1st April, 2015
The All Progressives Congress (APC, governorship candiodate in Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode has congratulated and thanked the people of Lagos for voting out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Presidential election.
He said he is particularly grateful that the people of Lagos against all odds heeded his plea for them to vote out the PDP for non-performance and cluelessness displayed in the management of the affairs of the nation for the past 16 years which grew worse in the last 6 years.
He further explained that the concept of change was midwifed in Lagos and has been birthed in the nation with the unprecedented success of APC in the presidential election the first of its kind in Nigeria where an incumbent had been roundly defeated and peacefully displaced from power.
He said the APC deserves to continue in Lagos to consolidate on her excellent performance in spite of the hostile federal might faced for the past 16 years.
“It is salivating to contemplate what the party would achieve with the support of the APC Federal Government. The sky would even be too low to be the limit,” he said.
According to him, “this rare feat achieved by the people of Nigeria is a fulfillment of the prediction of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo that a day would come when the best of the progressives and the conservatives would come together to provide an excellent future for Nigeria. This has been made possible by the resilience of the people of Nigeria and our dear people of Lagos.”
He urged Lagosians not to relent but to come out en mass on April 11 to vote for APC in Lagos in order to complete the cycle of excellence.
“Lagos must be the first partaker of the massive support of the APC Federal Government that it has been denied by the PDP. The people of Lagos would recall the way the PDP-led Federal Government ‘punished’ Lagos for creating the 37 Local Council Development Areas by withholding the allocation due to the state.
“It was the ingenuity of the crack team of experts, of which I was a privileged member, set up by the then governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that led to the development of the template on which Lagos not only survived but expanded the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). The IGR has since grown from a paltry 4 billion naira to over 20 Billion naira today!
“The task of governance is not for wishful thinkers and verbose speakers but for thinkers, strategist and tacticians. I want to plead with the people of Lagos not gamble with our future. This is not the time for trial and error. The people of Lagos must continue on the path of excellence which the APC represents. Lagosians must vote for continuity on April 11. By the grace of God I believe that if the people of Lagos give me this opportunity I shall serve with sincerity, integrity and with all the talents the Almighty has endowed me,” he said.