 Thanks for staying with us. Now we can't overemphasize the influence of governors in our lives. Referencing an article on stairs, governors have a profound influence in our lives. It's their responsibility to provide infrastructure and an environment that ensures our quality of living. Now the provision of public, primary and secondary school education for our children and the regulation of private schools lies in their hands. Sanitation, water, roads are also part of their duties as the federal powers can only do so much. Now the Lagos gubernatorial election is fast approaching. I want to know what these candidates are saying and what is their way or what is their why and what are the challenges in Lagos and what will they do differently. Now please let's hear what you have to say. Remember you can join the conversation. Send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 081-80384663. You can also tweet at us at the hashtag we show. Alright, so before I bring in our candidates, Diola, I just wanted to hear your thoughts first of all. How well how excited are you for the coming elections in Lagos state? You know everybody's really really focused on the presidential but we need to we can't forget that we also have a state you know that needs to also work. So how excited are you for the coming elections in Lagos state? I'm curious actually because I mean there are so many players now and I'm really curious as to the readiness of the people in the states if we're truly ready for something different or is it going to be business as usual considering the fact that PDP and APC you know have been the major players so with the new players now are we really ready to listen to what they have to say. Now I think we need to listen first or you know go with their rhythm you know to be able to now decide if we when we get to the voting poll to say that okay these people are saying something different you know so I have a lot of questions for them you know interested. I have a lot of questions as well because again if you look at Lagos states you know zeroing it on the challenges of Lagos state it's too numerous to count. So it's so interesting how you hear Lagos state being used as the post-towel child for a presidential election and I'm wondering is it the same state that I'm living that is being used because again if you want to really define I mean I was reading something about mega cities because that's what they always say are Lagos the mega city. If you want to define it the only thing that qualifies Lagos as a mega city is probably the population you know but in terms of what the kind of an infrastructure that a mega city deserves or the kinds of I don't think it qualifies to be called that but hey it's not in my place to say it but let us call in the people that want to govern Lagos state but it's the Lagos state Labor Party Governorship Candidate and he was a PDP Senatorial Candidate for Lagos Centurial West one of the beneficiaries of not too young to run movement he's an MIT trained architect with a masters in public policy from the University of Lagos he has an interest in architecture design construction and commodity trading while Princess at Beodun or if we see is the Labor Party Governorship Candidate she is the governance partner and company secretary with TLGP partnership a law graduate with merit and holds an MBA she's an associate of the Chattered Governance Institute of the United Kingdom and Ireland and the daughter of the late Ayambure of Ikorodun now thank you so much and both of them have joined us live in studio thank you so much buddy thank you so much Princess first of all you guys are no strangers to ways so I'm very excited that now finally we get to talk to you on the conversation around you know what it is that you have been doing for the past few months which is actively participating in politicking was it called campaigns and all of that for towards you know winning the elections for the Lagos state government Lagos state rather position governance position and deputy I mean so I mean this conversation is something that I really want us to take in as much as possible that we can put in so I'd like to first of all ask right I'll come to you but evil how well do you understand the unique challenges of Lagos again because I say this because when I was trying to research what exactly what questions would I say would I ask that has not been said in different quotas and all of that you know sometimes I think the reason a lot of people take irrational decisions or they take uninformed decisions is because they really do not understand the unique problem of what it is that we're dealing with so I hear Lagos state all the time coming up as the state to to to look up to you know for an election and I'm wondering a state that is filled with was it called touts miscreants there's a lot of was it called there's a lot of gang activities going on actively now in your faces there are so many things we have issues with our transportation system we have issues with garbage management right we have these issues with infrastructural deficit like the challenges in Lagos state as it is is too numerous to count and guess what this is the state that is being used as a postal state I've been to other states and I can tell you the structures of those states perform way better than a Lagos state and I keep wondering how first of all how people have been able to manage you know this narrative over the years that Lagos state is a state to look out for and why are people not even challenging it so I'm happy that you guys have come out come out to the front to challenge it but really do you really understand the challenges that we face as Lagosians yeah first of all I think it's important that we understand that Lagos state has been run as a tokenist state is the poster child for poly tricks you find that as you get into elections you start to see things like the blue line you start to hear about the Fort Milland Bridge again you start to hear about health insurance that they've supposedly been doing and all of these things they used to make headlines and then as soon as election is over everything reversed back to start a school but you see Lagos state has earned a right a place in Nigerian history because it was once the political the economic capital of this country and so the place where literally most of the people that fought colonialism were based out of and literally that is why it was called it is called it well it is supposedly the center of excellence right I mean I was saying earlier today that as far back as 1910 that Richard was pumping water from me due to Lagos Island people that grew up that claim to be political leaders grew up in illegal swear when they open their tap water was coming out they could go to hospitals and get proper treatment right now they fly about to get injection so you see in all of that there's been a situation where Lagos it has expressed state capture and the resources the huge amount of resources that is supposed to be used to push this growth and this development as prior for the burgeoning population because this population they're not I do human beings these are put are extremely productive yes our productivity can increase significantly but when you understand the level of I jar that we generate is not being generated from the floor or the wall it being generated from human beings so these resources that should be used to push legal state infrastructure wise human capacity development wise they're being used to benefit a few group of people and their cronies and this then reflects in the state of squalor that most of Lagos is in forget this ekeja to lucky thing once you go go off the expression they really see what Lagos is about you go to places like Seoul area that was once in the head like you know a place where elite people lived right go inside surely city the quality of the inner roads completeness and another thing about Lagos that's causes problem is how the local government system has been completely amputated is station where they send people there that are just that are loyal to the party they are glorified contractors right in our government we're going to have local government shemen that are potential governance right because that's the only way to to create excellence at that level of governance and it must be excellent if Lagos it is going to work okay so I'll let you come in because you just said something I don't want to lose my train of thought when you talk about a structure for any form of governance right I'm happy that you're bringing it from the local level all the way to the state level in terms of the state assembly how prepared is Labor Party do you understand to run the election because again there's an assembly that has to be filled because this is the same track this is the same narrative that has been spread in the federal level that I mean Senators your House of Rep members you know if you do not have Labor Party and how does it impact you know the position so even if you are then elected right and you then have some form of cabinet that is working against you how do you stand if you know your local government chairman your what's it called your House of Assembly members and all of all of those people represent different kinds of party that are not in line with your vision how do you hope to align that you know yes I think as princess news as well we have a full deck of candidates right it went through a court process and the courts have given INEC an order to open the portal for our candidates to be uploaded so we have a full set of assembly members full set of House of Rep members I know for a fact that there are two senators and one is still going to a court process but we have a full set of candidates so that is not something I'm worried about what I'm worried about really is to ensure that people come out and actually understand that this power is in their hands less than 12 percent 13 percent of people that registered votes in Ligos come out to vote so even this powers that we ascribe to the ruling party they're very unpopular government when you have only 15 percent of people or even less determining who is governor then these people will not represent the interests of the broader people that are in Ligos it and that's why you always see there's this there's this dysfunction you don't see it aligning where about number 17 or 18 on the ease of doing business chart Kaduna ranks it's easier to do business in Kaduna than Lagos and Kaduna is still doing Boko Haram issues and so many you know issues that they're terrorist issues that they're dealing with and Ligos is supposed to be commercial capital of Nigeria we should potentially be the commercial capital of Africa if we're on the right path and trajectory that we've always been on. Okay so I'm going to ask about the practical steps that you have you know we just spoke about ease of doing business what steps do you have in place to ensure that I mean it's easy to do business especially considering the fact that MSMEs from the bulk of you know developing local economies how are you going to ensure that you know it's easy to do business in Nigeria in Lagos. I think for us when you destroy institutions that make in a state or make a nation you you destroy governance you destroy that nation well that's a those are the institutions that make politics, democratic, that nation continuous like they used to say your civil service is your barracks any political party that comes into it will be able to plug into the manifesto into that civil service to make it work effectively but what we have had in Lagos is 23 years of systematic destruction of Lagos state institutions and they don't work and when those institutions don't work you don't have ease of doing business you don't have services that people can seamlessly assess that is efficient that is effective you don't have you're far away from the community and that lack of good government say is the backbone of Lagos problem. I want to ask a question like follow-up on that princess now you see institutions yes civil service they are the backbone but there was a time in this Lagos state when Fashula was governor I don't know about any other dispensation right because I was there you know when he was governor actively for eight years the civil service seemed to have worked the same civil service right seemed to have worked so are you trying to say that but now it's almost like we're back to state of school because at that point you drop your file it gets to the destination and all of that when the when governor but it came in he tried to like bypass some of those bureaucracies that happens within the civil service and it was you know somehow blocked so don't you think that when you're dealing with the Lagos state problem well okay I've sorted out the governor's part the or the executive part and the governor and everything what would you do with your current civil service are you going to still keep that system because knowing that they can actually make or break you know your leadership well okay so for us in terms of the civil service and even just to your ease of doing business question we're going to get rid of all the bottlenecks multiple taxations stealth taxations for instance the Lagos station where a local government will send you a tax bill and the LCD also send you a tax bill both of them are charging in civil license right and your institution does not have any TVs you have a situation where you are trying to do business your permits your planning for your projects to get your land consent everything we're going to bring a lot of innovation into governance and reduce the number of interfaces that you have to interface with the human being right in that way are opening up governance with a very transparent and open system that works right in terms of the civil service I have huge faith in civil service a lot of Latif Jack on the achieve so much in four and a half years with the civil service I think ultimately when the head of something is rotting if the system would just go there and if you come into civil service and you set the standard and you set an example right they will have no choice but to follow through but at the same time there's a lot of reform that's going to happen a lot of upward review of the salaries starting at a minimum of a hundred percent review to increase the salaries because when you pay peanuts you get monkeys right and you don't want a situation where you think you're saving on your wage bill but the opportunity cost and the damage to legal state and the government is so huge because if people having to bribe their way to get their planning permissions and then the building is overseeing yeah and building gets the building falls and is the what's that word collapse collapses right that cost that you've incurred as a state is much more than that wage bill that you've increased so you must pay properly so you can demand excellence from your civil service so these are some of the things that we're going to do but innovation innovation innovation I cannot stress that enough innovation is going to be the watchword for the civil service and we're not going to be running a state that is inefficient because there's a lot of inefficiency you know you're almost just hiring carrying people along no legal state needs to run like a slim efficient machine we are consistently harboring about 10 going up to 15 percent of Nigeria's population in the next 56 years it's going to hit 400 million right that's a huge amount of pool that legal state will potentially be harboring so we must stretch our resources as far as we can to achieve as much as we can so that these people plan for that future and plan for that future we must get Legos to where it's supposed to be now and then still be planning for where it's supposed to be in next 30 40 years and that's the foundation we're going to lay all right so let's quickly go on a very short break when we come back from the break we'll continue the conversation stay with us we'll be right back all right thanks for staying with us now if you're just tuned in we're taking a deep dive into the Legos gubernatorial race and we have with us jrv and princess where you foresee all right so i just want to touch on lawlessness disorderliness street urchins which are the things that you see commonly in the streets and i know that again if we do setting a level of grassroot engagement we might be able to eradicate those things i mean you go everywhere there are agrarians like every single place you go to i mean i went to i went to an event center in Surileri very cute event center in between the next thing where did they come from like in my head i was like where did they come from i mean you are someone that truly engages with the grassroot how do you think first of all is it possible to get rid of you know some of these you know vices on the streets in Legos and how do you think you know what plan is the labor party put in a place you know for these people because again when you displace them you need to put them somewhere is there you're absolutely right if a government is too far from the people you don't actually see what damage what needs what what the community is suffering and right now we have a central government a legal state a lausa that is far from the likes of people in mushing people in badagri people in a papa these are the places we've gone and we go to market we go to all this deep community to speak to them and get to realize how these people are leaving you get to realize what has taken them from point a to point b and they tell some of them tell you the history you see grandmothers on the street and and they tell you in my days they cry what is Legos gonna offer my children and all the other sort of thing like today we were in mushing and the feedback that we were there come selling our manifesto talking to them selling our party to to the people and the the interaction with them you see that Legos some of them wish that somebody could wake jack on the hop and help us rebuild Legos it's that bad and you wonder why these young people you would be surprised you'll be amazed that 50 60 even of those agboros you are talking about they're graduates thank you they're actually graduate and another 80 went to some former schools they graduated from primary from secondary school and you ask them how do you end up here it's either the breadwinner died there was no support system from the government like you get elsewhere they had to go on the street and drop everything and becomes the breadwinner it's either they couldn't pay their school fees their families couldn't pay their school fees there is no way for them to get that assistant or to benefit and and they have to go on the street and and all sort of reason you know realize that what we have done is just we just destroyed the future of Legos and I and I'm sorry and I want to also tag on this because the last time I was here which was on saturday I walked out of this space and then the people that the young men that knew me all came out and everything but you know before I give anything you know I always engage them and I asked so if I really if I bring work for you people would you take it you know what's so amazing you see that voice that you that like uh once you ask that question that voice changes and um I look at what she said one of them was a graduate of uni lag art science department the other one was a graduate of unsukah the other one was a father and the same thing has happened to me at Amor Apple Junction in literally everywhere that I choose to see them as people as somebody's son somebody's brother you understand these people are just victims of circumstance in a country and a state that does not have a plan for his youth right and for us our our major thrust is a government with a human face with empathy with compassion and a government that has the courage to actually look and say okay first of all we must create an alternative means for them to any living which is we must improve their employability skills we must create incentives for companies to hire them and localize this hiring so for instance there's a lot of construction work that needs to happen in our respective local governments before that happens we're going to train all these youth in these different local governments give them these skills those that want to go into construction those that want to perfect handwork those that want digital skills we're going to invest a lot in that right and then contractors that work in those local governments they'll be incentivized to hire the people that are products and people that graduate from those systems in that local government so we create a cyclical economy in that local government so that is one thing that we're going to be doing and once we've done that for about two years we now come forcefully with the law for anybody that continues to contravene this thing because you see the reason why these people exist like this because they are backed by the state the state turns turns the way to it i mean you saw it during the ensal situation where BRT buses came around with like 20 30 young men with merchants right in front of the government's house and the governor was sitting in his office till today those boys have not been arrested but we are not going to need that type of job description from our young men right we don't need to suppress any votes we are going to come in do the work and expect that the voters will put us back in based on our merits so that being the case we need to create a social engineering because you know the bigger problem the bigger problem are those children in primary school they're seeing their big brother on the streets with the plastic and they're looking and thinking what's the point of going to school when i can't just go and play because it's fun you're hanging out with your friends you're empowered by the government you can't just be beat well one time i was coming back for mojo and there was a huge line of traffic and we got to the front of it and you just see there are three young boys just collecting money from people and nobody is stopping them police is not stopping them right and this carries on and then this also ties into the cults and you know and i don't mind this devil's watch all the streets and this is also violence and all of this drugs so you have a whole generation that's literally wasting away so this needs to be corrected it's a very fundamental part of our vision for legos our convenience with legos to ensure that we get this young men off the streets we're not going to treat drug problems as criminal problems we're going to treat as health problems and ensure that we are rehabilitated and make sure that they become productive members of society okay so i hear you with all of these plans they sound absolutely wonderful but my um i think my my question is do you have the human capital available to to ensure that these plans actually manifest because you see there is a big disconnect you have plans and they sound so beautiful and we all look forward to them but the implementation of it is the problem and i mean if you become the governor you become the there's there's so many things you can't do you can give instructions yes but you're not going to be waiting in on everything you are not going to be there to ensure the execution the implementation of your plans so what what what is your plan to deal with i think my question is the enforcement are you going big on enforcement or is it just going to be well you know what they say all more one on me you know and that's a thing with legos you know they go back home and then somebody summons you and then you're like you see you see the great thing about us princess you foresee and myself is we are not nonsense takers we are the most legos of the takers that are on this table and we are not we don't take majority right so when you say you cannot enforce and you cannot supervise we will because it has been done what a legislative jack on the achieve in four and a half years the apc government has not been able to do it in 20 right because first you set an example right your plans must also take into consideration implementation and if you have somebody that you see this is the thing that was not realized in this country when your brain is focused on how much you can accumulate for yourself and your cronies that same brain cannot be able to create a better life for people simultaneously it cannot work because okay a contract a business comes okay somebody comes to you says we can do these four real lines in four years right and we'll do it and be able to give to your people for this price if your main first thing that comes to your mind is how much can i make from it you see you have already cut short that project right but if you are thinking what i want to do is create a quality of life for my people as fast as possible in the shortest possible time that project will fly i'll give you an example look at the bearer telling we are extremely understaffed under um we're understaffed in terms of bosses people wait at bus stations for 20 30 minutes when they should wait for minimum with maximum five minutes five minutes now you know you don't have enough bosses but if given that bearer telling as a monopoly why why not open up to private sector any private individual that can get a boss of a cell capacity can use that but because you want to ensure that you and somebody share are the ones benefiting from that money that is closed down i can give you examples of all of these things in lego's the whole day that is why we say lego's needs to breathe again it's under a stronghold and that stronghold is consistently about people making money for themselves take capture so i'll show you when you come into governance with the capacity and the desire to deliver a better life for people right lego's has more than the capacity in terms of the people that are here that are consistently looking for a better life and a more efficiency to pay off any project you want to do okay so let's talk to um what's it called let's speak to infrastructure so lego's has a bad habit you see a government comes in does very nice this you wake up one morning everything is gone they pack up all those metal railings i think they i hear they go to sell it and all of that i mean what the story i took for the the train derailing i am very sure that it will be tied to somebody going to tamper with infrastructure so we already have this problem in lego's right again that's why engaging this the people on the streets would make a lot of sense right saying that okay we're not coming to take food from your table but instead we're coming to empower you to give you you know a better life better choices and all of that but do you think it is possible for us to maintain quality infrastructure in lego's because it seems like for every time there's an infrastructure that is constructed i mean we are celebrating the the deep seaports and all of that there was a time that the papa was celebrated all of it where is the papa today you know the the the the idea that infrastructures are not meant a short leave is what is not really adding up in my head so how do we start to think or what what direction would you look when you're thinking building sustainable infrastructure that long after you've gone the way you've been talking about jack on the jack on the jack on the those infrastructures stand the test of time and they truly you know outlive many generations because it is possible yes you go abroad you see buildings a thousand years old 800 years old why don't we have those kinds of infrastructure in Nigeria especially in lego's yes um well in fact the matter is that i i mean i i hate to say this but we lack the mentality of maintenance we don't have maintenance in maintenance culture yeah and that's that is that must be inbuilt into your planning for your project delivery percentage of the budget that comes for that must be put there for maintenance of it consistently right and aside from that we must set benchmark for quality and project delivery so for instance you are doing your roads and then after six months really falls it washes it away that is not acceptable when we're even when we're working local government chairman we set standards the quality of materials that must be used the structure of it how it must be adhered to and we tied the life expectancy of that road to the to the contractors final payment right so these are some of the things but more than anything you see the problem that we have in this country is that every government wants to build a project that they can steal from i was going to go there so you see that they are not continuing projects because the deal has already been done on that they are not benefiting from it so guess what they will ignore that and continue and set up a new deal and this is why i go back to saying that what we need most in a leader is empathy and cerebral capacity i cannot overemphasize this empathy and his ex-excellency peter abe talks about this a lot compassion empathy a love for your people is what janko they had love for the people you saw it in how he went on project delivery in a year look at what he did to the education system right so this is a fundamental thing that must be put in place and once that is there you will think through all of these things maintenance culture must be there because you want your project to last as long as possible another thing is we will not limit the level of project delivery to the purse strings of the state we are going to create an enabling environment for the private sector so investors can come because really the state has no business building infrastructure the state can come in to subsidize when you want to look at the price points to come to the residents for and say okay we want it to be affordable so we will come in with this amount of money but the core amount of money will come in from the private sector because legal state can pay off itself we have enough people that want to be on the train that want to go on the ferries that want to use intermodal transport whatever you are looking for Nigerians and legosians want to move in an efficient way because think about how productive we are right with all the traffic with all of those things now imagine if you do not have those things on sunday i had about eight meetings right and i when i was going to people that wow this was a very productive day because there was no traffic i was able to have i attended three churches in ikeja i had a radio interview with uh in ikeja with bufai i then went to amu who had four five meetings then came back to lekiyada another meeting so i'm very happy with myself now imagine that was the everyday life of legosians ah that would be heavily now imagine imagine how much more money legosians will make yeah and that's where we need to get to so princess yes those institutions you are talking about like you go overseas they don't just they maintain themselves there's a framework exactly for sustainability there's a framework for regulation there's a framework for monetary why you don't have that in government there is no way you can bring infrastructure or you like you are going to go back to grand zero because there is no regulatory body that is accountable to for the to the public to the people there is no sustainability strategy and the government of lego state is too far from these people so why do you think we should vote for you princess of euphosy and gf let me start with you first then gf you can wrap up the conversation for us in we are like um my principal said we are legosian we're the true legos ticket here and we understand i was born and bred in legos and i've lived in all the four corners of legosist i went to primary school in kushofa my dad had a big estate in bagada face one we lived there i went to secondary school in atikoro do before i traveled out so we've moved from everywhere we moved literally from the five ibi legos who we understood the problems of legos and we know from coming from where we background in terms of education in terms of the experience that we're bringing we know we see the problem because we go to the people and we see the problem of legos and we know that with the plans that we've got in our manifesto these are plans that are they're not gigantic plan that you know oh they will never deliver they're plans that you'll be able to measure in day one this is what they said they were doing under days in office this is what they said they're doing year one you can hold us accountable for it and what the key thing is that we are going to take government away from a lausa we're taking government to badagre we're taking government to kuru do we're bringing government to the people so they can see the real benefit of the taxes they can see the real development in their community and we're going to make sure that this local government work for the community that they are in they have to benefit that's the essence of local government yeah what is point of having a local government if your inner roads are just as bad and they don't assist you you can have health care in the community you have to go to general hospital all those basic things that local government does your refuge collection why is it state that is collecting refuge in that kuru do and we have local government exactly okay so that's why bringing government close to the people so they can see the benefit the difference of democracy the difference of good governance and the accountability of good governance you're going to see the openness you're going to be able to hold us accountable you're going to say i will lay here one new okunidi yeah i'm going to translate because yeah legals these people can be traced back to the trace back that this so we have like a minute all right um so i'm going to build on everything my deputy has said princess lamatu if you see because that really talks to the core of what we are trying to bring a government that is servant leadership driven a government that wants to bring good governance close to the people we build policies with the people a government that ensures that you know unlike what is currently happening in legal states where they are they are paying money for a flyover and it costs times four the price that should actually cost they're doing a 16 kilometer rail for money that could have done 175 kilometer rail you know we want accountability openness we're going to be publishing these things to the public right transparency so that even we said we can even that exactly so then it now takes on a life of its own so that the resources we have can go as far as possible but more than anything there are so many you see legals is more than the legals central legals island there are so many people that have been dispossessed of land in a pain we could do in ojo in bad agree we want to make them feel they're part of legals again and we are going to look at all the social injustices that have happened throughout this time in legal state with an aim to create a state that works for the people and centers their interests we're going to tackle youth unemployment we're going to deliver four rail lines in four years and we're going to ensure we tackle the housing crisis by ensuring that we have affordable housing awesome on that note good evening my dear beautiful sisters what are you saying um we thank god for our dear brother and princess for the dreams and plans of legals i pray that the their label of love will never be in vain there are a lot of things that needs to be put in place in legals and with all i have heard i know the both of them have plans for hope for the hopeless god bless you both legals need a facelift and god can use you both to do it sister we're welcome back i missed you on friday i missed myself to thank someone says legals is the fourth largest economy in africa so i want us to transform that into success thank you so much for watching now if you missed our quotes for today um here it is again where's our quote so long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights will be called a democracy we'll see you guys tomorrow at 8 p.m as we bring another great conversation to your screen enjoy