A
Lagos-based socio-political group, the Lagos for the People Association
(LPA), says it is coming out to propagate a new wave of thinking aimed
at directing public scrutiny to the activities of current and past
administrations in Lagos State since the inception of the new political
dispensation as a way of exposing the agenda of the ruling party to
systematically turn the state into an elitist society in the long run.
In
a statement signed by its Director of Publicity, Azeez Salako, LPA
noted that Lagos has, since 1999, been turned into a cow to be milked
mindlessly by a cabal under the leadership of a notable empire builder
whose major focus is to frustrate and annihilate the poor masses in the
state.
“Today,
after 15 unbroken years in the saddle by one party, something that
ordinarily should have served as a beautiful testimony regarding
delivery of fruits of democratic consistency to the people of the state,
it is really saddening that all we have to show is a Lagos that has
been plunged into debt of nearly 500 billion naira while on all critical
indices of people-centred development, there is no appreciable gain”.
The
statement noted further that in the areas of Health, Housing,
Infrastructure and Employment, the state government has failed to
deliver dividends of democracy to the masses.
“The
last 15 years have witnessed too much propaganda in Lagos State,
regarding the performance of the government. Where are the improvements
in the lives and living conditions of the Lagos masses now as compared
to the pre-1999 era? We have all seen the astounding wealth already
amassed by the leading lights of the government. But can we see any
improvement in the fortunes of the people?”
“How
can a government that is busy constructing 16million Naira 2bedroom
flats as low cost housing or 4million naira lock-up shops say it is
working for the people and its policies seek to promote the poor and
vulnerable in the society?”
According
to LPA, the failure of this administration and the preceding one is
most glaring in their inability to provide affordable housing for Lagos
residents in the last 15 years when it took the Second Republic
administration of Lateef Jakande just four years to build massive Low
Cost Housing Estates – the Jakande estates that are still standing and
currently housing millions of average Lagosians today.
“Since
1999, we have been witnessing continuous demolition of slum settlements
in a deliberate attempt to make Lagos the ‘haven of the rich’ as all
these demolitions have ended up replacing those settlements with houses
and estates meant for wealthy Lagosians and promoters of government and
their allies. We ask: Must the attempt to turn Lagos into a mega city be
done at the expense of the poor?”
While
calling on Lagosians, especially the masses, to pray for a God-fearing
leadership to take over the affairs of the State in the next
dispensation, the association said the time has come for all well
meaning residents and friends of Lagos to openly decry and reject the
personalities that have held the state hostage and prevented it from
achieving true development since 1999.
“All
Lagosians need to decry god-fatherism, imposition, kleptocracy and the
grand attempt to turn Lagos into the personal estate of a few fat cats
who have been using politics to enrich themselves and their cronies at
the expense of the people”, the statement concluded.
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