My northern roots good for my political aspiration in Lagos — Maude
Why the interest in Lagos politics?
I don’t know, it is just natural… even when I was in school, at the University of Port Harcourt then, I realized we were just the minority, non-indigenes. We tried to come up with an organization for northerners, nonindigenes. So, I was part and parcel of it. Sometimes you don’t achieve things if you don’t play politics. If you refuse to be in politics, you feel you are too much for it, and then those people that you think are not too much for it would go and be deciding for you. Politics has always been in me.
How active have you been in Lagos politics?
Lagos State politics is an advanced politics. I was born and bred in Lagos; I took interest in the politics of the state right from my university days. I was so much in love with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was then the governor of Lagos State.
Don’t you think it will be difficult for you to scale through in Lagos?
I joined politics in Lagos State because of our people. Here, we are still seen as a minority. But, as a Nigerian, I am an indigene of Lagos State because I was born here. We have an organization called South-West Northerners’ Forum; I am the secretary. We have our head office in Ibadan where we hold our meetings quarterly. We also have another organization called ‘Forum of Northern Though his great grandparents are from Kano State, Engr. Awwal Tahir-Maude was born and bred in Lagos State. A politician/businessman, Maude, popularly known as ATM is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), currently vying for the chairmanship of Agege Local Government in Lagos in the forthcoming council election. In this interview, he said with determination, any Nigerian can go to any part of the country and make positive marks. Excerpts: Progressives.’ I am an executive and founding member there also. We do all these to help our people by ensuring peaceful coexistence between us. This is politics; all these organizations liaise with politicians or heads of communities.
You made mention of Asiwaju Tinubu’s style of politics but here you are in the PDP while he is in the APC…
I see Asiwaju Tinubu as a leader of the Yoruba nation and a galvanizing force across the country and therefore a real politician. However, this is politics and I can only fight for my party. He is a leader of a certain party and he is giving his all for the party. I want our leaders to learn from him, learn his strategies, how is he is using it to bring successes to Lagos. He is someone I have a lot of respect for.
Why are you aspiring to be chairman of Agege Local Government?
Agege is my love. The Maude family is almost about fifth or sixth generation in Agege. My grand-mother from my father’s side was born in Ilorin and moved down to Agege and since then, the family has continued to grow. So, we see Agege as our own city. Some people made money in Agege but they didn’t build houses there, they didn’t make any positive impact on the lives of the people.
Most of the northerners in Agege are the ones building fine structures and investing in that local government because we feel we have no other place.
Therefore, I am contesting because of my love for that area and I want to develop it. Go to the hinterlands, the roads are bad; touch the lives of the youths and make them productive.
The population density in Agege is about 61,000 persons per square kilometer. This is to tell you we have manpower to achieve everything and people would learn from us. A lot of funds are coming from international donors on health, on education and as local government chairman, we would go and source for these funds to improve the lives of our people. We can do it; our markets are still very dirty, we can have a decent clean market and create job opportunities.
How have you been able to sell your candidacy to those that matter, especially the party leaders?
We have done our best to make people understand that if you don’t want the status quo to continue, you have to change. If you want to see your area change, you have to think. I have spoken with most stakeholders that we are on a rescue mission in the PDP. It is not a hidden fact that we have been shaky but my first ambition is to bring everybody together. It is not about Sheriff’s or Makarfi’s PDP. We would use this election and cement relationships for good.
Are you not worried with the delay in the conduct of LG election?
It is actually an illegal thing they have on ground. I am talking of the sole administrators and executive secretaries they have been appointing all this while. We are hoping they would do the election between March and April as is being speculated.