African Democratic Congress (ADC) has claimed that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was not responsible for building a mega Lagos city.

Naija News reports that the ruling APC had during its presidential campaign claimed that the development of Lagos State was masterminded by Tinubu, who was governor from 1999 to 2007, adding that he has been instrumental in choosing his successors, which included Babatunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode and incumbent Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to continue his good works.

But debunking such claims, the Lagos State chairman of the ADC, George Ashiru, stated that Lagos was built by former governor Lateef Jakande, famously known as ‘Baba Kekere’ and former military administrators – General Mobolaji Johnson and Brigadier Buba Marwa.

He said the three former leaders made significant contributions to the development of the state more than what has been achieved by successive governors in the fourth republic.

Ashiru added that Lagos State benefitted from special attention from successive Federal Governments since the days of British colonialism due to its political and economic potential.

According to him, Jakande, Johnson and Marwa established its structure and infrastructure without unduly exploiting the state and creating a dynasty out of it.

Ashiru, who claimed that Lagos has had marginal development since 1999, said Lagosians are tired of the APC just as Nigerians were tired of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

What the rhetoric intentionally hopes to conceal, more than anything, is the nakedly transparent facts of the proven incapacity of the APC to govern and reform Nigeria after nearly seven years in power.In every imaginable index of human development, Nigeria has retrogressed under the lumbering weight of the incompetence of the APC.

-I). Under APC, Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world.
-II). While APC has been in power, the International Police Science Association’s and the Institute for Economics and Peace’s World Internal Security and Police Index also shows that Nigeria’s police service is the worst in the world.

-III). And, of course, under APC we became the third most terrorized country on earth.
-IV). Nigeria’s APC government was ranked the second worst in the world in “government integrity” by the US-based Heritage Foundation. Only the Venezuelan government is worse than it.

-V). In Oxfam’s and Development Finance International (DFI)’s global ranking of “Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index,” Nigeria was ranked 157 out of 157 countries.
-VI). An analysis published by the Coalition for Whistleblowers Protection and Press Freedom showed that “Under Buhari, Nigeria records [the] worst attacks on journalists in 34 years,” according to Premium Times.

-VII). And, in spite of the APC government’s tiresomely sanctimonious noises about “anti-corruption,” Nigeria has consistently regressed in Transparency International’s corruption perception index since the current regime came to power.

-VIII). According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, when APC came to power in May 2015, youth unemployment was 13.7 percent. By July 2017, it climbed to 33.1 percent. It increased to 53.40 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, up from 40.80 percent in the second quarter of 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, a government agency

The list is endless. No decent country on earth would reward the gang of incompetent know-nothings who presided over such an irrecoverable state of devastation and destruction of a country with continuity in governance.

Let’s not allow APC to propagandize us into accepting that their internal politics is our national politics. We should instead be asking them to account for the incalculable injuries they’ve collectively inflicted on our economy, our freedoms, our national emotions, and for reversing whatever little progress we were making before they took over.

3. The Maroko land improvement Scheme was a project started and completed by Brig-Gen Raji Rasaki and further improved by Military Administrators who took control of the State after his administration.

It was the legendary Alhaji Lateef Jakande who had actually opened up the Lekki peninsula when the first democratic elected governor broke through the forests and the swamps with his road building crew, erecting first class roads from Ozumba Mbadiwe to the fringes of Epe, thereby opening up the Eastern corridor of Lagos State. Gbolahan Mudashiru, the military Administrator who succeeded him, pushed the construction to Epe.

Of course, as the governor of the State from 1999 to 2007, the Administration of Ahmed Bola Tinubu added one lane to the existing two and erected toll gates to generate revenues.

4. The general upgrades that attend the continuous service improvement on the Lekki & Eastern Corridor is a combined effort which had evolved over time and leaders at every stage of their engagement have added value to the Lekki peninsula.Finally, just like all human activities and endeavours, Lagos is a work in progress. It is never an arrival.

Government is a continuum, a progressive work in perpetual motion where all protagonists fulfil their chore and leave the scene for others to continue. That’s the rhythm of life. No one is ever etched in perpetual relevance save the grace of the living God

Nemere2020:


https://dailytimesng.com/not-tinubu-adc-lists-three-leaders-that-built-mega-lagos/