19th December, 2014
Former Governor of Lagos State and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has blamed the challenges of insecurity the country is grappling with on leadership failure.
Asiwaju Tinubu who made this observation on Friday in Benin during the commissioning of the newly rehabilitated six-lane New Lagos Road, in Benin, blamed the federal government’s inability to defend the country in trying times on its failure in leadership.
He said that challenges of insecurity and the lack of services in the country were caused by the failure of the federal government to meet the aspirations of Nigerians.
“A nation fails because of the leadership failures. If there is a good leader at the top, the nation will not fail because fish starts to rotten from the head.
“No excuse for failure. Mr. President, we chose you to defend this country. Quit! Resign! You can’t do it. Enough of excuses,” he said.
Commenting on the road project, Tinubu commended governor Adams Oshiomhole for not relenting in his efforts to develop the state and during his days as labour leader where he stood for true democracy.
“Men and women like you must offer themselves to lead this country because you have demonstrated that in performance in Edo. You have demonstrated courage,” he said.
The former governor who lauded the Benin Monarch, other traditional leaders, market women and the youths for standing by governor Oshiomhole’s government, however urged them to continue to show support for the state government through the prompt payment of their taxes.
Earlier, Governor Oshiomhole explained that his administration was able reposition the state’s infrastructure through the judicious application of revenue and less dependence on federal allocation.
He noted that his administration had taken a cue from the management of revenue in Lagos by blockage leakages in revenue, which enabled the state government to save about N5 billion in the cost of governance.
“We have broken a couple of eggs in this state. Now, we have been able to deliver so much omelette in roads, in schools, in furniture, in rural electrification, hospitals, etcetera.
“This road, people may have forgotten, was a place that no one dared to pass in the afternoon because, with the market, you can’t drive pass this road; narrow road but very busy.
“In constructing this road and expanding it to six lanes, the last two lanes is made of concrete, well reinforced with covered drains. That is to insure that the road does not fail and I hope that our people are able to notice that all the roads that we have constructed so far, none of them has failed.”
As at the time of filling this report, the Asiwaju was on his way to Ewhohimi, in Esan South East local government area of the state where he was billed to commission a newly constructed General Hospital by the state government