Agbaje: Why I dumped Tinubu

Governorship candidate of Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has given reason why he left the camp of the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying he did based on differences in principles as he took exception to the rule of one man dictating how Lagos should be governed and who should be put in charge of what.

Agbaje said this in a statement issued by the Media Officer of his campaign organisation, copy of which was made available to newsmen in Lagos.

It would be recalled that Agbaje had parted ways with Tinubu in 2007 to join the Democratic Peoples’ Alliance (DPA) as its governorship candidate.

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“I take exception to the rule of one man in a metropolitan state like Lagos,” the PDP gubernatorial candidate said.

This was just as Agbaje lamented the inability of successive administrations in the state to account for the expenditure of over N7trillion revenue in the last 19 years.

The PDP standard bearer said he opted to join the PDP because the democratic principle being practised by the ruling elite in the state ran contrary to his own idea of democracy, declaring that he had no personal rift Tinubu.

“I have no personal rift with him (Tinubu). What exists between us is all about differences in value and principle. When we were together, I discovered that his own idea of democracy was not what I was taught, so I had to take an exit.

“I am saying that what we are running today in Lagos is a one-man Lagos. A Lagos where somebody says when he is going to bed, Lagos is going to bed, to me that can no longer be tolerable. Lagos must be made to work for the people of Lagos,” Agbaje declared.

The PDP, however, promised to ensure that all residents became stakeholders in the governance of the state if elected into power.

Agbaje further promised to ensure that all residents became stakeholders in the governance of the state, if he was elected into power.

Speaking further, Agbaje said the ruling APC was foisting “opaqueness in public spending,” pointing out that, it had refused to open up its activities to the people of the state who were not getting value for taxes they paid.

“It is unfortunate that Lagos State under the control of the APC has refused to domesticate the Freedom of Information Act. Everything in government in Lagos State is shrouded in secrecy. The time has come to hand the fortune of the state over to the people,” he said.

This was just as Agbaje, who lamented the state’s untapped enormous potentials, assured that he would run a government that would promote the time-honoured character of welfarism Lagos was synonymous with over time.

“Seven trillion naira is what the state government has spent in the last 20 years, and what have we got to show for it? If you look at the average for education in Lagos, only 20 per cent of our children have passed WAEC in five years. The question is, are we getting value? The answer is, we are not getting value at all,” he said.

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