We’ll report Ambode to Buhari, UN over LG election – Lagos PDP
Hon. Moshood Adegoke Salvador, a former House of Representatives member and delegate to the 2014 National Conference is the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman in Lagos State. In this interview with our correspondent, Salvador speaks on the task ahead of his new executive, the delay in the conduct of local government elections in the state, and his assessment of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government at both federal and state levels.
Haow did you emerge as the PDP chairman in Lagos? It happened the normal way a chairman should emerge, by election. All delegates were invited to the secretariat of the party and there was an election of which myself and Dr. Adegbola Dominic, a former governorship aspirant, contested for the office and I emerged the winner.
But it was rumoured that a group in the party boycotted the congress where you were elected?
Well, it is possible for some people to boycott or abandon their rights; I don’t think that should be the responsibility of anybody. So what is the task ahead?
The major task ahead is to make sure we reconcile everybody and those people that are not happy, we make them happy. How to make them happy is internal to PDP members. It is a family affair which we would surely do and everybody would feel happy about it. There are so many tasks ahead of us.
I believe there are two major things to be considered- discipline and mobilisation. It is only when you have that discipline that you can be determined and dogged enough to achieve success. So when you are disciplined, you have all it takes to succeed.
If you don’t discipline yourself, you cannot be able to read overnight to pass exam. If you are not disciplined, you might not be able to turn away your eyes from illicit money that has now gotten some politicians into prison; if you are not disciplined, you would not be committed enough to get your party to victory; if you are not disciplined, it would be your selfish interest that would prevail over the interest of your party.
Are you saying the problems of the party are caused by indiscipline by some members?
Any unsuccessful venture is borne out of indiscipline, I can tell you this. So when you ask such question, it is as if you are telling me that if you don’t work, you can get free money. It is not easy to work. It is part of discipline to work hard and get money. I am not accusing people, I am only giving you the right recipe to good life.
You can see what we are going through now at the national level, it is as a result of indiscipline. That is why we are calling for proper restructuring, proper reorganization and all sorts in the PDP now so that we would get a better party.
What role would you say ambition and self-interest by politicians played in the PDP crises? Human beings are insatiable. Therefore,
you cannot stop anybody from developing interest. Everybody must have ambition; people have ambition but at the same time, the ambition should not be a do-or-die affair. That is the main thing we are trying to let people understand. You have ambition, you want to achieve something. Success will come to you if you keep working hard. It is a matter of four, five, six people vying for one thing, definitely one would do better than the others.
So what we are clamouring for is for credible, reliable and responsible person to win so that we would be able to get the type of leadership we are looking for.
Are you going to reconcile Chief Bode George and former minister, Musiliu Obanikoro who are believed to be the main actors in this crisis?
I would not agree with you. Two of them don’t have problem with each other. It is you media people that are orchestrating what is not there. You are talking of two brothers that like each other, they talk to each other every time. They even eat together. You people are trying to flavourise the political situation and make them look like enemies. They are brothers, they are not fighting.
Obanikoro cannot be in Lagos without visiting his brother, Chief Olabode George. Chief Olabode is in Lagos and Obanikoro is in America but they talk every time; they are brothers. People should not be happy when others are fighting. The people you consider as followers of Obanikoro are not in any contention with anybody in Lagos.
It appears you have put the loss of the governorship election in Lagos behind you, but with the local government election around the corner, how prepared are you to face the ruling APC?
PDP is very ready for the local government election. It is the APC that is running away and I want to assure them that whether they like it or not, we are going to have our local government election. If they can’t perform, why are they forcing themselves on Lagosians? This is part of democracy, how can they hijack a tier of government and believe that they can be appointing illegal executive secretaries into all these offices? These are part of the things causing problem in Nigeria and we wish they can change their attitude. They have constituted the LASIEC Board and we are not bothered about that.
People would vote for PDP, we would win them outrightly and we would keep them out of office, I can assure you on this. Let them be confident enough to let us go to the poll, that is what we are waiting for now.
If they refuse, we would write Mr. President, we would write the National Assembly, we would write to everywhere, we would write to the United Nations, we would write ECOWAS to come and see how democracy is being practised in Nigeria, especially in Lagos State. I can assure you we are going to hold the local government election and we are going to sweep it. How can a state not hold local government election. The councilors that even worked under the previous administration were not paid their severance allowance; the boys are crying all over the state, they are becoming a nuisance. This is not good for a state like Lagos; they should stop giving us a bad name.
Many people have indicated interest in the local governments election, what arrangement do you have for rancour-free congresses?
We are going to conduct rancour-free congresses. We have divided Lagos State into four - Ikeja division, Badagry division, Lagos Central and Lagos East - for operational purposes, we cannot do that and yet there would be rancour. There won’t be rancour because we have limited the total number of people that can participate to a very small, handy number. How would you assess the administration of Governor Akinwunmi one year after?
You can see the president is ashamed to come to Lagos. Drums were rolled out, let them show us which roads were constructed in the last one year, let them show us which hospital they renovated or the ward they built, let them show us what they have done for Lagosians. Nothing. They keep saying that they are still preparing. They (Lagos Government) are only looking at what the
federal government is doing and that is not good.
The APC government is a complete failure.
But the Lagos government said it constructed two roads in each of the local governments apart from some other roads that were commissioned during the Democracy Day celebration...
They should list them. This is an administration of liars; they keep lying and lying. You can even see all the stories and propaganda they pushed out but Nigerians are wise now, Lagosians are wise too. They have discovered that they are liars. When they were begging for votes, they promised to give school children food, till today nothing. They said they would give jobless youths N5000, nothing has been done. Mr. President promised that the list of looters would be published on Democracy Day, yet nothing.
But the details of the recovered loot have been published...
We are talking about the list of looters. After one year in office, Lai Mohammad is still saying they would publish the names. These are things that give people reservation about this administration. There is nothing they can say that anybody will believe anymore.
The government said the corruption by past leaders is responsible for the present situation the country...
We have told them, blame game cannot help them.