Chief Owolabi Salis, a certified public accountant, lawyer and politician is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2015 governorship aspirant in Lagos State. He was Action Party of Nigeria (APN) Lagos State gubernatorial candidate during 2007 gubernatorial election. Salis, a former PDP National Secretary aspirant, in this interview, speaks about his aspiration to govern Lagos State in 2015, internal wrangling in PDP and the proposed national conference among other issues.
What is your view on the proposed national conference considering the divergent views expressed so far on it?
Yes, I think this is something we need as a nation looking at the actions and inactions in the country right now, particularly, the attack on the presidency on state of insecurity, especially Boko Haram. The issue of minority agitation, federalism, security among others, are sensitive problems that demand very serious discussions at this time in the history of our country.
On the sincerity of the president to bring the conference to reality, I believe that Mr. President is very sincere and those attacking him or planning to boycott the conference are only playing politics. I heard that the leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was against the proposed conference. From the records, Tinubu, who is a major stakeholder of America Returnee Association (ARA) like me, is one of the luckiest politicians we have in this country. For me I think the discussion is necessary and my view on what I will want them to discuss is how to restructure our democratic practice. We need to discuss.
Do you think there should be no-goarea during the national conference?
I don't believe that there should be nogo- area because when you say there should be no-go-area that means they are not discussing the whole problems. If you really want to get to the roots of the problems, there should be no-go-areas. The only issue I would be opposed to is the issue of disintegrating the country. I believe in one Nigeria.
Many names seem to be flying around as likely ministerial nominees from Lagos State. How would you react to the jostling for a ministerial position?
We heard that they are going to give us a minister in Lagos and it would be better if the person is purely a party man or woman. Presently, we have Dr. Olusegun Aganga representing Lagos but many people see him as a technical person who hardly contributes to the development of the party in the state. Similarly, we have lots of technical politicians like me in Lagos. For example, I am a Fellow of the Chartered Accountant of Nigeria, a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, an Economist, a chartered banker and a certified Public Accountant and there are so many powerful people like me in Lagos PDP.
We have many very strong, rich, intellectual value base but some of us are silent. There are a lot of powerful people in Lagos PDP and these are the people now agitating for the selection of people who are technically oriented, who can keep value and at the same time promote the party even in the face of opposition parties. I agree that there are lots of names flying around in the news, but I don't control the structure.
Unfortunately, a recommendation is always about people who can hold on to the structure. They want to give it to people who they know can satisfy their interests. It is always like that in all states and that is unfortunate for Lagos PDP. The best people don't usually have the slot. It is those who can satisfy the interest of the power brokers that always have their way in becoming ministers.
A lot of names have been sent by those who control the structure of the party in the state but I know that my name found itself on the list through some independence sources because whoever grabs that ministerial position from Lagos would have a vantage position because he or she would use it to build the party and building the party means that people would follow the person. You noticed that some former governors were ministers before they became governors. If they had not been ministers, they wouldn't have had the chance of becoming a governor. That is the way the system is structured.
How true is the report that you are joining the race for the 2015 gubernatorial contest in Lagos again?
Yes, I want to contest again because I have interest in developing the less-privileged people. I don't believe that the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) government has so far done well in Lagos State because for you to judge if a particular government has done well; you have to look at how that government has been able to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Breaching the gap between the rich and the poor in human need is key and that is why the rich are being taxed to support the poor.
The rich, many times, don't need the government to survive because they can afford to buy private practices; private education, private medical needs. They can afford to buy private houses and so on.
Government is about public services and in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor; government should bridge the gap for every citizen to have quality access to life? As a rich man, when I built my house, I have a shelter. Poor people should also have shelters over their heads through low cost housing projects.
That is what we call government. As a rich man, I have my own private cars to move me up and down; the poor people should also have some public transport to move them from one point to another. As a rich man, I can afford private medical services and I can even travel abroad to get medical services; poor people should also have access to good medical services whenever they are sick. That is why we need government. Looking at different sectors, can we truly say that government has met the yearnings and aspirations of the people?
Let us talk about education. I do pay over N1m for the education of my kids, but these poor people like pepper sellers, fish sellers and others can't afford it, so they need good public schools for their children.
While I was growing up, I was a beneficiary of public education and that transformed me to what I am today. If you look at the quality of public schools in Lagos State, it is nothing to write home about.
If you are talking about the Lagos State University (LASU), that is supposed to render support to the poor people, they are trying to transform it to a rich man educational system by introducing high school fees that children of the poor can no longer afford. In terms of health services, many people cannot afford to pay the bills that are being charged presently in public hospitals, much less visit private hospitals whenever they are sick. How many people can afford hospital bill of N100,000 when the minimum wage is N18,000 per month? When doctors go on strike it is the poor people that suffer most.
During the last doctors' strike, I know a lot of people that died at the time because they cannot afford private medical services. Presently, we have a situation where we are creating classconsciousness in Lagos State. If you are not rich, you have to succumb. I have written some programmes that I think can be used to advance the interest of those living in Lagos State. The programme cut across based on my experience from what I have seen when I travelled all over the world. I have visited the grassroots in many countries that I travelled to and I believe that we can touch the lives of people if we improve our incomes and create jobs.
With the criticism of some of the policies of the ruling party in Lagos State. Do you truly see the PDP as an alternative party in 2015?
When you look at the population character of Lagos State, it favours the PDP but we have leadership issues. Since 2003 general elections, PDP has been defeating PDP in Lagos State. If you can recall, some people left the party prior to 2003 elections due to lack of internal democracy, cheating, factionalisation and many things that created problems in 2003.
The same thing happened in 2007 when people and a group like that of Funsho Williams left the party and they were compensated with Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and about two positions of commissioners in ACN government. The same thing happened in 2011 when a whole minister, somebody who has been a minister under PDP, left the party along with PDP chairman of Lagos West Senatorial district to ACN at the last minute. These are people holding on to the major structure of the party.
While some people left the party to join the ruling party, some people waited back in the PDP during 2007 and 2011 elections to spoil the game because there was no internal democracy.
So, PDP has been destroying PDP. It is not that APC is better than PDP but what is affecting us is leadership. However, if we are able to resolve the leadership issues then we can move forward because Lagosians are already looking forward to an alternative to this present government in the state. For me, I decided not to join any group because my loyalty is to the PDP, such that if I get the ticket, it will be easy for me to say lets unite the party. What has been the trend in the party is that if someone in a particular group gets the party's ticket, those in other groups usually work against the person.
You said you don't belong to any political group in PDP. How, then, do you think it would be easy for you to get the party's ticket considering that political groups usually determine who emerges the party flag bearer?
When you are talking about party politics, it is about working relationship with caucuses. I learnt that under Barrack Obama. I was one of the key guys that worked for Obama not just the sycophants that came after Obama emerged.
From the first day, I had that privileged of being invited to the 2008 inauguration by Obama. I live in New York and I played my role from New York and I know that we have to align with caucuses. So, there will always be caucuses. If you are not a member of caucuses, you align with them and build relationship.
It is not all caucuses that produce candidate and even within the caucuses, there are a lot of people who will not support their choice or the choice of the leaders in the caucus. In a major caucus, they may say they want to support a particular person, and there are people in the caucus who will oppose that. So, the type of campaign we are carrying out now is different from what we have carried out before. It is completely different from what we did in 2007 and 2011.
We are using different formats and it is like you play the game, if you lose twice, go back to the trenches and re-equip yourself. It is completely different and there is high likelihood that I will get the ticket and if I get the ticket then the Lagos people will decide.