Ekekeee had exclusively reported that the immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, was working on a response to the allegations making the rounds in the social media space that he had signed off on a princely N78m contract to build his personal website while still Governor of Lagos State. 

Specifically, Fashola had told Ekekeee that he was working in concert with his media team to issue a response.

At about 4pm, Saturday, his response hit our mail box, followed by calls from his media team to ascertain if we had received the mail bearing his official response.

Fashola said the website isn’t his personal property.

“My attention has been 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”.

Fashola said “the selective loading of contracts awarded and executed by the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency is itself suspect and aimed at a pre-determined end”. He added that “The statement of the Contract Line Item and the cost ascribed on the website of the agency are therefore misleading and mischievous”.

Fashola said the facts are that:

• As former Lagos State Governor, I set out to streamline easy access to myself, while in office and to document my activities for the citizens.
• From 2008 and up till May 29, 2015, the www.tundefashola.com web site processed thousands of press releases/speeches, more than 6 million pictures, thousands of videos to generate world class, content-rich online information collateral for the former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN.
• The same www.tundefashola.com web site provided great opportunities for the Lagos State Government, as it collated all activities of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, and his government during his two terms.

Fashola reiterated that “In addition, I personally paid for the www.brforg.org web site, even when I was the Lagos State Governor. I felt that www.brforg.org is the online presence of my Non-Governmental Organization, BRF Organization. Again, for the records, the website in question is the official website of the Governor of Lagos State and not Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola’s personal website as being disparagingly alleged by the campaigners.”

The erstwhile Governor also said the website cost less than N10m.

What Did LASG Get For the alleged “N78M”?

• N12.5m was quoted for the upgrade of the www.tundefashola.com web site, which includes complete re-design of all the hundreds of page templates. Meanwhile, the LASG spent less than N10m on this and not N78M being bandied in the social media.
• Info Access Plus Limited will provide free technical support for the entire life cycle of the web site.
• Info Access Plus Limited will manage the contents of the site, which consist of press releases, speeches, photos, videos, etc for one year.
• Info Access Plus Limited developed and managed the first and only web-based 1-year Countdown Clock to May 29, 2015 on a 24-hourly basis off the back of this same service cost for a period of 1 year from 2014 to May 29, 2015.
• Info Access Plus Limited developed mobile apps for the top four platforms, namely Apple iOS, Google Play, Microsoft Windows Phone 8 and Blackberry World off the back of this same service cost..
• Info Access Plus Limited will provide free technical support throughout the life cycles of all these mobile apps also off the back of this same service cost.

Fashola also drew similarities with what it costs to put up similar websites around the world.

“Quality software development takes serious effort, time and resources”, he said.

He added that:

• According to Bloomberg, the Obamacare Enrollment System web site costs more than $2 Billion (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-24/obamacare-website-costs-exceed-2-billion-study-finds).
• All these private sector driven Operating Costs still run into several billions, while taking serious effort to reduce waste.
• It’s evident from these stated facts that good products take huge amount of planning, time and resources.
• Was the Facebook built and maintained with less than $500,000? Anyone making this claim is dubious.