Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola on Wednesday replied President Goodluck Jonathan who called South-west political leaders as rascals, saying his comments were completely “unpresidential.” Speaking with newsmen in Lagos Airport Wednesday afternoon, the Governor expressed shock that such derogatory comment came from the nation’s number one citizen, stressing that it clearly showed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did not have a reform agenda but mudslinging.

“The office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a very high office and I don’t think that that kind of language coming from the PDP presidential candidate is presidential. But Lagosians will have to make a determination but we are beginning to see clearly the pattern of the candidacy of the PDP candidates who seek to continue to lead this country into poverty, into inefficiency, into insecurity.

And it is interesting that these remarks are being made from outside Lagos , so I hope that when they come here they would be able to call us rascals again. And if we are rascals, it means that some of the other governors they have been presiding over is a republic of rascals. But I leave him to decide his own choice of words. Why should they be worried about our success in Lagos?

If it gives them sleepless night and it makes them uncomfortable, I make no apologies that is why I am in government. But having said that, I think that I have asked myself whether the President is more concerned about who is Governor of Lagos or about becoming President. I think that if the PDP wants to swap candidates for the Governor of Lagos, I will be ready to face him because his candidate is not talking about what he wants to do in Lagos . And I will leave our own presidential candidate on issues that are germane to Nigerians”, he stated.
Fashola, who also took time to assess the PDP-led government of Nigeria for 12 years, pointing out that Lagos appears to have felt the federal presence the least.

He queried: “Why are the federal roads in Lagos have not been fixed? Why do Lagosians not have electricity? Why should Lagosians bear the cost of their own security in spite of the enormous votes for that every year in the federal budget? These are the issues that concern Lagosians and those are the issues about which their votes will be deployed. The Lagos voters will not vote on the basis of luck. I didn’t win this office on the basis of luck, it was won on the basis of very clear manifesto of the ACN, very clear ideas about how to fix this economy, very hard work that we have done since 1999 as a people, progressives who have shown our common touch with the people.

Elections will not be won by resulting to derogatory language and by claiming luck. Elections require those who seek elective offices to focus on the people over who they plan to exercise authority and to communicate to them in a very clear and practical manner how they intend to improve their lot. I think that the PDP led federal government has a lot of questions to answer in Lagos .”

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/feb/10/national-10-02-2011-001.htm