Date Published: 02/09/10

9 th February 2010.

Press release.

Lagos AC Condemns FG’s Stance on Lagos-Badagry Road Expansion.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has berated the federal government for desperately trying to ensure the country remains permanently undeveloped while it pursues pristine interests. The party says that the idea that the federal government will continue watching the deprecation in infrastructures and at the same time constitute mischievous impediments to state governments that want to repair our infrastructures is totally unacceptable to it.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC says it is reacting to the annoying order from the Federal Minister of Works that the Lagos State government should stop work on the expansion and repair of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway on the simple reason that it is a federal road. The party says that it is obvious that the PDP government wants to drag Nigeria to the Stone Age and that is why it is neither repairing federal infrastructures nor allowing state with the willpower to do so.

“When we look at such reactions as the one coming from the Minister of works, we are left to wonder what the PDP government thinks of Nigerians. We are really surprised that all federal infrastructures are in very deplorable condition because the PDP government has abandoned them yet it goes about throwing its mischievous weights around and constituting nuisance to state governments that want to improve on this decadent situation. We are galled that rather than lighten the burden of long suffering Nigerians, the PDP is consumed by the vanity of power to constitute impediments to responsible governments that want to improve on the state of rot it has left Nigeria today. This is a big shame and the PDP must be called to order.

“Lagos AC asks who loses in the event that Lagos-Badagry Expressway or any of the so-called federal roads continue to decay under the sleazy watch of the PDP government. We ask who really benefits or loses from PDP’s inept and corrupt leadership that has abandoned Nigerians to the ceaseless assault of decay and rot, which it had promoted these ten years. We are amazed that the PDP has a borderless stomach for mischief and sadism and relishes watching Nigerians suffer and die from preventable situations such as the complete decay of the country’s infrastructures and institutions.

“Lagos AC notes that for the past eleven years, the Lagos State government has been doing major repairs on so-called federal roads in the state. We also note that in this period, the only federal presence in Lagos has been to fight the repair of these dilapidated roads and contest for territory with the Lagos State government. We see this needless obstruction as borne out of the desire to ensure the frustration of the hopes of Nigerians for redemption from several years of leadership disaster. We see the current attitude of the federal government as borne out of sadism and plain mischief for we do not see what it loses by the expansion and repair of the dilapidated Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

“Lagos AC condemns the needless obtrusiveness of the federal government and demand that they either repair and expand the Lagos-Badagry Expressway and all other federal roads in Lagos or allow the Lagos State government to continue transforming these roads in line with its on-going holistic transformation of Lagos State. We note that this latest act of mischief is one of the reasons why we have demanded earlier that roads be given to the states to maintain since the federal government has proved grossly incapable of improving on the nation’s roads. We call on Nigerians to call the federal government to order so that Lagos will continue moving on the speedy train being manned by Governor Raji Fashola.”

Joe Igbokwe.

Publicity Secretary,