This trend is that which most concerns me as the primary nears.
We must arrest this trend before irreparable harm is committed
against the people and their future. For the record, let it be
known that I shall vote in this primary because I see it as one of
extreme import to our state and our party. Just as I shall vote, I
equally urge all party members to do so.

We must vote in a manner that returns Lagos to its better path,
the one that promises a just chance for all to enjoy the fruits of
our prosperity. We must always pursue our goal of a Lagos energised
by creative dynamism, tolerance of others, and guided by a
leadership capable of extending a collegial hand to all
stakeholders, far and wide.

I am encouraged by the emergence of a candidate in this primary
who has served the state in senior positions in my administration,
the Fashola administration and even in the current one. While
possessing a wealth of experience and exposure, he is a young man
endowed with superlative vision and commitment. Most importantly,
he understands the importance of the blueprint for development. He
esteems it as a reliable and well-conceived vehicle for the future
development of the state. He also knows the value of reaching out
and working with others in order to maximize development and
provide people the best leadership possible.

With people like him at the helm, the state will write the
proper history for itself.

When the final word is given let it be said that we want all
Lagosians to look to the future with the hope and optimism that our
best days remain before us and not behind us.

We walk into this primary strong and confidently believing in
the right course we are to take. We shall emerge from this primary
even stronger and more confident that we have taken that course by
returning Lagos and our party to their finest path.