TheCable

Olajide Adediran, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, says the poverty level in the state has increased since the start of Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s tenure.

Adediran, better known as Jandor, said this on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Thursday.

He said the unemployment rate has skyrocketed from 14.6 per cent to 37.6 per cent, adding that the state, considered the commercial capital of the nation, is not living up to its potential.

“Poverty rate when this guy (Sanwo-Olu) came into government in 2019 was 4.5 per cent today it is 8.5 per cent. The unemployment rate when he came into office was 14.6 per cent, today it is 37.16 per cent,” he said.

“That is what the latest NBS report says. We had another report that in the year 2022, Lagos is not ranked among the top five states with fiscal performance with all the money. Another report speaks about the safest state in Nigeria, Lagos is not among the first 10.

“You have a government with huge resources and you still have all these statistics not speaking to the successes, it shows failure. The reason is not far-fetched, there is a monopoly that will need to break up to open up the space for new and fresh ideas. Until that is done, we will continue to have the same report.”

Adediran, who was a former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said Sanwo-Olu does not have the political structure to win the governorship election, noting that he is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

“The current governor is a product of the terrible system that we are speaking to. As far as this campaign and everything is concerned, I will tell you that the current governor is inconsequential,” he said.

“He is inconsequential because politically he has no experience, he has no structure, and somebody just handed that office to him on a platter of gold.”