Emmanuel Ukudolo l Sunday, March 26, 2017
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – The former Governor of Lagos State, now Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN and current Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode should ordinarily be best of friends.
But they are not, purely for political reasons traceable to the primaries organized by the All Progressive Congress, APC that produced Akinwunmi Ambode as candidate of the party.
Ambode was candidate of the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while Fashola sponsored his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Olasupo Shashore. Shashore lost by a very wide margin. Ordinarily, this development ought not to be an issue if politicians would behave like sportsmen.
But that was not to be. Ambode, sources say believed that Fashola sponsored Shashore to scuttle his political ambition. “He did not forgive Fashola even when the former governor took up the APC campaign as a do or die affair. Fashola campaigned in every nook and cranny, marshalling out points why Ambode should be voted and not Jimi Agbaje, the very strong candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP”, a source in Alausa told us.
“Left for Ambode alone, Agbaje would have had an easy ride to the state house. Ambode’s voice was frail. He did outline his manifestoes before the electorates but he was not aggressive and unconvincing. But Fashola took on the mantle, leading the campaign both in the field and in boardroom. Remember the issue of tax that Fashola raised against Agbaje, which happened to be one of the issues that worked against Agbaje”, our source added.
We gathered that even when former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan dollarized the campaign, Fashola was left with no option than to dip his hand into state coffers to match him Dollar for Dollar. We gathered that he so dared Jonathan in the spending that he expended about 80 percent of the 2015 budget to make sure that Ambode emerged as governor of Lagos State. The consequence, we gathered was that he was not able to pay contractors whose works were verified and his political appointees.
But it appears that all these sacrifice meant nothing to the ultimate recipient, Ambode. He continued to habour resentment against the former governor, our source said.
With the benefit of hindsight, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu I, warned Ambode shortly after inauguration that he should refrain from vendetta and not carry ill feelings of the past into Government House Alausa. He specifically charged him to forgive and forget the past.
But it appeared that his words of wisdom fell on deaf ears. We gathered from Government House Alausa that as soon as Ambode resumed. He embarked on vendetta against the former governor. The governor we gathered refused to pay -off Fashola’s political appointees and outstanding bills to contractors, some of whom are stalwarts of the APC.
All entireties by associates of the former governor to pay off the debts was to no avail. We have it on good authority that the governor has also refused to pay Deux Project, believed to be owned by a party loyalist, Mr. Tunji Olowolafe. Sources informed us that Lagos State is indebted to Deux Project and HFP in excess of N25 billion, a development, we gathered has put the banks (Access bank and Keystone, etc) that financed projects executed for the state in financial difficulty.
Deux Project, we gathered is reputed for executing high quality job for Lagos State like the staff clinic in Alausa, new complexes in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), projects at Gbagada General Hospital and not less than 24 General Hospitals including the one at Ijaye Ogba, Festac Town, Surulere, Ikorodu and other areas.
Sources in Alausa told our correspondent that Deux Project and others who have been cleared before by the Ministry of Finance were requested to submit their vouchers for re-validation, a process, we gathered has been deliberately delayed. All these, we gathered went on even before Fashola was made the most power minister by President Muhammadu Buhari.
We were informed that when Fashola got the information that Ambode has refused to pay his contractors and political appointees, he saw it as a direct affront on his personality and lack of appreciation for the sacrifice he made for Ambode to emerge as governor and decided to keep the distance.
Sources in Alausa told our correspondent that Deux Project and others who have been cleared before by the Ministry of Finance were requested to submit their vouchers for re-validation, a process, we gathered has been deliberately delayed. All these, we gathered went on even before Fashola was made the most power minister by President Muhammadu Buhari.
We were informed that when Fashola got the information that Ambode has refused to pay his contractors and political appointees, he saw it as a direct affront on his personality and lack of appreciation for the sacrifice he made for Ambode to emerge as governor and decided to keep the distance.
Ambode, we gathered carried on as if he could he could do without Fashola thinking all he needed was money and with a monthly Internally Generated Revenue, IGR in excess of N23 billion, he felt all is well. He never reached out to his predecessor. But the bubble burst when the Lagos State Governor, Ambode met brick walls when seeking federal approval to reconstruct the Oshodi/Airport Road.
Ambode fired the first salvo early March when he said the Federal Ministry of Works under the leadership of Fashola was frustrating his effort to construct the road in addition to payment of outstanding N51 billion expended on federal roads.
“The road linking Oshodi to the International Airport, you would all agree with me is a national embarrassment. In the spirit of the regeneration and urbanisation that this administration has set out to achieve, we believe strongly that the image that is exhumed by the decadence of that road must be repaired and we took it upon ourselves to appropriate the 2017 budget that the House of Assembly should approve the total reconstruction of the Airport Road from Oshodi to the International Airport.
“The state currently has a design of 10 lanes to come from Oshodi to the International Airport with interchange and flyover that would drop you towards the Local Airport. The contractor is already set to go and everything as I said has been completed and we already have the cash, but alas, we are having challenges with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. This is a Federal and not a state road. The Federal Ministry of Works believes that they should do the road, but they have not been able to do it all these years past,” he said.
A day later, Fashola replied the governor through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Hakeem Bello when he accused Ambode of playing the big boy reaching out to him only once since May 29, 2015 when he became governor.
“The allegations of lack of cooperation from the Ministry and frustration of Lagos State Government development initiatives are simply not true and the facts do not bear them out”, he said.
According to him, the Hon Minister supported the approval of the World Bank Loan of $200m to Lagos State, again a request the previous administration had denied Lagos State.
“As far as International Airport Road which is currently the ground for alleged “frustration” is concerned, the correct position is that the Lagos State Government presented a request for FOUR roads that it would wish to take over.
“This is consistent with the position being canvassed by the Hon Minister for States who are interested to apply to take over Roads that are within their States. The Ministry has presented the Memorandum conveying the request of the Lagos State Government to the Federal Executive Council as was done with a similar request by the Kaduna State Government in 2016.
“Due to the fact that two of the roads also connect Ogun State, the Federal Executive Council could not reach an immediate decision on them because it requested the input of the other State Government affected”, he said, adding that the motive behind this public accusations must therefore be scrutinized coming barely a week after the Governor spoke with the Honorable Minister, Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN on the outstanding requests of the State for several minutes and the Minister took time to explain the situation of things to the Governor. (The first telephone conversation the Governor has had with the Minister since May 29, 2015).
“If there is any lack of co-operation it is on the part of the State Government that has refused to acknowledge, not to talk of approving the Ministry’s request for Land for the National Housing Programme in Lagos.
“The Ministry is not frustrated by this lack of response and remains optimistic that a response will come from Lagos State. The Ministry remains committed to serving the Government and Good People of Lagos and will treat all their requests on Merit and in accordance with necessary due process as will be done to other States.
“As far as the refund of N51Billion is concerned this is not a new item. Almost all if not all states have these claims and the Federal Ministry of Power Works and Housing has verified these claims. What is left is the process of raising the finance to pay the Debt owed to the States”, the minister said.
We gathered that these are just titbits of the big political game unfolding between Fashola and Ambode. However, on Saturday, Fashola visited Ambode in Alausa. It is the first time the governor will be meeting with his predecessor. It is also the first time that Ambode who has changed the slogan of Lagos, from Eko oni baje to Itesiwaju Eko and is said to detest hearing anything positive about Fashola will be speaking positive about Fashola and his government.
“I want to say that this is a historic moment for us, notwithstanding that the Honourable Minister lives in Lagos, this is the first time he is stepping his feet into the Alausa premises and we need to honour him for that and say a big thank you for coming back home.”
Governor Ambode also lauded Fashola for serving the State meritoriously, saying that his administration improved on the template already laid down during the previous administration.
“We want to say that whatever it is that we have done in the last 22 months is just more or less a fall out of the great achievements the former governor had already put in place. We have decided that we would carry on with a sense of continuity in all the things that have been done. I had always said that what we wanted was this continuity of the last 18 years, but continuity with improvement and we are happy that all that has been done in the last 22 months is just a continuation of the template the former Governor left behind.
“We are happy that the sense of collaboration that we have expressed here is what we believe can carry whatever it is that Lagos stands for, moving forward. As you may be aware, Lagos is celebrating its 50 years of existence this year. The last 18 years has been so dramatic and historic in terms of the growth and development that we have seen in Lagos, commencing from 1999 when Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into office and the eight good years spent by you and the two years we have done. So, obviously, there is a remarkable change between 1999 and now,” Ambode said.
For Fashola, the visit was nothing but home-coming and is part of a nationwide project monitoring exercise to inspect the job done so far on Federal Government projects and that his ministry had made representations to the Federal Executive Council on modalities to pay debts owed State Governments including Lagos State for rehabilitation of federal roads over the years, saying that the debts would be paid through bond instrument.
We gathered that beyond this, the historic meeting between Ambode and Fashola gave the former governor an opportunity to lay the card before Ambode, the need to settle contractors that worked for him and pay off all his political appointees in appreciation for sacrifice he made for Ambode’s emergence as governor of Lagos State.
