•LAGOS PDP Candidate, For KOSOFE Constituency 1, MOYOSORE OGUNLEWE
Moyosore Ogunlewe is the son of Senator Ogunlewe. The handsome politician is the Lagos PDP’s candidate for Kosofe Constituency 1 seat at the Lagos State House of Assembly. He plans to replace Lagos lawmaker, Hon. Bayo Osinowo, popularly called Pepper, who is gunning for the Lagos East Senatorial seat. Though he is young, he is well focused and has garnered political experience as he had contested on elective post during the general elections in 2015.
Last week Wednesday, he was our guest at our weekly City People Political Roundtable, during which he told us how he plans to win.
How has it been moving around campaigning? What has been the feedback?
The feedback has been great. Moving around, meeting with different groups of people on a daily basis. It is quite clear that things have really gone bad in this country, since 2015.
For instance, I was in an area yesterday, and I literally felt the pains of the people. They suffer lack of water and good roads. A lot of things have gone bad. What the Local Government is supposed to be responsible for has been taken away by the State Government. There are lots of problems that need to be addressed. One of the things I would be looking at is to advocate Local Government autonomy. In Kosofe, for instance, N40 million is supposed to be given to Kosofe Local Government every month. But as at this morning, nobody knows where the money is going to. Once the money is paid into the state’s account, you will find out that it is not disbursed to the Local Government. That is why you have many problems of Cultism and all related challenges. Unfortunately, Local Council is financially wealthy to provide welfare of the people within the localty. There are lots of things to be addressed. But with Local Government Autonomy, all these things will be resolved.
So what is the message you are passing on to your constituents?
I have alot of programmes for my constituency. For example, and my question still goes to the government as well. Why is it that we don’t have proper Nursery schools handled by the state government? The Nursery schools have been taken over by the private sector, which shouldn’t be.
One of the Bills I would be sponsoring will be how to make sure that public schools, start from the Nursery. We should have Nursery schools in the public schools where people within the localty could benefit from it. There are about 13 million children out of school in Nigeria, that aspect is something that the government should look into, because that is the basic, and once you don’t get it right from that level,you can never get it right again.
This is your 2nd attempt, what was your first time experience like?
I was in PDP, and I am still in PDP. I scored about 18,750 votes while Hon. Bayo Osinowo scored 18, 837. The difference was about 87 votes. That has gone. I am focusing on 2019. There is a new opponent now. He is Hon. Okanlawon, I wish we can debate. I have a question to ask him. You are a former Secretary of the Local Government, you are a Special Adviser to Gov. Ambode. You cannot tell me you have done a single project in the constituency, and you now want to run for House of Assembly. I am challenging him to a debate. Let’s discuss with people, and let’s tell the whole world what we will do for them. It is not just about godfatherism, where you can just pick anybody you like. We need to stop godfatherism in this country, it’s not working and it is not going to work at all.
How did politics start for you?
I have been involved in politics with my dad, Senator Ogunlewe since the days of Zero Party. I have always been following him around getting and gathering my experience bit by bit. Although he didn’t support me in 2015 because he didn’t want me to get involved in politics. I decided to do it myself, and he respects me for that now, and we have mutual respect for each other. It’s just something I enjoy doing. I enjoy serving the people and that is the most important thing in life.
What forms the foundation of your interest in politics?
Yes, I was part of the Student Union in University of Lagos, at the faculty level, not at the top; but I was part of the key members of the faculty when I was there, before I moved to Buckingham to study Law.
Let’s talk about your growing up?
I was born in Igbogbo, Ikorodu. That is where I am from. I did my primary school in Etal International School, Ikorodu before I went to Chrisland School in Ikeja, I finished from there (First Leaving Certicate), and went to Model College in Igbogbo, Ikorodu for my SSCE, and from there, I went to University of Lagos, where I did Diploma in Business Administration for a year and I later did Diploma in Accounting and after that I got admission to the University of Lagos to study Business Administration.
After 4 years in University of Lagos, I went for NYSC in Kwara, Yepata Local Government to be precise. After that, I sat down with a couple of my friends and decided that I needed to be a professional in my field. To achieve that decision, I went to London to study Law at the University of Buckingham. After studying Law, I did a Master’s in Law, Maritime and Oil & Gas for 1 year, after that, I came back to Nigeria, did my Law school. Presently, I am writing a paper and I would be resuming for my Ph.D in September at University of Lagos.
Looking at what you have achieved so far, why did you choose politics?
I still practise Law because that is my profession. I decided to go into politics because I realised that we have left politics for mediocres; people that don’t have anything to offer. With my background and my education, you can see that I really do not need politics. But that is the problem with Nigerians. The people who get involved in politics in the United States, even in England are well educated people, where you see them share ideas on how to move the country forward, but in Nigeria the system is the other way round. The elite have left politics for people that don’t have anything to offer at all. That is why we are where we are today. And that is where the problem starts from.
So, I decided to go into politics to correct this. Yes! it’s a dirty game, but we are not going to leave it for people that have nothing to offer.
What are the lessons you have learnt? How have you been able to cope and how have you been able to survive?
You just have to be focused and relevant. That is the most important thing in politics. Yes, it takes a lot of things from you. Money and all that, but the most important thing is, I have always been with my people. After politics I still go around, meeting with my people. I pray in 2019 they allow me to show them how things should be run. In Nigeria, we are not doing the right thing and it is quite painful.
It is almost taken for granted that Lagos belongs to the APC. And so it will be tough for anybody coming from other parties like the PDP, to compete and win. What gives you confidence to still want to run and believe that 2019 is your year?
I believe in the the programmes I have. The PDP was also at the Presidency for 16 years and they didn’t believe they were going to lose in 2015. So one day the APC will lose. In 2015, PDP had about 6 House of Reps members and 8 House of Assembly members. It was an unbelievable election. So, 2019 can even be worse. This year, I am sure we would have about 15 House of Assembly members because APC government has failed us. Everything they promised has not been done. It’s very clear and it is everywhere. In 2015, a bag of rice was about 8,500, now it is about 17, 500. I would prefer a government where a bag of rice is 7,000. There are a lot of things’ wrong. I tell you, there is going to be a shocker in this year.
You sound like somebody that has a clear picture of what you want in life. How did you develop your political interest. Because a lot of people expected you to be a daddy’s boy?
A lot of people expected me to be a Daddy’s boy. I am not. Of course, I love my dad so much. But I want to make a difference and how am I going to do that would be determined by me, not my father. My father has done his own bit. And he’s been there for some years now. He is 75 years now; he can not really get involved in active politics like the way he used to. Someone must take over. Its time for him to take the back seat.
What is your view about the Not Too Young to Rule bill?
To tell you the truth, the agenda doesn’t look serious to me. That is my own view. There is more to this politics than #nottooyoungtorule. First of all, we are not ripe for that. Though, its a good thing. Atleast “lots of youths have started coming out to run for different offices, but I can assure you, if you speak with 2 to 3 of them, they will tell you it is a different ball game. Within the time when INEC told different parties to start their campaigns, I know how much I have spent, how much my friends have donated to me, it is a lot of money.
And I look at Sowore that wants to become the President of Nigeria. To me, yes. I want things like that to happen, but it just cannot happen now. And that is the fact. But what I think we need to do as young people is to sit down and speak the truth to ourselves. Recently, I was in a very remote area, I met with some young guys, and when I say who is going to get the money I wanted to give them, they started fighting. These are young guys. Later, some group of guys came out and said they are Cultists. I had to also give them money too. Practically things are different from all we are saying. At a point, I had to wade in to talk to them. I promised to do boreholes for them too because they said they didn’t have water.
But immediately I mentioned money they forgot what I promised to do for them and it turned to a serious fracas that I had to calm them down. This is the level our dear country had degenerated to and we are agitating for not too young to rule.
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