The people of Surulere constituency 2 in Lagos State have put the blame of their loss in the just concluded general election squarely on the immediate past state governor, Babatunde Fashola.
They expressed bitterness that all the promises Fashola made to them during his 2010/2011 political campaigns were not fulfilled which led to the people in the constituency to desert the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The community stated this during its recent reconciliation meeting held at Itire-Ikate area of the state, where they also fervently apologised to the new state Governor, Akinwumi Ambode, asking him to put their electoral losses to the PDP behind him, and focus on the area.
The community and APC leader, Mr. Azeem Owe, who spoke to THISDAY exclusively, said Fashola was responsible for their failures in the House of Representatives and state assembly elections where Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) overwhelmingly defeated the APC.
The Itire-Ikate Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Chairman, Adisa Gbabgola, who contested for the House of Representatives election, lost to Tunji Shoyinka of the PDP because the electorate complained of “zero development in the area,” which they attributed to his bad leadership and Fashola’s inability to bring developmental projects to the area.
Also, Mr. Deji Awobotu, who contested for the state House of Assembly on the platform of APC, lost to Mosunmola Sangodara of the PDP, thereby compounding their woes which necessitated the reconciliation meeting on the way forward.
According to Owe, Fashola, caused our loss in the just concluded legislative elections in the constituency because he failed to carry out all the promises he made to us when he was campaigning in 2011 and the people misinterpreted them to be the responsibility of the LCDA. So, when the LCDA Chairman, Gbagbola, contested for the House of Representatives in the constituency, he lost to the PDP, and we as a community are not happy about it, consequently, we have called this meeting in order to put the past behind us and move ahead mostly as we have a new government now.
“If you look at the other constituencies, there is reasonable development going on there. Our constituency is small though, we generate major votes to win any election in the state after Alimosho Local Government Area since 1979. But Fashola promised us that since he comes from this area he would therefore do more for us, but he did nothing. Look at Adesina Street it has been abandoned, take a look at all other streets. As for Gbogbola, he did the little he could. He embarked on infrastructural developments such building of schools and general hospitals which were his capacities and priorities. But Fashola did not contribute his own quota to developing the area,” Owe lamented.
He stated that bickering also contributed to their problems which he blamed on the party leaders’ inability to call warring factions to order.
Highlighting some of the contributory factors that led to the electoral loss, the APC leaders said: The failure of Gbogbola is also due to Aliyu Kazeem unwillingness to concede defeat after the primaries, so
Kazeem took him to court. It was so painful that our leader could not call him to order rather they looked at him with ignominy. Then Kayode Kassim also lost at the primaries and still they did not call him to pacify him.
“I want to point out here that most people do not understand governance because many people cannot differentiate Gbogbola area of governance and capacity from that of the state government. They mix both together.
“There are no revenues in the local council, and the tenant rates which is supposed to be for the local government is being collected controlled by the state government. Then they introduced land use charge and took over everything over. You know that this LCDA is not recognised by the constitution so the only local government recognised by law is Surulere. So the Gbagbola was incapacitated by paucity of fund to carry out his functions in his area. The only money for the council area is spitted into three. The state government is supposed to supplement and help them in areas of infrastructure development, but Fashola did very poorly in our area.”
He added that: “What we are doing here today is reforming and rebuilding ourselves and to relief ourselves, because we do not have a commissioner or somebody to speak for us. So coming together like this
would give us the opportunity to reform ourselves. We are also apologising to our leaders especially Ahmed Bola Tinubu telling them that since 1979, we have never failed, this just happened mistakenly.
“So this is just the beginning of the process to put our failure behind us as we have come under one umbrella to move ahead.”
The community leader stated that they are also pleading with the state governor, Ambode, to consider the plight of the people in the constituency, and attract developmental projects to the area, adding that: “If the government fail to give us development that means we will continue to fail in subsequent elections, as the people will not see the need to vote (but God forbid).
“The President Muhammadu Buhari government, hopefully, would be effective and successful especially in the areas of security, employment and infrastructure. I also believe Ambode will perform too. I am using this medium to beg Ambode to remember Itire-Ikate which is vital to the state government. We want to look inward and see how he can develop it for us.”
