Furore Over Fashola's N78 Million Website

These are not the best of times for immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola. Since he left office in May 29, the seeming goodwill he enjoyed in the eight years he served as Governor of the state seems to evaporating by the day and may in no small way blight the chances of becoming a member of Buhari's cabinet.Of recent, reports about Fashola in the media have not been favourable. Some online newspapers and blogs have seemed hell bent on unearthing some dealings about a man whom during his time was seen as a star among his contemporaries.

The latest is the allegation that the former governor spent N78 million of tax payers' money to upgrade his personal website, www.tundefashola.com.

The Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, saddled with scrutinizing and approving contracts awarded had published a list of contracts awarded in 2014 by the Fashola administration and had in one of the items, stated that N78million was given to a company Info Access Plus Limited to upgrade the website.

The IT firm named by the Lagos State procurement office as receiving N78 million for the upgrade of former Governor Babatunde Fashola's personal website, Info Access Plus Limited, has denied being paid the amount.

Info Access Plus Limited said its quotation for the job was N12.5 million, and that the state eventually spent N10 million.

The figure contradicts details released by the Lagos State procurement office, first reported by the budget analytic firm, BudgiT. The listing shows N78 million was spent on the website.



Curiously, for a company that specializes on building and upgrading websites, a Google search for Info Access Plus, revealed that Info Access Plus Limited has no website of its own. According to information technology experts, www.tundefashola.com, created by the firm for the former governor, is a WordPress website and an upgrade could not have cost more than N300, 000.

In a statement presented by the web company, this is their response to the allegation "Our attention is drawn to the twitter campaign alleging that the Lagos State Government (LASG), led by His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN spent Seventy Eight Million Naira (N78M) to upgrade the www.tundefashola.com web site, a site dedicated to giving citizens unfettered access to the Governor's daily activities and open access to information.

"It is imperative to state here that, the website in question is not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola's personal website but an official website which reports and documents his official activities as a way of socially accounting for his stewardship to the people of Lagos State. This initiative of having an official website for the Governor was to build on the earlier commitment to open access which saw Governor Fashola being the first serving governor to publish his telephone number on the pages of newspapers. As pressure mounted on that number, the website and all of its social media handles became alternative platforms for people to directly engage with their elected governor."

Aside the company's response, the former governor, Babatunde Fashola is yet to give his statement on the issue.

The former governor has however defended his actions in office. According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria in a five-page letter he personally signed, he admitted that the money was actually spent on his website but however, said the breakdown of the transaction was left out and that that was the cause of the confusion.





"As far as the website contract is concerned, yes there was a contract. It went through procurement and was approved by the government agency authorised to do so. One of the services was an upgrade quoted for N12.5m but awarded for N12m. There were other services that were new like a hand over countdown clock, mobile Apps for Google, for IOS and Ipad, for Microsoft and for Research in Motion (Blackberry), which the existing website did not have, as well as the annual maintenance cost for managing the website.

"It was for all these services that the contract was issued for N78m, which the Lagos State Procurement Agency gave no objection based on the advice of the Ministry of Science and Technology, who are the government's adviser on ICT matters.

"In publishing this contract award which was the government tradition under my watch, the procurement agency's website summarised it as 'upgrade' only without detailing the other services and this has been distorted by the agents of hate and their suspected smoking gun."

He, however, said the contract was published in a way as to misinform members of the public. "It is regrettable that a summary of the contract has been deliberately distorted to misinform the public," he said.

He said the website helped him to do his job effectively when he was governor. He said till date there have been over 27 million hits on the site while thousands of videos and pictures had been uploaded on the site.

Just as many Nigerians are still in shock over the outrageous public fund involved with the website upgrade, a few who believe in the former governor's integrity refused to be swayed by the issue to discredit him.



A civil right activist and CEO of Humanity Service Project, HSP, Comrade Linus Okoroji, was one of the few that rose to the former governor's defense.

His words: "It is because people pursue frivolities all the time that make things difficult for us in this country. How can a website cost N78million to upgrade? I have not seen the website in question and would really love to see what gulped that amount of money because the former Governor of Lagos state, Babatunde Fashola is not that kind of person to lavish such money on a personal website. I have been to where Fashola lives presently and no former governor I Nigeria can be in a humble place like that. Where he lives now is just being renovated. What I believe is that People are looking for loopholes to tarnish the bright integrity he has built over the years. This is a governor who never allowed people advertise him on his birthday. He never used advert to sell himself, so it is very hard to believe. I don't think that those people saying such things about him are right." He said

Also, the Director General of Change Ambassadors of Nigeria (CAN), Prof Chris Nwokobia advised Nigerians to be careful with how they throw up information and allegations against people who are active on our political space.

"People should be careful with how they throw up information and allegations against people who are active on our political space lest we run into a cul de sac and in nudging on the fight against corruption destroy our best hands."

He continued "I am passionately committed to the quest for the best hands to be hired by President Buhari to run Nigeria with him, until proven otherwise Fashola remains one of the best, rather than the hoopla the Law states that he who alleges must prove, so the trial and conviction in the media must give way to actual investigation and trial in the Court, until then I am for a Fashola being one of the pillars of the new Nigeria and serving in the present regime." He said