Lagos Assembly crisis under control – APC spokesman

The Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Seye Oladejo, in a chat with Weekend Trust insisted the crisis in the Lagos House of Assembly is just a “storm in the tea cup” which would be resolved in no distant time. He said the party had gone through a stormier crisis which did not disintegrate the party.

Going by the crisis in Lagos House of Assembly, do you think the APC in Lagos as presently constituted is one?

Lagos APC is more united than ever. Disagreement among members of the state assembly that incidentally even has an opposition legislator, cannot be misconstrued to mean disarray within APC as a party.

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Let me put it on record, from time immemorial, legislative arms at the various spheres (the local government, the state and the federal) have always clamoured for their independence to be upheld. And as a party, we have always respected that.

Whatever intervention people might be looking forward to, you’ll agree with me, will still remain basically advisory because whatever has to be done will be done in the hallowed chamber of the House of Assembly. That’s where it becomes binding on all the members. And our focus as a party remains that as a government, we should not be distracted from delivering on the mandate given to us by the people of Lagos. So it is just like two siblings of the same parents, if they disagree, which is bound to happen once in a while, does that mean the family has disintegrated? No. There will be reasons for reconciliation. It will be give and take.

And this case will not be different, believe me. We’ve gone through more stormy tides. I mean, there was a time where virtually anybody that was anything in the progressive family wanted to be governor. We still resolved and we moved on and we won the election. This is not as difficult as that, you will agree with me. So it’s nothing to worry about. We empathise with the opposition who are busy gloating and celebrating over what I consider to just be a storm in the cup.

But we will all be alive to witness the end of this little disagreement and things will return to normal, in no distant future.

So you think what is going on is not a distraction to the government?

No, it’s not a distraction. The work of the government goes on. The work of the party continues. We’re preparing for local government elections and everything. So, all these issues will be resolved in no time. Be rest assured. And people at the highest level are intervening and talking to all the members as it were. As a party, you’ll agree with me that we should not be seen to be taking sides, but looking for a peaceful resolution that will make the house return to what it used to be.

A lot of people are concerned that the president has not addressed the problem. Some say he  may be losing grip on his home state…

We will not allow people, whoever they may be, to reduce the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief, to just the leader of Lagos APC. And the president will not leave the enormity of the assignment that he has on his desk in Abuja, the serious issues, political, security, a whole lot of things, to just come and sit in Lagos to settle family squabbles. The president has able lieutenants who are on top of this, who are doing everything possible to settle this. The president is beyond the leader of Lagos politics. He is the national leader of the country. And we will not, on the basis of this little disagreement, allow anybody to reduce the status of the president. You can quote me on this: everything is under control.

What are your words to the contending parties in this crisis?

Let them just uphold the fact that all these activities, all these back and forth, will also someday become history. So we should all be mindful of what history will say about us, the way posterity will judge us. We shouldn’t create problems that at the end of the day we will wish, you know by hindsight and retrospect, that we didn’t take some actions. If they have that at the back of their minds that this thing will become history and it will be resolved, I think everything will return to normal sooner than we can think.