The candidate of the Alliance for Democracy in the just-concluded governorship election in Lagos State, High Chief Owolabi Salis, said the All Progressives Congress would have lost the election if the exercise was free and fair. He also spoke on other issues of national interest in this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA. Excerpts:
The governorship election in Lagos State has been concluded. How will you assess the exercise?
I can only do the assessment based on my neighbourhood where I voted. There was relatively peace here and people voted because there was peace. There were so many reports I got from various cities out there that there was violence , people were scared of coming out. Just like the last presidential election, out of almost 800,000 registered voters in Alimosho, less than 11 per cent voted and that was a very low turnout but here, there was a large turnout, so here was different.
A lot of people have complained about the timing of the distribution of election materials. What is your own experience?
We had a problem in Ogudu but here, there was a slight delay from what I heard, we didn’t start voting until about 4pm.
Would you say there was a visible improvement on the preparation by INEC for this election ?
I can’t say, but like I just told you. I have not seen directly that one of the ballot papers was missing and the parties decided not to continue with the election except APC. So, I cannot really tell you that everything was okay. In Alimosho, I was told about little problems of people trying to collect voters card from elderly people and trying to do some political manipulations, and there was also vote buying. Only APC was doing vote buying. We don’t have money to do vote buying and even if we have the money, I don’t think it’s what I want to do. So, the vote buying was the major problem. In my polling booth, rice was being given to people by APC, i could see the container beside them.
What is your view about your party’s performance in the election?
One thing I know is that, if the process was free and fair, APC would have lost Lagos and that is very certain because when you pick a ballot paper and you see APC logo, you are going to see an individual and then something will come into your mind, like an individual in charge of Lagos common wealth using it to himself, and 95 per cent of Lagosians don’t really like. Apart from that, if you look at the logo better, something else will come into your mind, you are going to see a crisis between Sanwo-Olu and Ambode, sitting governor been deranged and another thing that probably will come into your mind is issue of violence across the state and also underdevelopment of the state when it comes to the less privileged. So, you don’t want to vote that kind of party.
When you see PDP logo, what will cross your mind is impunity, corruption and even in APC, it will also cross your mind. At least, you can’t just pick a ballot paper and you start voting. You know some people will take the ballot paper and start voting but intelligent people reason before they vote. That will come to their mind, then when you see AD, you see prudence, you see party that really care for the people that wants to take over, party that has ruled Lagos before. A party that was formed by people who built the South-West to make what South-West is.
Do you accept the outcome of the result of the election?
It depends on questions that trail the exercise, such as; are there problems at the polling booths? Are there ballot box snatching during the exercise? So, the next thing is the collation. Were there frauds at the collation centres? Then, the returning at the local government that is ward collation and the state collation. So, we have to look at all the stages and some of our boys have been arrested from what we heard.
Why did you contest the governorship election this year?
In Lagos today, I’m worried that people in charge don’t have the fear of God. They need to have fear of God and passion for the people. If they don’t have passion for the people, they are going to be abusing that power and do all sort of things that are against the interest of the people. Those are the challenges we have.
I can’t understand this country that during campaign, rice was being given out by a ruling party and i understand it was being distributed all over; not just given in dignifying manners but throwing it at the people. What the guy is saying is that these are hungry people by implication, I can always buy them with rice. He gave them that rice four years ago and he was giving them the rice again. Why don’t you be giving them every week, if they are given the rice every Sunday, then we say there is no problem but they only wait till the time of the election before they give the rice? They are indirectly saying they are stupid people, we can only buy them with rice. It’s funny; meanwhile, the future of our children is worth more than a bag of rice.
When i look at all these and the upcoming parties, they came, they don’t have the money to play their role but people are not that smart to understand all this, it is a crazy system and the way it is going now, we are going to have a one party country because poverty is making a lot of Nigerians to gravitate towards the ruling party. In Lagos State, there is an individual that is determining who is going to be there, so, we have a problem and the people are supposed to talk but everybody is quiet. so, that is where the issue is.
How do you see APC victory in the governorship poll? Do they deserve it?
They didn’t win in a free and fair context. If you go out there, what they do is intimidation. They went there and start buying votes. When we have a political situation where someone is claiming to win election in a booth by vote buying, by rigging, by ballot snatching, by so many political imaginations, that is zero. A lot of people have been saying we need to give people some things to vote for us but i can’t just do it. How can we do vote buying? If you are not voting for me, I’m fine but people should understand that the future of their children is worth more than vote buying and snatching of boxes which is very important. So, we have this challenge.
Do you see any problem with our political system in Nigeria?
We have problems with our political system in such a way that, we want to practice democracy and this guy just went for the first republic to the parliamentary system without looking at our peculiar characteristics as black men and not Americans or Chinese that have been able to document their history for more than five years. For me, I think we are different races and that is the power of God creating this universe. So, as black men, we have to look at what is peculiar
to us.
How do you think this can be done?
We need to reform our political system. Because what we have now, in this presidential system, is that the more hate and crisis we are able to produce and bring on the table, the more political relevance we enjoy. If you see today, all schools provided for the less privileged in Lagos State, the students all sit on the floor, they can’t even make a bench and they call it a legacy. Another thing I discovered was that the General Hospital they provided in Lagos State, they don’t have beds. If you go to the government hospitals, they tell you there are no beds if you are poor but they have for the rich. These are the kind of things you should tell people out there. For 20 years, the books have not been opened, there are so much money out there , yet people starve for it.
