Fashola, the deceptive broad day robber.

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

A former governor of Lagos State, a former messiah Babatunde Fashola came out of the secret box in on Friday as it was discovered by a budget analytic firm, BudgiT that he has recklessly spent an outrageous amount of money on a personal page.

Governor Fashola

Fashola is one of the outstanding governors who many Nigerians believed would meet the requirement of the new President, Muhammadu Buhari non corrupted list until Saturday when it was discovered that he spent  N78.3m on a website from the state government coffers.

Nigerians turned to doubting Thomas wondering how a website upgrade built on a wordpress, a free application can cost 300,000 let alone the recorded amount.

Another surprising angle of the scenario is that the so called website company, Info Access Plus Limited has no personal page. That is, a website that designs other websites does not have an official page where people can refer to. Until Saturday, the name Info Access Plus Limited did not neither appear on any social network, nor on Google.

Probably disturbed by the new development, a statement was released from nowhere alleged to have been a press release from the website company, denying receiving such an amount of money to upgrade the website, yet defending the governor of his action by quoting the cost of several multimillion websites like twitter and Facebook.

“While we do not hold brief for the Lagos State Government, the selective loading of contracts awarded and executed by the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency is itself suspect and aimed at a pre-determined end. The statement of the Contract Line Item and the cost ascribed on the website of the agency are therefore misleading and mischievous”

• According to Bloomberg, theObamacare Enrollment System web site costs more than $2 Billion.


• According to the YCharts, theAnnual Facebook Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $2.153B from revenue of $12.47B.


• According to the same YCharts, theAnnual Twitter Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $446.31M from revenue of $1.403B.


• According to the same YCharts, theAnnual Microsoft Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $33.04B from revenue of $93.58B.


• According to the same YCharts, theAnnual Google Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $25.69B from revenue of $66B.


• According to the same YCharts, theAnnual Apple Cost of Goods Sold for December 31, 2014, is $112.26B from revenue of $182.80B.


• All these private sector driven Operating Costs still run into several billions, while taking serious effort to reduce waste.


• It’s evident from these stated facts that good products take huge amount of planning, time and resources.

Was the Facebook built and maintained with less than $500,000? Anyone making this claim is dubious, the company outlined.

The statement alleged that Fashola website belongs to the state government forgetting that the government already has its official website at www.lagosstate.gov.ng/. The alleged website company revealed that Fashola’s personal page is www.brforg.org and not www.tundefashola.com which actually takes the name of the former governor.

“The website in question is not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s personal website but an official website which reports and documents his official activities as a way of socially accounting for his stewardship to the people of Lagos State” the statement said.

Still on the defence, the company alleged that former governor launched the tundefashola’s website, to giving citizens unfettered access to the Governor’s daily activities and open access to information. It is imperative to state here that lagosstate official website was created for the same purpose.

It could be recalled that in 2013, the political son to Asiwaju Tinubu (Fashola) was accused of spending 600 million naira on the purchase of two bullet proof cars which was completely denied by the state government.

Many Lagosians including some civil societies have asked President Buhari not to elevate Fashola or appoint him to any position has his administration was marred with secrecy.

In a letter titled “Don’t elevate Fashola,” addressed to President Buhari, The Executive Chairman of the group, Mr. Debo Adeniran said if Buhari wanted to actualise his mission of ‘change’ he would need to distance himself from controversy.

Adeniran said his organisation was troubled by many dilapidated schools in the state. He noted that when the Socio-Economic Right Accountability Project invoked the Freedom of Information Act to know how the Fashola government spent a $200m World Bank education funds, the state government refused to disclose it.

He said instead, the state government continued to run its affairs in secrecy by claiming that the FOI Act did not apply to state governments.

“Mr. President, we are constrained at this point in time to bring to your attention our critical reaction to the unbridled speculation making the rounds for some time now, from the members of the public as well as the media, as to the fact that the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, is being considered by the presidency for higher national responsibility. Feelers have it that his name is prominent on the list of the president’s nominees for key offices in your administration.

“It is gratifying that you have promised at various fora that your appointments would be purely based on merit and that tested technocrats, with impeccable records, would be given their rightful places in your administration, as a way of ensuring good governance to the people of Nigeria. It is against this background that our organisation is appealing to you to please take the pains to dig deep into Mr. Babatunde Fashola’s record of performance as well as that of financial propriety on the part of his government while in office.”

President Buhari had pledged to fight corruption irrespective of the party member involved and with this new development, Nigerians are expecting to read the response of the presidency since it has been active on related matters.

The position of the presidency on the fight against corruption in his party will determine the level of commitment he has to genuinely fight the graft, which is now a scourge sending Nigeria to its untimely grave.

The governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose had days ago, urged Buhari to start his probe on those who sponsored his election.

Fayose said” Some of those who sponsored the President’s election have not done any other jobs apart from holding public offices. Yet, they provided private jets and funds with which the President campaigned across the length and breadth of Nigeria. He should let Nigerians know where they got money to buy private jets and the several billions of naira spent on his election.

“No one sits with corruption to fight corruption because as it is today, President Buhari is sitting among corrupt people and he must first extricate himself from the comity of corruption”.

There are indications that Fashola, a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, the governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola among others are those who sponsored Buhari’s election.

As the problem of website upgrade continues to generate uproar among Nigerians, Fashola nor his aides have release statements to counter the impression already created. A section of the media reported that Fashola’s aide was reached for comment but refused to talk on the issue. From all indications, Fashola, judging from the new development, may not be a saint after all but a deceptive broad day robber.

Fashola, the deceptive broad day robber.