LAGOS CAMPAIGN: PRESIDENT FAILED TO ACCOUNT FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE WITH NATION’S TIME, 52% REVENUE ALLOCATION-FASHOLA Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN at the weekend asserted that the next Presidential elections in Nigeria would be about the critical assessment of the current President’s performance after six years in office by Nigerians. The Governor who spoke during a Town Hall meeting and interactive session organized in Benin, Edo State for the Vice Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Professor Yemi Osinbajo which also had in attendance Governor Adams Oshiomhole and leaders in Edo State as well as residents, added that the forthcoming election is not about where the President comes from or how old or young he is and not about how he preaches, but his job approval after six years. Speaking directly to the people at the well attended gathering, the Governor asked a number of questions: “Are you happy with the way your country is? So if after six years, he has not been able to explain to you what he has been doing with your time, your resources, 52 percent of the revenue allocation, do you want him to continue for another four years?”. With a thundering “No” from the audience, the Governor went further to give an incisive analysis of President Jonathan’s speech in Lagos. “I spent an hour this afternoon listening to the President in my state. I saw a very angry President. I saw a President who was recriminating about people criticizing his job performance and he was blaming all those who ruled before him, forgetting that he has been on this job for six years”. “And he kept saying,’ but they say we don’t have any plan’. However, for 29 minutes he did not reveal any plan on Power, he did not reveal any plan on Security; he did not reveal a plan on corruption. I listened to him. Now after six years without being able to articulate what he is doing and what he would do and he keeps blaming everybody, forgetting that he is the Commander-In Chief. If the kitchen is too hot as it is becoming obvious he must get out of the kitchen”, Fashola said. The Governor said what is instructive about the Vice Presidential Candidate of the APC, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is that he has been on the job of jostling for election as the Vice President for just three weeks now but has discussed Power, Employment, Agriculture, a welfare scheme and Healthcare at the event without reading any speech and he has not yet been elected. “So what is on the other side is a man who has not yet taken the job. He was nominated three weeks ago and he is already articulating points that this is what we will do. Are you going to test that man and give him a chance”? “Good politics is about good policies. It is policies that make life better, but we are here not necessarily because of ourselves. We are here because of you and today you have listened to a Vice Presidential candidate telling you in 29 minutes many things you will never hear at a rally because the time for such intense discussion don’t exist”. “And that is perhaps why many Nigerians have sufficiently not been able to interrogate those who come to make empty promises before them because the rallies drown debate but we choose to be different. We want to confront you because we are bustling with ideas. We know that ideas can change things”, he explained. Governor Fashola recalled that Professor Osinbajo who once served as Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in Lagos State during Governor Bola Tinubu’s administration is also a law teacher and a pastor, maintaining that despite his versatility, nothing has suffered. He said it was Professor Osinbajo who spearheaded the challenge in Court of the flawed 2007 elections that led to the restoration of the stolen governorship mandates in Ekiti, Ondo, Osun and Edo States. According to the Governor, it was Professor Osinbajo as Attorney General that led the reforms of the Lagos Judiciary. Fashola also commended Governor Oshiomhole for demonstrating in Edo State that when the right people are opportuned to manage resources, things can work and that good men when given the opportunity to serve can explode myths that it is not possible. While speaking, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Professor Yemi Osinbajo said job creation would be tackled frontally by an APC government by ensuring that each state with the backing of the Federal Government will employ 20,000 young people each. “This is because we realize it is an emergency and if we don’t tackle it, we may run into trouble. We know that unless we do something about this, we will be in great trouble”, he added. He reiterated that an APC Federal Government would also give a tax break to people who give a certain number of persons employment in their businesses and also enjoy recognition of the government. Professor Osinbajo who also spoke on the Power problem explained that only a total privatization of the power sector and development of more Independent Power Plants (IPPs) would bring the country out of the present situation. He identified the problem of the country as being basically money management and not wealth creation laying the blame for oil theft and corruption at the doorsteps of the Federal Government. “Somebody needs to explain to us how 400,000 barrels of oil is stolen every day. We do not need any rocket science to do that. Somebody see this theft done, we have to stop it. If we allow another four years of this kind of theft, nothing would be left. It’s not about tribe, religion or ethnicity. If we want to win a football match, we won’t ask if this man is from Ogun or Edo, we choose the best 11”, he added. Also speaking, Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said the Edo State Government convened the Town Hall meeting because it wanted a platform to interact directly with the people adding that it was clear about what the issues are and was ready to engage and ask questions not from convinced party members but even from the independents. “We thought we should have this indoors interaction for non party members to interact with the Vice Presidential candidate to give you a window of what the issues are and also to move away our politicking from this primordial sentiment of where is he from? Where is he not from? “It is about what you would do differently, how would you guarantee our future? How can we convert people who have been reduced to thuggery from thuggery to being industrial workers? How do we reinvent the Ikeja Industrial Estate? How do we return those textile mills in Kaduna South? How do we ensure that the shoe we wear, we can reinvent Lennards and many do not know that we once had them? How can we get Dunlop back, where is Michelin?”, he reiterated. The event was attended by stakeholders from all sectors in the Edo State and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:37:51 +0000
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