Lagos deserves better than what APC is offering – Obanikoro

In this interview with journalists, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Ghana, Musiliu Obanikoro, speaks about the growing debt profile of Lagos State, the PDP-led anti-graft war, 2015 general elections and other issues, JOHN ALECHENU, was there After you contested and lost the 2007 governorship election, why didn’t you contest in 2011? I was on a national assignment as of that time in 2011. I was the country’s representative (an Ambassador) in Ghana. There is no way I can abandon the responsibilities given to me by the Federal Government and come home only to be chasing a political office at the state level. Now that I am home, I am strongly reflecting on the last 15 years of Tinubu and the present administration in Lagos State. I will not sit down here and tell you that, we don’t have few things to celebrate in the state but, by and large, there are still many holes to fill. And I can honestly tell you that as a citizen of Lagos State, the overall decision I will make in terms of performance of Lagos State Government in the last 15 years, for me, is slightly below average. People may be saying they have done some new roads, they have done this, and they have done that. One, we must look at the costs of these roads and then, the state has a debt profile of about N1tn as we speak today. I schooled in the USA, the biggest investment that country made that is still working for them is in education. We have not done such in Lagos State despite all the noise they have been making. As we speak today, people of Lagos will not voluntarily send their children to public schools in the state. That, to me, is failure on the part of the government after 15 years in the saddle. Today, our hospitals in the state are mere consulting centres. Everybody that is somebody, now goes overseas for ordinary medical check–up. Even the governor himself, I do believe, without any iota of doubt that he does his medical check –up abroad. Their leader and ex-governor of the state recently had a knee injury and he was flown abroad to take care of ordinary knee injury. This minor health challenge could not be treated at the Lagos State University of Teaching Hospital after billions of naira they claimed have been sunk to upgrade the facility. In the area of health, Lagos State government has equally failed. Today, Lagos State does not have the required capacity to handle emergencies. And you know how much this state generated monthly as internal revenue. They are still struggling in the area of refuse management. Looking at the Olusosun Dumpsite at Ojota and the level of pollution that is injected to the atmosphere on a daily basis says a lot about the state government that has been in power since 1999. There are various kinds of reckless reclamation going on in the state right now. After the reclamation, what they often do is to sell the land to themselves and their cronies. Whereas, during the time of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, he did reclamation in Lekki and the land was sold to members of the public. As I am speaking to you now, the level of industrial pollution in the state is at an alarming proportion. These are serious issues that will affect resident’s life span and nobody is talking. Honestly, I don’t know what this government is celebrating every 100 days. At this point, where do you come in? I do believe that Lagos State, with its potential and the kind of IGR they get every month can be managed better than it is now. And the business of government can be done more transparently because this government is not transparent. Go and goggle anything about Lagos State, you won’t find any worthy information made available for members of the public. The governor has directed all members of his executive council not to talk to the press anymore on any issue; it is only the Commissioner for Information that is allowed to talk and you know that one who pays the piper dictates the tune. The Information Commissioner will tell you only what they want him to say; he cannot give a direct answer to your question if you succeed in meeting him at a corner. Those are the characters that are in government in Lagos. For example, look at the 2014 proposed budget that was presented to the State House of Assembly; the governor said it is a zero deficit budget but I called it 419. The government has gone to the bond market to borrow about N97bn and they are saying the budget is zero deficit. Is he injecting his personal money in the budget? He has the guts to come out and say it is zero deficit budgets and nobody is talking; instead people are clapping for him. On top of that, this government said any visitor or resident that will live up to six months anywhere in the state must register. Is there anywhere in the world that such thing is done in a free society? People need to stand up and ask questions from this government. The governor cannot compel anybody to register. It is wrong. If we care to have a free society, for goodness sake, let’s have it. Let Lagos State government realise that the Federal Government of Nigeria is also our government, as Lagos is. The essence of census is to let us define what our population is. Census is a thing that should involve the three tiers of government but the way the Lagos State government is doing it, behaving as if Lagos is a country on its own, the loser of such an action will be the citizens of the state. The state government is putting unnecessary debt on the people and the unborn children of the citizens. The state government believes it knows everything; whereas, we all know that by engaging the Federal Government constructively, most of the state’s burdens and challenges would be shared by the Federal Government. They refused to do this and that was why the government has continued borrowing to the extent of the high debt the state finds itself today. Had it been the money borrowed has been judiciously spent, maybe we would have close our eyes and say they have made right investment and we should recoup. The best investment the state government would have made is to invest in education but it failed to do so. Instead, the government increased tuition fee from N25,000 at LASU to above N300,000. Worst still, if you visit LASU main campus today, you will discover there is not much physical development at the institution. The government of the day increased the fee claiming it cannot subsidize education of indigent students in the state but they can subsidise their own habit. That to me, after so many years of the management of the state economy is not acceptable. Can you honestly say your party is effectively fighting corruption? It will be very unfair to ask such a question because we are looking at uninterrupted 15 years governance by two political parties. It will be very unfair of you to reduce focus on only Jonathan’s administration. We are saying we have history of dealing with corruption. Do they even have any history at all in their party? What about the current Oduah scandal in the Aviation sector? Oh yes! Accusation has been made in the open. Panel had been set up to look into the matter, the President has received the report. I am sure in good time; he will come out with a position. Be that as it may, nobody can sweep under the carpet what PDP has done to tackle corruption. Their party has not done anything; that is what we are saying. Everything they have accused us of doing, they are worse off. They accused Stella Oduah of buying two armoured cars for N255m. The one which the Lagos State governor is riding up and down in Lagos is more expensive than Oduah’s car. He is a public officer too who draws his salary from tax payer’s money. It is the same standard, it doesn’t matter. It is even more damning for the governor because he is elected by the people and he is supposed to uphold the trust and confidence of the people of Lagos. So, their own is even worse in that case but it is unfortunate the media refuse to look at that area. I am tasking the media people to go and conduct proper investigation into the cost of the two jeeps being used by Lagos State governor. I am in the know of the cost but I am putting it to you to do the investigation on the cost of those two jeeps which our governor uses as official cars. Copyright PUNCH.