Fashola affirms that he would not be stuck in a mud dance with pigs.

The eye-popping financial scandal involving immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, has now melted into oblivion. Thanks to the short attention span of public discourse in Nigeria. Thanks also to a complacent if not complicit media. And then of course thanks to Fashola’s erstwhile benefactor and predecessor in office, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who weighed in at the last minute and called off the attack dogs so his estranged godson could have a breather. It is a sad commentary that the Fashola scandal as recent as it is has become a material only for the archive. No further investigation. No reprimand. No prosecution. It is business as usual. Be that as it may however, the alleged financial sleaze calls to question the role and integrity of the Lagos State House of Assembly- the supposed constitutional approving and oversight authority over the executive arm of government where Fashola held sway for eight years.

Fashola was accused by a civil society watchdog, Campaign against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) and ‘his political detractors’ to have spent a whopping 78 million naira on his personal website. He was also accused of spending a scandalous sum of 139 million naira to drill two boreholes at a location in Lagos State. Among others, he was also accused of spending 300 million naira to relocate electricity cables at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital. The former governor has since responded to his accusers without much to convince the general public on the propriety, transparency and accountability of the said transactions. In summary, Fashola submitted that he would not be stuck in a mud dance with pigs thereby pigeon-holing the very serious issues to the narrow prism of politics. Tinubu’s final seal on the matter tended to confirm that it was a well orchestrated political drama scripted to ruffle certain offending feathers and whip erring godsons into line. And the sordid episode did rate highly as a political blockbuster while it lasted, given the image of the former governor as someone who performed excellently in office with integrity and tact.

But while the barrage of criticisms and political mudslinging raged over the issue, the incontrovertible point is that all of these are at the expense of the public till. And this is where the Lagos State House of Assembly which is statutorily empowered to appropriate funds for public expenditure and monitor the application of same has questions to answer. The integrity of members of the assembly who served in office during the period of these scandalous spending (some of whom are still in office after being re-elected) has been called to question by the allegations. So also is the corporate image of the assembly.

Did the Lagos State House of Assembly approve the sum of N78million for Fashola’s website? If it did what on earth convinced the lawmakers to appropriate such huge sum of money for the portal? And what purposes was the website meant to serve? Were Fashola’s explanations on the allegation offered to the assembly during budget defence exercise before approval was made? Was there any oversight of the project after the website had been created to ensure value for money? These same questions can be posed for the construction of two boreholes for the princely sum of N105million. And so for the other allegations as well. If these questions cannot be satisfactorily and convincingly answered by the lawmakers of the 7th assembly in Lagos State then the failure would actually be theirs. Or at the least they stand to share in the blame and financial malfeasance that the whole scandal reeks of.

LEGISREPORTS believes that the shameful episode presents a lesson for the current assembly. It must wake up to its responsibilities and conduct itself with integrity, transparency and be very alive to its constitutional responsibilities. Lagosians must also rise up to demand that organs of the state sleeping on their jobs be awakened and justify the burden they place on tax payers. Otherwise, the dress rehearsal which the Fashola ‘pig dance’ scandal represented would occur again and again.