This is the story of Wale Gomez a handsome Lagos politician who is concerned about the state of affairs of Lagos.
Who is the real Wale Gomez? We asked him recently. “I started my educational career in Surulere from Surulere Baptist School. After that, I went to one of the best schools in Lagos, called Birch Freeman High School. 2 years after that my father said he wants the best for me, so he took me to St. Gregory’s College where I graduated and I moved over to America. I got a Federal Government Scholarship where I studied Aeronautics. My life has always been in Business. So after studying Aeronautics I decided I was going to do business. So, I went to London where I studied Business & Finance and Postgraduate at East London University, formerly East London Polytechnic. After that, I came back home, did my Youth Service at Chase Merchant Bank from there I moved to Rims Securities which is an arm of Rims Merchant Bank. From there, I went into business. After some hiccups in business, I moved on to America where I went into Mortgages. In the State of Texas, I was the first licenced Nigerian Mortgage Broker in the State of Texas. I had the biggest Mortgage Bank in Texas and Houston and I moved over to Dallas as well. I had a good set up there until the Mortgage set up crashed and i moved over to London where I worked with 2 national health services. I was head of Corporate Compliance until I decided to move over to Nigeria.”
“When I was in London, I also set up a company called Legend Care of which I was the Managing Director. When I moved back to Lagos, I set up a Petroleum Company of which I was Chairman/Managing Director as well. Finally, I set up another company, Quints Capital, with the sole aim of financing businesses for myself and other people I do Finance for. I then set up another company as an appendage to Quints capital. Its called Campbel & Associates. It is a facility management company and Technology. We bring in Technological products. We have a Walkie-Talkie that is Simbased, that you can be in Lagos and talk to someone in Canada on a Sim Card. That, in a nutshell, is who I am”.
With this level of activities in the world of business, how did he end up in politics? “One thing people do not understand about Politics is that Politics is inborn. You don’t acquire it. All the time I was abroad, over twenty-something years I have always wanted to be in Nigeria. Anytime I come for vacation I always shed tears at what I see because I am used to a certain system that works. When we were in school, we used to beat these white folks. I do not understand how we got to the point where our country will begin to look like this. It really bothered me. So anytime I go and come back, I always say to myself, one day, God will give me a chance to just do something even if it is just 6 months to let me show that we can do it. And that is what I have been doing since I got back. Fortunately, for me, I got married to a Master-politician. So, I am doing my tutelage with her”.
He talks about Lagos a lot. Why is this so? Was he born in Lagos? Did he grow up in Lagos? “I grew up in Lagos. I grew up in Surulere. I grew up in the 4 parts of Surulere-the Olufemi, Ishaga, Adebola and Ojuelegba side. I know Lagos well. I am a Lagos boy. I know what Lagos is all about. My Secondary school was in Surulere and Obalende (Ikoyi). We grew up around that area. This is not the Lagos we grew up in. We grew up in an area where things worked. We can go out at night, come back late, we were safe. There was Security everywhere. That is the Lagos that we knew.
When I was in Secondary School I started playing music. I played all the instruments. I played the Guitar, Drums, Keyboards. When I was young, we used to go and play at Caban Bamboo and some night clubs and they will give us toro toro, kobo kobo and we would go back home. That is how I grew up.”
How did his training abroad influence him? “My training abroad shaped me into what I am today. 80% of the Mortgage brokers in Texas right now are trained by me. I know how to build structures. I know how to do things. I know how to start businesses. I know my dreams for Lagos. I am not saying I want to be Governor now. I know what I expect at this stage of our lives. What scares me more is we have not taken care of the future of our children and those yet unborn. We have messed up in our old age. We’ve all messed up, but we are not planning for the children. This is not the state we want to Lagos to be in. Anytime I go to Abuja I get excited because Abuja has a bit of what we should have in Lagos. But we can do better than this. We can do better than what we have in Lagos now.”
In the recent past, has he made attempts to run for political office? “No, I have never made an attempt. I have never gone into politics. I was involved in the Jimi Agbaje campaign in London. I was seriously upset when he lost”.
What are his views about the way politics is played in Nigeria? “We are just starting. We have 2 major political parties in Nigeria. We have the Progressives (APC) and the Conservatives (PDP) and every other party follow them. People move from one party to the other because there is no ideological stability. We need to stabilise. We need to have parties based on ideologies. Politics in Nigeria could be better run. I am proposing that we have our election on State structure. What that means is that people who should monitor the elections in Lagos State are people from Lagos State. INEC is carrying so much load. The load is so heavy on them. The state should control elections. That is what they do in America. If we are copying them in America lets copy them fully. Let’s do it as they do it. We are still developing and it will improve. Hopefully, we would get better”.
It seems he has a preference for one of the parties, which one? “I am PDP. I am non-apologetic about it. I am PDP. I wish PDP will win Lagos. I hope we get ourselves together in Lagos and hopefully with this coming dispensation, with its right executives, I hope Lagos will be for PDP.”
What does he think is the problem of PDP in Lagos? How come PDP has not been able to win in Lagos? “From my own perspective, one of the reasons why we have not won in Lagos is the structure that we have in place. As a PDP member, we have to be determined to win Lagos. I think that determination has always not been there. But I am seeing that determination now. The structure is now getting determined to win. I am not apologetic. I am with Chief Bode George. He is my brother. He is my role model. I am Bode George. Politics is a game of Numbers. And politics is a game of Structure & Planning. The standard we have in Lagos PDP right now is not strong enough to compete with APC.”
“So we need to rejig what we have, put ourselves together and plan better and by Gods Grace hopefully things will get better”. Why has he been in PDP all these years? “I believe in the PDP structure. I believe in the last election we did our very best. I believe PDP is the place to be. PDP is the only party in Nigeria that is strong. That is why we are still standing. Any other party would have fallen. That is the reason why we are still standing. I am in PDP. I am a card-carrying member of PDP and I am non-apologetic about it”. How does he see APC’s handling of Lagos? “They could do better. That is what I can say for now. They could do better because there are so many things happening that should not be happening. I think and I know that they could do better than this.
– Seye Kehinde
