Posted By Admin
By Dedeigbo Ayodeji
The Principal Co-ordinator of Lagos 4 Lagos, Mr. olabode Makinde Benson, has stressed the need for a change in Lagos.
Benson made this declaration at Ketu 
during the birthday party of a gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him: “Lagos 4 Lagos is a movement with many attributes. It actually started with philanthropy to help the poor and the physically challenged people; from there we graduated to politics because Lagos 4 Lagos has come to realise that there is no amount of wealth you could have but if you did not include politics in it you might not be able to scale through.
“Our intention is to make sure that Lagos State has a better government representation. We have this intention that Lagos State must be represented by a Lagosian.
Benson insisted that his group must work for Lagosians, adding that they intend to stop the people from being further deceived by some people that had been manipulating them for long.
“Lagos 4 Lagos,” he said, “means Lagos must be worth it for Lagosian, but who are the Lagosians?”
He categorised Lagosians into four: indigenous Lagosians; non-indigneous Lagosians, the businessmen and women, who come to do businesses in one way or another and the visitors.
He said: “Everybody that comes to Lagos, Lagos must work for them.
What do I mean by Lagos must work for them? The moment you are living in Lagos, whether you are an indigene or non-indigene, you should be able to know that this Lagos I’m living in works for me.
“Everything about Lagos I have imputed for the past 20-21 years Lagos had be working for only one person. I asked myself a question before we now suggested to say let us look for somebody who is okay for us and can stand a chance to make sure Lagosians are progressive. So, Lagos 4 Lagos means anything that has anything to do with Lagos.
“We don’t use leader in Lagos 4 Lagos. We have lead visioner in some quarters; we call it symbol. In another quarters, we call it AC, we don’t want to be using AC now until when the time has come. For now, the Lead Visioner, LV, is the only man in Lagos State the only man is the man that has been doing something different; he is Doctor AbdulAzeez Olajide Adediran.”
Benson also talked about the recent local governnment poll in the state, which recorded Los turnout.
However, he explained: “The turnout for the local council election was very poor because the planning and the arrangement too was so poor when there is no good foundation.
“Our democratic foundation has affected our party, which is APC.
We started from a very poor stage, everything must be poor.
“On our own part, as a member of Lagos 4 Lagos, we just want to do a new thing. We’ve been in the same circle for the past 21 years, if you look at the democratic dividends, if you look at the human power dividends, if you look at the infrastructural dividends they are very poor. Why?Because you have not taken the people into consideration. We are only taking ourselves into consideration.
“As for Lagos 4 Lagos, we want a Lagos that will work for Lagosians. We want a Lagos that everybody that lives in Lagos feels the impact of the governance of Lagos whether you are an indigene, businessmen and women, resident, even an ordinary visitor, we want in a situation whereby I can decide by saying I want to travel to New York, or Washington how do you feel when I return from the trip, to appreciate it in my life.
“We want Lagos that if anybody will come to Lagos, whether you are a visitor, resident, indigene Lagos must work for you.
“Lagos has been working for only one person and we have not seen the dividend. For us as Lagos 4 Lagos, we want a change. We want people that are visitors or residents or an indigene to knows that Lagos is the commercial capital of Nigeria; the place that we all know that without Lagos we can not make it.
“Lagos is a metropolitan environment that everybody lives, and if you come here to Lagos you should have confidence.
“I have been in the APC for the past 21 years; in the constitution of APC we don’t have national leader. I don’t know maybe it is the self-acclaimed.
The man called Jagaban, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is our leader whether it is national or not, he is our leader; a leader is a leader.
“Jandor is never a leader but aspirant, Jandor is different because he is not an aspirant from anybody. To us, our leader is respected but we don’t know we don’t want a maximum leader; we want a democratic leader that will listen to everybody. Lagos state had been the New York, the Washington of Nigeria; that is why everybody loves coming to enjoy the dividends of Lagos.
“Jandor is not sponsored by anybody. Nobody had giving Jandor a dime to support him in Lagos.
He stated that Jandor is self-sponsoring and has no godfather.
“The former governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola, had been a Jandor leader. Jandor had not collected a dime from anybody.
Jandor had been sponsoring himself; that doesn’t mean that he is disrespecting the leaders. He had determined to do it himself.
We want change in Lagos; we have been in bondage for very long years. So, people see us an enemy of the party because we want a change.
“We don’t want to bother about any name they called us; all we want is a new thing. As at today, a child that was born 25 years ago must have graduated or if not graduated he or she could be about to graduate.
“I’m not Jandor; I’m only the principal coordinator, but I cannot be coordinating somebody I will not know his mind.
“Lagos 4 Lagos should be able to know the importance of the youth.
These youth that had been on the streets for years everything you ask them to do they have done it. They have gone to school, they have graduated, but nothing to show for it. There is no available space to do that.
“At government level, they don’t have the interest of our youth in mind. But our youth, Jandor as a governor.
He had been a friend of ACN for a very long time. He got his wealth, everything he has, he got through his personal effort. He had never contested for any political post.
“If you look at where we started from, we started from the foundation, assisting people; one of the most surprising things is that we have over 150 students in tertiary institutions and university, which Jandor is responsible for their school fees from 100 level to 400 level free, whether you are from the East or from the West. He empowered artisans like tailors and others; he bought them equipment to do their job. He had been doing his for the past six years.
“When he now showed interest in politics, at least, if he had become the governor of Lagos State, he should be able to do more as a governor, and if I have all opportunity to assist him, what am I waiting for?
“When he came out soliciting to be the governor of Lagos State, a lot of people misinterpreted him, that you, you want to be governor, to me I believed someone that had done great things like these needs to be encouraged.
“I’m telling you that the moment Jandor’s name appears on the ballot paper, Jandor will win.”
Also speaking, Felix Olusunkanmi Odusanya, the state legal officer of the movement, said Lagos 4 Lagos means that Lagos must work for all Lagosians.
He said: “We are talking about Lagos residents and you know when you talk about resident, it could be indigene, non-indigene, all are represented and, of course, before we get to where we are today as Lagos 4 Lagos, we started somewhere.
Most especially our Lead Visioner, that’s our symbol, Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, started about 10 years ago, as a philanthropist.
When you thought of giving back to the society having seen the suffering going around the state, he feels that since the government cannot take care of our need some individual who have the ability must come in to support. So, he started giving to the society and, of course, later we got to that level where we have Jandor.
“We started with a foundation, known as Jandor Foundation, supporting people like less privilege homes, indigent members of the society. That is why today the name Jandor is everywhere on the lips of common people in Lagos State.
“There are lots of empowerments he has done, when you talk about giving to the artisans, suppoting in people here and there; giving back to also supporting educational well being because as at today, I know the foundation has about 300 students in tertiary institutions.
“Sometime back, we had a body that was called Bill Eko, which was purely for the indigenes of Lagos State. This is a body that also came out.
“Of course, when people say Lagos is a no man’s land, but we know quite alright that everybody knows where he or she comes from. So, it is not just too polite that a particular place is a no man’s land and since the person who owns that land said okay let us look for ourselves that was what came came about this. We have all tribes represented; the Yoruba, Lagos Yorubas, South-South, Ndigbo, Arewa, Hausa, they all have their blocks in that place.Though we are Lagos 4 Lagos, the merger of those bodies gave back to Lagos 4 Lagos is purely for Lagosians. Lagos 4 Lagos comprises the indigenes and non-indigenes that live in Lagos.
“Our submission is that Lagos must work for them. If you are a journalist in Lagos, artisan or whatever you are in Lagos, you must pay taxes.
We should see the dividends of democracy; we must get the benefit of the tax we are paying. So, Lagos should stop working for one man or two persons; they should start working for all of us.
“Lagos is expected to have good road network, the economy of the state should be better. If you look around the state except somebody is deceiving you, you will observe that looking at the revenue coming in from the state and federal in terms of projects are nothing to write home about. This was the reason some of us came together to form Lagos 4 Lagos. The Lead Visioner, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, spoke to some of us that we should sit, plan together for the development of Lagos.
“Lagos 4 Lagos came as a result of maladministration being known around the country that concerned about the leadership and the administration. Before going into that, let me also say that Lagos 4 Lagos movement have the right to exist as a body and members of Lagos 4 Lagos have the right to join the association of whichever they want to belong to.
“Before today, Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran is 43 years old, this is the man, who had been doing this doing in the past 10 years, without holding the smallest political office; without getting any appointment either from the commissioner anywhere. If there is any definition you give wealth, I will tell you that he is wealthy to perform.
Jandor already knows the problem of Lagosians, which he is able to solve. Jandor has listening ears; he listens to word of advice. Jandor is a proactive person.
“I must tell you that with him Lagos State residents are going to have the best of leadership and the best of administration.”
