Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has boasted that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, stands no chance against his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. He also faulted Vice President Namadi Sambo’s declaration that people are now leaving Lagos because of high taxation.
Speaking at the end-of-year media briefing in Ikeja, Lagos, Fashola said with the achievements of his administration in different sectors, the APC would win next year’s governorship election. Fashola stated: “He (Agbaje) is not a threat to us. Let’s go and check the result of the 2011 election.
He got three per cent of the votes cast. Even his party, we have defeated PDP in all elections done since 1999. Our candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, is going to defeat Agbaje with your support.
This is not the place to experiment; one needs a lot of experience to achieve what we have done in Lagos.”
On why he’s convinced of APC victory in Lagos, he said: “When you look at what their party has done with the country, for instance, there are missing funds, non-functioning rail, epileptic power supply and others. Do you want that to happen in Lagos?”
On the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and electoral process, Fashola said the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be a statistician and not a professor and academic and others.
“It is not about theory; it is about practical. People who should also do this job should be those who have managed distribution activities in the country. It is not a judicial work, but logistics,” he added.
Replying Sambo, who had stated that people were leaving Lagos over taxation, Fashola said:
“That statement is a very serious display of ignorance, if it was true that the vice president said so. How do you then justify the perception that people are leaving Lagos? Is the VAT being collected from Lagos reducing, compared to other states? Is the air Traffic into Lagos reducing? More hotels are being built in Lagos; companies are licensing and operating in Lagos.
“Displaced people from other parts of Nigeria are moving into Lagos; has the workers’ demand in Lagos reduced? Has the demand for hospital services reduced? So, it is a very grave statement to
make. That is why I say may be he was misquoted because that is the Chairman of the Nigeria Economic
Council. So, if he misunderstands what is happening in the commercial and economic nerve centre of the country it may be a very revealing index to their understanding of the country’s economy.
“It may also confirm to you that some of the things you heard from the President that he receives all sorts of contradictory advices and may be this is part of it. It is a very dangerous statement to make; it is either ignorant or diabolical and either ways it is not good because it tells you then why the economy is not functioning, if the chairman of the economic council does not number anything about people and number. The economy is always about people,” Fashola said.
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