Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, June 11, 2004.
Akinyemi faults Ogunlewe over face-off
with Tinubu
By Lekan Sanni
Correspondent,
Lagos
Former External Affairs Minister, Professor
Bolaji Akinyemi, has faulted Works Minister, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, and the
Federal Ministry of Works on the ongoing face-off with the Lagos State
Government on control of federal roads in the state.
The former minister has also called on the Oba of Lagos, Oba
Rilwan Akiolu, to reconcile Ogunlewe and Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the
interest of the state.
In a press statement on Thursday entitled Destructive
Federalism: Tinubu vs Ogunlewe, Akinyemi said that the Federal Government
should be grateful and not antagonistic to the Lagos State Government for doing
what it has failed to do in a long time.
According to him, the government of Tinubu has
been very visible in three areas in the last five years; high taxes,
beautification of the Lagos environment and instilling discipline on Lagos
roads.
“On high taxes, I am as patriotic as
any Nigerian but I do not like paying high taxes unmatched by better government
social policies,” he said.
On beautification and discipline on Lagos
roads, the former minister scored the state government high, especially with
the setting up of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the
Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) brigades.
According to him, “It has taken the
KAI and LASTMA brigades to restore some element of sanity to Lagos
roads,” asking, “Where was the Federal Ministry of Works when all
of these were going on?”
He regretted that since Ogunlewe became the
minister, it has been war between him and the governor, with the state being
warned to keep off repairing federal roads as well as their beautification.
In addition, KAI and LASTMA were warned to
keep off federal roads and were threatened with arrest and physical violence,
he added.
