Tunde Bank-Anthony, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to claims that Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and presidential candidate of the APC was the founder of modern Lagos.
Bank-Anthony argued, while featuring on a Channels Television programme on Wednesday that Tinubu cannot claim glory for the successes recorded by the administrations of former governors Babatunde Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode.
“The people that succeeded Asiwaju (Tinubu), BRF succeeded him, and his eight years was more visible than Bola Tinubu’s eight years…He (Tinubu) cannot claim glory for what they did; it’s not possible,” he said.
He stressed that Ambode was not allowed to complete the good work he started as a performing governor.
Since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, Ambode has been the only former state governor in office for a single term. Tinubu was governor between 1999 and 2007 before he handed over to Fashola, who was in office from 2007 to 2015.
Ambode took over in 2015 but lost his re-election at the primary level in the 2019 electioneering process due to intra-party squabbles as APC strongman in Lagos (Tinubu) was reported to have favoured the incumbent governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, over Ambode.
Sanwo-Olu, who clinched the party’s ticket and won the 2019 governorship election, has again secured APC’s ticket for his re-election in the 2023 polls.
Bank-Anthony, also a spokesperson for Concerned Nigerians, maintained that Tinubu is not the founder of modern Lagos, cautioning that his men should not trivialise the contributions of Ambode and Fashola in Lagos or make them inferior to Tinubu’s.
He said, “I read something not too long ago, the chairman of the party in Lagos said Ambode did not follow the blueprint of Lagos. What is the blueprint of Lagos? It should be online for people to see.”
