Bola Tinubu , ACN National Leader

Former Lagos State governor and leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Saturday described as sheer baloney, insinuations that Osun State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has been trying to influence the composition of the Lagos State executive council.

Tinubu, in a telephone interview with THISDAY, however, said as an influential party leader in Lagos before he moved to Osun, it was not impossible that some people may have lobbied Aregbesola, who was Commissioner for Works under Tinubu and is close to the incumbent governor, to be appointed members into the new cabinet in the state.

He also dismissed speculations that Aregbesola’s alleged meddlesomeness in Lagos is generating crisis in the party.

His words: “It is baloney. He was once here and he is still here as a member of ACN. Do you think some people would not go to him and lobby him to facilitate their appointments with Fashola? 

“But to say he is interfering with the composition of the list is not true and they are just propagating falsehood in order to run him down.

“We are one big ACN family. We put people as the cornerstone of our agenda. 

However, there are speculators who make up these stories,” he stated.  

On the delay in the composition of the Lagos cabinet, Tinubu said Fashola is consulting with the various local government stakeholders and leaders in the state to forge a consensus in choosing those to work with him.

He attributed the delay to the governor’s trip to Israel on an agriculture project to see how Lagos can replicate the Israel’s farm techniques back home.

“But people have started to speculate. So it is better not to rush it but to select the best to help the state. I know he (Fashola) is anxious himself. But in terms of giving a definite date, that would depend on the governor,” Tinubu said.

He assured Lagosians that the cabinet list would not discriminate against any ethnic group given the cosmopolitan nature of the state.

He said the list would comprise “individuals who are qualified and competent and Lagos does not discriminate. Once we have competent people in a cosmopolitan area like Lagos, we should expect that everyone will be given equal consideration.”

Tinubu also spoke on the recent meeting the leaders of the ACN along with other parties in the country had with President Goodluck Jonathan and dispelled rumours that the ACN gave names of nominees for appointment into the federal cabinet. 

He said there was no way the party could have done that since it had not changed its position that it would not participate in the inclusive government the president is proposing.

“He didn’t ask me to nominate and neither did he ask me not to nominate. All he asked was to have an all-inclusive government but the ACN had taken a position which I can never go against,” Tinubu said, adding that the meeting offered an opportunity for the ACN to present a position paper on priority areas for the Jonathan administration on good governance.

He listed such areas as “security, the economy, fiscal federalism and unfunded mandates through which the federal government builds health centres and schools, even though the land is vested in the states.”

Tinubu questioned why the federal government still insists on dabbling into matters better handled by the states, but this would change if the revenue allocation formula is reviewed to enable the states take on additional responsibilities.

On the retention of the current revenue allocation formula when several parastatals such as NITEL, Nigeria Airways and Nigerian Shipping Line, which the federal government had used to justify its take of the federal revenue, Tinubu argued that these enterprises had been privatised and no longer entitled to budgetary allocations.

“This makes it imperative for a review of the current revenue allocation formula and the move towards fiscal federalism,” the former governor maintained.

These and more, he said, were the issues the ACN presented before the president during his meeting with political parties because the governance of the country affects everyone irrespective of party affiliation.

 -ThisDay

Posted by admin on Jun 19 2011. Filed under Governors, Headlines, Lagos, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry