The Lagos State Labour Party Gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour (GRV) has described the Lagos state government’s approach to several public policies as Orwellian and Draconian. Addressing a press conference at his campaign head office in Lekki, GRV stated that a government without empathy is a dictatorship and has no place in a democracy.  He addressed the auctioning of 130 cars for violating traffic rules by the Lagos state government.

GRV said “as much as we do not want a society where people can flagrantly disregard traffic rules, the punishment, however, must be commensurate to the offense. It is inhumane asking people to pay fines worth more than four times the minimum wage and then auction their cars because they are unable to pay the humongous, allotted fines. A rational government would rather sentence such individuals to community service rather than jail them or auction their cars.”

He added that “the greatest violators of traffic rules are in fact government officials and the so-called elites who drive through BRT lanes, bully people off the roads with their unruly orderlies, convoys and disturb public peace with the noise of their sirens. More so, the poor state of the roads, unnecessary traffic congestion, poor traffic management and robberies, occasioned by poor governance and poor leadership are part of the issues responsible for the flouting of some of the traffic rules. When government leads by example, society would follow suit.”

GRV also spoke about the plans by the ministry of environment to shut down Ladipo market, describing it as, yet another evidence of the current administration’s high-handed public policies. He said “this market in question pays hundreds of millions yearly mostly as illegal taxes and levies that are unaccounted for. With all the levies paid by these businessmen and women, why has there been no investment in the infrastructure where they operate their businesses? Why isn’t the government coming up with a policy to educate, orientate and work with the leadership of these markets to provide an enabling environment for the waste generated to be properly manage? Why is there first resort to an issue to ban or shut down the livelihoods of people?

It is even more worrying that there is a pattern to this harassment by the Lagos state government especially when elections are around the corner. These specific markets dominated by people from a certain part of the country are targeted and it is disgraceful.”

On the proposed ‘Obedient rally’ slated for the first of October that was challenged in court, GRV stated that it is unfortunate that senior advocates would be attempting to usurp the fundamental rights of citizens. “The law guarantees freedom of lawful assembly and all we are doing is to demonstrate our support for the man who can lead a new Nigeria, Peter Obi. So, I wonder why the opposition is jittery. If they are as popular as they claim, they wouldn’t be worried about the peaceful march of a party they claim has no structures.”

Finally, Gbadebo spoke about the vision he has for Lagos state and the changes he hopes to implement if elected. “My administration will focus on social justice and on delivering dividends of democracy to the people. The emphasis would no longer be about how much Lagos generates, but how much benefit the average Lagosian enjoys from the commonwealth of Lagos. Our administration will be transparent and accountable to the people, while being committed to raising their standard of living and providing them with adequate security.”