Somtochukwu

Discussing the relational abilities with the people he serves through social media by stating that the people want to relate with their leaders for the reason that some of them do not see their leaders as human per se and they are looking forward to interacting with them thus bringing those who lead them closer to the youths in General.

Hon Wasiu Eshilokun Sanni is one of the outstanding leaders who have been in service for a long period and has shown his commitment acknowledging that the Nigerian law-makers plays very important parts in the development of the national and state economy.
As an Economics Professional, Somtochukwu embarked on a journey to interview the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly based on the projects and works he does in the society for the Our Leaders, Our Hope Programme.

Enjoy as you read through this series;

We understand that while you were younger, you were the senior prefect of your school and you have actually been involved in politics right from your university days. So, tell us what young people can do in their process and journey of leadership.

Ermm, I don’t know the best way to tackle your question, but what I can tell people is that they should listen more to themselves in the pursuit of their career, what makes them happy. A set of things that they think they can do that they derive happiness and pleasure from and also when one is young or when one is in his youth, they should be able to focus and think about the way and manner they want to contribute to the society. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the most important thing is that it is not how many times one falls, but how you pick yourself and start all over again.

So, when you look at some leaders, like, Abraham Lincoln, who failed and lost on up to 20 elections, both presidency, councillorship, and the rest, but he didn’t allow those challenge to stop him from trying again. At the end of the day, he got the highest prize and he was able to contribute to the nations building. For other careers, you start low and get to the highest; that are more predictable, if you are nurse, you start from level 8 and get to probably level 17. Even in entrepreneurship, you get into a trade or service you start as the head of your company or agency and then you can expand or progress with the company.

For politics, I don’t think that there is any hard and fast rule about it.  But, the only thing that I have found funny nowadays is that,  most young people will rather want to contest elective positions, for me I started form the party, I started as the vice chairman of my ward and I was a graduate then, I started as the vice chairman of my ward, it was the leverage that I got being the vice chairman of the party  in my ward,  my contribution, I was up and doing at the local government election and I think Prince Demola Adeniji who was chairmanship candidate, he became the chairman and after becoming the chairman, there are other elective positions like honourable member of the house, house of reps,  that you can look forward too. And I found out that, well, I look at myself and I look at other colleagues or seniors and I found out that I have a qualification that they didn’t have or more.

So, I think that I am also qualified that I was also qualified to  contest for these positions and I contested but,  then I was told that I was young, you know, those times that I was not married, and that there are other people  who have contributed to the party that they should compensate. So, I understood and I found out that with time I will get to where I want to be. But eh, the military rule, when the annulment of Chief MKO Abiola came and everything got scattered and there was resistance and I don’t need resistance. And, at the end of it all, in 1998, I was now rewarded House of Assembly position. I won the election in around then, about 1998 or 1999, but we were not sworn in between 1999. But, the process of giving you the ticket was not done then.  I was given the house of assembly ticket as a compensation for the struggle, I didn’t even think that I had N300,000 and I still won the election. I won the election because those times, people voted based on their conscience, based on the party that they loved, there was no inducement, no nothing.

But, the thing I am saying is that it was given, not by everyone in the party, by majority of the party, especially those who mattered. I still went for the primaries with other contestants but then, it was easy winning the election and the party/platform was popular and I still won the general. Thereafter, the sustenance is another thing, how you are able to sustain yourself when you get to the high court. Where you want to start from and how you sustain yourself in power is an entirely different ball game entirely. But, the most important thing is for you to serve diligently and for you to serve your people and let the people know that you serve them. But their desire should always be in your mind, so you pray to Almighty Allah or Almighty God for guidance and favour.

Okay Sir, we understand that you occupy the position of the Deputy Speaker; can you brief us on your roles, and expectations from the people?

The expectation that people have of me and the ability to justify their expectations of my position is a different thing entirely and I will try my upmost best to satisfy my constituents. My role in the Assembly is basically to deputize or to assist the speaker of the state assembly and to always be ready to fill in for him whenever he is not around. Others are incidental to those.

Some other duties are that, I always chair the public hearing. The fact that you are a Deputy Speaker does not mean that when they bring up motions on the floor of the house, that are very very important, that you wouldn’t contribute. People look up to you; they look up to your ability to give good contributions especially where it matters. You do not have to give contributions everytime, but, when you decide to, you must be able to make contributions that counts.

As the Deputy speaker, and representative of Lagos Island Constituency I, what is your vision about development of the community and what are you presently doing?

First, one starts by looking at your community, there must be things that one may have promised the people and should deliver. The Governor of the state is the chief development officer and your role is basically to provide funds for those developmental projects. Therefore, it is the House of Assembly that will do the final sectorial allocation for all of these sectors of the economy. It is from there that one has to look at what will be given to your own constituency.

Once they sense that your constituency is doing fine, there are other areas that they will want to look at critically that are less developed than your community. You must also understand and give support so that other communities can develop, because if they don’t develop, they will bring their problems to the developed community. They wouldn’t be able to live or have a sustainable income in their rural community, so, they flock the urban centre. Hence, we need to support the government to develop all of these in order to reduce the pressure in the urban centre. So, we provide the fund and we also do a lot of sensitization work to see that a developed society comes to past.

Talking about Sustained Economic Development, we will like you to discuss your achievements on Infrastructural Development.

In the 90s about 1999 or 2000, 2e had this kind of problem that you are talking about in Lagos, whereby representatives of different communities in the Assembly will want one thing or the other to be done in his/her constituency. Maybe, something that has not been there before but can open up the economy of the place, some will want electricity, and some want roads to connect cities, some wants to be connected to the Fashola Bridge and other things. So, when I was the chairman of business rules and standing order of this great house in 1999, I usually have problems and conflicting needs because so many of my friends will want their motions to be heard.

What I found out is that after each motion and desolation is created by the house, there is actually no or little knowledge from the executive and  what we is being said is that the project is not being provided for. So, if the stated project is not in the budget and there is need for it, it cannot be implemented.

Hence, I had to sit and think of a way to solve this problem, thus I came about the Constituency Development Project Bill which is an additional allocation to constituencies that is based on priority. In it, I said that, all constituencies in the state should be allocated 15% of the capital budget. This capital budget will be used in various constituencies and the honourable member and four others will form the committee. The committee is to aggregate the needs of the society, when they do that, they collect the 15% that is allocated and we will still have to share the 15% to the 40 constituencies.

After we passed it into law, the national assembly came took a look at it. It has always been the case that we should always reach out to local government intervention nowadays whereby the various community needs can be taken care of. Now, we have gone further now to institute what is called ‘The Town Hall Meetings’; the town hall meetings is a once in a year meeting where we call all the various institutions and components of the constituency and they will come and look at all the infrastructural needs of the community to also see the need and they get the secretariat. The secretariat compiles all that needs to be attended to in the communities and we now take the faults together and send it to governor for implementation.

So, Sir, is there a way that funding can be given directly to community youths for projects?

The youths are basically under the ministry of youths. There is a department for youths and sports and there is also social development. The youths and sports now have a commission directed by the director general and it takes care of all their demands and empowers them to ensure that they are employable and also provide their sporting needs. This particular question has been coming up over and over again. Like, when I was the chairman of the community, they ask ‘What are you planning for the youth?’ Yet, forgetting that all the money that is voted for education goes to the youths, when a teacher is paid, it is on behalf of the youth (you pay the primary school teacher, it is on behalf of the youth. You pay the secondary school teacher; it is on behalf of the youth).

When the house of assembly or the house of representative provides for the tertiary institution, for instance in Lagos, we have LASU, LASPOTECH, Lagos State Primary Education Board, Lagos State School of Nursing and Midwifery; all the resources being put into them is on behalf of the youths and also when you build the road and other infrastructures they did not divide it by saying, the elders take this lane oh and let the youths take that lane, it is going to be for everybody.

That is why for me, we continually give out scholarships every year; this includes Jamb and GCE forms. We also provide buses to take the students to their various schools in Lagos Island. Currently, we are working on, the Leader counter for the state whereby things our stepping stone is not yet prepared for the next level and for us to disclose that, it is nothing new that we are doing the same thing that we have been doing some 20 years ago whereas the schools abroad have moved away from all these traditional things that we are teaching and have devised so many curriculum added to their syllables.

So many courses that are more in tune with modern things happening, the methods of teaching is basically different from what we are teaching. I am sure that a secondary school SS3 students cannot be asked to do a write up and submit online. Overseas, you submit most of your assignment online; you get most of your results online too. And they do have access to basic ICT facilities. In Lagos Island, we are trying to do it, in Elegbata Secondary School, we provide ICT rooms, where we did Ansaru Deen Primary School. We also provided a vocational training centre where we have about 10 different trades including ICT, Shoe making, Cosmetology and the rest.

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