“Gov. Fashola has lied again and I think it’s time to address his repeated blunder” – Jimi Agbaje
morning. It's a response to Governor Fashola's
comments that Agbaje's company only paid his taxes
after he was publicly called out. Read below…
The Honourable Governor B.R. Fashola (SAN) has lied
again and I think it's time to address his repeated
blunder.
With regards to my taxes, there is no truth in this
latest 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 at some point
they said I was 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 yet they
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 or 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 still have a lot of work to do as a State 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.
They deserve better. The people definitely deserve
better.
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