A PDP vote is a wasted vote, says Fashola

The Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, on Tuesday said the People’s Democratic Party has consistently proved that a vote for the party is a vote for suffering.

He urged Nigerians to use their votes to protest this failure of governance by voting for the Action Congress of Nigeria in the forthcoming general polls.

Mr. Fashola said this while flagging off the senatorial campaign rally of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the Agege Township Stadium.

He complained that each time President Goodluck Jonathan visits Lagos, traffic along many routes are unnecessarily blocked leading to serious gridlock. “Because they are coming to campaign in Lagos today, the PDP has blocked the entire roads leading to Lagos Island. There is a heavy traffic congestion in different parts of the state because Jonathan is coming to campaign. That is how they subject people to untold suffering. Lagosians are suffering in the traffic caused by the security operatives of President Jonathan. If you vote for PDP, you vote for suffering. We have a lot of resources, but have nothing to show for it,” he said. The senatorial rally was held concurrently in the three senatorial districts of the state.

He described the party’s presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu and his deputy, Fola Adeola, as “true agents of positive change, whom Nigerians should vote in the next election.”

“Considering their antecedents,” said Mr. Fashola, who was accompanied by his running mate, Adejoke Orelope-Adefilure, “we believe the time has come to change the destiny of our country, and this is what the candidature of Ribadu and Adeola really represents.”

“The entire people of Nigeria irrespective of ethnic, political and religious affiliations need to rise against governance failure, which the ruling party has represented in the last twelve years. Vote for the duo of Ribadu and Adeola, both of whom have been tested and performed creditably well in their chosen fields,” the governor said.

Call for accountability

Mr. Fashola also asked Nigerians to demand that President Goodluck explains how a huge sum of $500 billion, which accrued to the country from oil sale in the last five years, was spent.

He said oil revenue, though huge, has had no impact on the country’s decaying and moribund social amenities and infrastructure.

The federal government “has made $500 billion from the sale of crude oil. We should ask the ruling party how the revenue was spent. The roads are bad. Social amenities are decayed. Electricity is not stable. The ruling PDP has been in power for twelve years, and has not been able to make them function. The time of PDP is up. We must no longer allow the ruling party to continue lead us on the path of failure and darkness.”