The Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos state has explained why it thinks that the Minister
of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, may likely under-perform.
Speaking during an interview with journalists the party’s publicity
secretary, Taofik Gani said that the 8-year tenure of Fashola rendered
quite a number of Lagosians homeless.
“He will continue with his ‘elitist style of leadership’ even in poor
areas in the country,” he said.
It said that the minister had said in 2013 there was nothing like low
cost housing as there is no low-cost cement or low-cost labour,
thereby demolishing slums and built expensive estates in its place at
the detriment of the poor.
The PDP publicity secretary said Fashola’s performance could be
compared to that the former governor Lateef Jakande whom he said built
over 20,000 housing units in four years.
“Can Fashola point to any low- cost housing scheme he did in his eight
years as governor? The houses he built under the Lagos Home Owners
Scheme cost about N15m on average. Can the Eko Atlantic, which cost
hundreds of millions of naira to buy,” he said.
“There is nothing super about Fashola. He was only compensated by
President Muhammadu Buhari because Lagos contributed greatly to
Buhari’s campaign.”
He said that Fashola also failed in the area of works during his
tenure as governor saying that those works that were credited to him
were done by private companies and concessionaires.
He stressed that some of the projects implemented in Victoria Island
was carried out by banks as part of Corporate Social Responsibility
Programmes.