When President Goodluck Jonathan visited Lagos last week during the formal launch of the Eko Atlantic City project, he was full of praise for the government of Lagos state.<\/p>\n
He described the event as a \u201clandmark event\u201d, \u201cgood news narrative\u201d, and \u201cground breaking\u201d. He enjoined other state governments to emulate the \u201cnoble initiative\u201d and gave it his full support.<\/p>\n
That was only five days ago.<\/p>\n
The position of the president\u2019s party in Lagos state, the PDP, is totally opposed to that of the president.<\/p>\n
The party faulted the project, calling it a \u201cmisplacement of priority,\u201d and insisted that \u201ceven the presence of the President Goodluck Jonathan at the ceremony cannot remove the fact that the project remains a misplacement of priority, bourgeoisie and will only encourage stealing in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, the invitation extended to the former United States\u2019 President, Bill Clinton, to the project site was blasted and dismissed by the PDP.<\/p>\n
They said the \u201cmobilisation\u201d of Clinton was a deliberate attempt to create the impression that the project had international acceptance when it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Taofeek Gani, the PDP spokesman in the state, who made the statement said that the project would be fuel for corruption, wondering why a plot of land was being sold for N450 million, while buyers were expected to purchase at least two plots.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our strong belief that Governor Fashola has indeed adopted propagandist style of governance by \u2018mobilising\u2019 Clinton to the site of the Eko Atlantic project in order to give the notion that the project has got international acceptance. As far as we are concerned in Lagos PDP, the said project remains inexpedient and a waste of public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
The party noted that the recent unprecedented ocean surge at Kuramo Beach was directly linked to the effect of the sand filling of the Bar Beach for the Eko Atlantic project, adding that \u2018a similar project in Dubai was now sinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message of the PDP to Gov. Fashola was simple: Stop funding this project with Lagos taxpayers money.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocating such a project on the already over congested Lagos Island is not ideal. The government would spend less than 50 per cent of the money projected for the Eko Atlantic project, to create irresistible estates in Badagry, Alimosho and Ikorodu areas of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a related development, Fashola also received knocks from the PDP for allegedly spending over $500,000 to invite a mere celebrity, Kim Kardashian, at a time school fees were no longer subsidised and civil servants were earning less than N18, 000 monthly.<\/p>\n
But this allegation has been swiftly dismissed by the Lagos government through the special adviser to Gov. Fashola on information and strategy, Lateef Raji.<\/p>\n
In a chat with The Scoop, Raji claimed that the PDP\u2019s criticism was mere political propaganda seeking to pull down a government which had a solid foundation.<\/p>\n
Raji wondered where Lagos state government was expected to get such funds for a project like that when it had lots of meaningful projects to undertake.<\/p>\n
He pointed out the fact that even Darey Art Alade, the artist whose show Kim Kardashian flew in to attend, had debunked the claims of the PDP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When President Goodluck Jonathan visited Lagos last week during the formal launch of the Eko Atlantic City project, he was full of praise for the government of Lagos state. He…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n