Finance Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite’s recent visit to Lagos, to attend a meeting of the local Social Democratic Party (PSD), has triggered an angry broadside from her political opponents. The Socialist Party (PS) has complained that Ferreira Leite should not have been invited to Lagos because, “the Minister is the main reason why the câmara cannot appeal to the banking sector for help with the construction of works urgently required by residents”. The PS also pointed out that the current level of municipal debt is 84 per cent and said the invitation issued to Ms Leite was, “a public demonstration of the PSD’s lack of solidarity and commitment to the development of Lagos and improvement in the quality of life for residents”.
But the head of the Lagos PSD said the invitation to Ms Leite had stemmed from, “an invitation from her local party to attend a meeting in which the minister discussed certain matters of national importance and which had nothing directly to do with the city of Lagos”. The title of the meeting, which brought together various Social Democratic politicians and business people was ‘Public Finances – the Present and the Future’.