The Nation Newspaper

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  • Before Ambode visits

    While most government officials in Nigeria will take a day rest on May 29 to mark this year’s Democracy Day, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State will be at work. He will, among other things, commission the Ajah Bridge in Lekki Peninsula. A year and a half year ago, Governor Ambode was at Ajah Roundabout to see for himself the traffic gridlock which has defined life in the Ajah axis and promised that the roundabout would in 18 months give way to an overhead bridge to ease traffic. Exactly 18 months later, he is coming to commission the bridge. Ambode is a promise keeper. He has stepped into the shoes of his predecessors, Lateef Jakande, Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola. And Lagos is the better for it.

    The bad news is that the ease of traffic arising from the new bridge will last for just a few months. Like much of the peninsula, Ajah is a physical planning nightmare. For instance, there is only one road linking the whole of Ajah, Langbasa and Badore which have between them over 100 housing estates, with most occupied by those known as upward mobile families. People usually leave their homes well before 5am so as to get to their offices on Victoria Island before 8am. From Badore to Victoria Island used to take some 30 minutes.

    Traffic in Ajah will be enhanced tremendously in the area if the road linking Abraham Adesanya Estate with Oke Ira is constructed. The plan to build this road has been on the drawing board for several years. Governor Ambode can enhance his place in history if he gets it done immediately. He can accomplish it almost effortlessly. He is bubbling with energy and dynamism.

    The Ajah-Langbasa-Badore axis was conceived to be a model place in line with the vision of the Lekki and Ibeju areas forming what is called the New Lagos. But the place is fast turning into an environmental mess. To appreciate the gravity of the situation, the governor is called upon to pay an unscheduled visit before commissioning the Ajah Bridge.  Often when a top government official goes on a scheduled visit, officers who have been sleeping on duty put up an artificial show of beauty to deceive him or her. Ambode should not fall for this trick.

    If the governor visits the Ajah-Langbasa-Badore axis unannounced, he will most certainly be taken aback by the dereliction of duty by various ministries and agencies. The eight-kilometre Ajah-Langbasa-Badore Road which was constructed nine years ago has failed in four places. The Lagos State Public Works Agency worked on only one spot last year for just a few hours and then fled. The place is worse now. The result is endless traffic gridlock, all the more so during the rainy season. The one-kilometre road which the Tinubu administration built for fishermen in Badore, now called Catholic Mission Street, is a shambles. It does not look like a street in Ambode’s Lagos but a street somewhere in Sierra Leone after the recent primitive war by savages like Foday Sankoh and General Mosquito.

    Our governor will be shocked to learn that practices not permitted in other parts of Lagos metropolis flourish here. Heaps of garbage decorate public spaces. Shanties and shacks are ubiquitous, making a provocative mockery of the state government’s Cleaner Lagos Initiative. The drainages are filled to the brim but also blocked. They are not cleared by either the local development council or the Drainage Department of the Ministry of the Environment. The health implications are axiomatic. They breed mosquitoes on a grand scale. If care is not taken, they could soon begin to breed the kind of rats which transmit the extremely dangerous and highly infectious Lassa fever.

    The Ajah-Langbasa-Badore Road, which is the only tarred road in this part of Lagos, is practically overtaken by heaps of sand which have in some parts reduced the dual carriage way to a single lane. Over 200 tippers ply this road daily, making at least 400 trips every day. Considerable sand drops from the trucks each second on this road without being swept away. Once in a while, we find three or four sweepers on this road working leisurely for a couple of hours when over 20 dedicated sweepers are required. The pressure on this road by the big trucks which lift sand dredged at the sites in Ajah is humongous. The state government must address this activity.

    Driving from Lekki Phase 1  to Ajah at night is often a delight because of the beautiful street lights. It used to be the same experience from Ajah through Langbasa to Badore at night when Ambode introduced the radical programme of lighting Lagos. But since the bulbs in the Ajah-Langbasa-Badore axis began to die, there is no evidence of any effort to change them. This axis now looks at night like the heart of darkness.

    It seems the numerous street beggars taken away by the state government from Ebute Metta some years ago found their way to Ajah. They operate in large numbers. The sight and activity of these unfortunate Nigerians, who are mostly with all kinds of physical deformities, are not reconcilable with the Cleaner Lagos Initiative or Lagos status as a megacity. Also not compatible with modernity is the insistence of some religious organizations on turning their speakers to the highest volume during service. This is a clear violation of the law against environmental pollution. Whereas the government has closed down some organizations in the state for acting in brazen violation of the law and prosecuted the culprits, those committing the offence in the Ajah-Langbasa-Badore axis have not felt the full weight of the law.

    Acting with impunity has consequently become a way of life for religious leaders here who think God is hard of hearing and so they need to scream to the heavens for their prayers to be heard. They build churches and mosques on this major road with no provision for vehicles. Worshippers are forced to park right on public road, causing traffic congestion. The authorities must do something about this practice. Francis Fukuyama has argued eloquently in The End of History and the Last Man that some people in the third world “still live in the primitive age of mankind”.

    Finally, Gov Ambode has to ensure that traders at the Ajah Market do their business in accordance with government regulations. The market has illegally spilled into the road, causing traffic problems. In like manner, both commercial motor cyclists and tricycle operators here must be made to conduct their business in a way which does not conflict with public interest.

    Ambode has made a bold statement with the Ajah Bridge. He deserves our support and commendation.

     

    • Adinuba is head of Discovery Affairs Consulting.

  • Sleepy academia in the era of change

    It is a fact that no nation can genuinely grow beyond the resourcefulness of its ivory towers in as much as nobody ever gives what he or she hasn’t got. It is therefore going to be an indispensable strategy to first straighten, strengthen and revitalize our opaque, morally weak and developmentally disoriented academia, the ivory towers as they are so-called, if this regime of change actually meant business. I say this out of altruistic belief that we are truly ready for development and changes for the better as a country.

    Universities, polytechnics and colleges all over the world are purpose-driven and tailor made to meet and suit the developmental needs of the society and cater for the architectural peculiarities of such a nation. Whether our universities, polytechnics and colleges in Nigeria particularly the public-funded institutions meet this test particularly in contemporary time is very difficult to be answered in the positive. The philosophy behind the establishment of the first generation universities which was essentially to produce replacement for the white administrative officers after independence has remained largely stagnant in reality even when we pay lip service to educational advancement through policy changes. Rather than allow our academia to drive our development, we have allowed our cheap oil money to drive our taste and hence leave behind our academic institutions. In our acquisitive tendencies, we have shifted emphasis from knowledge-driven economy to material taste and ostentatious lifestyles which leads to no other destination than perdition. We buy and acquire all manners of gadgets, cars, and electronics and yet lack the most basic maintenance capability and culture to service and maintain them. Ostensibly, our lush tail wags our dog directionlessly.

    In reality, we have ivory towers that exude neglect and have over time become dejected and disoriented. The lecturers who are supposed to be the drivers of the development locomotive, whether ASUU or ASSUP or COEASU are as dysfunctional and disoriented as the system that engage them. They have become more popular for everything else but academic excellence: incessant strikes, unhealthy union rivalry, cultism, sexual harassment, financial malfeasance; all have found their fertile grounds on the soil of our campuses  and replaced the core academic values of old. Our academia therefore really needed a change and indeed a real surgical operation. If anything will ever truly change in our system and sustainably, then it must start from these ivory towers.

    With the exception of the universities of Ilorin and Lagos which just got their axes together recently, I doubt if any other public university in Nigeria have a predictable academic calendar as I write. Students only know the date they are admitted while their completion date is in the hand of God and this has continued now for more than two decades in all our public tertiary institutions. How then can a nation expect to produce serious future leaders through this kind of a ridiculous system? Little wonder why every Nigerian of means have now helplessly adopted the fashion of sending their wards for schooling abroad and allowed our own institutions at home to slip into decrepit conditions while successive governments pretend that all is well with our nation educationally.

    In a recent interaction with some parents whose children graduated from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife within the last two decades, it was discovered that it took an average of between six to seven years to graduate from four or five session courses. If you are in for courses like medicine, then you can hope for a decade.

    Our universities and polytechnics needed to be reworked, straightened and fixed for excellence in character and learning. For what character can be said to be in institutions with no predictable academic calendar, no predictable culture, no predictable developmental strategy, no predictable dos and don’ts. In terms of learning, the best way to assess the situation is to look at the lips of ASUU or ASUUP. It is ever complaints about remuneration packages and how theirs compare not too favourably with that of a senator. With the advent of private universities, it will seem very reasonable to conclude that ASUU regularly go on strike now to allow its members time to go and attend to their private contracts with the private universities while they come back at the end of the day to collect salaries for work they never did despite the injustice done to their own students and the educational system. To worsen the situation in a compounding manner, when ASUU gets back to work, either SSANU or NASU must go on strike in a manner that will make academic work impossible on the campuses. And one after the other, everybody that have the means “legit or illegit” turns their back at our public higher institutions while our government looks on helplessly.

    The curriculum of our academic institutions has been stagnant, stinking and repulsive to modern development. For example, we have departments of accounting studies that cannot produce certified chartered accountants unless they go for an expensive post-qualification professional examination. One would have ordinarily thought that the reason for studying accountancy in a university or polytechnic is essentially to become a professionally certified accountant ditto for architecture and several other practising courses which leave the impression that our academic institutions are substandard by their curriculum.  Why can’t we have stockbroking or capital market management and administration as part of our university curriculum? The direct implication of all these is that our academia is less than the ivory tower.

    President Muhammadu Buhari in the national interest must give marching orders to the two ministers in the ministry of education to put in motion a wholesale ethical and intellectual re-orientation of the academia. Our institutions must have the right values if the society must have any. Funding must be liberalized with government restricting itself to infrastructure, tuition and research. Services like accommodation and other municipal services should be commercialized with protective controls. The universities and colleges should be encouraged to become centres of commercial and enterprise innovations where students could inculcate the culture of industry and look forward to being entrepreneurs in future rather mere centres of learning academic theories.

     

    • Ige, National Coordinator, Concern For Democracy & Good Governance in Nigeria contributed this piece from Abuja.

  • Tambuwal and restructuring

    The continuous agitation by various groups for the restructuring of Nigeria as recommended by the 2014 National Conference recently again came under severe attack by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, now Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State who was also quoted as saying “the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable”. Tambuwal had a few months back shocked Nigerians by saying the solution to what everyone, except him, have come to regard as our crisis of nationhood is provision of more revenue by the centre to the states. Holding brief for him back then, I had argued that he, like many of his military-created new breed politicians who had never known anything beyond the military, are perhaps not in a position to properly articulate our crisis of nationhood.

    His latest outing has been widely criticized by members of his own generation including even the inattentive Ayo Fayose of  Ekiti who submitted that ‘only the restructuring of the country could guarantee true federalism and eliminate all fears being expressed and insecurity threatening’ our corporate existence. On his part, Olusegun Mimiko former governor of Ondo State has called for “fiscal restructuring”. Afenifere, the socio political Yoruba group that has always been in the forefront of agitation for a restructured Nigeria however described Tambuwal’s submission as, “totally parochial” adding “that the present structure of Nigeria is iniquitous, skewed, unfair, unjust and not conducive to justice, harmony, development and happiness of the constituent units of the country”.

    But where did the rain start to beat us? It is on record that from the onset the departing colonial masters had advised that the federal arrangement was what will guarantee lasting peace for the three dominant ethnic nationalities, the Hausa /Fulani, Igbo and the Yoruba who like Ijaw, Itsekiris, Nupes, Kanuris, Ogonis, Gwaris, Katafs, Jukars, Edos, Ibibios, Efiks, Idomas, Tivs, Junkuns, Biroms along with many others were at different level of cultural development.

    Awo as far back as 1947 had in his ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom said: “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English’, ‘Welsh’, or ‘French’. The word ‘Nigerian’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria from those who do not”. Chief Obafemi Awolowo  who took time to study our crisis of nationhood went on to warn in his “Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution  that “in any country where there are divergences of language and of nationality – particularly of language – a unitary constitution is always a source of bitterness and hostility on the part of linguistic or national minority groups”.

    Those who were trying to dismiss Awo’s argument that the difference between our different nationalities was like those between Germans, English, Russians and Turks by attempting to equate their own vision of Nigeria with that of the north, were awaken from their illusion by the Sardauna’s  subtle  reference to altruistic driven nationalism of those behind the Enahoro’s ‘1953 motion for independence in 1960’.  He went on to remind them  that “Sixty years (earlier), there was no country called Nigeria. What existed “consisted of a number of large and small communities all of which were different in their outlook and beliefs”.

    What our committed founding fathers who  were sincere about finding solution to our crisis of nationhood said after  learning from the  experiences of multi-ethnic societies like Canada, Russia former Yugoslavia, and Europe after the horrors of two world wars was true some 90 years ago as it is true today.

    We today have a new generation of northern leaders like the Tambuwal who seem to share some parallels with northern National Assembly lawmakers who have argued that Fulani herdsmen are protected by the constitution to graze their cattle anywhere in the country. This is not different from Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN who in February 2014 letter reminded the then President  Jonathan that their free movement across the country with their cattle is guaranteed by Section 41, Subsection 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which states that “every citizen is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereof or exit therefrom.”

    The constitution they celebrate was midwifed by northern military adventurers who have through it created more states and more local government areas for the north in order to take advantage of direct allocation from the centre.  They have used their positions  to embark or claimed allocation  of over 80% of oil wells to northerners, an allegation  the Niger Delta militants have used as justification for their  economic sabotage of the over $40b federal government investments in their area.

    It is hard to imagine that today’s northerners who are opposed to restructuring are the offspring of yesterday self-assured northern leaders who were prepared to take their own fate in their own hands with an eight-point programme which included demand that ‘each region shall have complete legislative and executive autonomy with respect to all matters except the following: External Affairs, Defence, Customs and West African Research Institutions”.

    It is on record that unlike today’s northern leaders who have no faith in themselves, Ahmadu Bello and his group walked their talk.  They did not live as parasites. At a period, they were considering linking the north with a dredged artificial river from River Congo if it became impossible to pass their goods through the Lagos port. With internally generated revenue, Ahmadu Bello according to Nuhu Ribadu, went on to build the biggest business conglomerate in Africa, Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), roads, hospitals and provided security for his people. His annual budget was not more than what one of many local governments that dotted the northern Nigeria landscape today earns.

    Unfortunately those who are using the name of the north in vain to oppose redressing of the injustices foisted on us by military adventurers have done very little for the people of the north. Ribadu not too long ago also called our attention to the fact that in terms of investments on ordinary folks in the north, there was little to show for the billions of naira the 19 northern state governors collected as allocation between 1999 and 2011. Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano while appealing to northern leaders to invest on girls’ education instead of building mosques also recently spoke truth to his people. Using any index of development, the north according to him remains the most neglected part of the country despite monopoly of power by northern leaders for the greater of our independent years.

    Our founding fathers laid the foundation for our freedom. They foisted on us a workable federal arrangement that allowed for healthy competition among the federating nationalities. But as Itse Sagay puts it ‘it is an irony that in the enlightened age of late 20th and early 21st centuries, when the right of self-determination and freedom from colonialism has been proclaimed and established,’  some predatory Nigerian politicians are trying to recolonize Nigeria.

  • Anambra Airport: A dream coming true

    It would be an understatement to say that Ndi Anambra welcomed the flag – off of construction at the state’s cargo airport site at Umueri on April 11, by the governor, Willie Obiano. The take – off of the Anambra airport project generated excitement across the state – and for good reasons. The airport venture is a storyline with a special place in the people’s heart.

    Before we come to the economics of an airport, there is an intervention of historical and group consciousness. For the Igbo of successive modern generations, the value of an airport as a link with the outside world cannot be over – emphasised. For it was in this same geographical space of the present Anambra State that the civil war era Uli airport and Uga airstrip existed. In the face of the blockade mounted by the federal government against the state of Biafra, the two facilities built and maintained by local expertise provided the access for relief supplies and other emergency needs. Operated under cover of darkness at night, the services rendered by the airstrips bear testimony to the expressive spirit of a people faced with existential threat.

    With the formal cessation of conflict in 1970, it was only a matter of time before the rhythms of civilisation asserted once more in the environment. Brushing aside the 20 pounds flat re-integration capital into the national economy and the consequent inability to benefit from the indigenization decree, the people of the former Eastern Region moved to take their destiny in their own hands. With a combination of sense of self – preservation, drive, and seemingly boundless energy, they gave vent to their wealth creation instincts. This generation succeeded in breaking into the waters of Nigerian trade and commerce; indeed maintaining a strong presence which has endured to this day.  Entrepreneurship in other sectors of the economy has seen mixed results. It was the South – east’s remarkable impact in importation and distributive trade that logically gave rise to the quest for more airports in the region.

    The demands were for an airport each in the Onitsha and Owerri areas, roughly representing the zone’s broad political and business centres at the time. With Aba’s commercial profile promising economic viability, agitation for the Imo airport began soon after its creation in 1976, climaxing during the Second Republic when the governor, Sam Mbakwe, found a site for the project. Shortly after, the December 31, 1983 coup came, taking the Mbakwe administration out of office and out of the airport construction. Two decades later and many regimes after, the Owerri airport became reality through the dedication of the people to the cause; through freewill donations, levies and other sacrifices. It was in fitting acknowledgement of the unity of purpose that transformed the dream to fruition that the facility was initially named Igwebuike airport. Translated, igwebuike reads the strength of numbers; of solidarity. In a misplaced zeal to honour, the project was later named after Sam Mbakwe, unnecessarily and unfairly degrading the collective history behind its execution.

    The case for Onitsha airport assumed impetus on the heels of the elusive Onitsha seaport pledged by the Shehu Shagari government. A pathway opened when the responsive Samson Omerua-led military administration approved the airport project and subsequently chose the now abandoned Onitsha – Oba site. An airport project fund was launched under the auspices of the old Anambra State government from which proceeds the site was cleared preparatory to construction work. However, paucity of funds and regime change proved drawbacks to the venture. Uncertainty pervaded the subject through the span of three regimes until the emergence of another airforce governor, Group Captain Rufai Garba in 1996, who elected to ditch the project. Garba’s take on the issue is interesting and worth reflecting on. Anambra Times, a publication of Governor Willie Obiano’s media office in the August/September 2016 edition quoted the former military administrator: ‘On the airport thing, I looked at it and said why should I build an airport when it will take me 45 minutes to get to Enugu and equally take me 45 minutes to get to Oba from Awka?’

    It would take the founding of the Orient Petroleum concept by the fourth republic governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, sometime in 2001 for resuscitation of the airport venture – in a modified format. The Mbadinuju administration has the credit of initiating the framework for a private – sector, oil refining venture in the state. The vision of an airport was then introduced by the Orient Petroleum team in pursuit of the larger goals of oil and gas undertaking. With the petroleum plant naturally sited close to the source of raw materials, the location of the airport inevitably changed to the area of refining operation.

    The next stage of the airport journey represents the input by the Peter Obi administration. The regime constituted an airport committee which secured the land at the present site in Umueri. Compensation was paid to the land owners after which the resource was duly transferred to Orient Petroleum Plc. The administration went a step further to design a single lane access road to the site.

    Willie Obiano enters the court, upping the ante. As he is wont to, Obiano’s involvement with the airport has resulted in value addition both in terms of scope and standard of the complex. Single lane access road is giving way to a double carriageway. The plan of a cargo airport at Umueri is retained but what was set in motion on Tuesday, April 11, was not just the construction of an airport but an airport city! The $2 billion mega-project features two runways; aviation fuel dump; international hotel; industrial/business park; modern convention centre; maintenance hangar among other facilities. What stands out in the Obiano airport city is the provision for a fuel dump to service the West Africa aviation hub. The congruence between petroleum refining and aircraft fuel refilling on one hand and Onitsha’s commercial status and cargo air service on the other can only be described as a masterstroke. The package is an eloquent statement on the vision and commitment of the Obiano administration.

    Embarking on a project of such Olympian scale in this time of biting economic recession seems like a fairytale. But Governor Obiano has used the combination of his reputation as an investment banker and the sunray brand Anambra State has become in his hands to translate this aspiration to reality. Consequently, Anambra State will not spend a kobo from its treasury on this mega complex. The entire operation will be funded by Sinoking Enterprises Limited, China in an arrangement in which Orient Resources Limited has 20% equity stake; Anambra State government 5%; and the host communities 3%. And when we factor in the projected 5000 direct and indirect jobs to be generated from the investment, the airport venture easily becomes one of the best stories to come from Anambra State since creation in 1991.

     

    • Afuba writes from Nimo, Anambra State.

  • Preventing re-looting of recovered loot

    In the last three or four weeks, the Nigerian airwaves and news media have been  awash with breaking news of recovered loot that were either abandoned at the airports or discovered in a shopping complex or residential buildings. In the frenzy that surrounded the breaking of such news which have formed major landmarks in the fight against corruption by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC), the Federal Government Spokesperson – the Minister of Information, National Orientation and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed has  lent  his support to the campaign. He revealed that looters have more money in their possession than all tiers of government in the country. The Minister was quoted as saying that “it is now obvious that more funds are in the possessions of looters than are available to government at all levels to meet their obligations including paying Workers’ Salaries, providing social amenities, upgrading infrastructure and ensuring the security of lives and properties. As the looters continued to run helter-skelter, many of them are even abandoning their booty at unusual places including airports”.

    In recording these outstanding successes in the loot- recovery drive being championed by the anti-grafts agency-the EFCC, kudos should be given to members of the public who are coming forward to the secretly give hints or tips-offs on the hidden places where these loots were kept in line with the whistle-blowing policy adopted by the federal government.

    Despite these laudable developments in its loot-recovery drive, there is heightened fear being expressed by some concerned members of the public that if care is not taken, that the ill-gotten wealth being recovered from the suspected looters may be re-looted again. And this kind of fear is not unfounded. For an instance, it is an open-secret now that a major share, precisely about 50% of the Abacha loot that was recovered during the immediate past administration of the former President Goodluck Jonathan was allegedly  re-looted again through the office of the then National Security Adviser- Sambo Dasuki. This was under the guise of buying arms and ammunition in order to equip our security outfits especially the military to fight the Boko – Haram insurgence whose fire was spreading fast to the other parts of the country from its epicentre in the North-east. And that is the major reason why Dasuki, is still standing trial today, although there may be other charges against him.

    And in order to allay this fear, the Minister of Finance – Mrs Kemi Adeosun has assured the nation that the loots being recovered now will not be re-looted. Specifically, she mentioned that such forfeited loots will be used to fund the budget. Even though we are in agreement with the honourable minister, we are of the candid opinion that the recovered loot should be separated from the normal budgeting system of the nation so that the money will not be subjected to attempted budget-padding.

    In other words, the recovered money should be kept in a special account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the updates of its balance should be in the public domain from time to time. The money in such an account should not be used by the government to pursue white elephant projects that may not have direct bearing at improving the deplorable living standards of the citizens. Rather the recovered loot should be invested into fighting hunger and some identified cases of preventable diseases in the land. Recently, the United Nations made a shocking revelation that if adequate funds were not mobilized by June this year, about five million people in the North-east will be at high risk of death through starvation.

    In addition, the Federal Government can also use the money to embark on projects that are aimed at reducing the high infant mortality rates in our country by the establishment of Mother and Child Care centres in all the Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas throughout the federation to take care of pregnant women before and after the delivery of their babies.

    And in a related development, just to ensure that the life-expectancy period of Nigerians is improved, we also recommended the commencement of Rapid Response Rescue outfits on our major roads to rescue and attend to accident victims within 10 – 15 minutes of any road mishap. Succinctly speaking, except for the loots whose actual ownership are still being determined by the courts, those already forfeited to the  coffers of the federal government should be put into immediate use through the implementation of the aforementioned schemes to avoid the temptation of re-looting of such recovered loots.

    With Nigerian Public officials, this temptation is very real and we should not tempt our officials with unending custody of such monies. We don’t want a case of “One thief stole it, while another thief snatched it”.

     

    • Olakunle, JP is General Secretary, National Prayer Movement.

  • Ondo: Imperative of civil service overhaul

    One of the most important, if not the main ingredient for a strong relationship is trust. The belief by both parties, most especially the one to whom much was given and therefore much was expected could be trusted both in words and deeds would make the relationship look like it was made in heaven. With trust, both parties in the relationship would have joyful living and authentic happiness. There’s nothing as reassuring that also spurs reciprocity from the other party as knowing that the one whose shoulder the strength and well-being of the relationship rests will do what he says he will do. So, when now Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) was sworn in on Thursday, February 24, as the governor of Ondo State, he knew, ab initio, that he has entered into a relationship with the people of his state. A few days after his inauguration, governor Akeredolu made what can be described as a policy statement that he would not take his salary until state workers who are owed several months in salary arrears have all been paid. In his resolve to end an otherwise embarrassing situation, Arakunrin Akeredolu immediately put the machineries in motion towards the fulfilment of his promise to clear the salary backlog. After only two months since assumption of office, state workers have received the equivalent of four months salaries.

    Determined to also resurrect the joy and happiness that had eluded them for so long during festive periods, Akeredolu also paid the state’s civil servants in lieu of this year’s Easter celebration so that the Christian faithful among them could celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As expected of politicians, Akeredolu did not promise the electorates heaven and earth, but rather told them to hold him responsible if he failed to do what he said he would do.

    While one cannot be accused of flagrant exaggeration that it is criminal of an employer to owe his workers their salaries for several months while his shop still remains open for business without disengaging them or temporarily setting aside the services of some of them until his financial situation improves – as Mimiko did for seven months – it must also be stressed that Akeredolu is at such a critical juncture to create a new administrative order for the state civil service not only to put a permanent end to this embarrassing state’s irresponsibility of owing its workers their legitimate wages, but also for the sake of his policies and programmes which must succeed.

    But before one makes some suggestions as to how this new administrative order can emerge, we must first come to terms with what the state civil service (like its counterparts in other states) is, and what it is not. The state civil service is typically where the more powerful among the politicians ‘dump’ their relatives and acolytes in the name of creating employment for them. Merit has no place there in recruitment and promotion. It is a repository for all manners of people that are probably mostly ill-suited for the jobs they’ve been given either by way of proper academic qualification and/or experience.

    What’s more, some of the jobs for which they’re employed may even be unnecessary, if not outdated in the first place. For instance, the civil service is where people are still being employed for the sole purpose of delivering intra-departmental and inter-ministerial correspondences when technology has made that job completely obsolete. The civil service is also where the most virulent corruption strain – far worse and crippling than the kind that thrives in the private sector – are incubated and nurtured. It is a Neanderthal in a technology-driven 21st century workplace where ‘ghost’ workers are not only recurring decimals, but gets their emoluments first before the real, living workers. These are the “known knowns” of the civil service.

    The civil service, as it’s presently configured, is simply a square administrative peg that cannot effectively fit into Akeredolu’s round hole of those government’s programmes and policies with any appreciable outcomes. It, therefore, must be reconfigured and be made compact if the government must succeed. And the time is now. Governor Akeredolu must re-create the largely lethargic and archaic state civil service in his own image in accordance with his Platforms for Change programmes with a good dose of technology as its main operating system without any reservations or apologies. There’s no better time than now to communicate this intention to the stakeholders that the reform of the civil service is a necessary condition not only for the success of this administration that the people expects so much from, but also to save the state bureaucracy from itself. It’s an important priority in which some of its outcomes should be felt in the first 100 days of the administration. And there are several options available to choose from.

    The administration’s first intervention in this restructuring effort – it seems to me – would be to order a comprehensive forensic audit in order to eliminate the recurrent incidents of ghost workers from its payroll once and for all. Once this forensic audit is completed and ghost workers are weeded out, laws that prohibit ghost workers in the state payroll system must be enacted by acts of the state House of Assembly whereby anyone found culpable of injecting ghost workers into the state workforce would not only lose his position, but also forfeits all his material assets to the state regardless of the legitimate acquisition of those assets. The perennial presence of ghost workers in the state’s payroll system is a testament that there’s probably a strong and influential cabal in the state workforce acting with reckless impunity by constantly compromising the system.

    Even with the elimination of virtually all the ghost workers, the state’s recurrent expenditures on salaries and allowances are more likely to be higher relative to its outlay on capital expenditures. This is where the next step of the reform process should kick in. Since most of the state workers have been neglected for so long, having not been sufficiently trained and retrained to understand, let alone possess the capability to drive the modern processes for a 21st century bureaucracy, disengaging some of them is, truly, in their best interests. Aside from those that technology has made their jobs to be redundant, if not obsolete that should be disengaged forthwith, the state government should engage in what is known as “buy out” of those public workers with a few more years before their retirement once their jobs are deemed as no longer critically important to the effectiveness and efficiency of the civil service.

    For instance, state workers who has, say, five more years before their retirement can be encouraged to retire with incentives that involves being paid upfront their salaries for, say, two years at one fell swoop once they’re willing to forfeit the remaining three years (or whatever the terms of agreement) into their retirement. This arrangement would no doubt be mutually beneficial for both the workers and the government. In an environment such as ours that stifles creativity, self-expression and wealth creation, such workers can ‘rediscover’ themselves with such monies which can be utilized for entrepreneurial activities, having been freed from jobs that no longer add value or self-satisfaction.

    Now that agriculture will take the front seat in the governor’s sustainable development strategy with his declaration of a state of emergency in cocoa production, the people that took this special early retirement package can be given the right of first refusal to be employed as, say, Agricultural Field Officers whose function – after they’ve been retrained – is to interface with state farmers who are largely illiterates on how to use new farming techniques to produce quality and higher farm yields, among other functions. These are some of the roads less travelled that Akeredolu should take in creating a new Sunshine state.

     

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com
  • Jonathan’s new song

    Jonathan’s new song

    One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician’s objective. Election and power are” – Cal Thomas

    The 2015 Nigerian general elections are long done and gone. Or so we thought. It was the first time in the history of Nigeria, an incumbent president or ruling party was eased out of presidential power. The then incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan made an applauded phone call to his rival, Muhammadu Buhari conceding defeat and congratulated the “winner”. It is trite to mention he subsequently went on to handover. Across Africa and the world, Jonathan was roundly commended for his “statesmanship conduct” that averted a civil breakdown and tension by his acceptance of defeat.  The African continent has witnessed an adamant sit-tight Mugabe in Zimbabwe, a defiant Jammeh in Gambia that was forced to leave power by the international community, a Kabila that has remain insistent in the Democratic Republic of Congo amongst others.  Jonathan refused to add his name to that shameful list.

    By initially admitting defeat and ensuring a rancour free political transition, Jonathan won the admiration of many and cast himself as a global reputable figure. As a result, he was invited to lecture at the prestigious Oxford Union on October 24, 2016. Jonathan had earlier attended and delivered a speech at the annual United States Presidential Precinct in December 2015. There were similar other occasions that recognized Jonathan. In spite of the general ineptitude that characterized his government and his loss at the polls, many still held the former helmsman in good esteem for his peaceful exit from office.

    All that was before the true inner mind of Jonathan was revealed in Segun Adeniyi’s new book, “Against the Run of Play”.  By Adeniyi’s account, Jonathan blamed everyone other than himself for his rejection at the polls. The many gaffes that saw bad news traumatized populace to send him packing did not matter in Jonathan’s estimation.

    It will be remembered that the loss that was finally delivered to him at the April 2015 polls was preceded by his disorganizing of his political party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). This was amply captured by Adeniyi on page 27 of the said book, when he said “Apparently unmindful of the fact that politics is a game of additions, Jonathan spent most of his time in office fighting many PDP members who eventually left the party for him, starting from his home state”.  The country was witness to how five serving governors on the platform of a ruling party decamped to the waiting opposition that gleefully accepted them. Little was done, by the ruling party, to placate these members that in no small measure eventually aided the unseating of Jonathan. Adeniyi pointed this out when he said “By helping to push so many people away, the handlers of Jonathan were acting in ways that suggested naivety to the politics of the time”.

    In place of formidable politicians that would have helped his cause, the citizenry was bemused by Transformation Agenda of Nigeria (TAN) and other similar hurriedly assembled associations that sang and danced at political rallies, giving little conviction on why Jonathan should be returned into office.

    This is just as then President Jonathan mismanaged the affair of the Chibok girls. The prevailing assumption in the presidency as was later confirmed in Adeniyi’s book was that the capture of the Chibok girls was a ruse, meant to discredit his government. The insurgents had weeks of head start before a reluctant president mobilized the ill-equipped security forces to get the girls back. – a feat that proved elusive till the lapse of Jonathan’s days in office as president.

    The toga of corruption that surrounded Jonathan and his presidency was another major setback the Jonathan presidency refused to address. The petroleum subsidy monumental fraud, the mismanagement of the Natural Resources Account in 2010 that had about N120 billion and the Stella Oduah scandal amongst numerous others brought an awareness of the magnitude of waste and mismanagement that were taking place in the presidency. Adeniyi stated “For the Jonathan’s administration, it became a case of one day, one scandal”. The president did little in tackling these issues. It shunned every entreaty to clean its stable.  Rather, the nation was told “stealing is not corruption”.

    All these were happening just as the then first lady, Patience Jonathan bestrode the Nigerian landscape with an unruly conduct. A local television station, beamed to the populace how on August 9, 2010 ‘the president’s wife” snatched the microphone from then Governor Rotimi Amaechi and lampooned him for daring to contemplate the demolition of parts of Okrika, her hometown. Mrs Jonathan would later in the heat of campaigns, despite the then obvious threat of potential loss of office for her husband, make the famous ‘born throway” utterance targeted at the north, the most populous voting bloc. Talk of political indiscretion!

    All these ignited a psychological revolt in the populace that sent Jonathan packing. The goodwill that ushered him into office in 2010 and 2011 was eroded and replaced by mass contempt that took permanent stay with him till the end of his presidency. Even places, like the North-central that voted him in 2011, turned against him in 2015.

    In “Against the Run of Play, Jonathan cited and blamed Western conspiracy for his defeat. Really? He similarly blamed the gang-up against him in Northern Nigeria. Jonathan was not done. He went on to blame civil societies and partly then chairman of Independent Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega for his failed bid at being re-elected into office. Even the opposition, he claimed engaged a malicious propaganda against him. One is left to wonder if the opposition was expected to trumpet his achievements. Everybody and everything aside himself is responsible for his failure at the polls.

    Jonathan’s “new song” typifies the “Nigerianness” in him. Nigeria is a country where accountability is low and bulk passing is the order of the day. Most public officials pass on the causes of their failures to other people and factors, absolving themselves of any wrong doing. This is symbolized in Jonathan who in spite of all the air of cluelessness that pervaded his time in office, refuses to acknowledge any short-comings. It will be assumed that a man of his intellect will at the very least reflect on his presidential days and acknowledge some of his mistakes that contributed to his failed re-election bid by an increasingly aware political nation. By not wholly admitting any shortcomings, and citing every kind of gang-up and conspiracy against him, it therefore in his estimation means the whole world assembled  to send him away from the presidency.

    Jonathan and his acolytes were mostly prodded on by the now proven false notion that an incumbent Nigerian president cannot lose. When the appearance of a loss started manifesting, they initiated an election postponement. Deliberate and enormous efforts were equally deployed to discredit the card reader. All these efforts failed to achieve its purpose as Jonathan went on to lose.

    Jonathan cannot be said to have achieved nothing in office. The federal universities his government established and revival of the comatose railway transport system, among other few will forever be remembered. But so will the many gaffes that characterized his term in office.

    It should be a time of reflections for the former president. This reflection should manifest in his utterances. The blame game is very unbefitting of him.

     

  • Obaseki: Beyond May Day celebrations

    Obaseki: Beyond May Day celebrations

    On labour matters, the governor of Edo State, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, may not be cut out in the exact mould of his immediate predecessor in office, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, whose whole life has virtually involved labour activism, leading in the extreme to several “labour wars”.

    Nevertheless, that does not in any diminish in Governor Obaseki a deep concern for the welfare of the workers in the state workforce in all possible ramifications. On several occasions, including the last Labour Day celebration on May 1, the governor said it loud and clear that his government fully appreciates the strategic place of workers in the wealth creation process of a people, underscoring the imperative to take their concerns closest to heart.

    It was in that sense that he declared: “Our most valued asset as a government is in our workers… so I stand with you workers and will work with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to improve workers’ welfare and reward system.”

    These were no frivolous declarations from a man who pledged during the electioneering that ushered him into office the provision of 200,000 jobs for the citizens of Edo within four years of his administration which took off on Nov 12, 2016.

    Truly over the years, governments at various levels had unwittingly diminished or completely eroded the trust and confidence of the people in them, especially the labour force/workers who felt, perhaps justifiably too, that they had been continually short-changed by the very people they entrusted with governance over them. The gory years of the PDP in Edo State are a ready reference point.

    The eight wasted years of the PDP rule in Edo State between 1999 and 2007, with Chief Lucky Igbinedion at the saddle, were not what the ordinary Edo electorate will forget in a hurry against the backdrop of collapsed infrastructure, dampened morale of workers, and general despondency of the people.

    Since 2008 when the APC took charge in the state, the story has been different as the civil service has been reinvigorated and the working environment enhanced for improved welfare of workers, in addition to improved infrastructure and systems across the state.

    Part of the mind-warming story of success in Edo is that, contrary to the punishing delays and inconsistencies in salary payments, payment of workers’ salaries has become prompt and precise – never exceeding the last week of every month. This, to say the least, is cheery and hitherto unheard of in the labour history of Edo State. That momentum has been sustained till date and even improved upon by the incumbent governor.

    As the governor made clear, “Salaries are important and must be paid as at when due. But beyond salaries, labour must begin to partner government on the issue of workplace efficiency and service delivery.” For the governor, the payment of workers’ emoluments is not being celebrated as favours done to the workers. Rather, what is celebrated is the enhancement of human dignity, hence the governor’s call for such collaboration that ensures efficient service delivery.

    No least important on Governor Obaseki’s mind is the payment of pensions and gratuities to retired workers of the state’s civil service. As the chairman of the state’s Economic and Strategy Team (EST) during the tenure of Adams Oshiomhole, the incumbent governor is fully knowledgeable and indeed significantly imputed into ways and means to enhance the circumstances of the retirees – men and women who had put in their best services to make the state what it is today. Added to that is the fact that the governor had also served on the Presidential Committee on the Reform of the Nigerian Pension System.

    In secret and in the open, the man who now steers the ship of Edo has said repeatedly that he is indeed deeply pained by the stress retirees went through to get their entitlements at the end of their service years. It is that unaffected concern that informed the establishment of the State Pension Bureau, designed to resolve all issues bordering on pensions in the state.

    The state government has already commenced its participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme as obtained at the federal level and which has significantly eliminated the bottlenecks associated with pensions and gratuity payments of federal workers. It is, therefore, with all optimism that economic experts project that very soon Edo State will breathe a sigh of relief in pension settlement.

    Governor Obaseki may not be loud and chatty, but he is fully at work to creatively consolidate on the gains of the last administration and reclaim the economic glory of Edo State. As he said: “It is our character as a government to say less and do more and also to under-promise and over-achieve.” His is not the truckload of promises and a teaspoon of fulfilment.

    Evidences abound of the resolve and commitment of this administration to improve the state economically and socially. It is as well fully committed to the good of the workers and the work environment. The Palm House and State Secretariat are billed for renovation; a new administrative building is springing up in Government House while in terms of workers welfare, several workshops have been concluded for several MDAs, with the aim of improving the human capacity of workers and deepening a holistic understanding of state of affairs.

    Moreover, the government has revealed that it is in talks with several serious investors in the areas of agribusiness, housing, hospitality and infrastructure that are designed to create jobs, improve real incomes and expand the state revenue base. The Agripreneur Project has been flagged off at three designated centres in the state, focusing on major crops with identified out-growers and off-takers, while a total of 150,000 persons have been registered as unemployed under the Edo Jobs Initiative.

    Certainly, these measures, economic experts project, will improve the quality of life in the state, especially for the labour force.

    Consequently, beyond the May-Day Celebrations, all stakeholders in Edo state, including Labour and government, must cooperate, collaborate and synergize to make the state economically viable. If this is done well, there will be attendant benefits of improved living standards for the people in Edo State.

     

    • Dr Oviosun writes from Benin City, Edo State.

  • Bridging infrastructure gap

    The one-day conference on fast tracking port reforms, organised by The Nation, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Transportation, and Epsilom Ltd, last Thursday in Lagos, exposed the huge infrastructure gap in our country. A goggle search showed that Nigeria will need about USD 2.5 trillion to bridge her infrastructure deficit, in the next three decades according to the Institute of Appraisers and Cost Engineers. At N300 per dollar, that deficit is about N750 trillion.

    With a federal budget of N6.1 trillion in 2016 in addition to about N6.1 trillion being cumulative states’ budget for the same period, making a total of about N12.2 trillion, Nigeria will wait for many decades to overcome its infrastructure deficit, if it relies on its earnings. And that will only happen, if those exercising public power consistently and judiciously apply all the budgeted resources towards bridging the infrastructure gap, which is practically impossible.

    Considering that within the two major tiers of government, averagely less than 30 percent of the budgets are earmarked for infrastructure development, Nigerians may have to wait for a century, or more, if they rely solely on their own resources, to bridge the infrastructure gap. This will be so, even with reasonable improvement in income generation as the year progresses. So, the only way out, as pointed out at the conference, is through Public Private Partnership (PPP).

    But like in the management of our local resources, corruption also poses a huge challenge to PPP, whether for ports’ infrastructure or other infrastructure deficits. For instance, if the Senate’s indictment of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, is sustainable, then over N500 million that could have been better used, was cornered for a senseless so-called ‘grass cutting’ contract. Again, if N34 billion was wasted by the Jonathan government on the dredging of River Niger as alleged by the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, then the infrastructure gap, may take eternity to overcome.

    In addition to the challenge posed by corruption, the Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce listed other debilitating factors that need to be addressed to attract the needed capital to bridge the nation’s infrastructure gap.  They include policy instability, poor legal and political framework, holistic view of national planning, coordination between government agencies, efficiency in the civil service and other government agencies, among other factors.

    While the need for infrastructure development across the country is very urgent, that of the ports is even more urgent considering the huge potentials in income generation from there. One of the significant proposals at The Nation’s port reform conference was the need to decongest the Lagos ports, by extending infrastructure development to other ports in Calabar and Port Harcourt. In his key note address, at the opening session, the Honourable Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amechi delved into the economic and socio-political challenges facing the country.

    Sagacious and with penetrating insights in politics and the economy, the minister took the audience through the humongous challenges facing the transportation sector and efforts being made by the key agencies of the ministry, towards making Nigerian seaports world class. He said the federal government has made huge investments to secure the nation’s maritime corridor and emphasized that President Muhammed Buhari’s government was more interested in action, than showmanship.

    After the opening session, the first plenary was on strategies for a speedy implementation of the integrity plan resulting from the ports sector corruption risk assessment; while the second was on practical ideas for better stakeholder collaboration in fast-tracking the reduction of cargo dwell time to 24 hours and minimizing revenue leakages. At the first plenary, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, represented by Mrs Okoduwa, made a presentation on corruption risk assessment in the ports sector in Nigeria: strategies for speedy implementation of the integrity plan.

    The third plenary which this writer chaired, dwelt on financing the massive infrastructure upgrade needed within the ports and for achieving a swifter evacuation of cleared cargo. Presentation at the third session were made by the Managing Director/CEO of Nigeria Railways Corporation, Engineer Fidet Okhiria, the General Manager, Business Development and Joint Venture, Nigeria Ports Authority, Engineer T.O. S. Talabi, and the representative of National Inland Waterways Authority,  Danladi Ibrahim.

    The railway helmsman took the audience through the massive plans to upgrade the railway infrastructure across the country, and link the various ports. He argued that efficiency in moving goods out of the ports, and across the country is critical to reducing the costs paid by the consumers, for products. Of course, the costs of food prices will reduce, if the railways are revamped and agricultural products can be moved through the railways.

    Engineer Okhiria, mentioned that the two ports in Lagos, will be connected to the standard gauge that will run from Lagos to Ibadan, now under construction. There are also plans to develop standard gauge from Lagos to Port Harcourt, and another from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri. He praised the collaboration with the Chinese government, which has resulted in USD2 billion funding, with the Chinese providing 85% and Nigeria 15%. Despite the collaboration with the Chinese, Engineer Okhiria noted the hug funding gap, begging for investors.

    In his presentation Engineer Talabi dwelt on how to fund the needed efficiency in our ports. To do that, the key he noted, is automation, which will solve the delays and also curb corruption. He reeled out plans to infuse more automation and efficiency in the industry, through reforms, concession and public private partnership. Commentators noted that despite the concessions made by the government, the much needed efficiency is still lacking. The answer Talabi noted is more automation, to reduce human interface, susceptible to corrupt practices.

    While working towards internal efficiency, he argued for inter-agency collaboration to enhance external efficiency particularly around the ports. He raised the problem of tanker drivers, and the urgent need for rail lines and good roads to connect the ports. A contributor to the discuss noted that more than half the tankers and trailers driven around the Apapa and Tin Can ports, and the ancillary tank farms, daily, have no immediate business to do; but are merely hoping to gain one opportunity or another. This writer noted the losses in man hour and the health hazard that owning business or living within that axis, poses.

    Danladi Ibrahim of the Nigeria Inland Waterways Agency, made interesting presentations on the need to also make our inland waterways, world class. He noted the huge economic prospects that would come from dredging the River Niger as swift evacuation of goods to the hinterland can better be done through the inland waterways. He canvassed for the development of port infrastructure along the River Niger, so that smaller vessels could deliver direct to the hinterland and save our roads.

  • Bridging housing deficit in Lagos

    Globally, housing deficit is huge with a wide gap in demand and supply in the sector leading to homelessness, rise in slums and squatter settlements which usually result in low level of health due to poor living condition and lack of basic services. Nigeria’s housing deficit was estimated at 17 million as at August 2012 by the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS).

    In Lagos State, adequate housing has always been a challenge in view of rapid urbanisation which has led to tremendous increase in population. Home to over 23 million inhabitants with an estimated 86 people relocating to the state every hour, housing deficit in Lagos is a real issue with affordability worsening because more people are chasing a limited supply of real estate. It is, however, cheering that a government with a toga of inclusive governance is striving hard to proffer solutions to the various challenges confronting housing in the state.

    Blessed with government that has been able to cushion the effects of the nation’s economic recession with prudent management of resources and expenditure on capital projects, residents of Lagos, no doubt have much more to celebrate at this period of its 50 years anniversary with the proposed plan of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration to construct 20,000 additional housing units in the next five years under the Lagos Affordable Public Housing (LAPH) programme.

    Policy-making process in a responsible and responsive democratic setting start from problem recognition and followed by agenda setting. Lagos State government has identified shortfall of 2.5 million housing deficits in the state and has set out with a futuristic policy of Lagos Affordable Public Housing programme to address the problem through direct and Public Private Partnership.

    With a burning desire to put taxpayer’s money into judicious use and improve the living standard of Lagosians, the government has already mobilized six developers to sites for construction to commence on the scheme planned to be christened Jubilee Housing Estates in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the state. As a form of redistributive policy,  Ijora Badiya, Imota, Ayobo , Idale (Badagry), Ilamoye-Isolo , Abijo, Tolu (Ajegunle) , Abule Ado, Ikota , Ibeshe, Owutu and Igbogbo have been listed as areas where the Jubilee Housing Estates would to be sited.

    Under the Ambode administration, government has dedicated a total of 5008 housing units in 12 housing estates spread over the three Senatorial Districts of the state. Lagosians could recall that in December, 2016, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode launched the Rent-To-Own and Rental housing Policies aimed at ensuring that all Lagosians irrespective of status, income and affiliations have access to decent shelter in order to improve their quality of life.

    Prior to this time, the mortgage option under the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS) was the cheapest means of becoming a Lagos State housing unit owner. This entails a deposit of 30% as equity contribution while payment of the balance in monthly instalments is spread over a period of 10 years. However, it was observed that many of the young adults and low income earners were unable to come up with the deposit.

    Meanwhile, under the new Rent-To-Own policy, individuals are required to pay only 5% of the cost of the housing unit as the commitment fee and the balance is spread over a period of 10 years. This policy allows allottees to live in the property while paying towards ownership at a fixed rent over the 10 year period. The Rent-To-Own policy is for every resident of the state irrespective of state of origin, profession, gender, religion and status.

    Contrary to views and comments gathered on the streets and across some online media platforms which revealed that some Lagosians are skeptical on the credibility and sincerity of the process and allocation system that would produce the winners of these houses, the fact and the truth is that one does not need to know anybody in government before one could benefit from the programme.

    All that is required for eligibility is for prospective allottee to  possess a LASRRA Card, reside in Lagos State, be above 21 years, have a steady source of income, be a taxpayer as well as a guarantee that 33% of monthly income covers the monthly repayment.

    Interestingly, the initiative is not just about making people home owners but giving them homes in a clean, safe and live-able environment. All the schemes are developed in serene and beautiful gated communi­ties with facilities such as wa­ter treatment plants, adequate parking space, health care centre, estate management of­fice, street lights, recreational area and a police post for se­curity.

    As part of moves to demonstrate the sincerity of the administration on promise made and kept, keys were handed over to the first set of allottees comprising 100 people on Monday February  20. Since then, the second batch comprising 200 allottees and the third batch also comprising 200 allottees received keys on  March 31 and April 20 respectively. This implies that within the last few days, a total of 500 proud home owners have been produced by this policy. By extension, not less than 2500 people have been provided shelter if calculated at an average of five persons per family.

    The Rent-To-Own policy is not just about provision of shelter; it is also about economic stimulation and empowerment. The new homes provided will require furniture and home gadgets such as electrical/ electronic appliances etc. The increase in demand for these items is expected to stimulate production and consequently economic growth.

    Artisans and technicians such as auto mechanics, panel beaters etc. are not left out as their market share will be boosted by the influx of people into the communities where the estates are located. The same is also applicable to food vendors as well as market men and women. In short, the policy will stimulate the GDP of the state. The state’s Ministry of Housing has also taken over all abandoned estates in the state and working towards their completion so as to meet the need of the Rent-To-Own Policy.

    The state government has equally continued to intervene in real estate transaction matters including tenancy and rent through the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD) established in 2012 under the Office of Special Adviser on Housing.

    Government intention with this is that residents are protected in the course of real estate transactions and that all players comply with Lagos State Tenancy Law, Criminal Law and other legislations on landed property transactions.

     

    • Musbau is Features Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.