Lagos state has been pocketed by one single man and he believed nobody can wrestle power from him and if drastic action is not taking this man called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will Mortgage the entire life of Lagosians and the only party to bring out the people of Lagos state out of this mess is the Peoples Democracy party (PDP).
Currently Lagos State Chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in shamble and it need total overhauling while Hon. Moshood Adegoke Salvador is ready to re-shape and revamp People’s Democratic Party PDP in Lagos State and instill discipline into the party.
The politics of Lagos and Nigeria as whole is not peculiar to him; Hon. Moshood Adegoke Salvador had been in the politics of Nigeria since he was very young in fact the name ADEGOKE was derived from the then political giant in Ibadan BABA ADELABU.
Hon. Moshhod Adegoke Salvador was born on Tuesday, December 13, 1955 at Tokunbo Street, Popo Aguda, Lagos Island. He is the eighth and last child of his mother. Following his father’s love and political sympathy for one of the early nationalists and political giants of Ibadan land, Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu popularly known as Penkelemesi of the National Council for Nigerian Citizen (NCNC) Adegoke was added to his name.
Hon Moshood started primary school in 1961 at Holy Trinity Primary School, Ebute-Ero, Lagos Island, before he got enrolled at Holy Trinity Primary School he had already gone through Quranic education under his father's supervision when he was two years old. His father was an Alfa in the family mosque called Salvador's Mosque on Lagos Island. One of his primary school mates was Mr. Badru, a politician and former commissioner in Lagos state, who was also one of the aides to the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.
Hon. Salvador sat for the entrance examination to mayflower School Ikenne, Ogun State when he was in primary four and he was given admission but his father said he was too young to go outside Lagos. The following year, when he was in Primary five, he took entrance examinations again to Oriwu College, Ikorodu, Mayflower School, lkenne and Ahmadiyyah College, Agege and he passed all. After series of consultation his father agreed that he should attend Oriwu College, Ikorodu. So, Hon Salvador entered secondary school when he was in Primary 5 and not Primary 6.
Hon. Salvador was a brilliant student at Oriwu College, he hardly got beating in Mathematics, this is more reason he got the best result in Mathematics in the University of Lagos at 200 Level.
Because of his brilliance he came out in flying colours in his West African Scholl Certificate (WASC). He was a science student, he wanted to attend CMS Grammar School, Bariga, for his Higher School Certificate (HSC), his father was advised by his nephew, Mr. Ligali who was a teacher in Federal School of Science (FFSS) that he should attend FSS. The advice was accepted by his father and that led him to Federal School of Science, Victoria Island, for his HSC.
After completing his Secondary Education Hon. Salvador saw the needs for him to work, considering the status of his mates who took to working after their secondary school. Unlike nowadays, getting jobs was no difficult in the 70s and early 80s.
As a regular newspaper reader, he saw an advert in a newspaper that a Japanese company, Metal Box Toyo Glass wanted to recruit trainee for bottle technology. He applied and was among those shortlisted. During their training period they were taking care of, they got good food and paid commendable salary of about N24.50k per month.
While still at Metal Box Toyo Glass he saw an advert in a newspaper, a fire extinguisher manufacturing company, Epic Nigeria Limited situated at Itolo Street, off Eric More Road, Surulere, Lagos was looking for marketers to sell their new products.
He applied and haven went for interview and saw how it was demonstrated and it effectiveness coupled with the remuneration offered, he decided to drop his bottle technology job and joined Epic Nigeria Limited.
Fortunately for Hon. Salvador he was a close pal of Alhaji Danmole, who was an auto supervisor at SCOA Motors at that time. Through Alhaji Danmole Hon. Salvador became fire extinguisher supplier to SCOA Motors and other auto companies.
Hon. Moshood Salvador was given a local purchase order (LPO) to Supply 50 units of 6kg fire extinguisher at N44 per unit. He calculated the amount he needed to finance the L.P.O and realised he would need up to N300 He went to his father, he explained what at happened at SCOA Motors and the need for N300 to his father. Being a trusted child, his father never asked further question. He gave him a Union Bank cheque of N300 to execute the job.
After the supply, he was paid almost N2,200.00 this marked the beginning of his being self-employed and that was how SCOA Motors became his client. From the money realized, he conveniently paid back his father’s money and started his real business life.
One day, as he was standing in front of SCOA Motors, he sighted his niece, the late Mrs Bimbo Odebiyi, in front of the lgbosere Magistrate Court, opposite SCOA Motors. He asked what she was doing there and Bimbo replied that she was going to Lewis Street to cater for National Oil and Chemical Company workers, at that time, National Oil and Chemical Company headquarters at Marina was under construction and Bimbo Odebiyi was catering for the workers. She studied Catering at the school of catering at Idi-Aba in Abeokuta and established a catering outfit called Aktas Catering Services. She invited Hon. Salvador to her canteen. At the canteen, there was a man who came to eat and was complaining that the food was late. Bimbo tried to explain that the food was late because of shortage of water. The man was a senior manager at the National Oil and Chemical Company. He told Bimbo to look for somebody that would be supplying water so that the food would always be ready early. As the discussion was going on between his niece and the manager, Hon. Salvador said to himself that he could get them water. He told his niece later that he could Supply them water. Bimbo asked if he could do this and he assured her. When they concluded the discussion, he went in search of water tanker owner. He saw a man that had a water tanker and asked if he could supply him water in the morning and evening at a location. They agreed on the terms of payment and other logistics. Hon. Salvador would be paid by the company while he would pay the tanker driver It was not quite two days when he started supplying water that his elder brother, Alhaji Mojeed Salvador, who was a senior staff with the Lagos State Development Property Corporation (LSDPC), called him to discuss the possibility of working with a tanker driver working with LSDPC. He met the tanker driver and both of them agreed on the modalities and mode of payment. An arrangement was sealed on how the driver would supply water without delay. The man was doing the work well, as the money he was being paid by Hon. Salvador was an additional income which surpassed his salary at LSDPC.
National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company was paying him through his registered company, Mass Salva every Thursday. He was supplying 2,000 gallons of water everyday of the week with additional quantity on request, especially on working days, 1.000 gallons in the morning and 1,000 gallons in the afternoon at the rate of N50 per 1000 gallons, while the agree with the supplier of water was N20 per 1000 gallons. At the end of every month, he was collecting up to N2,000 from the company every month. The company was paying him N50 per 1,000 gallons, while he was paying the supplier N20 per 1,000 gallons. "I was paying N20 per 1,000 gallons to the supplier, while l keeps N30 per 1,000 gallons"
As the water supply business was still going on with the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company, luck smiled on him one day when he saw a friend of his brother, Alhaji Surajudeen Onigbanjo, who was a Line Manager with the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company. Alhaji Onigbanjo, a top manager in the company, was a friend to Mojeed Salvador, his elder brother. He asked what Moshood was doing at the company and he replied that he had been supplying water to the company for quite some time.
The man was surprised. He did not know water supplying could be a money-making business. “I don’t mind if you give me more business to do because I still have the time" Hon. Salvador told the man. For Alhaji Onigbanjo, water supplying was not a business.
At that time, Alhaji Onigbanjo was the Aviation Manager with the company. The company was controlling the Joint Hydrant Depot at the International Airport, Ikeja. So, the maintenance of the depot was under his control. In Alhaji Onigbanjo's department, there were some consumables called Aviation fuelling equipment were being used. He asked if Hon. Salvador could supply the equipment and he replied yes. That how Hon Salvador came in to Aviation sector, It got to a stage where he had to be supplying other oil companies, such as Texaco, Mobil, Total and others. The aviation job was not limited to the supply of fuelling equipment; it also included the construction of water separators at local airports, construction of offices at airports and installation of siren for securities at airports.
While supplying water, he met one of his relations, Mr. Ahmed Lawal, who was in charge of maintenance of the company's houses. As he knew Salvador had become a contractor, he started giving him petty contracts like dislodging sewage at their Eagle Estate at Satellite Town, Ojo; construction of security posts; Supply of keys and other items. This made him to be conversant with the head office of the company at Marina.
Hon. Salvador’s contact with politics.
Hon. Salvador was never thinking in that line until one day when he was approached by a political elder in the area. He sat in his office at the then 10, now 35, Owodunni Street, Onipanu, in 1989, thinking of moving his business forward. He was approached by Chief Odetunde, popularly known as Baba Olowo.
The man told him that he came to see him to present the position of the elders in the community to him that he should join politics. Having listened to Chief Odetunde, he refused bluntly. At that time, he hated politics and was not ready to give it a thought. Before Hon. Salvador was approached to join politics he has been doing lots of humanitarian activities to his community and to some people in his area, seeing a man with good intention made them to be interested in luring him into politics to enable him do more.
Chief Odetunde came the second time, he said no; “don't drag me into what l am not interested in, I don't know how to go about it, I don't have passion for it, I am only interested in providing for my community in whatever capacity I can." The pressure to lure him into politics and make him more useful to the community increased. Chief Odetunde came to him the third time with some delegates to make him see reasons for the need to join politics; not for his benefit, but for that of the community. They came to tell him that they had to get him involved, not because of his money, but as a result of what he had been doing and what they believed he would still do. Among the elders were Chief Fashakin (Baba Eleja), Elder Olorunmaye, Alhaji Alayi, Miss Motunde Davies and others
After much pressure from Chief Odetunde and other elders, Hon. Salvador acceded to their request and that was how he joined politics during the period of the defunct National Republic Convention (NRC) and the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Hon. Salvador found himself in the NRC and he became the party's standard bearer in Mushin Local government, aspiring to represent it in the House of Representatives. The contest for a seat in the House of Representatives in Mushin was between him and Mr. Adedini, an SDP candidate. The election was conducted and he lost to his opponent. The process was stressful for him due to his inexperience in politics. A lot of things happened that he could not comprehend. As a fresher in politics, he didn't know the intrigues. Mr. Adedini of the SDP polled 3,800 votes, while he polled 1,296 votes. Before that time, no person outside the part that was perceived pro-Awolowo ever had 500 votes. SDP was seen as an offshoot of Awolowo’s interest.
Though, Slavador lost the election, his party, NRC, won the state governorship poll due to the crisis in the SDP in the state. The crisis was between Chief Dapo Sarumi and Prof. Femi Agbalajobi. Both contested the primary election. The crisis was not well managed by the leaders and this paved the way for the opponent and less popular party, NRC, to be victorious in the election. Sir Michael Otedola of the NRC won the governorship election against Mr. Yomi Edu of the SDP. The poll was a protest election by Lagosian.
Following the reaction of Lagos voters to the unresolved crisis in the Social Democratic Party, the National Republican Convention became the party in power in Lagos State. Sir Michael Otedola took over the mantle of leadership. This gave the party members hope of relevance in the state’s power machinery.
As soon as Sir Michael Otedola assumed power, he asked for the list of the candidates, who contested on the platform of the party for the House of Representatives seats and other positions and Hon Salvador fell into this category, benefitting from the party. They were given contracts worth about N80, 000.00 each, as they were asked to construct drainages, culvert and do other jobs, to offset their financial losses as electioneering campaign. The party considered the contract as a token to compensate them for their efforts.
Hon. Salvador had no problem with what the party had given them as a result of their inputs, but was surprised when he heard that Dr. Segun Ogundimu, a medical practitioner and a political associate of his in the same local government, was appointed a commissioner for Transport and later that of Health. Dr Ogundimu took advantage of the members in Mushin to get the positions. He declared political situation in the NRC and the quality of NRC his intention to run n for the presidential race, never collected nomination form, but was regarded as a presidential aspirant and was considered for the appointments. Hon. Salvador was not satisfied with the party's position, considering his financial and other inputs into the party as a candidate, who contested for an election. He asked himself some frank questions: Why would an aspirant without nomination get appointments while duly-elected candidates of the party would not? He then came to a conclusion that, may be because Dr. Ogundimu had a higher qualification and was experienced.
This incident marked another phase in his life, as he made up his mind to further his education. He came to a conclusion that his failure to secure commissionership in the state was as a result of his low academic qualification. At that period, he was not a graduate, but a Higher School Certificate holder. He became a successful businessman, but lack of a degree stared him in the face. As a result, he decided to go back to school. He applied to the University of Lagos for a degree in Business Administration.
Educational qualification of Hon. Salvador includes:
Exec. Dip-Export-Marketing University of Lagos 1998,
Diploma Oil & Gas Fin. University of Dundee Scotland 2000,
Bsc University of Lagos 1995-2000,
MBA Federal University of Tech. owerri - 2000-2002,
Msc University of Lagos 2002-2004.
STILL TO COME
Hon. Salvador at the National Assembly
Hon. Salvador at the National Conference
