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Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi has faulted Channels Television journalist, Seun Okinbaloye for describing Lagos State as rich during Sunday’s Lagos governorship debate.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Ajayi said the framing showed poor understanding of the state’s finances and was part of the reason Nigeria is struggling with development.
He said, “One of the major reasons we are struggling with development is because of the wrong framing and poor understanding of our issues. It is more distressing when those you expect to know better exhibit poor knowledge. Seun Okinbaloye opened the Lagos Governorship debate with a declaration that Lagos State is rich.”
The presidential aide questioned the basis for the description, citing the state’s 2026 budget.
He stated, “For the life of me, how is Lagos a rich state. A state that is running a current 2026 budget of N4 trillion which in dollar term is less than $3 billion. New York City Police Department 2026 budget is more than $6 billion and in dollar terms twice the budget of Lagos State.
“We are talking about a city police department annual budget not that of New York State.
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“A city police department is running twice the budget of Lagos State with more than 20 million people. And a journalist is on a live debate where he is supposed to ask intelligent and well-informed questions said Lagos State is rich.”
Ajayi said Nigeria must do away with what he called a simplistic and populist view of wealth if the country truly wants to develop.
“We really need to do away with this simplistic and populist view if we truly want to develop and move ahead as members of human society. And journalists who have the power of the mic should stop misinforming the people,” he added.
The debate, organised by the Nigeria Debate Consortium comprising The PUNCH, Channels Television, TVC News, TheCable and Vanguard, featured Lagos governorship candidates ahead of the 2027 election.
The candidates at the debate included Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Obafemi Hamzat of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and Deji Doherty of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
