‘‘Bringing back Toll Gates where Patriots fell is Provocative’’ _ Bode George tells Lagos government

Nigerian Ports Authority former chairman and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bode George, expressed his thoughts in a no-hold bared fashion on some national issues including the announcement by the Lagos state government to resume tolling of Lekki toll gate and 2023 presidential election among others.

He said he was happy to have attended the last caucus meeting, BoT, and NEC of the main opposition party PDP. He said he hasn’t seen that congregation size of founding and old members of the party for a very long time. ‘Seeing them shows you how the next set of elections is important to us’.

George disclosed to journalists in the special press conference on Saturday in Lagos that the reason he called the press conference was the decision of the Lagos State Government to reintroduce toll fare at the Lekki toll gate.

In the address he titled, ‘The toll gate issue: Tinubu dangerous Gambit’, he said it was sad and sickening that in this unsavory time the Lagos government wants to bring back the toll gate.

According to him ”in this time of grave moral challenges when ordinary Nigerians cannot afford three square meals a day, parents cannot afford the high school fee for their children, when the commoners cannot afford a fare of transportation. This is an unsavory time when the Lagos government has chosen to impose more burden on Lagosians by bringing back the toll fare”.

“It is cruel, insensitive, vicious, and totally unacceptable. It is misgovernance of the worst scale which is obviously sanctioned by Bola Tinubu to source money for the moribund presidential ambition which does not portray an enlightened leadership. It does not exemplify a selfless shepherding. It does not equate exemplary reference of salvaging the truth. It does not reflect the questionable concern of our elected leadership.

“Tinubu and his cronies govern without the sober instinct of genuine democrat. Is Tinubu conscience, is he articulated in the selfless embrace. Does he care about the masses? I don’t think so and yet this is the same character that is parading the country skimming for the presidency.

“Tinubu’s surrogate government in Lagos appears to reflect a distant alienated power lucked up in selfish devices maneuvering in mercantilist greed resolved on a rule of enforcement without the consultative truth of democratic enlargement.

“This is hardly the kind of government we need in Nigeria. If Tinubu’s surrogate had been properly elected. If he had been a proper emergence of the people’s votes, he would not turn its back on Lagosians. He would have been more discerning and contemplating his action. The state government does not really care about Lagosians. They are not interested in the Lagos of tomorrow.

‘Enough is enough, he said. “From this moment forward we must take our destinies in our hands. We cannot continue like this with all our growing problems, with all our deepening challenges, Tinubu and his accolades still insist on imposing the toll gate on us. We will say no.

“Barely two years when they mull down innocent youths at the Lekki toll gate. Tinubu through his surrogate has decided to bring back the toll gate. It is a bad hasty decision at a very bad time. We as Lagosians will ensure through all legitimate and legal means that what is right and just prevails.

“The dumb idea to bring back the toll gate on that very hallow ground which patriots fell is tantamount to egregious provocation. It is a combustible material. A seed of discord that will bring nobody any good.

The elder statesman arrived at four resolutions which he said the Lagos state government should implement.

i. The two toll gates should be scrapped, dismantled outright.
ii. A befitting memorial should be erected for the patriots that lost their lives on October 20, 2020.
iii. The Lagos state government should pay necessary compensations to the families of the deceased.
iv. October 20, 2020, should henceforth be declared as patriots day in the eternal memorial of the EndSARS heroes.