11th February, 2011
Prince Bisi Yusuff, the Chairman of Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, candidate for the Alimosho constituency 01 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, in this interview with Political Platforms, speaks on his ambition and other issues.
Why are you vying for the State Assembly seat?
Well, I am contesting because that is the wish of my people. My people demanded that I contest because they believe in my ability and the fact that I will give them quality representation.
You are moving from the executive post to the legislature. How convenient do you think this would be?
That is a very good platform, I think, because my recommendation will even be that before you go to the House of Assembly, you have to be a grassroots person. You have to live in the midst of the ordinary people, to know their feelings and their aspirations.
You have to know the multi- dimensional problems that they are facing. It is when you know all these that you will know how to articulate their yearnings and aspiration at the floor of the house.
Apart from the fact that your people want you to contest, how prepared are you?
I am very prepared. I’m always prepared.
What do you intend to do to surpass what the incumbent representative has done for the constituency?
Well, Hon. Adelabu has done a lot for the people of this constituency and I want to tell you that I will build on what he has done. Definitely, I know that when I get there, I will try as much as possible to live up to the people’s expectation.
As a local government chairman, a grassroots politician, you seem to know where the shoe pinches your people. As their new representative, how do you intend to alleviate their suffering?
Definately, that is what I called quality representation. For instance, in the area of infrastructural development, Alimosho is bigger than so many states in the federation and therefore, my focus will definitely be on that.
In terms of road development, we are lagging behind; this area is going to be my number one priority because Ipaja-Ayobo has not witnessed much in terms of infrastructural development in the last couple of years, likewise Agbado Oke-Odo and Mosan Okunola and Alimosho Federal Constituency.
Governor Fashola has embarked on a project in Alimosho as a mega/model city and we in the House of Assembly would try as much as possible to encourage him to quicken action on it. If we could achieve this aim, Alimosho will become a centre of excellence in the centre of excellence.
How soon should the people of Ayobo-Ipaja be expecting their roads to be motorable?
Already it is done. You can see that we now have about 10 BRT buses plying our roads. So, the palliative measure has started and the governor has awarded the contract. It is going to be a dual-carriage road from Moshalasi to Aiyetoro.
It will commence very soon after the completion of Egbe-Idimu/Iyana-Ipaja Road, and it will then be our turn but I just have to appeal to my people to exercise some patient. Now that I am going to a higher level, definitely, there will be a lot of improvement.
How did the voter registration fare in your area?
When you see a good product, the people will rush it. It is the work that governor Fashola has done with the little ones that I put up, that made the people to come out en masse to participate in the exercise but unfortunately, we could not register all eligible voters because of inadequate DDC machines. If the DDC machines were enough, we would have registered over one million would-be voters in this LCDA.
Now that the registration exercise has ended, what machinery have you put in place to ensure the success of ACN in your domain?
By the special grace of God, we have started. You can see the kind of jamboree that Jonathan is putting up. Ours is more than that. This campaign is more than gathering, singing and dancing. What we are going to tell the people is just the issue.
The issues that affect the ordinary people on the street, the issues that will alleviate their sufferings. The issues that will put food on their table, give them electricity, good road network, transportation, education and water; the issue that will affect the social life of the people and how to reduce social problems in our society.
We will engage in debate with those who want to contest against us. Let us have an open debate, let us invite them so that they can engage us in a debate on what we want to do for our people. This are the issues we want to tackle because this campaign is gong to be scientific.