Benjamin Omoike l Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – The governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), in Lagos state, Owolabi Salis, has said the challenge facing Nigeria is not religious but bad political leadership.
Salis, who made this disclosure at the Lagos Central Mosque Annex, Alimosho constituency, said religion is separate from economic management and that the problem of Nigeria is poor management from the political leaders. According to him: “religion has its own value in the sense that it teaches peace and helps relationship. Without religion, people will be killing each other but the fact remains that some religious people are not doing the right thing.
“Poverty is the real cause most people run to religious gathering. They find happiness in religion by going to different crusades and other political gathering, if there were jobs and the economic situation is good, people will be busy and have less time to go there. So let’s say the problem in Nigeria today is political leadership problem.”
Salis also said: “There are no jobs , leaders are corrupt and there are no good welfare systems for the people. All over the world, a good government will put all those things in place and like I keep on saying, it is necessary to bridge that gap and give to the poor what they need to survive but those things are not in place and people are in pain, so in order to get relieved, they run to religious leaders.
“Some of these people who are either jobless or are going through some other economic challenges sometimes think someone is behind their predicament, meanwhile, its just a sycho-social problem.
“This sometimes leads some people into crime, some go into begging and drug while some run to religious leaders,” he said. He, however, pledged to create jobs for Lagosians if he becomes the governor.
“If I become the governor of the state, I am going to focus on job creation, and create a grassroot governance. We are going to get the resources of this state and give it back to them and teach them how to create jobs by bringing factors that will increase buying and selling in the state. Law and insurance are key because you can use them to expand the economy. There is a way the law that is being practiced in this country militates against the economic development.
“I am a lawyer in Nigeria and in New York and I know what they do with law over there to power the economy and we are also going to use it extensively. We will also provide welfare and increase people’s standard of living with the available resources. It’s very sad that there are certain individuals that have a lot of money but everybody is just about themselves in Nigeria. I am multi-religious because I am a research professor on diversity religion, so I have to be multi-religious to understand what every religion is doing , which is the best way in life so that I don’t have conflict with any interest group,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Iman in-charge of the Lagos Central Mosque, Annex, Affininh Ibraheem Ayinde, preached on the importance of supporting the less-privileged in the society.
Alhaji Aynde who prayed for the state and the success of the guber candidate, Salis, in the 2019 election; stressing on the need for politicians to identify with the needs of the citizens.
