Polls: Those spending too much will lose – Salvador

Moshood Adegoke Salvador, is a former member of House of Representatives and former Lagos State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who is now the Assistant Director General of Babajide Sanwo-olu Campaign Organisation. In this interview with Azubuike Chima, the politician, who is also the State Coordinator of Presidential Support Committee, gave reasons why PDP lost the 2015 presidential election. He also spoke about his membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Excerpts

You are a member of the Presidential Support Committee. What exactly is the work of this body?

Our is just an assignment to support the campaign organizations. They know my experience in electioneering activities. They can tell of my sincerity and honesty in the way I do politics. Once you are given an assignment, you strategise on how to make impact. It is not that challenging. The only assignment is to mobilise votes for President Buhari and Babajide Sanwo-olu.

Don’t you think some people may be angry about your joining the APC,  especially those now relegated to pave way for you?

Provided some people reported to you that they were benched for me to occupy positions when I joined my new party. Otherwise, that is your assumption. Look, from this part of the world, we must stop thinking the way you are thinking. You always think in such a way that you see only problem, agitation, and the likes in all developments. You should think of dialogue.

If you start thinking that some people were benched because of me, how are you sure that they are not happy that Salvador has come to help them win election? You must change the way you think and see developments. That is the only way to be positive about issues. Of course my experience was brought to bear upon arriving in the party and the leadership of the party moved to tap from it.

What are the chance of APC in the upcoming elections in Lagos state?

Do you know the strength of any political party? It is the structure. The structure of Lagos PDP has being distorted. And once the structure of any political party is removed, forget it. That is why it will be difficult for them to score half of what they scored in 2015. PDP membership was just 20,000 when I became chairman. I succeeded in growing it membership to 300,000.

Having said that, it will be difficult for the PDP to remain the same with the exit of the chairman. I have practicalised the essence of structure. On two occasions, I have had to mobilise Conscience Mandate Group within a short notice. Conscience Mandate Group had the highest membership in PDP. When you talk about political party, it is only APC that has members more than my group. So, here in Lagos, Buhari will defeat Atiku hands down.

How was it running PDP Lagos as its chairman?

I don’t believe in money politics. I spent nothing less than 4million on a monthly basis from my personal purse in maintaining  the party as chairman. I have my personal business concerns that fetches me money. I am not in politics for money. I had threatened to disqualify candidates over inducement as chairman.

So, why did the PDP, knowing your worth and sacrifices to it growth, let you go?

Well, what the National Chairman ought to have done, he failed to do. No state chairman ever called the National chairman Uche Secondus and he picked their call. Even the chairman of state chairmen from Akwa Ibom , even claimed he sent 1000 messages to Secondus without a single reply from the national chairman. I told him to either remove Chief Olabode George, or I go, but he failed to do anything about it.

With due respect to some of the leaders like Sule Lamido, Ahmed Makarfi and others who loved and showed me equal respect, the PDP is a very disrespectful party. And now in the APC, we have a different political life.

As an insider at the time, can you really say what exactly did PDP did wrong in 2015?

The money was too much. PDP spent too much money in 2015. If you spend too much money, you will lose election.There is a way of spending money. When you spend money that cannot get to the grassroots, you are just wasting the money. The basic thing a politician wants is recognition. But when those you deal with are without structures or you give them the feeling that you have the whole world, then they will be more interested in milking you than working for your victory.

Instead of looking for those with structures, recognizing and supporting them with want they require to deliver, they were busy throwing money all over the place and the result was that they lost the election at the end of the day. The case of APC is different. It has the structures and experts that can achieve its aim. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu does not have to give me money before I ask my followers to do his biddings.

You’ve been around in the politics of Lagos state for a while. Where did you have your political tutelage?

I started politics in Mushin here in Lagos. I contested for the House of rRepresentatives. I was under the tutelage of Baba J. O Solomon. He was our political Professor. He taught us how best to be  grassroots politicians and how to live a life of contentment even as politicians and public office holders. We learnt a lot from him. That is why I will not keep quiet. I will keep educating the younger ones that they don’t need to steal money to become rich.

In your various offices, do fantastic work and watch yourself rewarded. I try as much as possible to educate the youths.

In your opinion, what essentially is restructuring?

Restructuring is  dialogue. It is simply reorganisation for better effectiveness. But the manner in which some of its current campaigners are going about it is a deceitful. Obasanjo was there as President, he never talked about restructuring. Jonathan too never raised the issue as President. There are different re-organisations needed in Nigeria today.

We need social, political, economic and numerous other reorganizations. But I wonder why the interest of the campaigners lie soley on political reorganisation instead of economic reorganisation first and allowing it dovetail into political restructuring. PDP has been going about with restructuring promises, but I have told the whole world that it is a deceit. It is not possible for Atiku to restructure Nigeria. If it was so, their former presidents could have done that before now.