Dr. Samuel Mayuyon Ajose, popularly known as SMA, is one of the governorship aspirants in Lagos State under the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he outlines his vision for Lagos, including free healthcare, improved education, better welfare for civil servants, youth empowerment, and alternative transportation to ease congestion across the state. He also speaks on grassroots mobilisation and his plan to help deliver 3.5 million votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections. Uzoma Mba brings excerpts
Can you tell us more about your agenda in the coming election?
One of the things we are looking at is the Civil Service of Lagos State. We have been talking about minimum wage. Lagos is a pioneer state. It is a state that other states look up to. What we are saying is that by now Lagos should have started paying a living wage.
We are talking about a wage that is able to take care of housing, take care of transport, and still leave money to take care of the family. And once we introduce that, I am sure corruption will drop by 90 per cent. So, when a staff member wakes up to go to work and he or she is sure that the money they are going to go home with will take care of their bills, the staff member will not be involved in corrupt activities. So, that is our target.
Secondly, we are looking at healthcare for every Lagosian living in Lagos. Lagos is too rich not to be giving its citizens good healthcare. A healthy state is a prosperous state, so what we are saying is that every Lagosian will be given that basic free healthcare. So, it is going to be free for everybody. So, if you have malaria, typhoid and other ailments, you should not be bothered about how to get yourself treated.
And when we talk about education, we are talking about free education all the way in those institutions owned by the Lagos State Government, even to university level. We are going to subsidise tuition fees by 70 per cent for every indigene of Lagos State. So, these are some of the benefits they should be looking forward to.
Another thing we are looking at is, if you look at Epe to Badagry, all the communities that are on the banks of the waterways, we want to see how we can decongest traffic by looking at alternative transportation. We are going to create automotive jetties like you have in Falomo for every community from Epe to Ikorodu to Ketu to Mile 2 to Alakija, all the way to Badagry. Once we have that and bring in ultra modern ferries, ferries that even when you enter premium class, you are comfortable, you will not have any reason to want to take your vehicle to work because you have a cheaper means of getting to work. By doing that on that axis, traffic will be decongested.
Also, one of the areas we are looking at is the area of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We are looking at a situation where we are going to pick a lot of bright minds. Look at what is happening in Nigeria. When you see a bright Chinese investor coming into Nigeria, they are being sponsored by the Chinese government, so why would the Chinese government sponsor their own people into Nigeria and we are not sponsoring our own people to go and take over other economies?
So, we are going to start with West Africa. We are going to empower Lagosians that are extremely brainy. We will give them the funds to go into Togo, Benin Republic, Ghana and Cameroon, and when they take over their economies, they become part of the governance of those countries. And when all of that happens, money will start returning back in foreign exchange. The interest will be coming back to our country and will improve our economy because it is not going to be done for free.
You can imagine what Lagos will become in four years if we do that. So, we want to empower our youth, and once many of our youth become rich, they will build our economy and the living standards will improve. And that will reduce the level of poverty in Lagos State and contribute to the success and protection of Lagos State.
What have you done in terms of grassroots mobilisation as a governorship aspirant in Lagos State?
When you go to the grassroots, we have energised the base and we have been able to bring a whole lot of people from other parties like the Labour Party and ADC to become members of APC. So, what we are saying is that the people of Lagos want something new. They want fresh breath, and we are the ones that are that fresh breath. We are the ones that understand their language and we are the ones that have empathy for them. And come 2027, we know that the election is going to be extremely easy for the President because we are the ones that are going to give him 3.5 million votes from the people. He should rest assured, and it will come to pass.
We sponsored a whole lot of our candidates and every person that we supported was elected chairman of their local government from our party.
But what are you going to do to subdue the Deputy Governor of the state who is claimed to have been anointed by the President?
The same way you saw it on TV, I saw it too. The President has not spoken. Like I always say, the party laws are supreme, the constitution of the party is supreme. Whatever Mr President says, we will all abide by it, but as of today, I can still tell you that forms are still being sold and more people are coming in and, by the grace of God, we are energised for the primaries. We are all doing the work of the party to see the re election of our President in a seamless manner, so come 2027, we will get to know who the President will be supporting.
I am representing the good people of Lagos State. I came here on the orders of my people and I have just been screened for the governorship primaries that are coming up on 21 May.
I went in for the screening, the normal questions that needed to be asked were asked, and I told them the things that I hope to achieve. And we promised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that come the 2027 election, we are giving him 3.5 million votes. We have the structure, we have done the work, and the work is just waiting to be manifested.
What do you have to say to Lagosians to support you in the coming elections?
Lagosians actually know their candidate. I have been the one engaging them in the past one and a half years. They don’t know any other candidate than Dr Samuel Mayuyon Ajose (SMA) and they are there waiting for us. Even if you go there to lure them, they know who they are voting for and they believe that during the primaries, they are going to see the magical turnaround.
It is beginning to look like the people gathered against SMA are gathered against the masses. The masses will come out and show their strength. Look at the rally we had last Saturday at Ijinake. That is one small town, yet we had thousands of people turn out. And when they came out, we saw every one of them waving their PVCs and showing their party registration. So, what they are trying to tell the leaders is that they are not a paid crowd.
They are members of SMA and we cut across the 57 local governments of Lagos State. So, you will see them come out and the magic will be performed. You can see that 3.5 million votes are going to be the starting point of what we are going to deliver for APC and Mr President in the coming election come 2027.
How do you hope to get the support of other people who are not from your constituency?
I have been the only candidate that has been in this race. I have been doing this in the past one and a half years. In fact, more of our support has been coming from Epe, Ikorodu and even more than the Badagry Local Government Area. So, we have the support base.
And don’t forget that my father is from Badagry and my mother is from Ikorodu, which means I am representing two local governments. And for me, growing up in Lagos Island means I still have Lagos Central as part of my base zone. If you look at the rallies we have had, we gather more than 4,000 supporters. These are people that have PVCs and have the power to vote. You will see what they will do in 2027.
If you become the Governor of Lagos today, what is the first change we are going to see?
The number one thing is to make life comfortable for Lagosians by decongesting traffic. Traffic has been a whole lot of nightmare. People wake up as early as 4 a.m. to go to work, and they do not get back until between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. That alone can reduce your lifespan as a human being. People do not have time to rest because how many hours do they have to sleep?
We do not want Lagosians to continue to live that way. So, we want Lagosians to be healthy and happy. So, the first thing we are looking at is how to decongest traffic in Lagos State.
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