The former Governor of Lagos State, Minister of Works, Power
and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) on Saturday paid a visit to Lagos
State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
Ambode lauded his predecessor in office and Minister of
Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola for his achievements during the
eight years he spent as Governor of the State.
He said: “On behalf of the people of Lagos State, I would like
to wholeheartedly welcome Mr. Babatunde Fashola, my predecessor and now
Minister for Works, Power and Housing and especially back to the Alausa office
where he actually left about 22 months ago.
“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,” Governor Ambode said.
The Governor also pledged to expand the existing
collaboration with the Federal Government, saying that it would not only
benefit Lagosians, but Nigerians in general.
He assured that the requests made by the Minister in regard
to Housing projects of the Federal Government and other road construction would
be accelerated, while also expressing optimism that the debts owed Lagos would
be refunded.
“I continue to say that we would support the Minister in
every way that is possible, everything that we have actually talked about in
terms of debt by the Ministry as it relates to projects, the Minister is
actually more vast than me in these areas and in this agitations having done
the same thing for eight years, obviously he is not somebody that we would want
to convert to our passion or our request because he used to be part of what we
have always asked for,” Ambode said.
Earlier, Fashola who described the visit as home-coming for
him, said he had come with his team to Lagos as part of a nationwide project
monitoring exercise to inspect the job done so far on Federal Government
projects.
He assured that the 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.
The Minister also expressed readiness to assist Lagos State
power initiative, especially in the rural areas.
It would be recalled that Governor Ambode recently set
machinery in motion to attain 24-hour power supply through generation of 3,000
megawatts of electricity by 2022.
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