I’ll Appoint Commissioners From 36 States —Lagos ANPP Gov Candidate

The All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Lagos State governorship candidate, Yomi Tokoya will certainly set a record if he goes on to appoint commissioners from the 36 states of the federation as he promised to do in a debate at the weekend.

At a governorship debate organised by the Diocese of Lagos West, Anglican Communion at the Arh-Bishop Vinning Memorial Church, Ikeja, Lagos, South West Nigeria, Tokoya shocked the audience when he said he would appoint one commissioner from each state of the federation into his cabinet if he becomes governor of Lagos State.

Tokoya’s statement is being seen as one from an unserious candidate by the audience as it would never be possible to appoint only one Lagosian into the cabinet in Lagos.

The debate was attended by Governor Babatunde Fashola of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Dr. Ade Dosunmu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Comrade Ayodele Akele of the National Conscience Party, NCP; Dr. Michael Adegbola of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA and Mr. Abayomi Olatunji of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.

Each of the candidates was asked to speak on how he would improve the security situation in Lagos, tackle multiple taxation and the issue of indigenship.

According to Tokoya, the nation is sick in the area of security, saying that the ANPP administration in Lagos would start with agricultural revolution to create employment for the unemployed, which he said would keep people away from crime.

In the area of taxation, he said there is multiple taxation in Lagos. He said people should not be over-taxed, adding that the ANPP government in Lagos would abolish use of consultants to collect taxes in the state.

According to Dosunmu of the PDP, “our government will be guided by transparency and accountability and we will ensure that resources of Lagos State are judiciously used.

“All jobs must be advertised and we want to reform the bureaucracy.  We will set up anti-corruption agency in the civil service.  In the area of security, we will look at the root cause such as unemployment and we will address this.”

As for Akele, he said he would abolish the tax system in Lagos State when he becomes governor of the state but when confronted by a woman to explain how he would run the state without collecting taxes, he ate his words.

Akele  said that during his administration, no doctor would go on strike.

“My government will be a revolutionary one. Welfare and security are the key to this.  We will abolish the Land Use Charge and we will tackle mass unemployment.  We will provide free launch to all public schools.  We will peg our minimum wage at N25, 000.  I will abolish Alpha Beta, we will not tax Lagosians,” he stated, without a clear cut policy.

In his comments, Fashola said the root cause of insecurity was unemployment, saying that his administration, in the last four years had provided employment to thousands of people.

“We have continued to create jobs; hundreds of thousands of people have been employed.  We have trained over 250, 000 people in various skills and acquisition programmes,” he said.

Fashola added that the number of policemen sent to Lagos to combat crime was grossly inadequate, saying that “there are 37, 000 policemen in Lagos to police over 18 million people.  We want the Federal Government to set up more divisional police headquarters in Lagos.”

On the issue of multiple taxation, the governor stated that since the nation ran a federal constitution that recognised three tiers of government, there was no way each of the tiers would not collect taxes to run its activities, adding that “this should not be called multiple taxes because it is not.”

—Kazeem Ugbodaga