The Lagos State former Governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress,APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has backed a governorship aspirant in Lagos on the platform of the APC, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Tinubu in a statement on Sunday said the incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode has deviated from the Lagos development blueprint.
He said, “I am encouraged by the presence of a candidate in this primary, who has served the state in senior positions in my administration, the Fashola administration and even in the current one. While possessing a wealth of experience and exposure, he is a young man endowed with superlative vision and commitment.
“Most importantly, he understands the importance of the blueprint for development. He esteems it as a reliable and well-conceived vehicle for the future development of the state. He also knows the value of reaching out and working with others in order to maximise development and provide people the best leadership possible. With people like him at the helm, the state will write the proper history for itself.”
Sanwo-Olu has been endorsed by the Gubernatorial Advisory Council (GAC), which is the highest advisory committee of party elders and leaders, 377 councillors, 57 chairmen of local councils, state and federal legislators, religious leaders and traders.
“By resort to direct primary, the party places the people’s future soundly in their hands. As democracy would have it, you shall be the author of the party’s nomination and hopefully our next government.”
Tinubu spoke on the legendary Lagos State Development Master Plan, which, he recalled, was put together about 20 years ago by dedicated and patriotic Lagosians who put aside personal interest and rivalry.
He also recalled that he had the honour of implementing the plan faithfully, adding that his successor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), also honoured the enlightened plan.
Justifying the import of the master plan, Tinubu said: “Where state government remained true to that blueprint, positive things happened. During my tenure and Governor Fashola’s, Lagos State recorded improvements in all aspects of our collective existence, from public health to public sanitation, from education to social services, from the administration of justice to the cleaning of storm and sewage drains. Businesses, large and small, invested, hired millions of workers and thrived.”
He added: “All Lagosians were to fully participate and justly benefit from the social dividends and improvements wrought by this plan. From the common labourer to business leaders, to professionals and our industrious civil service. We all were to be partners in a monumental but joint enterprise. None was to be alienated. None was to be left out. And none were to be pushed aside.
“This is especially true for those who contributed so much to our development, whether as a business leader who has invested heavily in Lagos, the homeowner who struggles to pay his fair share of taxes or as someone employed in the hard work of keeping our streets and byways clean so that others may go about their daily tasks unimpeded.”
In Tinubu’s reckoning, the master plan is perfect, although it can always be fine-tuned. “Whenever a government departed from this plan without compelling reason, the state and its people have borne the painful consequence of the improper departure,” the former governor said.
In his view, when the “blue-print for progress” is ignored, the tendency is to replace it with ad-hoc schemes of a materially inferior quality, which contravenes the spirit of progressive governance espoused by the APC.
Tinubu said “such narrowness of perspective does not bring us closer to our appointed destination; it takes us farther from that destiny”.
The former governor lamented that many Lagosians are experiencing deviations from enlightened governance, pointing out that it has become a major concern as the party prepares for its primary.
