Lagos State
Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has declared
that President Goodluck Jonathan-led federal
government lacks the requisite knowledge and
capacity to tackle Nigeria’s problems, saying that
there is the need to effect a change at the centre
in 2015 for the country to achieve positive
development.
Fashola, who stated this during an exclusive
interview with a team of LEADERSHIP editors in
Abuja yesterday, was giving the rationale behind
the ongoing merger talks by his party, the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) towards dislodging the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre in
2015.
Explaining that their push for political alignment
was not only to seize power but to use it to better
the lives of the people, he likened Jonathan’s
government to an unskilled auto mechanic who
consistently failed to correctly service a vehicle,
causing it to continuously break down, a fallout
that would necessitate the owner to try another
technician.
“You buy a car and it breaks down and you go to
a mechanic and he fixes it in the morning, and it
breaks down again in the afternoon. You go back
in the evening, he fixes it but it doesn’t take you
home. You go and call him again; he tosses it up
and says you should come back by 6am the next
day.
“You take it at 6am and it doesn’t take you home.
Are you going to stay with that mechanic?” he
asked.
“Nigeria needs a new mechanic. The country’s
problems need a new pair of eyes and pure heart
that can see, and clearer minds that can articulate
the problems better. That is the heart of the
matter. It is now left for the electorate to decide
whether they are satisfied with this mechanic.”
Fashola insisted that the desire of the ACN and
CPC to take power at the centre was to utilise it
according to the general wish of Nigerians, who
want the country’s myriad problems fixed
immediately.
He described the ACN as an issues-based party
which had a lot to offer, which is why it has
consistently defeated the PDP in Lagos since the
return of democracy 13 years ago.
“In Lagos, the PDP has been failing since 1999: in
2003 it failed, in 2007 it failed, in 2011 it failed
again. The most interesting thing is that the
margins get wider in Lagos due to the
improvement of services,” he said.
He further said that, with ACN’s recurring
victories and exemplary leadership across the six
states it controls, its leadership was taking
proactive steps to salvage Nigeria from PDP’s
misrule at the national level by going into a
merger with the CPC ahead of the 2015 general
elections.
Fashola gave the assurance that the ACN, with its
issues-based outlook, would take Nigeria to the
Promised Land, just like what is happening in
United States, saying that “elections without
debate won’t give value and the electorate needs
people who understand their problems without
pretence.”
He noted that the Democrats in the US openly
articulated the issue of tax while the Republicans
were vague and the people swung to the side that
convinced them.
“Anybody who wants to serve us must
understand our problems; that’s why in America
you have to debate before election. Lagos is a
good example,” he stated
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