LAGOS, Nigeria – The governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), chief Owolabi Salis, says he remains the man to beat in the governorship race of Lagos state.
Salis, who made the remarks at a meeting with Coucil of Imams in Epe Division of the state, said he was poised to run a government will be for the people, especially those of the grassroots. Beaming with confidence and downplaying insinuations in some quarters that he didn’t stand a chance against the two frontrunners of the APC and PDP, he stressed that with a level playing field, he stood a good chance in the race.
“There is suffering in the land, and we cannot continue to let our commonwealth be in the hands of certain individuals,” he said.
He noted that he was not contesting to bargain, srressing, “I am a man of good pedigree, and I am not a man anyone can push around, I mean business.” He said he has embarked on door-to-door campaign so as to know the needs of the people. The gubernatorial aspirant said: “There is need for us to restructure and get people involved in governing the state.
“I am in this race because of the poor and I am going to empower the masses and teach them how to be rich, because they have already rejected the governance that does not care for them. We are going to get people at the grassroots involved and teach them how to make money and by so doing, we will be eradicating poverty.”
Salis further said he will look into the issue of Mile2/ Badagry Road and improve on the tourist centers because it is one of the historic towns in Lagos.
“A lot of contractual fraud is going on in the state, they have collected different grants on that road over the years, yet the road is being abandoned.
Restructuring is a must for us, when I get there, because it is being embraced in other parts of the world and it is a system to stop fraud.
While encouraging the Muslim leaders to urge their followers to vote right, Salis said, “let us rescue this state, it’s not all about fantasy and promotion, we need to take back our lives now.
“They have turned a lot of unemployed youths to political hoodlums and they are carrying guns for them but we are empowering the Lagos youths already and we are still going to do more. The only way forward is to rescue power and give it back to the people and make them involved in how their resources are being handled. I encourage all voters to vote for candidates whose loyalty is to the people, not candidates whose loyalty is to anybody or individual,” he said.
