July 23, 2008.
PRESS RELEASE
FASHOLA NEVER DESERVED THISDAY AWARD – DPA
The Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) has said Governor Raji Fashola
never merited the ThisDay Award and it was okay for him to return it.
Reacting to Governor Fashola’s sending back of the Prize that he
received earlier this year, DPA in a statement by its Director of
Publicity, Felix Oboagwina, attributed Fashola’s purported performance
to media hype.
“Clearly, the problem was not the Award but its recipient. This is
because by his own admission, Fashola has confessed to being unworthy of
an Award that he gleefully collected in February with pomp and pageantry.
Now he describes it as a ‘Greek Gift’ meant to tie his hands. And
proof that he really did not deserve the Award is all around you. Lagos
is still under flooding, the traffic conundrum has not abated, insecurity
remains a problem and children in public schools study under ramshackle
buildings,” DPA said.
In the words of DPA, regarded as the leading opposition voice in the
state: “Today, Lagosians are among the most dissatisfied people in this
nation, with their city regarded as the fifth most expensive in the whole
world. The Central Bank recently credited Lagos State as the poorest in
the South with 60 percent residents living well under the poverty line.
There really is little to celebrate in Fashola’s one-year
administration.”
The party regarded the Lagos government as being so barren in ideas that
it grafted much of its current programme from the DPA manifesto.
DPA also challenged the Lagos State Government to answer allegations of
failing to open its books for public scrutiny with regards to contract
awards. The party wants the government to disclose figures of
expenditures, especially with regard to projects executed so far since
this administration came into office.
In the words of the party: “This is tax payers’ money we are talking
about, not somebody’s personal inheritance. The public deserves details
of public money spent by people in public positions.”
DPA said that unlike the Federal Executive Council that consistently
maintained a tradition of publicising project costs, the Lagos State
Executive appeared sworn to secrecy on contract sums.
Commenting on the raging controversy, the party said, “Truth is its own
defence; but the Lagos State Government appears to be dodging issues that
have come to the public domain. Rather than address the salient points of
these reports, government officials have resorted to cheap blackmail,
stone-walling and grandstanding tendencies that offer no bail-out for
their principal. Lagosians certainly want to know which contractor gets
what contract, for how much and the completion dates.”
DPA said that time had now come for Governor Fashola to settle down to the
business of governance and work towards getting an Award he would truly
deserve.
FELIX OBOAGWINA
Director of Publicity, Lagos DPA
08033327355