Lagos
State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Saturday 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.Ambode, who spoke when he received Fashola and some top officials of
the Ministry on a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Ikeja, described
the visit as historic, adding that it was gratifying to receive the
Minister for the first time at the Lagos House, Ikeja since he left
office on May 29, 2015.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.”The governor 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.“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,” 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.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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