Fashola says APC never promised to fix Nigeria in 4 years

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, says ‘change’ as promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) before the 2015 elections, is a gradual process and the governing party did not really promise to fix Nigeria in a single term of four years.

Fashola was in Lagos on Tuesday, November 20, 2018, for the inauguration of 5,000 foot soldiers tasked with mobilising votes for the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports Fashola as saying that even though the APC promised change in 2014, the party did not promise to effect it in four years.

“The APC has done more in three years than 16 years of PDP administration, yet they say President Buhari is too slow”, Fashola said.

From left: Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola; and Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, during the Federal Executive Council Meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday (8/8/18). ece-auto-gen

“President Buhari is taking Nigeria to the next level. We are going to the Next Level. The 2019 presidential election is a choice between going back and moving forward to the next level and also a choice of whom Nigerians can trust with their money,” he added.

Fashola calls out APC's achievements

Fashola thereafter reeled out the APC's scorecard since the party assumed the reins in 2015.

He noted that the APC-Buhari led administration has done more in three years with less money than the PDP did with all the monies that accrued to the nation in 16 years.

“Buhari has inaugurated a structural infrastructure fund for road construction. N15 billion has been released for the continued construction of Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

“There is need for the progress to continue. Dubai was built with oil-money, Nigeria can be built with it too. The past administration squandered oil revenue.

“Federal government is constructing at least one road in every state in Nigeria. We are also constructing houses in 34 States in Nigeria.

“We have collected 690 containers for the construction of 90 transmission stations and through our policy of mini grids, our markets now have

“In the last 3 years, we have constructed 40 kilometers of roads per year. In 2015, the total number of roads completed nationwide was 80 kilometers. In 2016 after we took over, we completed 274 kilometers of road, 478 kilometres in 2017 and 474 kilometers in 2018.

“Electricity generation has moved from 4000 Megawatts that we met to 7000MW. That’s an increase of 3000MW, an average of 1000MW a year. We have started an IPP in 9 universities in Nigeria. We have accelerated the distribution of meters by outsourcing it to distributors,” Fashola said.

President Buhari is seeking re-election on the APC platform in February of 2019.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) often calls out the APC for not living up to its campaign promises. In the social media space, the governing party is often labelled a scam by a cross section of Nigerians for allegedly over-promising and under-delivering.

The 2019 presidential election is seen as a straight contest between incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.