piece of misinformation that the Honourable Governor
has been peddling. Following the repudiation of his initial
allegations about JAYKAY PHARMACEUTICALS unpaid taxes,
he has lied again, giving the impression that my company
has gone to pay money supposedly owed to the
government.
JAYKAY PHARMACEUTICALS has not paid a kobo since the
day the Honourable Governor launched his initial attack.
We stick to the facts contained in its initial publication,
which encapsulated the company's reaction to the
Governor's initial falsehood. To now insinuate that I have
gone behind the curtains to pay N500,000 is clearly
political silly season, for lack of a better phrase, and quite
frankly, beneath your person.
It's understandable that we've both had our differences in
course of this election season, but when the Honorable
Governor goes about launching unbridled, flat-out-false
attacks at me about something as important as taxes, you
leave me no choice but to call you out, Sir.
When I got into this race, I decided to make it about the
issues. My opponents, not so much. They talked about me
being inexperienced and some point too old to govern and
we responded with BOLD IDEAS intended to put Lagos on a
new trajectory - one that is not based on the Jagaban's tax-
and-spend economics but on a framework that would
radically push us to new economic frontiers for some of
the most under-developed regions of the state like Epe and
Ikorodu. They ridiculed our ideas around government-
enabled free wifi hotspots across the city - an idea targeted
at widening the reach of a world of knowledge that the
Internet offers to our young and aspiring populace -
especially in areas of low penetration. They called it bold
ignorance and out of touch with reality but quickly went
on to implement wifi Internet-enabled buses a couple of
weeks after. As much as we're glad that our BOLD IDEAS
inspire you as much as they do us, one must begin to
question the seriousness of the opposition in Lagos to
make this election about the issues.
How ever you cut and dissect our success as a state over
the last 16-years, the fact is that Lagos in the Economic
intelligence Unit (EIU) is still ranked 137th out of 140 cities
listed in the liveability index. This means that if you take
140 cities worldwide where people consider good to live
in, Lagos is the fourth worst place to live in. Apart from
this, a World Bank survey shows that of the 36 states in
Nigeria, Lagos is still the worst state in terms of the ease of
securing Building Permits. It is still on record too that the
party the Honourable Governor represents has delivered
less than 5,000 housing units till date. It is still on record
that more students in Lagos fail WAEC than those who
pass. Even when we consider corruption, we are aware
that Honourable Governor Fashola is yet to challenge
anyone for corruption at the state level. Or is he saying
Lagos is 100 percent corruption-free? Yet he goes about
castigating the Federal Government. He should walk his
talk and lead by example – expose and prosecute high-
ranking corrupt officials in his government and the state
civil service. The corruption in the Lekki Toll Plaza will be
made public in due cause.
Clearly, we have a lot of work to do but the Honourable
Governor Babatunde Fashola has set out to exploit the
commanding heights he occupies in the seat of
government to bully us. And quite frankly, we shall stand
up to bullies.
I think what Lagosians should begin to ask is what is
driving the Honourable Governor Fashola's violent
outbursts? What has he got to hide? Other than lay the
facts bare to enable the public form an informed opinion.
I refuse to be baited into his self-declared verbal warfare.
My politics and campaign will be issues-based and no
roforofo badmouthing from anyone, no matter how
highly placed, will steer
me away from development-based politicking.
There are more pressing issues, more important
conversations to have and more problems to solve. And
the people of Lagos are wondering if their leaders get it.
The teachers, the students, the blacksmiths, the bankers,
the taxi-man, the small-business owners, they all hope that
their leaders understand that the outcome of this election
and the future of this state is bigger than any one
personality or party. Whatever we do or commit to doing
determines whether they have food to put on their tables;
whether they can own homes, pay salaries or that their
children can go to schools of their choice. This serious
stuff because there are serious issues at stake here.
The people definitely deserve better.
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