 You're welcome back. This is Still Plus Politics. My name is Nyam Gul Aghaji. In a ceremony held in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, the governorship candidate of Booth Party or Lawalee or Luo disclosed that he had to shelve his ambition to support the Labour Party presidential candidate to win Saturday's presidential poll for the greater interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. Ahead of Saturday's presidential and national assembly elections, the Booth Party had formed an alliance with the Labour Party in the presidential and governorship elections. And that alliance of his party with the Labour Party, according to Oluwo, was facilitated by Pa Ayo Adebanjo, leader of the European Social Political Group at Fenifere. The party also adopted the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos State, Badebo Roots Vivo, as its candidate, while the State House of Assembly candidates will be harmonized. Well, joining us to discuss this is Mr Lawalee or Luo himself, the governorship candidate of Booth Party. Thank you for joining us, sir. Thank you very much, presenter. Okay. First of all, you were in the APC and in fact, we know that you were a commissioner in the Ambode administration. What changed your mind to leave the party for something else? Okay, I think basically it was because of lack of internet democracy in the party. If you remember, I participated in the APC primary election with Governor Son Wulu and one other person, Mr Mustafa. But a lot of things happened. Some things you could call government magic. So we find a situation where three aspirants have applied for the position. They have paid for the forms, they've been cleared and you ended up having a sole candidate on the day of the primary election. So a lot of wrong things happened in that during that process and I wouldn't learn my name to search. So I left the party because it's my democratic right to leave. If you can voluntarily enter, you can voluntarily exit. So that's why I went to the Booth Party. But I've always known that no matter what you're doing, Lagos, the opposition cannot afford to split votes because we are dealing with a formidable foe, let me not call them foe. I would say we are dealing with a formidable adversary and that adversary has been in government for about 24 years. So it's not the kind of adversary you go into an election with and you start to split your votes in different directions. So I made that determination that the right thing to do for Lagos, if Lagos is going to be free, is to join forces with comrades who have the same ideology and the same vision as I have. And where there are differences of vision, we can harmonize and come to a consolidated approach in terms of agenda, in terms of manifesto, and we can drive the strategy and win the stage. That is what this is about. Okay, before we go to specifics on what kind of ideology that Labor Party and Booth Party share together, I'd like to know, is it not part of internal democracy to have a consensus candidate? Because you said on the day of election, one candidate alone was remaining. I just wanted to understand that. Was that not a consensus candidate? It was not a consensus, it was a fraudulent process. How so? It was a fraudulent process to understand that to have a consensus, the three candidates must come together and agree that this is the person that all of us will support. We even had the situation where all the ballot papers that were taken to the unique constitution that they were pre-printed. So Governor Sun Lee's name were printed on all of them. So it was not a primary election, it was just a charade that no serious Democrat should be part of. And we have the evidence, we have the facts to support that. Okay, so if there are evidences, why didn't you take it up somewhere else, like legally to fight it? Was that not allowed? There's no need for that. Look, the nomination process has a short period to the end of it, going by the next time to go. So if you go to court on the basis of the regularities in your home party, you might be in court while the nomination process will close. And even if you still lose the case in the court, you would have closed all the alternative windows available to you. So sometimes you'll let it go because your focus is very clear. It is to free lagers and the best way to achieve that is to go it alone and when you get to the field and you discover that you can't go it alone, then you must now come together with other lifelines and then you create a formidable opposition. And the opposition must be such that the electorates we have a limited option to choose from. Because when we started, we had the five-way race which was APC, PDP, Booth Party, Labor Party and ADC. I was not comfortable with that. I wanted a two or three-way race. So I joined forces with the Labor Party in order to make it a three-way race which was achieved. Before we went for the presidential election, we had the three-way race, basically. But by the time we came back from the presidential election, the electorates themselves streamlined it into a two-way race. So what you have now is a Labor Party that is contesting with the APC, the ruling party. Okay, from all the parties that were available to you, you chose Labor Party. You say because you have like minds. We'd like to know some of these things that marked Labor Party out that were some of your ideologies as well so that we know why that marriage was very easy for you. Well, three things happened. Number one, a lot of us did not see a big coming. That is why I went for the Booth Party because I wanted a political party structure that would be available for all comrades who are interested in these battles to free Legos that all of us can use so that that platform is not tinted. That platform is not penetrated by the ruling party because I know that's their strength. As long as they can penetrate your platform and then compromise the entire structure, you are not likely going to be able to win with that platform. So I brought the Booth Party for the legal struggle. I didn't see a big coming. I didn't see Labor coming. So that is why we had that initial five-way race. But with respect to the similarities between my Booth Party and the Labor Party is the fact that both parties are center-left parties. We are center of the left. We are not a swim-left. We are not a swim-right. We are not a swim-right. We are center-left party. So it means that we believe in the concept of capitalism to create the wealth and then we believe in welfareism to be able to distribute the wealth that is created in a way that nobody is left behind. That is what center-left is about. So all the concepts of welfareism, so the concept of welfareism, the concept of making sure the working class can have access to the wealth that they have created, these are the things that makes ourselves a Labor Party to be in this alliance. It was something that was well thought out. That is the first one. The second one was that the man would be when he came out, there was a sincerity about him. So we also have the confidence that at the national level we were going into a left. We seem to have lost the idea. That kind of relationship and then the third thing is the fact that for Labor Party in Lagos, the Governorship Candidates and the Deputy Governorship Candidates, in the person of Gadigal Reservoir and Princess Oyefusi, we have been meeting in the last four to five years. If I have not had meetings with Gadigal before the alliance, we must have had meetings over 50 times. Just discussing how to free Lagos, how to free our people, and how to take our states to the level that we decide. So there was a strategic fit and it is that fit that we leveraged on to think about this alliance. And this alliance has proven to be a very competitive alliance and we believe with this platform we can win this election. Okay, you keep saying free Lagos. Free Lagos from what exactly? Free Lagos from the APC. What did they do? Because you were part of this government and what did they actually do or what are they actually doing that Lagos needs to be freed from? Yes, I was part of them to work for Governor Ambadi and Ambadi was in the work and going forward the APC was not seeing it as something that should continue to do the work for the people. Rather a lot of interests were being played out and I knew it had to do with the presidential ambition. I respect that, I don't have any problem with that. But at that point Ambadi was performing and I thought if it's about performance which we're doing very well and about the people who are getting the dividends of democracy, yes I would be part of that. Even if free transformation in Lagos into that, I would join them. Anything that that will benefit the people is no longer about the people, it's no longer about performance, it's no longer about the activity of democracy and others, then you can take your skills. There is nothing that ties you to any part. So now that you are joining forces or you have joined forces with the Labour Party, how do you intend to superintend over this state Lagos as two parties or are you now just one party and there's no longer anything like a good party? There is a good party but with respect to Lagos it's Labour Party that we are working for. So there won't be a time in the future that people from the good party will now begin to say we are being marginalized or that. Have you walked out the modalities of how to govern this state together? What role will you be playing? No, those will be very presumptuous. You know when you go into this kind of alliance and if you are going into it in good faith you're not going to start to make it look like a deal. That's what typical politicians do. I'm not a typical politician. I have never been. I've been a man in the corporate world, I'm an investment banker, I'm a capital market operator, I manage chartered accountants and all that. We don't approach public sector activities like that. What you want to do is to say do you believe in the philosophy of what you are doing? Can you create a value proposition that the people can associate with something that resonates with them and that can be the basis of which you end their votes. It is when you have won the election that you now begin to sit down and say who has this capacity? Who has these capabilities? And then you begin to see how government will be formed based on people's capacity, capabilities, competence and all those things that Peter Albino normally talks about. I believe in them. But when you start saying you sit down, you take 30% and 30% then that's a deal. All this should not be a deal. All this should be about service. Okay, now let's just have a dream. Your dream of Lagos State, if you do win the governorship election on Saturday, what is the Lagos State that we are looking at if Labour Party should clinch the throne as it were? I summarize it very quickly. The Lagos State we want is a Lagos State where people can sleep in the night and they feel safe. That's security. It's also a Lagos State where people can wake up in the morning and they have somewhere to go or a business to do or a venture to pursue. You have situations where a lot of young people are just made it around clustering in different streets even in front of my office. I see people cluster every day. There's no way to go. There's nothing to do. So I wonder how those guys plan their lives. How they think of where the next mail will come. So people want to sleep and sleep with their eyes closed because there's security. People want to wake up and have somewhere to go and how to earn revenue. People want to leave their homes and not be in excruciating traffic. People want to be able to send their kids to good schools and when they are healed they want to be able to go to hospitals that can take good care of these things that Lebo is talking about and with respect to how we will deal with the traffic situation it's going to be medium short medium and long-term approaches. Number one the short term one is that as much as possible extend the BALT lane to so many so many lanes because that BALT lane in different routes or for those alignments that don't have railways we want to build a railway that might take you three years three years four years five years the traffic the people in traffic are not going to wait for that so we must quickly expand the BALT lanes to almost all the available routes that we can get space to extend them to and that will bring immediate sugar all the bottlenecks will break them down because not only promise us to take out the bottlenecks I've not seen much work in that regard so for me with respect to the S sector we have a very good plan so that's what this is about this is about where Lagos was when this got not sugar over and where Lagos is and we better off a lot of folks have had a fax in these Lagos they don't seem to see they are better off. Let's just as briefly as possible a round off on this note Lagos has been administered for the past 24 years by a particular group of people call it a party call it some godfathers call it the establishment whatever name you want to give it how do you intend to succeed breaking away totally from this establishment that has run Lagos for this long I don't know what you mean by breaking away look why are you going to the elections and we win the thing has broken itself we don't need any process to break it again a lot of things will change immediately number one any government that comes in that is not as you already installed will immediately cancel the alphabet most likely on the day of inauguration that one is without thinking any government that is not in stuff as you are in Lagos we immediately cancel that what do they call it now that APEX got the APC I forgot to send their name the one that takes decision for Lagos I don't know if you can remember but whatever their name is it will not happen again a lot of concessions that are not consistent with the process and the rule of law will be cancelled so it's a political party when the new political party takes over the old order is swept away and a new order is installed sometimes sometimes old order jettisoning the old order and taking the new order gives us concern because no matter what party it is there should be some kind of continuity whether alphabeta is owned by what do you mean by continuity let me let me just learn whether alphabeta is owned by an APC stalwart or not is it doing the right the good a good thing for Lagos or is it just because it is being owned by the APC or a stalwart in APC that is going to be jettisoned we need to know why some things will be left and orders taken new things taken because it shouldn't just be because we are fighting so let us know the alternatives that you will have to either alphabeta or any other thing that you want to jettison just briefly please let me tell you let me tell you this very quickly alphabeta is not doing any work that's the truth they don't collect the revenues okay the revenues have been collected by the Lagos state's internal revenue service LIRS so alphabeta must have been an SPB probably we have some computer support that they are giving the LIRS collects the money that is sufficient for us because alphabeta is a consulting company you cannot be a consultant forever there cannot be permanent consulting everything must have an exit date that is what i'm saying we don't need any extra platform when you have a government platform that is being paid every month to collect the the revenues for government okay so we're not just saying let's stop alphabeta no no no no okay we're saying let's stop alphabeta because alphabeta is a preference of the APC if another party comes we will not we understand that now we understand that now i i just don't want to lose sight of this question that i'm going to ask you as the final question it was alleged that you were attacked you said so yourself can you give us an insight into what really happened and and then after that you talked to legosians just briefly let's let's wrap up okay this is what happened so to do our primaries we've done it in a limo show and a few other places in Lagos so um we contacted the KBSE of the town the alleged effect that will be coming the next day and he said he will not host us in his palace but that we are free to do our campaigns there will be nobody disturbing us but the kind of almost like 50 60 vehicles and part of that we already concluded the deal between the APC and labor party that have that made the PPC between the PDP and labor party that that community said in the labs of the PDP structure in Nekueh it took us to strengthen the the opposition platform without announcing so that rally itself was the announcement of that collapsing of the PDP structure into the labor party so that's what some of the APC folks could not undo on that day and they responded violently i would say because there are gunshots um myself and the honorable honoribu nohim who is the ass of reps candidate for PDP like federal constituency two guys with guns aimed at each of us and opened fire two bullets were targeted at me about two at honoribu nohim but thank god for my for my security security detail who responded the bullet missed narrowly so i heard what the police postman reportedly said i have not confirmed whether i was one that said that really to say that there is no evidence of somebody wounded or dead body or stuff like that but i didn't report that if the bullets hit me so you are not going to see a wounded part of my body but the bullet missed and was not only that twice it tries to disrupt our rally at iridu it tries to disrupt our rally at itabu they try to disturb our to disrupt our rally so what i've seen in ecway is that political intolerance that has been building before now and it has gotten to the to the crescendo so it is important that the security agencies in their planning should know that ecway is going to be a very hot spot because we are going to be very competitive there and we are going to stand for our right and fight for our rights so as it stands now in ecway as it stands now in ecway PDP is now Labour Party is that what you're saying yes the two worries and that is how we are cascading it all over Lagos you see that by Thursday or Friday morning would have cascaded almost all the local governments to make it a clear two worries okay thank you so much Mr or lower for for the insight you've given us and everything you have said today it's been a pleasure having you on the program today thank you my friends just take a final word for legosians because Saturday is coming it's fast approaching in fact it's here just in a sentence or two or in 30 seconds you know these are our telegosians we want a peaceful election we want a non-violent elections i know the youths are agitated i want to appeal to them fighting will undermine the election responding to violence with violence will also undermine the election so what i will what i will expect them to do is go in large numbers to the polling booths go and vote for your preferred party but protect yourself because the law allows you to defend yourself if there's somebody who is aggressive if you can use reasonable force to contain the person and restrain the person and hand the person over to the police that's how it should be but it's not good to just wait and let people kill you you must defend yourself and then for the security agencies my plea to them is let there be good security presence let there be sure force so that these bad guys who are merchants of violence they will know there is no place for them in legos elections come Saturday all right thank you so much again mr olawu for coming on the program thank you my friends well we've been talking with mr olawale olawu who used to be a candidate for boot party but now he has just confirmed to us that boot party has collapsed its structures even before the presidential election into labor party and they are going into the polls as one united body it was a pleasure talking with him and that is how it's been on plus politics today we thank you so much for being a part of it let's do it again tomorrow my name is nyam gul agadji on behalf of the team saying thanks for being there