Hon. SEYI JAKANDE
What is your assessment of politics generally in Nigeria, and Lagos in particular? What are your general impressions of how politics is being played right now?
I think I mentioned that the politics that is being played now is not efficient and it cannot be effective, right? Because the essence of politics itself is governance. You can’t take governance away from politics. For governance, politics is all about democracy, the greatest good for the greatest number of people. So you must have people that have the genuine empathy and not just a kind of personal passion. Because people try to show that they are passionate about people only for them to get their votes. So you must look at the background. Where are you coming from? Where have you discovered this passion from? A lot of people wake up from their sleep and say, I want to lift my people up. So, people must create that time to understand the movement. And most importantly, you must participate. People must come to that space so that they are able to actively get involved and not just sit around and criticise. We have too many people sitting on the fence. And I will tell you, clearly, when you flash back at all levels of governance, I mean all the governments that we have had in the history of this country, perhaps even way back from the Second Republic, you realize that it is easy, very easy for people to gather numbers together for protests. It is easy for us to go on strike. And these are demonstrations against policies of governments.
You can think back and see the number of people that have come together to generate protests and go against government policies. However, less than 10% of these people are not eligible voters, but they do not participate in the process of voting. Whereas when it comes to the process of voting, if you ask most Nigerians, they will tell you there is a long queue for them to go and get registered, and even then when you go to the voting center, it is kind of very cumbersome, thats what they say all the time. But when you look at the process of protests, sometimes you have to walk long distance to carry out the demonstration. Whereas, it takes you a few minutes, maybe an hour, to exercise your civic responsibility, so if more people will show more responsibility and patriotism, so that we can all put our heads together, put these numbers together and achieve the unachievable .You see, we must start to have a process that will bring the best of us, because governance is about presenting the best of all of us to administer what is for all of us, and not to administer for yourself. So, at all times, we must strive to choose the best for all of us.
How can you describe how politics started for you?
How? I would say politics, like I said, is not a career. And I would say, if I want to satisfy your expectation, I was born into politics.
You were explaining that transition before we threw another question at you, which was the question about at what point you decided you were going into politics and follow Baba’s footsteps. Share with us whatever it was you were doing as a private person before venturing into politics?
So, I think, like I said, I’ve answered that question, right? But obviously, your qestion and expectation of my answer demands a bit of clarity. The thing is that, we all assume that you’re not a politician until you aspire. So when people see you aspiring, they say, when did you start politics? When did you join politics? So there’s been link of the two, that for you to be a politician, they will see your banner. Like my friend here, now, we say he’s not a politician, but once they see his banner next to me, they will ask, when did you start politics? When did you join politics? So people try to draw a line there. But for me, I think showing aspiration towards certain positions of office takes a lot of responsibility, first of all. And then it takes a lot of re-evaluation of the task at hand, understanding it, and then believing that you have the capacity to actually deliver on it.
So, of course, because the process that we practice in this part of the world is democracy and you must have gone through those stages in order for you to be able to meet up, that does not literally mean that is when you started politics. So, having defined that method of politics, I’ll take you back to how I started politics, which brings me back to the answer that I gave to you, that I was born into politics. And then we’re all political animals. But when you now come from under the kind of environment that you came out from and people say, when did you start politics? Then you have to look at the date. Did you graduate from it? When did you give the date? How did you come about the date? What has validated that particular date? And the date you actually gave, who has certified it? So many questions around it.
Okay, before we move on to other questions, I would like to take this one last question that still revolves around Baba. If you look back, what are some of the things that you can say Baba taught you or that you learned from him and you apply to your everyday interaction and dealings with people?
Well, you see, its quite unfortunate that we, the immediate family I mean, we didn’t have the luxury of what we can actually say that is special to us with Baba. Baba was father to all. He was fair to everybody. And he treated everybody as his children, you know. And I’ll give an example, like, when Baba was building the public schools, you know, you just told me that you’re a product of that public school and without the public school, you would not be where you are today. In otherwords, you are also a product of the same system, right? And when he built those schools, he moved all of us, his children, from the private school to those public schools.
So that’s why, and I explained moments ago, that the only difference between what Baba has done for you and me is the blood that we, his biological children share together with him. You know, he gave everything he has freely to everybody, and it was not just in the public space alone. For instance, if you go to Baba and say you need his assistance, you’re looking for employment or for any kind of assistance, Baba attends to everybody. He puts a pen on his paper, gives you a recommendation letter to the company of your choice. The only difference in the letter he would write to you and me is that he wl indicate that ‘he’s my son,’ but everything else is the same. He writes the letter and he signs it and he tells you, if you have any problem, my number is there, call me. He’s never going to ask what tribe you are from, where you are from, or what religion you practice, that never mattered to him and his door was open to everybody. And he did that to his very last day.
