The governorship candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in Lagos, Mr. Gbedebo Rhodes-Vivour, has assured that if elected as the governor of the state, he would deliver a new Lagos that would work for every Lagosian.
Rhodes-Vivour stated this shortly after he received his Certificate of Return, CoR, as the governorship candidate of the party from the National Chairman, Julius Abure, in Ikeja, on Tuesday.
The issuance of the CoR by the national leadership has put to rest, controversies over who was the authentic candidate as well as the authentic State Executive Committee.
The LP candidate regretted that despite the huge human and material resources Lagos is blessed with, there was little to show for it, insisting that those running the affairs of the state have betrayed the people.
He said: “I’m happy we can now move forward. I’m also grateful to the national leadership for recognizing and clarifying the issue of candidacy and state exco. With this now, I’m sure everybody has the backing and the mandate to move forward and start the journey to take back our Lagos.
“Please, understand that Labour Party is serious about this, you have seen our structure, this structure goes all the way to the ward and they are determined to labour and do the work to deliver to you, a new Lagos.
“This is the time to move from transformation by transition to transformation by development. As we know, Lagos prides itself in the revenue that it generates from people by multiple taxations without necessarily priding itself in the development and impact it made on people’s lives.
“It’s time to change that. We need to create a Lagos for now because the Lagos we have now is not working. The Lagos we have now has betrayed the people, it has not improved their lives. So, it’s time to create a Lagos that works for Lagosians that’s why I called the movement that we are pushing ‘Our Lagos’ because it belongs to us all. It is time for our Lagos to work for us.”
Continuing, Rhodes-Vivour disclosed that his administration would focus on human capacity development, social infrastructure development, and physical infrastructure development.
According to him, “this is the only way we can truly develop Lagos and achieve the Lagos that works for everybody. And all of these will be envelope in transparency and accountability to ensure that the people get the best possible service, and the best project delivery in record time at the best quality.”
Condemning the hardship Nigerians are going through at the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway due to traffic gridlock, the LP chieftain said that people should not suffer government inefficiency.
“People should not suffer because the government is doing its job. It should do it with least inconvenience to the people. This is part of the things we will change. We are going to change inefficiency in projects implementation because we are going to put the people first.”
While presenting the CoR earlier, the national chairman represented by the National Publicly Secretary, Comrade Arabambi Abayomi, noted that the election of Rhodes-Vivour followed all the necessary laws , regulations and guidelines as provided in the LP Constitution , the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the INEC guidelines.
He also presented Mr Kayode Salako-led 24 members State Exco as one recognized by the National Working Committee of the party.
