Movement demands Lagos Assembly resume to expedite action on 2019 budget

Ambode

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (right), in a handshake with the Speaker, Lagos House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa during the presentation of the Y2018 Budget Estimates to the House, at the Assembly Complex, Alausa, Ikeja, on Monday.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambodeand Obasa 

The Lagos Liberation Movement, LLM rose from a special organizational session of its members across the nooks and crannies of the State at the weekend, in Ikorodu, calling on the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, to immediately reopen the House of Assembly, which has been under locks and keys since 2018.

The call became imperative as Lagosians continued to anticipate the presentation of the State’s 2019 Appropriation Bill, to the Assembly for Consideration, by the State’s Executive, led by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

The LLM is worried, that further delay in the presentation and passage of the 2019 Budget, may be counterproductive and lead to a shutdown of governance and economic activities in the State.

The Movement noted that Lagos, which is the fifth largest economy in Africa is at a palpable risk of slowdown in its developmental strife if the Lagos House of Assembly did not quickly reconvene session to accept the submission of 2019 Budget proposal by Ambode.

“It was observed with concern that since the return of democratic rule in 1999, Lagos State Government kept the enviable record of being the first amongst equal to submit its budget proposal before the last quarter of an operational year and passage of same before the end of the first month of the New Year. This has no doubt been responsible for the seamless economic growth of the State of excellence,” Comrade Mark Adebayo, Convener of the group said in a statement.

“However, LLM is shocked to receive the news that even when the Commissioner for Budget and Planning in the State wrote the Assembly last year for a date when the Governor would address the lawmakers and submit the 2019 Budget, the Speaker responded that it would be impossible to reconvene the House at any determinable date because members of the House are currently busy with their various political campaigns for offices in this year’s general elections!

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“This is not only reprehensible but also highly condemnable and disrespectful to the indigenes and residents of Lagos state. This is much more so when viewed against the background that the over N1 trillion budget is largely targeted at meeting the demands of Lagosians and promise of Governor Ambode to complete all the infrastructural development projects like the Agege flyover, Oshodi Transport Interchange, Lagos-Abeokuta BRT corridor among others, initiated by his administration. It is trite to emphasize that the refusal to reopen the Assembly and expedite the passage of the budget would not only affect the infrastructural developmental strides but also equally provoke monumental needless hardships and sufferings on Lagosians,” it said.

The LLM noted that Obasa and many of the members of the House of Assembly were not acting in the best interest of Lagos State that had bettered their lots, but rather working in cohort with other elements outside government to rubbish if not retard the developmental growth of the State.

The session called on well-meaning indigenes as well as Lagosians at home and diaspora to urgently intervene in this emerging, seemingly logjam of the State’s economy before it is too late.

 

 

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