Ogun Roads: Group appeals to protesters
*Says, Fashola is a sensitive, responsive Minister
A pro-democracy organization, the Royal Peoples Platform (RPP), has appealed to protesters over the deplorable state of Ogun roads, especially in Sango Ota for understanding before condemning the Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) and labelling him a liar and declaring him a persona non grata in the state,
The leader of the group, Prince Dare Aladekoba, in a chat with our reporter in Abeokuta Thursday morning viewed the labels as uncharitable and too hasty reminding us that, the Fashola they are talking about is a unique personality known as the dependable, reliable and trustworthy man whose words can be taken to the bank as collateral.
According to him, it’s too hasty to arrive at a conclusion that the Minister deliberately ignored the said roads without considering the bureaucratic and logistic processes government activities go through before implementation, insisting that, it is an open fact that Fashola is a person, who walks his talks but cannot execute any project not approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The youthful activist is of the conviction that Fashola meant well when he assured the people of the area of the government readiness to do the work, saying, “to Fashola that we know, he would have loved every inch of the roads in Nigeria to be smooth because of their economic and safety value.”
Prince Aladekoba, going down the memory lane reminded that, Fashola’s signature for eight years as governor in Lagos State was sufficient testimony that, “he is agile, brilliant and a workaholic to the core,” appealing that, “this time when he has to play according to the rule of the game, he should not be crucified.”
The group leader added that the Federal Government thrusts the Minister so much that, they have confidence in his ability to discover, pointing out that, the confidence the President has in him informs assigning him to man two powerful ministries handling infrastructure development that is dear to the heart of President Muhammadu Buhari and Fashola has not disappointed him.
Speaking further, Aladekoba cited the example of another assignment on Fashola’s shoulder after Wednesday’s NEC meaning where he was told of the approval given to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to fix 21 Federal Roads at N621.2 billion naira across the country, saying, this task, like the previous one, is still under the supervision of Fashola’s ministries.
Aladekoba spoke against the background of the protest led by the State’s chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Emmanuel Bankole where they declared the Minister enemy of the state, saying, the Minister is just being erroneously labelled as such because of the sentiment attached to the protest because Fashola is patriotic Nigerian who never discriminate against any state in the line of his duty to his fatherland.
