The former speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, in an interview on AriseTV, spoke about the zoning of key positions in the 10th Senate and issues about Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, as well as the expected relationship between Tinubu and the National Assembly.
He said, “The issue of the self-accounting for the legislature, Bola Tinubu signed it to law as far back as year 2000 when he was barely a year in office.”
Claim I: Did Bola Tinubu sign the Self-accounting bill for the legislature while he was governor of Lagos state?
Verification
The judiciary and the legislature have separate self-accounting bills. Both bills however specify that the two arms of government have their funds separated from the state government coffer. In 2000, the motion was moved for the Lagos State House of Assembly self-accounting bill and by February 5, 2001, the “Lagos State House of Assembly Self Accounting Law 2000” was assented to by Tinubu, the then governor of the state.
Verdict: True
Tinubu signed the self-accounting bill for the legislature in 2001, while he was the governor of Lagos state.
Claim II: Did the Lagos State House of Assembly pass the Freedom of Information bill while Tinubu was governor?
Still speaking with Arise correspondence, Kuforiji claimed that the Freedom of Information bill was passed in Lagos while Tinubu was governor.
He said, “In fact, we then made even laws that the national assembly was struggling to make, under him (Tinubu). We made them in Lagos like the information bill, the freedom of information bill, while they were still battling with it in Abuja, we already got it settled it in Lagos.”
Verification
The struggle for the Nigerian freedom of information law officially began in 1993 when three interest groups; Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) started an open campaign for the enactment of the FOI Law. In 1994, a draft bill was produced and titled: Draft Access to Public Records and Official Information Act. In 1999, a revised draft was presented to the 4th National Assembly for ratification.
However, in May 2011, after about 12 years, the FOI bill was passed by the National Assembly and accented by Goodluck Jonathan, the president at that time.
While records showed that deliberation on the FOI bill started at the National Assembly in 1999, the same time Tinubu was governor of Lagos state, there is no evidence to show that the Lagos State House of Assembly deliberated or passed such law until 2011 when the federal government assented to the bill.
Verdict: No Evidence
Claim III:
Adeyemi Ikuforiji said the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos state increased from N600 million to N50 billion when Tinubu was governor. This claim is false and misleading. Several individuals such as Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima have made similar claims in the past.
Verification and Verdict: The CDD Election War Room fact-checked the claims and made a report on the claims. Kindly read the full report here.
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