Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday
said the remark by Vice President Namadi Sambo that
people were leaving Lagos in droves because of high
taxation is a mark of ignorance and diabolical on his
part.
Fashola, who stated this at the end-of-year media
briefing held at the Ikeja House, Lagos, said he
sincerely believes that Mr. Sambo was misquoted or the
utterance could be a reflection of the quality of people
the country parades as its leaders.
“That statement is a very serious display of ignorance
if it was true that the vice president said so. How do
you then justify the perception that people are leaving
Lagos? Is the VAT being collected from Lagos reducing
compared to other states? Is the air traffic into Lagos
reducing? Or have you a significant reduction in traffic
in Lagos? More hotels are being built in Lagos,
companies are licensing and operating in Lagos.
“Displaced people from other parts of Nigeria are
moving into Lagos; has the workers’ demand in Lagos
reduced? Has the demand for hospital services
reduced?
“So, it is a very grave statement to make. That is why I
say may be he was misquoted because that is the
chairman of the Nigerian Economic Council. So, if he
misunderstands what is happening in the commercial
and economic nerve centre of the country, it may be a
very revealing index to their understanding of the
country’s economy.
“It may also confirm to you some of the things you
heard from the president that he receives all sorts of
contradictory advice and may be this is part of it. It is a
very dangerous statement to make; it is either an
ignorant statement or diabolical, and either ways, it is
not good because it tells you then why the economy is
not functioning if the chairman of the economic council
does not know anything about people and number. The
economy is always about people”, he said.
The governor, who reeled out the achievements of his
administration in different sectors, said the All
Progressives Congress (APC) had delivered dividends of
democracy to Lagosians.
On the fears expressed in some quarters that the
candidacy of Jimi Agbaje as the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) governorship candidate is a threat to APC
in the state, Fashola said, “He is not a threat to us.
Let’s go and check the result of the 2011 election.
“He got three percent of the votes cast. Even his party,
we have defeated PDP in all elections done since 1999.
Our candidate, Akinwumi Ambode is going to defeat
Agbaje with your support. This is not the place to
experiment; one needs a lot of experience to achieve
what we have done in Lagos.
“When you look at what their party has done with the
country, for instance, there are missing funds, non-
functioning rail, epileptic power supply and others, do
you want that to happen in Lagos?”
On PVC and electoral process, he said the real head of
INEC should be a statistician and not a professor and
academician or others as currently obtains.
“It is not about theory; it is about practical. People who
should also do this job should be those who have
managed distribution activities in the country. It is not a
judicial work but logistics”, he added.
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