World-class real estate expert, Olatunji Sanni is one of the strong politicians jostling for the Federal House of Representatives Aspirant in Lagos Mainland in Lagos State. For the past couple of months, the Lagos born politician has been going around the state consulting widely with stakeholders, over his ambition to be the next mouthpiece of his constituency. The US-trained realtor is from the Lagos Mainland and he has been in politics for over 20 years. He has been exposed to governance at the topmost level in Nigeria. He has been contesting under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP
He is one of the serious contenders for the job. Last week, City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE with the media team, spoke to Olatunji about his ambition at the City People corporate office, where he dissected the problems with the economy and how to come out of it effortlessly. Read excerpts.
How can you describe Democracy in Nigeria’s context?
No system is easy at the instance. Democracy is the best system of government if it’s done properly. If it’s not done properly, you find out that Democracy will become your number one enemy.
If we assemble everybody and say, let’s make a decision, everybody will have a viewpoint. If you see any society that took a leap of faith, it will be because they have an exceptional leader. A leader that listens and creates ideas from the positions, suggestions and submission of the people. That kind of leader is one who can make democracy an enviable system of government.
Look at Singapore, look at Malaysia, look at UAE..
I studied political science in Poland, and the idea is to back and represent my people on a global scale. When I got to Poland in 1980; to buy bread, you have to be in line. To buy anything in Poland, you have to join a long queue. My brother when I got back there 20 years later, the whole system has changed. I couldn’t believe my eyes, the development in Poland is crazy. And Poland has no resources aside from human resources. You can imagine if Nigeria harnesses all our natural resources and human resources. Our rate of development will be awesome?
Let me ask you, sincerely, profoundly, given the degree of rot in the system, do you think true democracy is realistic in Nigeria? Do you think there is a place for people like you with genuine intentions, and who truly desire real change?
I’m going to answer that question philosophically. If you have a set of people and you push them to the wall and they have nowhere else to move to, then they will have to revolt, hopefully, we pray we don’t get to that.
On a practical level you need resources to run an election, and to be able to win. It’s a very important element, but what I’m saying is it should not be the most important.
We need to analyse the personality, the qualification of the people that we are putting in the position of power, or else we are going to end up putting people who do not deserve to be there. So you can have a fusion of both roles that money will play to get you elected.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, most of these people who vote need money, whatever you give them may be temporary, and they don’t have a long term vision. They seek temporary solutions to their problem because of the urgency. Someone who is hungry will apparently listen to the man who’s carrying a plate of food than the man who is promising a future without hunger.
I am of the belief that if we can take away the enticement, we may be able to attract people with substance because now we are not attracting people with substance. If you approach everybody, even within their orientation, you’’ also have to get dirty.
But I as a person, believe strongly that I am fortunate enough, to have gone out and looked at the way things are done, and I wonder why can’t we emulate this system that works for other countries. To be able to create a society that we all want, it is very easy for us, it has been done many times in other countries. So what’s stopping us from doing the same thing.
So we have to find out all the impediments that are holding us down, remove them, get a visionary leader. Look at the calibre of people that are coming out to contest for president. What can they offer? People, who feel it’s their lifetime ambition? What about us?
And at this time we are still fighting over where the president has to come from?
If there is an urgent need for brain surgery, will you ask where the expert comes from? No. You will only request the most qualified candidate. This is why we are doing well in sports.
Check the road plan, manifesto, purpose and drive.
We have people who are capable hands but they won’t come to the foray as it is. Our best brains are being extradited to other countries, see Adeshina Akinwunmi for instance. He’s doing so well as Afdb
At what point did your political ideology begin to evolve?
It’s been evolving over time. In 2006, at a very young age, I contested for senate. I had this huge idea of coming to make an impact.. It didn’t work. So I went back to my regular job. I wanted to offer something and apparently, the people were not ready to take it.
Imagine in 2022, we are discussing the cow routes when other countries are already discussing smart technology! Isn’t that crazy?
You know, I just came from Lekki. On a good day, Lekki to Gbagada should take more than 20 minutes. If you try it on a bad day, it will take you 4 hours. Somebody else will go to Ibadan. He will arrive and be resting and you’ll still not haven’t got to Lekki.
It’s a very simple solution; why do we have 2 lanes on the expressway in Lagos when we know the number of vehicles we have. In China, they already have 20 lanes. Ten on one side and ten on the other side. You can actually go up in a Helicopter, look down, and see where the bottleneck is. And we have a governor, who will go to Magodo and stand in front of the gate.
Right now, we have a national government, which is controlled by the same party, and there is no fusion among them. They are still fighting each other. Major roads in Lagos are in a mess, when I’m driving I see big potholes that cars can enter.
So whenever I see these problems and I’m asking myself, “are these people serious?” do they really want to solve these problems or they are actually benefitting from the problems?
Do you know that one of the biggest groups that are making huge money in Lagos are the agberos, and nobody is talking about it because they are working with the current government? Why should we have a unit that is generating so much funds and leave it to agbero? Even if we don’t take control of the money they are deriving why can’t they take 5 or 10 per cent out of it?
Until you are ready and prepared to fight corruption at all levels, our problem will not be solved.
Can we run through your background?
I run a real estate company in the United States, where I employed other realtors to work under me, so it gives me the flexibility to be able to take off anytime, but real estate has always been my passion. I studied political science at the University of Illinois, Chigaco, where I bagged my Bachelor’s degree, I did my Master in Public Administration at Roosevelt University. After completing my Master, some of my peers were going back to Nigeria, but I decided to sit back and understudy the system.
It’s not by your power, but God just decided to put you there to be able to attain this position, so you can go back and influence your immediate society.
Where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in Lagos Island. I’m a Lagosian, my father side is Sani from Isale Eko, my mother is Ali Balogun, born in Victoria Street, in Moshalashi Jimoh, so I’m a typical Lagos boy. And back in those days, Lagos is like London, there was no need for anybody to travel anywhere because life was good, money was flowing. I just decided to pursue other areas, so that’s how I ended up abroad.
Why do you think new politicians are preferring to join PDP?
For me, PDP represents some semblance of democracy. If you look at the APC right now, you will see that you have to be in line. You are not getting the position based on what you have to offer but which line you belong to, you cannot, on one hand, preach democracy and on the other hand be part of Asiwaju personal property. I don’t want to personalise it but PDP gives you the platforms if you are able to prove yourself. Don’t get me wrong, in all parties there are cabals, it’s like two evils that you have to pick from, but PDP is the lesser evil. Take for instance in Lagos, you have had the same party running the state since 1999. We seem to be stagnant in Lagos now because there is no structure for change, the question to ask Lagosians is if they are ready. You cannot be complaining on one hand and on the other hand collecting rice to vote for the same party.
Why do you think Lagosians find it difficult to change the government?
Honestly, it’s a question of fear. You can suppress people to a certain level, where they do not think it’s possible to change the status quo. Even there are people within that group that truly want a change but they are a minority. If you don’t subscribe to a certain group or don’t hold allegiance to certain leaders within that party, you are not going anywhere. It has been proven time and time again.
I’m not saying everybody in the PDP is a saint or everybody in the APC are a devil, there are devils across the board, what I’m saying is you cannot advocate for a change and still be within the party that held Lagos by the neck. It’s not possible,
People also accuse Lagos PDP that they are not ready to take over the government?
Let me tell you, there are certain elements in the PDP, that for them, it’s a business transaction. We have heard candidates that have come to enrich their pockets. They even collaborate with APC, we know them. How do you explain somebody who received the money in billions to run an election and cannot even account for it. We have it on record, on even house of reps, they collected 144 million nairas, and they cannot even account for 21 million, and as soon as the election is over, they switch camps and parties. Only in Nigeria do we see this kind of nonsense, we know them, they are still working around freely. And we know people that are coming to top PDP to get the nomination and once they get it, they go back to the other party.
So as a party, we need to be assessing our members, what are their antecedents, what impact have they made, what are their track records for us to be able to trust them?
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