•Former LAGOS Labour Party Chairman, KAYODE SALAKO
All is not well between, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party candidate in Lagos and Kayode Salako, the ex-Chairman of the Labour Party in Lagos.
Since last year both of them have been at daggers drawn, with Gbadebo running a solo guber campaign and Kayode voting for Gov. Sanwo-Olu at the last governorship elections.
A few days back Kayode told City People that Gbadebo has been unkind to him. He revealed that as Chairman of the party for 5 months, he made him emerge as the governorship candidate despite a lot of pressure put on him to give it to a much older person. “I gave it to him because I preferred a younger person. I stood my grounds, but
immediately I gave him the ticket, free of charge, without negotiating, or charging him to give me anything, he started misbehaving, and making some hidden and uncultured moves to push me aside from his project”.
“I had thought I would give him the ticket, and the project would be our project. I had thought we would run things together to achieve the success together”.
“My avowed mission then was to win Lagos for Labour Party, so that I can make a name for myself as the State Chairman. I didn’t know much about him. I didn’t even bother to know. Badly enough, I didn’t even know he couldn’t write/speak the language of the state he wants to govern”.
“He hid his nature from me. I didn’t even know he has a popular Ibo name. I only knew that his wife and mother are Ibos, which to me, would even make our party to get good votes from the Ibo population in the election. But, immediately he got the ticket, he started running things all alone with his Endsars people. He sidelined almost all the Yorubas and prominent leaders and elders on the platform, and suddenly became purely Ibo inclined”.
“Nothing Yoruba was ever attractive to him again. He stopped listening to me, or anybody in the party – Not even the elders and leaders I reported him to, on few occasions. He eventually did away with me. And, when I reported him to the Elders and Leaders in our party the first time, hear what he rudely said to me, his State Chairman as at the time: ‘I am so mad at you right now Mr. Salako. Am I owing you anything? Do you think I don’t have a mind of my own, when I decided I want to come out to be governor. You can’t be sounding like a godfather in my life on this project. I don’t need a godfather, or anybody to keep telling me what to do. I have a mind of my own. Please, tell me. If I am owning you anything, I will pay you. Am I owning you anything, or what? I am so mad at you right now”.
“This response was made openly in the presence of all the leaders and elders that were present at the meeting on that fateful day. The Chairman of the Leaders/Elders Forum of our party then, who presided over the meeting that day, Chief Sumbo Onitiri, also eventually saw what I saw about him in the course of the project, and backed out at the dying minute with disappointment”.
He is now accidentally a Cheiftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. Salavador, who is the apex leader of the party in the state, also backed out along with many other prominent stakeholders, including many of the LGA/LCDA Chairmen of the party. I also stayed on my own throughout the period, and voted for Babajide Sanwo-Olu to continue to run Lagos State as progressively peaceful as he has been running it over the last 3 years”.
“Throughout my stay in office as the State Chairman of the party, vindictively he never got my office involved in anything; gave me anything, or did anything with me. I got no ‘shishi’ or any encouragement to run my office, or anything as at the period. I was completely sidelined”.
“All he was doing was working with my detractors for me to be removed as the State Chairman of the party, and he and his deputy, Princess Abiodun Oyefusi, eventually got me removed about 1 month and few days to the February 25 presidential/national assembly election with the help of Dayo Ekong, the current Caretaker Chairman of the party in the state (whom I nominated by myself to take over from me, because of my sincere love for her and the value I built for what we shared, when I was in office) and Sam Okpala, the insatiable and domineering State Secretary of the party”.
What was my offence?! Because, I reported him to the leaders in the party to tell him to do the right thing with the party, which he never did”.
“He told all of us to our faces that he didn’t trust us. He said we should stay away from his project. He said he had his own people he wanted to use to run his election, and we all simply obeyed. He didn’t want to be a godson to Salako, his State Chairman, but all along, Chief Bode George, the leader of the PDP in the state and his wife, were those he was listening to, and not anybody else in the Labour Party in the state”.
“So, he preferred to be a godson to a PDP leader anti-partily as a Labour Party member and governorship candidate, but told the State Chairman, who fought so hard for him to get the ticket to go to blazes. He was never Labour Party inclined at all from his operations, but purely PDP. He was just doing whatever he liked in the party, and not listening to anybody”.
“He ran his election alone, without the involvement of many of the prominent political stakeholders in our party, and God almighty simply corrected the mistake I made by working so hard, and by fighting almost all the powers that be in our party – both in Lagos and Abuja – for him to get the ticket to be the governorship candidate of our party. He simply lost the election to Babajide Sanwo-Olu. That margin of win by Sanwo-Olu, wouldn’t have been that geometrically exponential, if all of us had been involved.
“Violence, or no violence on March 17, there was no way he would have won the ruling party in the state, because almost about 70% of all the prominent field work tools in the party, were out of his project, including me, the man who led the team that built the political structures of the party in the state”.
“When Labour Party won the presidential election in Lagos State on February 25, all of us in the party were committedly and passionately involved. But, on March 17, it was more of only him; his Endsars people and the emergency friends he imported from abroad at the tale end of the project”.
“God is not stupid! He does not reward betrayals; habitual ungratefulness; operational arrogance and bad leadership. With what I know about him, Gbadebo would have simply come to mess up Lagos, and set its progress 10 years behind.
He is so arrogant, proud, very deceptive, self-centered, childish; mean-hearted, unforgiving, operationally vindictive and immature in almost everything. I made a mistake by working for his type to be the governorship candidate of our party, but God in His infinite mercies, corrected the mistake on March 17. I could remember that one of the aspirants offered to give me 30 million naira and a brand new Jeep car for him to get the ticket. I refused and insisted on him, because I thought the only way my party could win Lagos was to use a youth/or a middle aged person, who could be so attractive enough to the electorate in the state”.
“What an insult from a boy I suffered, and paid so dearly to establish and sustain as the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in the state”.
“Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour would have eventually become the next Governor of Lagos State, that was our plan and aundaunted resolve from the beginning, but his terrible operational attitude, pride, arrogance; spirit of self-centredness and horrible social character disposition gave his victory out”.
“You want to contest an election to win in a democracy, but all along, you were fighting all the prominent stakeholders and actors in the party. That is the reason many of us backed out at the last moment. You would call him on phone he won’t pick your call, except only when he needs your help. He was always too proud to go beg the people, who feel aggrieved about his ugly ways and style of operations in the party. I made efforts for us to go and beg Alhaji Moshood Salvador and co. to work for his project, but he refused. Democracy is a game of numbers and collective contributions of more and more people”.
When Labour Party won Lagos, during the presidential election, everybody in the party was committedly and passionately involved. But, Gbadebo lost, because he told many of us to get away from his project and called our bluff”.
“Anything Yoruba irritates him in the party. He is only attracted to Anything Ibo, the Endsars people and his emergency allies that he imported from abroad. Those are the ‘super’ people, he believed would give him all the votes to win Lagos. He was only banking on the votes of his politically inexperienced Obidient movement people; the Ibos and the Endsars people in the party, hence he did away with the contributions of many of the prominent Yorubas on the platform”.
“That Chief Sumbo Onitiri, who was the highly respected and calm chairman of the Elders Forum left; Salvador and many prominent Yoruba big wigs left, was a vindication of all I have been saying about Gbadebo’s nature and character from the beginning”.
“He refused to work with the right structure of the party – He refused to do the right thing with the party, and wasn’t humble enough to carry everybody along with expected humility and dignity, hence, he lost it all alone with his bad, poor and uncultured character.
He didn’t trust anybody that had anything to do with Salako in the party. He deliberately sidelined them; starved them of necessary supports and treated them like a pariah. He didn’t do well with many of the candidates, who contested elections on the platform”.
Gbadebo operated like a lone ranger all along. He didn’t relate well with them, and didn’t carry them along, let alone give them good moral/financial supports, when necessary. He was operating alone with Sherif Adegbite, his P.A, and only Special Adviser gave him the ticket to contest to become governor, but he and his deputy, Princess Oyefusi, ended up removing me as the State Chairman. This is somebody, who hasn’t become the Governor”.
How would he be behaving, operating and treating people, if he eventually becomes the Governor?! Gbadebo had no relationship with prominent leaders and elders of the party. He didn’t operate with us and didn’t carry any of us along in all he was doing. So, no sane human being should expect that I would still continue to stake it all for such kind of a character in a human being to succeed in his own project. I simply worked and voted, where my efforts and vote were needed, valued and appreciated”.
“Gbadebo who cannot rule our party; manage people and run things fairly well with people in the party, now wants to rule Lagos. With what character?!
“God is not stupid. He doesn’t reward betrayals, ungratefulness and bad leadership operational character with ‘holy’ greatness. This is the political base of the Jagaban of politics in Nigeria, he said it in a video in circulation on social media few weeks ago. He said, and I quote:
“Political power is not served a la carte. It is for the grabs. You grab it; snatch it and run away with it …”
Is that the type of a man, you would want to face in an election, and you expect it would be as easy as fighting and calling the bluff of all the prominent and experienced polical actors in your own party.”
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