15th January, 2015
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has attacked President Goodluck Jonathan for saying that he cannot fight insecurity because Major General Muhammed Buhari did not buy arms during his tenure as military head of state in 1985.
The governor, who spoke at the flag-off of the All Progresives Congress, APC, campaign in Lagos at the Skypower Ground, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, on Wednesday, berated Jonathan for giving excuses over the fight against insecurity by hinging it on the fact that the APC presidential candidate, Muhammed Buhari did not purchase guns for the armed forces in 1985.
“I cannot come to the public and say I can’t do my job because people failed. You cannot say you can’t fight insecurity because they did not buy you guns. Buhari left in 1985. If he bought guns, do you want to use 1985 guns to fight today’s insecurity?” he asked.
The governor urged all registered voters to vote massively for APC to ensure continuity at the state level and change at the national level, saying that all adults of voting age in the state must collect their Permanent Voter’s Cards in their various local governments to ensure that the APC remained in office in Lagos State.
He maintained that the right of every voter to exercise his franchise is an inalienable right that could not be taken away by any government or institution, adding that on Election Day, every eligible voter would be entitled to vote irrespective of whether what he has is a Permanent Voter’s Card or a Temporary Voter’s Card.
Describing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state as “a party that delights in peddling falsehoods,” Fashola alleged that every sector that the party had touched had been destroyed, urging Lagosians not to allow them destroy what had been built in the state.
He stated that what the PDP-led Federal Government found impossible to achieve has been put in place by the Lagos State Government through its Independent Power Projects which have provided dedicated power to selected public institutions in different parts of the state.
According to the Governor, the State Government has provided dedicated power to the State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where surgical operations can be carried out without disruptions due to power failure and established a Power Academy where young people would be trained “to fill the vacancies that would exist in the power generation and distribution sectors in the foreseeable future.”
Fashola added, “as the complexity of the state emerges, the challenge ahead needs an expert in financial management and an answer has been found in Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode”.
The national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu said the PDP is a political Ebola and should be voted out of power in next month’s election.
According to Tinubu, it was unfortunate that Jimi Agbaje, the PDP’s governorship candidate moved to the party after wandering from several parties to the place and finally settled with a party that is worse than Ebola.
The former governor said, PDP, as an Ebola party, had totally crippled the economy of the nation, saying that Nigeria is going through trial today because it chose the wrong leader in 2011, lamenting President Goodluck Jonathan had been justifying his failure until recently when he admitted his failure.
“We want a change, we want Buhari, the economy has failed, Jonathan has finished spending our money. We need somebody whose head is correct, the revolution we need is here,” he said.
Tinubu added that Lagos is too important for the PDP to experiment with, saying that Ambode is the right man for the job as he had lots of experience in governance.
He said eight years ago when he brought Governor Babatunde Fashola forward, he believed he could do the job, saying that the results were there for all to see, adding that now, he had brought Ambode forward and wanted maximum support for him because he had the needed experience to do the job.
“I am proud that I am the father of successors. Our prayer is that our children should live and perform better than us,” he said.
Reiterating that Lagos is too strategic to be experimented with, Tinubu said the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, “lacked the cognate experience to rule Lagos as he failed to take advantage of the several offers made to him in the past to learn the ropes about the art of governance due to his inordinate ambition.”
The APC gubernatorial candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, said his administration would continue to ensure the welfare of the residents of the state irrespective of tribe, creed or religion.
He promised to build on the legacy of the Fashola administration to ensure a cleaner Lagos and a government that would be accountable to every resident of the state by making life more economically viable for them.
Ambode also promised to set up an Employment Trust Fund that would be similar to the State Security Trust Fund and provide job creation opportunities to the teeming army of unemployed youths, urging the people to ensure that they vote massively for the APC candidates in all elections.