“It is a time for change. If you recall, in the US, George Bush was in the Republican party and he was there for eight years, then Obama came around to inject new blood in the administration of the US. In the UK, the conservatives had to go for the Labour party to come in. It tells you that no matter how good you are, people always clamour for change. No matter how good you have performed, it can always be better, it can always be built on.”

The House was thrown into commotion on Tuesday, June 22 with fisticuffs, blood and the most demeaning pandemonium ever witnessed in a legislative House in Nigeria , leading to the suspension of eleven key members of “The Progressives” seeking to unseat Speaker Dimeji Baankole and other principal officers.

AS the 2011 general election draws nearer preparations are in top gear to ensure that the poll is devoid of irregularities that were the hallmarks of previous elections.

Angry reactions from prominent Nigerians has continued to trail the free-for-all fight which broke out among members of the House of Representatives.

MOHAMMED Owolabi Salis is a lawyer and accountant who practised at home before he relocated to the United States of America in the mid-90s. There, he had to re-qualify to practice; thus he became a CPA in the US, and later a juris doctor, having passed the New York State bar examinations.

On return to civil rule, Salis developed interest in politics, and in 2007, sought the nomination of the PDP as its governorship candidate in Lagos, but lost out to intrigues. Nevertheless, he contested the 2007 election as the governorship candidate of Alhaji Lateef Jakande-led Action Party of Nigeria.

All along, he had, and remains an active member of the PDP-USA. In the run-up to the 2011 elections, Salis is on the hustings again, intent on the governorship ticket of the PDP in Lagos State. In the interview below, he bares his mind on many issues, especially the state of the PDP in Lagos now, his electoral fortunes, the state of the nation, and what he has in store for the people of Lagos. Excerpts:

Based on the internal wrangling within Lagos PDP, it is believed that the party is not in existence in the state. Why then do you still consider it a credible platform to pursue your governorship aspiration?

It is not true that the Lagos PDP is not in existence. The party is actually in existence and what really matters are the voters. We conducted a research recently on the state and what we discovered was that the people of Lagos state are actually looking for a credible opposition to unseat the current government . This state, believe me honestly, has been turned to a capitalist state, a state of the elite that is ignoring the plight of the poor people, the people who really need it’s protection.

If you go round the grassroots of the state, there is absolutely nothing going on. The key projects that are going on if you go to the background of those projects are World Bank sponsored projects. Among the oppositions that people are really voting for, if you look at the last election of the state local government, AC was winning with 20, 10 votes in a polling booth that had five hundred. That shows people going in but because PDP directive from above stated that they should not participate in the election because they were basing on 57 local government instead of the constitutional requirement of 20 local government.

PDP, despite its domination of the nation’s political terrain has failed to deliver democratic dividends to the masses. How then do you think you can win back peoples’ confidence especially as the leadership of current governor of Lagos state appears to have won the heart of the people?

You have to go to the grassroots and see things for yourself. The current administration has only won the heart of the elite and not the poor people that need his protection. Are you talking about public education? Some parents cannot afford to send their children to private schools.

Go to public schools and see, the children sit on the bare floor but we have started crying on this. When you look at the issue of public education, the score of this government is zero. Also when you look at health, when you go to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, people are taking drips on the desk. So, the performance is zero. In the area of public housing, only recently we read that a two bedroom flat cost about 14 Million to acquire.

How many poor people can afford that? Some people may be deceived but some cannot be deceived. They should have the data . If you are in the international environment like the Economic Intelligence Unit, World Bank, IMF, they all have data. If you understand government, it is about welfare provision and grassroots infrastructure. That is the whole essence. You try to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich but today in Lagos state the gap is still widening. People are suffering.

I was told the story of one Mama Olo ogi. This woman came to Lagos in the 50s when she was still very young and was earning her living there. Then some people went and destroyed the market and she died. Let me tell you this straight I’m not saying Oshodi market for example should be left to constitute environmental problem but this is the issue. The new look given to Oshodi by my friend and colleague Governor Babatunde Fashola is not done with human face. It is not done under a good governance system. Let me tell you why. There is this campaign that there is no other governor that has been able to do it except Fashola.

How do you hope to combine your experience to bring about a change in an environment where hardly nothing works?

First of all, the process that I have put in place is to participate in the election. Lagosians are getting smarter and one person responsible for the smartness in the state is Alhaji Lateef Jakande. Why? At the time he was sending people to school with automatic promotion, the whole idea was the ability to read and write. All those people that went through that system have now matured. We now have a new definition of character in the state. But we have a problem as we don’t have good governance to manage them. I’m just hoping that the people of Lagos State that are getting smarter would be able to make the right choice.

From my own experience if I happened to be the governor of the state, first thing I want to do is to set up an effective grassroots governance system. I want to put governance in the hands of the people themselves. How do I want to do it? In every neighborhood, there is what we call a natural relationship. As that circle of relationship expands, you begin to loose recognition.

So, that little circle of relationship if it can possibly be reduced to ward. We want to harvest that relationship, bring them into a nucleus called the grassroots executive council. We need a minimum of hundred people in this grass root executive council, we are going to train them in programmes and use them in so many things including securing loans in the state.

In this grass root executive council it is easy for me as governor to give them 10 million naira for job creation based on the communal relationship of the people as opposed to local government relationship which is not communal. After given them the money to execute our programmes, believe you me , they would fix the neighborhood and you will now put a rule there that before any money is signed , at least 40 of the 100 people must sign it.

Before 40 people would sign that they are going to steal money, there would be a lot of fighting among them. By the end of the week you put another 10 million in the account, just let them to fight and solve it. So, after sometime they will settle down and if they cannot settle down you now call them as the governor to know what the problem is. So, in every ward we are going to have minimum of 400 council executives and we are not going to put it on PDP alone.

The last time we spoke with you, you listed 17 reasons why the PDP lost in 2007. Have those problems been tackled and what do you think your party can do to ensure victory?

At that time, we had a lot of problems in the party as people tried to do imposition and a lot of people were disqualified. I was disqualified but my disqualification was done by some people to create room for other candidates to emerge because there was no basis for my disqualification. I was disqualified 36 hours to the primary and when you are talking about promotion of PDP at that time, we were at the forefront. In fact, I was one of the leading aspirants. We spent our money going round all the grassroots to let the people know what the party could do. Then suddenly I was disqualified not even with a paper to say that you are disqualified for this or that until I got to Abuja.

Then were lots of in fighting too when Funsho Williams died but thank God the PDP we have now is more of a settled PDP. Even though there are still some in fighting, elders in the party have come together to make sure that we have a strong party. But the infighting that is happening in PDP is also happening in AC but I can tell you that PDP is far better when it comes to internal democracy than AC.

The programmes you want to implement appear to be at variance with the manifesto of PDP as a political party. How do you reconcile this?

My programmes are not at variance with that of the party. What I have laid down right here is a procedure approach to achieve a lot of public good for the people. You also have to understand that every party has programmes that are in line with fundamental objectives and directive principles of the constitution as to what should be done for the people of Nigeria. So, all parties write their programmes to fit in the fundamental objectives and directive principle

but the issue now is that many of the colleague has not been talking of the procedure of getting there. Experience is your ability to put men and material resources together to achieve your objectives. So, if you want to build a house and you don’t know where they sell cement, you have a problem. You need to know about the joints management. The world is built on joints management and if you understand this joints management, you can do any complex problem. Anything created in this world, no matter how complex is joints. So, you should understand all those joint parts, how to source it and how to assemble it.

Nigerians don’t see PDP as a party that is driven towards egalitarianism and you are again advocating that which is at variance with the philosophy?

First of all, I want to defend PDP governors. There has been a campaign particularly in this Lagos state that only the state is working. That is not true particularly when you follow online comment.. Many of them have not being to other parts of the state to see what others are doing. Then you have to also look at the resources at the disposal of those governors compared to what is at the disposal Lagos state. When you look at the resources, then you now look at how they used it to impact on the people.

There is a big difference. A lot of the governors are performing. What you said is a campaign of the opposition. A lot of the PDP governors are working. The BRT for example, has been built in many of these states but the campaign of the opposition which is normal makes you feel that PDP is an elitist party. Which party is more elitist than AC in Lagos state.