23rd September, 2011
Hon. Monsuru Ashamu Ola, MAO, Chairman, Igando/Ikotun LCDA, in this interview with Political Platform, speaks on his achievements in office and the forces against his second term ambition.
What are your achievements?
My achievements are quite phenomenal and incomparable. Road construction is one of my major achievements. Things are not quite normal here because when you talk about mega city, the local governments are supposed to be working at par with the state government. When we came into office, the whole LCDA was in chaos. Chaos in the sense that there was no way the residents could transit from Ikotun to Ijegun and Igando in 10 or 15 minutes. They would spend atleast four hours because of traffic gridlock on these roads.
Immediately I assumed office, I went round and I discovered four access roads, Fashina, Obadeyi, Latifat and Alani-Ige streets and we set out to tar them. In the course of doing this, the state government came to our assistance. Out of the four that we identified, one was taken over by the state, leaving the remaining three for us to do. As I’m speaking with you now, we have completed the three while work is ongoing on the fourth one and I believe that in the next couple of weeks or months, it will be ready for use and that will completely take away the traffic bottleneck from this axis.
Presently, we have been able to reduce traffic congestion by 90 pe cent and by the time the fourth one is completed, we would have achieved 100 per cent traffic flow. By and large, we have been able to deliver the dividends of democracy to our people in that aspect. In the area of rural electrification, we give transformers to the CDAs. We have nine communities under Igando/Ikotun LCDA and transformer was distributed to each of them. By political settings, we have seven wards, comprising of nine communities.
Therefore, we go beyond the seven by spreading our projects and programmes across the nine communities. We also sink boreholes and construct culverts. This are the reasons it was difficult for the people to say anything negative about our administration because when you talk about service delivery, according to the people, there is no doubt that we have performed well. They are the judge and we are connected to them because we ran a people-friendly government. With all intent and purposes, we have delivered on our electoral promises to the people.
Beside roads, drainages and culverts, what are your other achievements?
Right now, as we speak, we have four blocks of classrooms that have been built to lintel stage and we intend to complete is as soon as fund is available. We have also distributed desks, benches and exercise books to the primary schools in the LCDA. The orphanage and pregnant woman were not left out. The aged also benefited through the health mission programme. We offer them free health services which include blood, hypertension, high blood pressure tests and free eye glasses among others.
You described your achievement as being phenomenal and at the same time the cause of your problems in the LCDA. What do you mean by this?
I always say we did not meet anything on ground when we came in. So, the little success that we achieved was creating some kind of problems for some people. It is quite expected that if one is doing well, some people get hurt. The problem I’m having here is not that I have not performed but because of the phenomenal projects and programmes that we are able to carry out in a short while. They are unprecedented and incomparable.
We set out to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people and this we have been able to achieve and they, surprisingly, have become the cause of my problems in this LCDA.
How are you sure this is the cause of your predicament?
I do hear them. I get feedback from the people. There is no how the people will praise you, some will still want to pull you down. From the reactions that I got from them, it was like; what has he done? What has he achieved? In actual fact, they themselves did not achieve anything when they were there. They don’t have anything tangible that they can point to as their achievement.
At least today, there are many things that I can point to as my achievements while in office. What gladdens my heart is that so far, nobody has come out to say Ola did not perform since he came into office and in that regard he will not return for a second term.
Therefore, if I didn’t come back for second term, it will not be because I have not performed but because of unforeseen circumstances.
Will this not weigh you down in performing your statutory duties to the people?
Never. The down fall of a man is not the end of his life. My not coming back for a second term is not the end of my political career. Rather, I foresee a brighter and rewarding future ahead of me.
What advice do you have for your political adversaries?
My advice for them is that they should take it easy and tread softly because whatever they do today will affect them, positively or negatively, tomorrow and what goes around comes around.
I’m not out to tarnish anybody’s image. I did not do it before I came into office and I will never do it. I’m a muslim and I don’t harbour enmity or unnecessary hatred against anybody.
I don’t tell lies and I detest people who tell lies. They tried mischievously to tarnish my image, pull me down and rubbish my reputation by dragging my name in the mud, all in an attempt to take over from me and gain the people’s sympathy. Well God knows best.