You need to see what happened in Lagos governorship debate - It'll leave you speechless!

Intelligent ideas on how to move Lagos state forward were in abundance at the 2015 Lagos State Gubernatorial Debates held at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Cathedral in Ikeja on Thursday, January 15.

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Topics that dominated the discussion were education, urban transportation, security and alternative ways of generating revenue for the state. However, although some of the contestants clearly showed that they have no business contesting for the governorship position of Nigeria’s centre for commerce, the overall performance surpassed previous debates.

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According to Premium Times, the contestants relied on statistics from the government, the World Bank and the United Nations to buttress their points. One thing was clear to the audience: except for a few candidates, whoever emerges winner in the February 21 election, Lagos would be in good hands if the words said on Thursday are matched with action.

The event started a few minutes past 11 a.m., but the church pews were already completely filled with members of the public, and a good number of others, who couldn’t find seats, had to stay outside.

The debate was moderated by the Bishop Theologian of the Church and former Chaplain of Lagos State University, Dapo Asaju, who is a professor of theology.

The panelists for the debate were President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Femi Adesina, Managing Director Excel Professional Services Limited, Oladimeji Alo, and Managing Director, Business World Newspapers, Ray Echebiri.

Bishop of the Dioceses of Lagos West, Olusola Odedeji, appealed to the contestants to shun violence, saying that the election is an order to serve and there should be reason for violence.

Below is an analysis of what 5 of the candidates presented as their plans for the state, and Premium Times’ assessment of how well they performed. Candidates are rated on the scale of 1-10 based on how articulately they presented their plans and the practicality of some of their ideas.

1. Abiodun Popoola (Labour Party)

The surprise participant of the day was the Labour Party candidate. While other parties were represented by their substantive governorship candidates, the Labour party was represented by its deputy governor candidate, Abiodun Popoola. Mr Popoola explained that the party’s governorship candidate was in Abuja for an urgent assignment and couldn’t attend. Mr. Popoola reeled out ideas that were so radically brilliant for a running mate that one had to wonder if the gubernatorial candidate was a super human.

Mr. Popoola was articulate, and his plans for the state appeared well-rehearsed and delivered with the confidence of a star performer. He announced his entry into the race by declaring that Lagos can no longer afford mediocre leadership since a number of countries look upon the city as a beacon of hope in the continent.

Mr. Popoola, a career banker and pastor, said his party represents the teeming majority of poor Lagosians. He said his party’s main vision for the state is anchored on Education, Security and infrastructural renewal. Making reference to the high failure rate in the school certificate examination in the state, he said education in the state is in a shambles. He promised a complete review of the educational policy and promised the re-introduction of school inspectors to ensure standards are adhered to. He lambasted Nigerians for putting too much emphasis on music and the entertainment industry while science and other developmental aspects of society suffer.

On free education he said: “The problem with Nigeria are people who went to free schools.” He said professors of the Lagos State University should be flogged for asking for more subventions from the government. He said as professors they should learn to think outside the box for sources of funding for the universities.
He was confident and articulated his point clearly. Mr Popoola’s performance at the debate underscored the need for the smaller parties to be more visible and articulate with their plans as some them have ideas that are particularly novel and worth trying.

Score: 6/10

2. Ishola Aregbesola (Action Alliance)

Mr. Ishola was the class clown of the day and the butt of all jokes. He obviously hadn’t given the thought of becoming governor any serious consideration. He seemed to be one of those political jobbers who seek elective offices hoping to be called aside by the top parties and compensated with appointments.

He started by cracking up the audience. He announced that he did not prepare for the debate because he was not formally invited. He explained that he had only attended the debate as an observer but his name was mentioned as a participant so he decided to join the other contestants. He spent the first 10 minutes granted each contestant reeling out his life history and could only manage to say he would ensure free education in the state is legislated before his time ran out.

Score: 1/10

4. Jimi Agbaje (Peoples Democratic Party)

By miles, Mr. Agbaje was the star of the debate. He took other contestants to the cleaners with his masterful delivery and his use of statistics and data from government and international organizations. Unlike the raucous response some of the contestants elicited from the audience, any time Mr. Agbaje spoke the audience stayed quiet.

He started by saying that, being a small scale business man himself, he knew what it takes to run a small scale enterprise and his government would give priority attention to SMEs in the state.

Agbaje said his vision for Lagos was for it to be a mega city where a Lagosian would live in a secure and prosperous environment. “I want to build a Lagos where people can realise their aspirations,” he said.

He said the incumbent government is paying lip service to the development of primary education: “All that we do with education is to pay recurrent expenditure 80 per cent of the budget of education is spent on recurrent expenditure. The government spends 3 per cent of its budget of primary education. This is poor,” he said.

He said he would revitalise vocational skills and education so people with a vocational education don’t merely end up as roadside vulcanizers and welders of burglary proofs.

He promised to create an all-inclusive Lagos that represents the cosmopolitan nature of the state: “What makes Lagos bubble is the fact that it brings people from everywhere. The day you begin to deport, Lagos becomes a village.”

He also tactfully directed all his responses to the policies of the incumbent, APC government. This was a smart move as it placed his policies side by side with the incumbent’s and allowed the listener to quickly appraise the better policy.

Score: 9/10

5. Akinwumni Ambode (All Progressives Congress)

As the candidate of the incumbent party, Mr. Ambode was placed on the defensive most of the time and this affected his performance during the debate. However, he gave a good account of himself. With a boyish smile permanently stamped on his face, if he was worried by the attacks and taunts directed at him by the other contestants, he did not show it. While he spent most of the time explaining how he would make the policies of the incumbent administration better, he did not articulate many of his own original ideas.

He said public service is a noble service and promised to bring the wealth of experience he had garnered from over 25 years of public service to running the state.

“I am an accountant: you can count on me. My call to you is to stand up and be counted.”
He said his vision for Lagos is that of leadership and accountability, good governance and quality service.

Mr. Ambode promised to build an educational trust fund to cater for unemployed youths in the state. He also promised to build studio apartments for the state’s teeming youth to ease the housing difficulty in the state.

Score: 7/10

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