Fuad Laguda, the taxman set to replace Gbaja at n’assembly

Fuad Laguda defeated his political opponents at the February 3 bye-election to secure the Surulere 1 seat in the House of Representatives for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Laguda is set to replace Femi Gbajabiamila, the former speaker of the House who represented the Lagos constituency from 2003 until June 2023.

Gbaja, as he is fondly called, left the green chamber following his appointment as chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu.

Laguda defeated eleven candidates from the opposition parties, including Adeola Adebanjo of the Labour Party (LP) and Jerry Afemighie of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The 46-year-old politician will join members of the House of Representatives to fill the somewhat big shoes of Gbajabiamila.

In a chat with our correspondent at his campaign office in Surulere on January 28, Laguda said he believes his work is well cut out for him. He said that based on Gbajabiamila’s long-term vision and implemented projects, he is determined to continue from where he handed him the legislative baton.

“My mission is to build on the legacy of my predecessor. He has done a lot that transcends this constituency, and that is where my vision lies. What we need is continuity, and that is what I’m committed to giving,” he told journalists.

Aside from being a one-term house speaker, Gbajabiamila also served first as a floor member, then as deputy minority whip. He later became the minority leader for eight unbroken years and then the house leader for four years.

To mention just a few, Gbajabiamila sponsored the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) bill in 2019, the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (Amendment) Bill, 2019; the Physically Challenged (Empowerment) Bill, 2019; the Presidential (Transition) Bill, 2019; and the Economic Stimulus Bill, 2019.

He recently inaugurated an 80-bed healthcare facility, which has a paediatric unit and a dialysis centre, in the constituency.

In an interview with Channels on Monday, Laguda said, “There is already a path that has been created by my predecessor, who was in the house for six terms. In terms of pressure from the expectations of people in my constituency, yes, there will be pressure. But the truth is, we have to view it from the perspective that it takes time for one to get things done.”

But the question on the lips of many political observers in the state is: will Laguda match or outshine Gbaja’s charisma and influence in the constituency?

FAMILY-ORIENTED, WELL-EDUCATED AND A PHILANTHROPIST

The fair-skinned politician is married and blessed with children. Born into the family of Akinola Laguda in July 1977, he attended primary and secondary schools in Lagos before his admission into the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Borno, where he secured his first degree in Economics.

His second degree was a master’s of public administration (MPA) in public policy from the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and an MBA from the institution’s business school (ULBS).

FKL, as he is fondly called, is also a philanthropist who has championed the welfare and development of his constituents. In 2014, Laguda was made a trustee member of the Surulere Patriotic Association (PAS), a non-governmental foundation that made provision for over 200 women from the constituency to undergo free breast and cervical cancer screening exercises.

The Bond Club, a group he co-founded, donated over 3,000 exercise books to public primary schools in Surulere in 2018. Laguda is also the chairman of the board of trustees of the Magdalene and Maravi Foundation, an establishment dedicated to girl-child development and support for orphans, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria.

FROM COUNCILLORSHIP ASPIRANT TO REPS MEMBER

Laguda, a tax administrator, has been in the corridor of power in his constituency for more than two decades. 

He first cruised into the glare of local politics when he aspired for a councilorship ticket under the defunct Alliance Democracy (AD) in 2001. As a matter of survival, he left politics to focus on his career as a fresh economics graduate and landed a job with the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue as an Inspector of Taxes II in 2003.

Almost ten years later, Laguda returned to the political fore of Surulere. Determined this time, he aspired for the constituency seat in the House of Assembly but could not clinch the party’s ticket.

From there, he became a core party player, from taking on advisory roles on campaign committees to heading the media group of Gbajabiamila’s campaigns. By 2021, when he became the APC chairman of the LGA, he had waxed stronger in party affairs at the local government level, where he was also the publicity secretary of a body consisting of all 57 APC party chairpersons in the state. 

A year later, he contested for the Surulere seat at the Lagos State Assembly, but Desmond Elliot, the popular actor and politician, was there to take the ticket for the third term.

A TAX COLLECTOR WHO GREW UNDER BABATUNDE FOWLER’S TUTELAGE

After joining the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue in 2003, he rose through the ranks to become a protocol officer and, from there, to the position of inspector of taxes in 2006.

When the board was reinstituted and named Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), in 2008, Laguda became assistant revenue manager and personal assistant to Babatunde Fowler, the executive chairman of the service at the time. 

In 2015, he was promoted to the position of revenue manager and head of the public sector unit in the state service. A year later, he joined the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as a manager in the relationship management unit.

From 2016 to 2019, he was the south-west coordinator for the relationship management unit. Until he started his bid for the reps seat in 2023, he was the head of the value added tax (VAT) and non-resident people’s tax office, International Tax Department.

When asked about his plan in the national assembly, especially on taxation, Laguda has this to say: “I’m going to be the link between the old and young. Between the youths and everyone else. I’m closer to the younger generation in terms of age, so there would always be something that would bring me back home to know what my people want, set the target, and hit it.

“I intend to move bills that would improve my constituency and the nation in general. Talking about touching bills on taxation and moving things on human development.”

STAUNCH SUPPORTER OF TINUBU’S TAX REFORM

In the build-up to the 2023 presidential election, Laguda campaigned for President Bola Tinubu and described the former governor of Lagos as the one who remodelled the Internal Generating Revenue (IGR) of the state.

Addressing Nigerian youths, he said, “the mode of Asiwaju’s vision and ways of achievements should be a learning tool for the youths with interest in politics and governance alongside their life endeavours.”

As Laguda makes his way to the green chamber, all eyes are on him to contribute his best to national politics.