The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC in Lagos State have engaged each other in war of words over the performance of Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola.
While the PDP through Senator Musiliu Obanikoro deflated public adulations the governor’s performance, saying that mounting debts and class discriminations make the government a failure, the APC through Mr. Joe Igbokwe in a sharp rebuttal dismissed the insinuations, saying that Obanikoro lacked the moral and intellectual capacity to speak.
Senator Obanikoro, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial candidate in the 2007 election had at a media interaction in Lagos, weekend, described the Lagos State administration is a failure because it failed in the basic tenets of transparency in financial matters.
Senator Obanikoro, who is now the Chairman of the Industrial Trust Fund, ITF, flayed the administration in the state for failing in the three critical sectors of education, health and environment, as he claimed that everyone that “can afford it seeks private school education for their children.
“I’ll not sit down here and tell you that we don’t have few things to celebrate in the state, but by and large, there are still many holes to fill up,” Obanikoro said even as he added that, “the overall decision I will take in terms of performance of Lagos government in the last 15 years is slightly below average,” Obanikoro said.
“People may be saying they have done some new roads, they have done this, they have done that; one, we must look at the costs of these roads and then, note that the state’s debt profile is about N1 trillion as we speak today.
“I schooled in the USA, the biggest investment that country made that is still working for them is in education. We have not done such in Lagos State despite all the noise they have been making.
“As we speak today, people of Lagos are not interested and they will not voluntarily send their children to public schools in the state.
“So, how one governor can just stand up and beat his chest that he has performed still marvels me.”
“Today, our hospitals in the state are mere consulting centres. Even the consultation is minimal in the true sense of it. Everybody that is somebody now goes overseas for ordinary medical check –up.”
”Their leader and ex-governor of the state had a medical challenge recently and he was flown abroad to take care of ordinary knee injury.
”In the area of health, Lagos government has equally failed,” he said.
“They are still struggling in the area of refuse management.
“Looking at the Olusosun dumpsite at Ojota and the level of pollution that is injected to the atmosphere on daily basis says a lot about the state government that has been in power since 1999. Where have you seen such big dumpsite operating in a metropolis anywhere in the world?”
But in a quick response, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, former publicity secretary, defunct Lagos State Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, now APC chieftain, said: “You are taking that Obanikoro seriously? What does he know about simple economics or leadership? What does he know about leadership? He does not understand the intricacies of leadership and accounting system. He was once with us and we know what he did.”
Continuing, Igbokwe alleged: “Was it not the same Obanikoro that was the chairman of Lagos Island Local Government? What does he know about accountability? Please, stop wasting your time with this kind of people.”
”What he is saying is not worth wasting energy and ink to write on. His history is very well known and he does not have the capacity to speak. He does not have the intellectual capacity to speak about economics and leadership,” the APC spokesman said.
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