Jimi Agbaje is speaking out about
allegations made by Governor
Babatunde Fashola about his
company attempting to evade taxes.
Agbaje took to Facebook to tell his
own side of the matter via a
statement:
The Honourable Governor B.R.
Fashola (SAN) has lied again and I
think it’s time to address his
repeated blunder.
With regards to my taxes, there is
no truth in this latest piece of
misinformation that the
Honourable Governor has been
peddling. Following the
repudiation of his initial
allegations about JAYKAY
PHARMACEUTICALS unpaid taxes,
he has lied again, giving the
impression that my company has
gone to pay money supposedly
owed to the government.
JAYKAY PHARMACEUTICALS has
not paid a kobo since the day the
Honourable Governor launched
his initial attack. We stick to the
facts contained in our initial
publication, which encapsulated
the company’s reaction to the
Governor’s initial falsehood. To
now insinuate that I have gone
behind the curtains to pay
N500,000 is clearly political silly
season – for lack of a better
phrase – and quite frankly,
beneath your person.
It’s understandable that we’ve
both had our differences in
course of this election season, but
when the Honorable Governor
goes about launching unbridled,
flat-out-false attacks at me about
something as important as taxes,
you leave me no choice but to call
you out, Sir.
When I got into this race, I
decided to make it about the
issues. My opponents? Not so
much. They talked about me
being inexperienced and at some
point they said I was “too old to
govern” and we responded with
BOLD IDEAS intended to put
Lagos on a new trajectory – one
that is NOT based on Jagaban’s
tax-and-spend economics but on
a framework that would radically
push us to new economic
frontiers for some of the most
under-developed regions in the
state like Epe and Ikorodu.
They ridiculed our ideas around
government-enabled free wifi
hotspots across the city – an idea
targeted at widening the reach of
a world of knowledge that the
Internet offers to our young and
aspiring populace – especially in
areas of low penetration. They
called it bold ignorance and out of
touch with reality yet they went
on to implement wifi Internet-
enabled buses a couple of weeks
afterwards. As much as we’re
glad that our BOLD IDEAS inspire
you as much as they do us, one
must begin to question the
seriousness of the opposition in
Lagos to make this election about
the issues.
How ever you cut or dissect our
success as a state over the last 16-
years, the fact is that Lagos in the
Economic intelligence Unit (EIU)
is still ranked 137th out of 140
cities listed in the liveability
index. This means that if you take
140 cities worldwide where
people consider good to live in,
Lagos is the fourth worst place to
live in.
Apart from this, a World Bank
survey shows that of the 36 states
in Nigeria, Lagos is still the worst
state in terms of the ease of
securing Building Permits. It is
still on record too that the party
the Honourable Governor
represents has delivered less than
5,000 housing units till date. It is
still on record that more students
in Lagos fail WAEC than those
who pass.
Even when we consider
corruption, we are aware that
Honourable Governor Fashola is
yet to challenge anyone for
corruption at the state level. Or is
he saying Lagos is 100 percent
corruption-free? Yet he goes
about castigating the Federal
Government. He should walk his
talk and lead by example – expose
and prosecute high-ranking
corrupt officials in his
government and the state civil
service. The corruption in the
Lekki Toll Plaza will be made
public in due cause.
Clearly, we still have a lot of work
to do as a state but the
Honourable Governor Babatunde
Fashola has set out to exploit the
commanding heights he occupies
in the seat of government to bully
us. And quite frankly, we shall
stand up to bullies.
I think what Lagosians should
begin to ask is what is driving the
Honourable Governor Fashola’s
violent outbursts? What has he
got to hide? Other than lay the
facts bare to enable the public
form an informed opinion.
I refuse to be baited into his self-
declared verbal warfare. My
politics and campaign will be
issues-based and no roforofo
badmouthing from anyone, no
matter how highly placed, will
steer me away from development-
based politicking.
There are more pressing issues,
more important conversations to
have and more problems to solve
and the people of Lagos are
wondering if their leaders get it.
The teachers, the students, the
blacksmiths, the bankers, the taxi-
man, the small-business owners,
they all hope that their leaders
understand that the outcome of
this election and the future of this
state is bigger than any one
personality or party. Whatever
we do or commit to doing
determines whether they have
food to put on their tables;
whether they can own homes, pay
salaries or that their children get
to attend schools of their choice.
They deserve better.
The people definitely deserve
better.
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