Lagos State should be ‘O Tope’ not ‘O Toge’ – Tinubu

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said the trending campaign slogan of “O Toge” (Enough is enough) in Kwara State is different from “O Tope” (It’s something to be grateful about), which subsists in Lagos State.Tinubu made the comment during an interactive session with the media after casting his vote on Saturday at Polling Unit  047,Ward 3 in Alausa, Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos in the governorship and state assembly elections.The News Agency of Nigeria reports that “O Toge” was a slogan first used in Kwara State to oust the political dynasty of the Sarakis.The slogan was made popular during the February 23 Presidential and National Assembly elections to challenge the Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki political hegemony in Kwara State.The slogan, however, gained currency in the South West as the opposition party in Lagos State, Peoples Democratic Party, adopted it to challenge the ruling party in Lagos State, APC.Tinubu, who came to the polling station at noon with some aides, proceeded to cast his vote at 12:15pm.The APC stalwart made a mockery of the O to ge slogan used by the opposition in Lagos, saying the situation in Lagos was quite different from what was obtainable in Kwara.He said: “The ‘O Toge’ slogan is for Ilorin.“Lagos is not Kwara State and there is a limit to copying.“Lagos should be ‘O Tope’, not ‘O Toge’.“We are going to win because we are the only party in Lagos State.“Others are pretenders.“They come and they will go away.“Leopard cannot change its skin.“Lagos State belongs to the progressives.“We are progressives and we will remain progressive.”Tinubu said Lagos had been the best in terms of economic development, insisting that right from his tenure as governor till date, the state had witnessed tremendous development.He said: “For Lagos, it has seen tremendous development since I was the governor.“Before then, the highest Internally Generated revenue was N600 million per month.“Now, it is over N30 billion.“No other state has achieved what we have achieved: financial independence, as Lagos state.“No other state.“They all depend on allocation from the Federal Government.“Lagos State today will not depend on any allocation before we take care of capital needs.“We build roads and bridges everywhere from Oregun to many parts of the state.“The real estate value of Lagos State has exponentially increased than any other state in the federation.“We are the fifth largest economy in Africa; let me see that governor who will do better than that.”Tinubu also said that the violence which erupted during the February 23 presidential and National Assembly election upset him.He said against the backdrop of painting the election as violent, it should rather be classified as peaceful, as the overall conduct of the election was fair.He said: “I take exception to what happened in Okota two weeks ago.“I am very upset about that incidence placing Lagos as if we are violence-prone.“We have about 1,325 polling units in Lagos State and only five units were affected in Okota.“That should not mean that the election was a failure in the state.“If we should rate it, the election should be about 97 per cent rate of success if right mentally.“An incident in Okota should not be used to generalise the whole election in Lagos State.“The success rate should have been the story, not the ugly incident that should be the story.”Tinubu cautioned the media against the hype given to negative stories, saying such attributes would not bring the necessary progress.He said: “For the media, how can five units out of 1,325 units constitute a violent election and given hype that Lagos is violent?“We cannot do justice to that.“How can we have development to the economy and the medium of information?“In terms of security, Lagos has always been ready to celebrate democracy and violence free.“The security officials are doing well and the INEC has started well too with the logistics well managed.“The voters came out en masse.”Tinubu said the state would always continue to be home for all, irrespective of wherever they came from.He said: “We will continue to welcome everybody to Lagos State.“We cannot stop people from coming to the state.“If Lagos is not good enough, they won’t come.“If the state is plagued with disease or insecurity or unemployment, people won’t come.“Those leaving their states to come to Lagos are welcome.“They are not a threat.”