Farida Magaji
Governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), in Lagos State, Owolabi Salis, has said his campaign is worried that it might lose the election to rigging and vote buying.
While speaking, on Monday, at a seminar organised by the Christian Ministries Welfare Initiative (CMWI), in Lagos, the governorship candidate said he was confident of winning if the election could be devoid of rigging and vote buying.
“We have been looking at our disadvantages in this election and we know we are going to win, but we know our weaknesses.
“One of them is vote buying and another one is election rigging. However, we are talking to the people over the issue of vote buying and are sensitising them on the need to protect their votes and not sell them.
“We are doing underground campaigns because we are beginning to see the spiritual importance of the AD. We are taking Lagos State and we are winning,” Salis said.
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On the issue of the ongoing negotiation between the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Federal Government over minimum wage increment, he said: “ If I were to be part of the labour union, one of the arguments I would put forward is that several years ago, when they approved N18, 000 as minimum wage, the exchange rate was N260 per one dollar, that means the minimum wage was $300 dollars then, so they were too slow, asking for review when the dollar was going up. The Nigerian economy is being shaped by the exchange rate, and demand and supply and the economy is presently in bad shape. Labour is just asking for wage without putting statistics down. The money is there, the government is getting more money. So where is the money to pay?
“When I become governor, I will focus on reducing the rate of poverty. The government taxes the rich, to support the poor but that gap has to be bridged. In Amercia for instance, Medicare is there for the poor people. If you are a rich man, you have to pay for your health services, and if you can’t pay, you buy insurance. Such can be applicable here. In housing, they have a lot of houses for poor people, it is even better than what some rich men have. So the house are given to poor people to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor and it works, I have done an extensive research on it and I plan to bring it home to Lagos.”