The Minister of Power, Works and Housing and former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has discounted insinuations that he did not attend President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent visit to Lagos to commission some projects because Governor Akinwunmi Ambode did not invite him to the event; explaining that he deliberately stayed away because he didn’t think it was right to share Ambode’s day of glory with him as a former governor of the state.
“You know, I don’t tell lies and I would never lie against my successor in office. He personally called to inform me that an invitation letter had been sent to my Lagos home and pleaded that I attend the event.
Indeed, I gave him my words that I would be there but the truth is that I didn’t think it was right to share his day of glory with him. That was his day of glory for crying out loud and he deserved to make the best of it without anyone sharing that day with him,” Fashola told THISDAY in a telephone conversation.
He described the controversy that his absence at the event had generated as a grossly trivial distraction, taking aim at people who indulge and revel in ceremonies to celebrate the inauguration of projects instead of paying attention to more serious issues of governance and development.
The Minister recalled that when the world’s renowned terrorist mastermind, Osama Bin Laden was killed, then US President Barack Obama called his predecessor, George Bush to inform him first but Bush asked him to go ahead and make the announcement and celebrate his day of glory, because it was entirely his.
“For God’s sake, here is a man who had suffered very seriously bad press and I did not share the bad press with him. So, why should I share such a glorious day with him? This is me; this is my style and this is the kind of example I want to be setting in governance,” he said.
Fashola also posited that although his decision to not attend the event was further bolstered by his need to prepare for the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and so, he was fully convinced that attending the project inauguration was not expedient.
