LP Appreciates Good Things

pmnews-placeholder

Mr. Oluwaseun Adetope Williams, a communications expert, a staunch member of the defunct National  Republican Convention (NRC) and Alliance for Democracy (AD) now Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN),  tells P.M.NEWS why he is leaving ACN for the Labour Party

What are your political antecedents?
My political career started in 1987 when the then Head of State, General Babangida allowed  independent candidates to participate in the election. As an independent candidate, I contested as  councillor for Mainland Ward B. Then Mainland had Surulere, Orile-Iganmu, Amukoko as part the local  government area before Surulere was carved out. In 1993, I joined the Alliance for Democracy, and I  worked assiduously for the party at the grassroots level, especially on Apapa Road, which was the  largest vote catchment area for the Mainland Local government.
But unfortunately it is a community that never produces a representative either at the House of  Assembly or at the House of Representative or any other important position. Our case is just like  the case of the goose that lays the golden egg.

What is your next move?
Well, a proverb said if you are in a place for some time and there is no progress, the next thing  for you is to move ahead to where you think you can actualize your ambition, or where you feel that  you can be more appreciated. And that is what I have done. I have move out of Action Congress of  Nigeria (ACN). People like me can be called hewer of woods and fetcher of water, that is, the field  workers who mobilize the people. We use our credibility for people to vote for a particular party,  and that is where it stops. We are never appreciated. I come from a family where our pedigree is of  selfless services. My mother was the foundation headmistress of Mary Wood School, Apapa Road, and  people can attest to her credibility when she was alive, the same for my father.
My parents were educated and we were trained to be upright, to be selfless. Also, I am a member of  Rotary International. So my antecedents are of selfless service to people, and I am striving to do  my best for my community. I really want to serve my people and my people know. I have sympathy for  my people and I want to exercise that through my integrity, pedigree and with anything that I have  to show that God is the ultimate and is the one that gives position.

So where are you moving to?
I have moved to the Labour Party after wide consultation with my associates and supporters. I  believe in their ideology and their mission. The Labour Party has also adopted Governor Fashola as  the party’s governorship candidate. I believe that Labour Party appreciate all that is good. The  party is for the development of the human being and society. I love the party’s ideology, I love  what they are out to do and that is why I am in the Labour Party.

Are you sure of actualizing your political aspiration in the Labour Party?
Well, in this life, I want to say we get only those things which we hunt, for which we strive and  for which we are willing to sacrifice, that is the situation. In this life, no venture no gain  without taking a risk you are not a decent human being. In the religious books, both the Bible and  Quran, God did not tell us to be stagnant, because stagnant water stinks, one should always move  ahead. I am a free born of Lagos; I aspire for a position which I am constitutionally entitled to  as any free born.

With your movement to the Labour Party now, what is the reaction of your supporters?
Apart from the supporters, there are sympathizers, there are residents, there are landlords, those  of us that are politicians are not up to ten per cent, and I am happy the we are going to vote. Our  voting pattern and orientation would gradually change. People will now be talking about individual  integrity. There has also been reaction from those who are not happy with the whole situation.  There have been reactions and encouragement, financially and morally from those who want to be  instruments of change to the next level. God created us to be creative; he never created us to be  in one place. Our people have been impoverished beyond understanding; we do not even know what is  wrong with them again, I learnt that some of them are being threatened with punishment if they  relate with me but I believe that with God I believe that I will get my mandate in the Labour  Party.

Tell us about yourself
My name is Oluwaseun Adetope Williams, I was born in Mainland, Lagos State. I attended Ijero  Primary School, Apapa Road. I went to Renaissance International School, Ibadan. I later worked with  the National Museum as an audio-visual assistant. It was there I developed interest in  communication and when I travelled to Britain in 1979 I studied Communication and Art at Central  Academy for Arts, Kessington, London. When I came back to Nigeria in 1984, I worked with Centre  Spread Advertising Agency and some other advertising agencies before I set up my own advertising  agency/production outfit that is SW Productions.

Load more