FASHOLA GOVERNMENT IS LEAVING BEHIND A LEGACY
OF WOES
Press Statement
We of the Socialist Party of
Nigeria (SPN), Lagos State Chapter strongly decry the legacy of $1 billion debt
burden that the outgoing Babatunde Fashola government is leaving behind for the
mass of working people and the poor in the state. According to media reports,
the state government owes 33.86 per cent of the country’s total sub-national
external debts (debts owed by state governments). Statistics obtained from the
website of the Debt Management Office in Abuja shows that out of
the total external debt of $3.01bn, Lagos State owed $1.02bn, leaving the
remaining 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory with $1.99bn as of June
30, 2014. Further analysis shows that out of the $1.02bn external loan
commitments, $937.91m was from multilateral bodies, while $82.5m represented
loans contracted from bilateral sources. (Punch Newspapers, 5th September, 2014).
We call for mass actions to
demand the opening of the accounts of Fashola-led government for public scrutiny
by elected representatives of the working people, trade unions etc., for the
purpose of allowing the public see clearly where this huge funds were channeled
to. We call for an end to debt enslavement of Lagos State.
The eight years of the
Fashola regime have only meant attack on education, living condition and
democratic rights for the mass of the working people. It took the monumental
struggle of students, staff and parents of the Lagos State University with
their civil society allies including the Education Rights’ Campaign (ERC) and
the Joint Action Front (JAF) to force the Fashola regime to reverse the outrageous
fee imposed on the university.
We in SPN
Lagos State call on the mass of working people in the state not to hold illusions
in the policy reversal being undertaken presently such as relax on attacks on
okada riders. This is one of the tricks to woo the working people for votes in
the 2015 general elections. The fact is that the brutal attacks on the masses
and youth will resume full fledge should the APC wins the next elections.
We equally call on the mass
of working people not to hold illusions in the People's Democratic Party, which
is presently rooting to take political power from the APC. The victory of any the
section of the ruling class during the coming elections will be a continuation
of debt enslavement, attack on education and democratic rights among other
neo-liberal and anti-working people policies.
We enjoin the mass of the
working people to join us in the SPN in the struggle for the actualisation of
the registration. The SPN canvasses the programme of cancellation of the debt,
democratic and transparent management of all public resources by elected
representatives of communities, workers and government as well as proper
funding of key sectors of the economy and guaranteeing democratic rights for
the mass of the working people.
Moshood Osunfurewa
State Secretary,
SPN Lagos State Chapter
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