Ayorinde: Expect more from Ambode

Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy Mr. Steve Ayorinde, in this interview with Group Political Editor Emmanuel Oladesu and Musa Odoshimokhe, explains how Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is accomplishing his people-oriented programmes, his plans to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and his projections for next year. 

What are your projections for next year?

We have quite a number of projects which we have started and will run into next year. Practically in all the areas, infrastructure development, security, health, education and wealth creation are being tackled. Road infrastructure is important because it is the major area where most states are lagging behind. When people ask why you are engaged in roads construction, they will be missing the point. Road construction is not only important in Nigeria, but in Africa. Therefore, we are continuing next year, I know we may have started one of the most ambitious road projects anywhere in Nigeria. We are linking some of the roads to the Lagos International Airport; the airport is one of the busiest airports, perhaps in West Africa. The way the Federal Government has approved the concession of the place, probably to run it better, but also because it will be the busiest airport in West Africa is commendable. As the sixth largest economy in Africa, we need to have a gateway. That is why the Federal Government gave its support to the project. Similar to that, you can see what Oshodi is turning into. It started in 2009, when former Governor Babatunde Fashola started rebuilding the place. Up till now, we are saying that Oshodi can become a whole lots. It is the first of its kind in any part of Nigeria with multiple bus terminals. One of the banks in Lagos State is handing the shopping complex in Oshodi, to compliment the multi-layer car park. You can see also that we have started work on the BRT corridors linking Oshodi to Iyana Ipaja and to Abule Egba. It is not enough to have a world class flyover bridge at Abule Egba, complimented by the fountain. We want to ensure the traffic system is improved, the same model that we have from Ikorodu to TBS and Marina. A number people do not need to have their cars on the roads because the BRT is consistent and convenient. Work has started on the Iyana Ipaja- Abule Egba road and it is one of the roads that will be delivered next year. Another project we are also working on is water transportation. We started this year and we are going to complete it next year, the terminal points of the water ways will also be there. We started with four; you cannot have effective water transportation, if the water ways are not channelised. It is like you can’t have a good road, if the roads are not tarred. For the first time, we have done that, we have started with four; we are continuing with six next year. That means more jetties and ferries would be brought not only by government but by investors. If you want people to move conveniently, the water ways have to be channelised, there should be standard jetties with all the safety and security put in place. This is necessary because we are going to consider the fact that as small as Lagos State is, in term of land mass, in all the 36 states in Nigeria, 22.5 per cent of that small land mass is occupied by water. This means we got limited land mass that we can make use of. That is why we plan to make good use of our limited water ways for transportation, tourism, security and things like that.

What is the status of the second phase of the 114 roads projects?

After the 114, road projects we advertised; we did them during the middle of the of the year but, we realised that because of the variation that had affected the rate of the dollar as at that time, many of them got back to government, to ask for variation. We realised at the point of payment that dollar had actually come down and therefore, it will be foolhardy to approve the contract on the old bidding template and the variation they were asking for. It would be better to re-award it and let them bid for a realistic rate, reflecting what the dollar is. We will announce the winners of the bid so that they can roll out in December. They can do that by the first quarter of next year for the 182 roads. The success of the 114 roads was enormous and had never been executed in anywhere in the country. It would only make sense for Lagos to continue, so that we can have them delivered in six months.

Contrary to expectation, is the proposal for the Third Mainland Bridge not off the radar?

It is not off the radar, it might take a while to come in and it might take a while for the preparatory work to be through. I know it is an exceptional project and would have to be done carefully. And like we have always said, it is not off the radar and whenever it comes. We are told that certainly, it will come because we know that the rail projection for the Third Mainland Bridge is probably higher than the entire budget of the whole state, but it will be realised. We realised along the line that the partners that the state wanted to use at some point could not deliver on their promise and that further necessitated a review.  We are still look at it and it is not off the radar. We ask people to be patient; we were clear about the reason why we needed to embark on that project and it is still within our capacity.

Can the state improve on the N1 billion per day IGR?

As good as Lagos currently is, we know that the administration had done very well because we just had the anniversary of our 30 months in office. We look at what we have done in 30 months and we see that we have done very well. We have been successful since 2015 in the area of revenue generation. The first three quarter would showed that we have generated more revenue and spent more money than the corresponding the first three quarters of 2016. We hope that by the time we would conclude the budget in a few days time, Lagos State would have set another standard. We would have done better, we would have improved than that of last year. We were planning to have mega city with a 30 billion naira IGR yearly. Our minimum target will be N50 billion a month. And this is the reason why we are saying that we need to improve on our IGR generation. We already know that we have the capacity to sort it out. It is just to make proper deployment and to introduce policy that will take us to that level. Policy that will not necessarily add to the burden on the tax payers of state, but that will just be a lot more effective in looking at the areas where some people have been cheating on majority of the masses. I thank Lagosians for what they have done, for supporting the government. Without them we will not be where we are. But, we are also making them understand the areas where they have been neglected which could have been injurious to our capacity to earn more money and our capacity to deliver on our promises. We will be looking at areas, where key institution, individuals have been smart in outwitting government, to the detriment of the people. All the areas have been identified and we are sure that once we tidy those areas, we know that we can move from a billion naira a day, to the N50 billion a month. And we can do a lot more. A household is run like a state, you do not earn money until the end of the month, but if your income is taking care of basic need; you can pay school fees, service the car, but you know that when you started and the thing that you actually need to do are a lot more than just barely attending to those basic need and if we just want to be attending to basic needs in Lagos, we will just be satisfied with paying people salaries and their pension. We won’t be ambitious, we won’t be looking at how we want people to come to our country’s need to be fixed. And for you to fix the roads, you don’t rely on a revenue template from which about half the income goes to salaries and emolument. You would be thinking of having a second airport because nowhere in the world would you have 21 million city people serviced by one airport. So, for people to come, you need to create the opportunities for them to come. You need to create security infrastructure that would have to be nurtured on hourly basis. There won’t be incidences that would turn people away.

What is the assurance the light train project will not be an abandoned project?

It cannot be, if we are progressing on daily basis as we should be. Almost every other Sunday, I get information from LAMATA which we use in our Ministry of Information, social media, TV, radio stations, asking for roads diversion because the carrier tracks keep moving from one place to the other. Those are things that you may not see on a daily basis. We are adding to the preparation, to the technical requirement that will make the Blue Line Rail ready, but of course, these are project that takes lot of time, these are projects that gulp huge money and the dollar rate is not friendly to anybody. We are not resting on our oars, we will get there. Conveyor tracts are being added on daily basis and we are sure we will deliver.

Would you shed light briefly on the state’s debt profile?

The other time we wrote off about N59 billion. Every nation must borrow creatively and realistically to carry out projects so that development can come. We are equally not immune to borrowing, what that means is that we have to wait to the end of the month, after paying salaries, emolument, we now see how much is left. Out of how much is left, we cannot even start a road project. But, you will need to borrow in anticipation of the money expected, so that you can get so much done at once and then you will be staying back and then paying back gradually. And because of the strength of our economy, because of the stability of the cash inflow of the state, Lagos has a high debt ratio in the country. The percentage that is expected of you because you can borrow money is very heavy. Nobody can go out looking for bond and go to commercial banks, if the state of your finances is not very healthy. There is a percentage of your revenue that goes a fund which serves as insurance to the money you are borrowing, just in case it goes on. The reason why Lagos attracts more loans is because we have been paying conveniently. So, whatever it is, we have still not pass the debt profile our revenue can adequately cater for. We do not need to wait unnecessarily before we want to change the bulb on the roads’ street light or before we can add value to the lives of the people.

Lagos is now an oil-producing state, what are the expectations?

It is a state that is not distracted by the attraction of oil and gas. As beautiful, as profitable and as nice as the oil portend, we are not distracted. Oil and gas in the state are driven by private investors. Already, the state had perfect revenue generation from the Federal Government and as moderately tidy as it is, that is not our direction. Our direction is the template that the Lagos State has established, that 75 per cent of what is required to sustain the state comes from revenue generation, either from the factory, levies or returns on our investments. We are already living on that mandate. Whatever we get from the Paris Club and any other thing that is given to the state; it will be contained in the less that 25 per cent of the revenue. In another two to three or four years, anything coming from Abuja will only be bonus in Lagos State. With some form of financial autonomy, we can generate 85 to 90 per cent of all our needs. That is the dream of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. So, that any other thing that comes, it will become a bonus. This can begin to serve as inspiration in a workable model, we believe there is always what you can tap or look out for in Lagos and particularly the surrounding states. The more these states do better, the less the pressure on Lagos State. It does not matter whether we are making it, it does not matter whether we are making one trillion or not, when other states are not doing well, we are still not going to be happy. We are not going to be totally safe because everybody turns Lagos into Mecca. We have the smallest land mass, wherever you have people in this number; we have to spend more money taking care of infrastructure, going after crime and criminality. We believe that there should be a better alternative, if other states around Lagos State and elsewhere in the country are doing well, so that they can look after their citizens. It is not proper for state to be described as civil servant state; there is no state that is created a civil servant state. There must be something that works in that state. If it is agriculture, are there hidden minerals that have not been tapped and what about tourism etc. We believe that there are other states that can do what Lagos is doing. We don’t have to grow anything here, which is the reason we partner with Taraba and we have LAKE Rice. We have got massive land in Osun State, in Oyo State, in Abuja and Ogun State. If we do not have the lands here, let us have the land over there. People that will work on the land are not going to come from Lagos, they are the citizens of those states. But, the proceeds comes from.  Lagos is where we have not only the population but people with good income.

The state has endorsed the Southwest economic blueprint and  Ambode is the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum…

That is the way to go. There is power in unity for the socio-economic integration. There are layers to that. First is the layer of the Southwest governors economic forum which was commissioned to champion it, the larger component of it is the Southern governor forum because there are things that are common to all of us. We pull our resources together in term rail for instance. Do you know how easy life will be if you can live outside Lagos and come to Lagos conveniently by rail? If the roads are good, people will be happy coming from states outside Lagos, to work here and return back. If there is an effective mode of transportation that can move people from here to other part of the state, making use of the BRT corridors and the water ways, things will be better. You can move from Ibadan to Lagos, leave Ibadan 7 am in the morning and resume by 8.30 am. You can leave Osogbo by 5 am because some people who work on the Lagos Island leave home by 5 am from the Mainland.  I am so sure that by 8am, you will be in the office and will it not be better because this is what people do from Maryland to Washington DC on daily basis. We are supporting economic integration so that other states can tap into the model. So that they too can benefit from what Lagos is doing.

When are you phasing out the Danfo or yellow buses?

We will phase them out as from next year. We expect that the first batch of the 800 vehicles will arrive in the first quarter. The government is very serious about it, many of the buses are coming from Brazil and we are on top of the situation. The roads and the roots of the first phase were we phase off these Danfo has been outlined. They will leave the highways; the places where we have banned Okada previously will no longer accommodate the yellow buses. We will have buses that are technologically compliant. You can sit at home check you smart phone to know when the buses will be moving from one point to the other. We are ensuring that it is a seamless transition from the old ways to new comfortable technologically driven blue buses.

What is the performance of the budget this year?

Without a doubt, the budget this year will perform more than the one of last year. For the first three quarters the budget has performed at about between 71 and 76 per cent which means that before the end of December, considering the fact that capital projects are still on-going, I expect that the budget will perform at nothing less than 79 percent.

Don’t you think the return of Badoo, will complicate security issues in Ikorodu axis?

There is no return of Badoo. There is no state that is totally safe from crime and criminality. Not even the safest of the cities or the smaller cities, much more a mega city. There is no Badoo any more, there could be isolated cases, we don’t call them Badoo, we don’t recognize Badoo. The new acting Commissioner of Police has warned of the consequence of criminality. It is the people that had benefitted previously from masquerading evils as culture. That era is gone because there is a clear demarcation from culture and religion and evil. You can’t call it culture for killing people, snuffing lives out of people and calling it culture. It can’t be cultural. There is no traditional ruler who endorses it, no religion or tradition that endorse it and the acting commission of police has come out clearly and he has the backing of traditionalists to halt it. You will be shocked by the number of people being prosecuted and those in police custody who are caught with one form of criminality or the other.

What is delaying the appointment of commissioners where we have vacancies?

I will not say that they are vacancies as such. In order to fulfill the quotas, yes you will expect that his Excellency will make appointment. But, let look at the way we are. The Commissioner for Finance, who doubles as the Commissioner of Economic Planning and Budget was actually appointed to replace the finance commissioner that left. But, because he had mastered the other beat very well, he takes charge of the ministries. For transportation, we have effective special adviser that is looking after transportation without any weakness anywhere. Don’t forget that LAMATA is a good component of the whole transportation gamut and it has an effective MD who is also performing very well. For tourism, the governor himself is the commissioner, he created that Ministry and his ideas and vision is what the ministry is following. We have a Special Adviser there, who ensures that what the governor want are done. And of course, to fulfill all righteousness, when the governor say it would be done, it will be done may be in the first quarter of next year or so. And if that does not happen there is no gap in any of the ministries in terms of performance.            

 

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