Chief Owolabi Salis, the gubernatorial candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, AD on Sunday, December 23, 2018 became the hero of many Nigerian youths and women after his foundation empowered and graduated 550 people in different skills acquisition programme.
Speaking at the event, Chief Salis who attested to the quality of the training revealed that he no longer gets imported products like shoes and clothes because the people his foundation has empowered across the state have the skill set to make products that can compete in the local and international standard.
He further said that he knows that Lagosians are skilful and not lazy and would,
“It is about whether the individual in government is materialistic or not. If you know me very well, you will know that I am not materialistic. They rate their personal interest above the interest of the public but for me, my personal interest is not going to override the interest of the public.
“There is a lot of money for this purpose, a lot of money for poverty alleviation, for human capacity development but these people don’t get to see the money. Like I’ve said before, funds that come in get cut before reaching the grassroots and what’s left is often time not sufficient for the projects they are meant for. But we are going to practice the buttom-top also known as the
Chief Salis was again blunt enough to reiterate that his benevolence to the masses was not borne out of a political ambition but a passion to see the masses get out of poverty to a better life.
“This programme is not political, it is social investment. And whether you are from APC, PDP, AD or no party, you will benefit if you partake in it. It will be ungodly for me to discriminate those who are not in my party if I become the governor of Lagos and guess what? I am a candidate of the less privileged and not just AD. I’m the candidate of the oppressed people of APC, PDP and other parties. We have just only one objective, to take the Commonwealth of the masses and give it back to them.
“There are monies from the Bank of Industries (BOI) and many other programmes for poverty alleviation and grants from the World bank that don’t even get to the people. Very soon, we shall speak with the Bank of Industry on how to get loans for all our trainees that will enable them to start businesses on their own, and we are going to supervise it to ensure that the money get to them.
“I am a chartered accountant and it is our job to safeguard both public and private funds against fraud. One thing in Nigeria today is there is a serious problem of collusion and by this I mean , the division of duties and management override. So what I’m going to put together is the control on collusion. i.e making sure that everyone discharges his duties without fear or favour and needless interventions.
He further promised functional government financed vocational centres with highly skilled facilitators across all local government and local council development areas in the state.
The Owolabi Salis foundation has graduated 54,000 trainees in all LGAs in Lagos and they have been trained in different skills like Catering, fashion designing, shoemaking, home essentials, construction engineering, etc.
READ ALSO: “A SUCCESSFUL GOVT BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN THE RICH AND POOR” – HIGH CHIEF OWOLABI SALIS
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