Outrage greeted the revelation that former Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State spent N78.3 million on the upgrade of his website – www.tundefashola.com – while he was governor, from Lagos State public funds.
According to a report by the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency (LASPPA), Fashola spent a whooping N78,300,000 ($460,000.00 at the exchange rate of the time) on his personal website upgrade in a contract awarded to Info Access Plus Limited. The contract was awarded in 2014 under the office of the chief of staff to the Lagos State Governor.
BudgiT, a active citizenship organisation committed to upholding public organisations accountable in the management of public funds brought this outrageous expense line in the Fashola led Lagos Government to the attention of Nigerians on Twitter, Friday, August 7, 2015.
The tech group also highlighted the expense of N330 million spent on the residence of the Deputy Governor of the state.
Understandably, Nigerians have expressed shock, disbelief, and outrage over what is considered an inflated contract invoicing.
Some of the reactions from Nigerians on Twitter are captured below.
My personal website – http://t.co/21b6lbXwH5 is by many standards better than Fashola's N78 million website. Yet it cost me less than $500.
— Ohimai Amaize (@MrFixNigeria) August 8, 2015
Where is @gbengasesan when you need him to do a fact check on this Fashola N78 million site? 😂😂😂
— Oche Daniel (@LordPuzo) August 8, 2015
No. 78.3m? Nah. Unless the website can tell you what Fashola did for every single Street in Lagos + accurately predict so will win BPL. 😂
— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) August 8, 2015
Lol! This must have been designed by @ArturoFirenze for @tundefashola. 😉 RT @BudgITng: Lagos spent N78m for http://t.co/lOgqVpRABL…
— Chief Ofu Ji (@blossomozurumba) August 7, 2015
@BudgITng how exactly is that amount for a website justifiable? Even Facebook didn’t cost that much to build
— 1 ∞ loop (@Gently_1) August 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/responficient11/status/629789319780245504
@oged07 Fashola take 78 million build website tori Olorun! — Damocles (@Damocleansword) August 7, 2015
Even if 100naira of govt money was used to maintain personal website, that's a corruption let alone 78M Fashola's website. It isn't right.
— OD_SIT (@I_amOD_SIT) August 8, 2015
If Fashola can pay 78m for ordinary website,how much will he be paying for huge projects?? The thoughts alone are scary and depressing
— Tomide Akinribido (@MrTomide) August 8, 2015
Fashola upgraded his personal website with N78million Lagos funds? Kudos to @Budgitng for dis expose. Now where is the EFCC? Heads must roll
— The Unlooker (@oddy4real) August 8, 2015
The hilarious were not left out.
https://twitter.com/ThisIsNotBuhari/status/629926733953789952
