By Olasunkanmi Akoni and Monsur Olowoopejo
LAGOS — Ahead of the April gubernatorial poll and in what seemed to be the commencement of political campaigns in Lagos, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos Sate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, gubernatorial   candidate Dr. Ade Dosumu, Thursday engaged in a heated debate disagreeing over various government policies on development plans for the state.

From left: Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola and ACN Governorship Candidate, and Dr. Ade Dosumu, PDP Governorship Candidate, during the Private Sector interaction with Governorship Candidates of ACN and PDP in Lagos State, organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at LCCI Conference and Exhibition Centre Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez

The areas of difference were on three categories, namely: infrastructure/utilities, regulatory environment and security.
The duo who spoke at an interactive forum/debate organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, in Ikeja, specifically disagreed on how the dreamed 4th Mainland Bridge would be actualised even as they advocated different tax policy as currently applicable in Lagos.

While Fashola attributed the long delay in the take-off of the 4th Mainland bridge promised by his predecessor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 12 years ago, to the recent global economic meltdown crisis which he said practically made it difficult to secure fund, Dosumu outrightly declared that Lagos lacks the capacity  to undertake the project because of the enormity of capital involved.

Dosumu told the audience comprising captains of industry and political chieftains that only the Federal Government could handle the project, insisting that the promise by the ACN government to build the bridge is unrealistic.

Dosumu said: “The ACN told Lagosians many years ago that it would build the bridge. Up till now, the plan is still in the drawing board. The Third Mainland Bridge was built by the Federal Government and the Fourth Mainland Bridge would also be built by the Federal Government under PDP. If the ACN government should undertake the project, it would tax Lagosians out of existence,” Dosumu said.

Taking on Dosumu, Fashola said Lagos would rather “take its destiny in its hands” than wait for the PDP-led Federal Government which in the last 12 years failed to fix Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Oworonsoki Expressway, Benin-Ore Expressway and Lagos-Benin Expressway.

The governor said his government, having begun the infrastructural turn-around of Lagos, the commercial hub of the West African sub-region, was determined to continue this path if re-elected.

Reeling out the laudable achievements of his administration on security, the governor said in the last three and half years night life had been restored in Lagos, while robbery, especially cases of attacks on banks, has been stamped out. He said more was being done to further enhance the confidence of business owners and investors in Lagos.

But while both agreed there is need to pay their taxes to enable the government delivers the goods of governance and hastens development, Dosunmu, however, faulted the tax burden on businesses, corporate bodies and residents of Lagos imposed by the ACN government, insisting that “taxation must have human face.”

Meanwhile, Executive Council of Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Thursday commended Governor Fashola for approving for Lagos State workers a salary package that is above the(N18,000) minimum wage announced  by the Federal Government.

The state government penultimate week announced a minimum wage of N18, 780.  Speaking on the development, Chairman Lagos State chapter TUC, Comrade Akeem Kazeem commended the state government for not disappointing the workers, when other states were still foot_dragging on the matter of minimum wage.

“It is instructive to note  that the administration of Fashola is in concurrence with the labour movement that any  worker_sensitive government in the country can afford to pay the minimum wage and still fulfil its other social responsibilities to the citizens”, he said.

While thanking the Federal Government (FG) for leading the way, the union leadership called for an enabling law that would compel all employers of labour to pay the minimum wage.

To achieve the desired impact on Nigerian workers the union called on the FG to grant tax relief of not less than 50 percent to workers.

“This would guarantee that the little gains accruable to workers through the implementation of the minimum wage is not sucked up by the current high tax rate”, he said and advised both the state and FG to implement low cost housing scheme for workers, especially in a cosmopolitan state like Lagos.” he said

Kazeem called on the management of Union Bank to embrace the path of industrial harmony by entering into consultation with representatives of Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and financial Institutions (ASSIBIFI) to address issues that engendered