The war of words between two of Nigeria’s largest political parties, the rulling All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not cease even when the general election is no where near.
The two parties seems to derive pleasure from castigating each other. The PDP in Lagos state, has said the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, is not special.
The Lagos PDP is of the opinion that Fashola, who was governor of the state for 8 years, will fail in his new capacity.
The Publicity Secretary of Lagos PDP, Taofik Gani, revealed to Punch on Tuesday, that it’s well known that there was an increase in the number of homeless Lagos residents during Fashola’s tenure.
He condemned Fashola for being ‘elitist’, while saying that many slums were demolished while expensive estates were built by the last administration in Lagos.
According to Gani, “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, be classified as affordable housing? Can Fashola be compared with former Governor Lateef Jakande who built over 20,000 housing units in four years?
“There is nothing super about Fashola. He was only compensated by President Muhammadu Buhari because Lagos contributed greatly to his victory.”
“Fashola was a governor that relied heavily on propaganda. Most of the projects he did were through Public-Private Partnerships while some came about through the CSR programmes of some companies.
“Projects were done by private investors and concessionaires. So, as far as we are concerned, he never merited the praises showered on him. He ran a government of mediocrity.”