SR: We are going to consolidate our questions into one for you. First, to correct you that for the last few years there has not been any fire incident / There was a fire incident in Lagos that killed thirty (30) people.
SR: We are going to consolidate our questions into one for you. First, to correct you that for the last few years there has not been any fire incident / There was a fire incident in Lagos that killed thirty (30) people.
An accident, this year, you know that, so correct that. Secondly, we just want to ask very quickly, Lagos has a big tax issue. Your tax is collected by a private firm known as Alpha Beta owned by the former governor. How much do you pay him on a monthly basis? [Applause]
Secondly, It has caused a fight between you and him, which is threatening your good works as far as people know. Why are you afraid of being investigated for corruption as you have been fighting in the courts?
And Finally, Lagosians are complaiing about de-odourisation of the rich people’s end and ghettorisation of the poor people, that you don’t actually construct roads in a place like Ayobo, whereas you have a beautiful tollgates road in the rich area. How do you intend to de-odourise the ghettos? Those are [three] questions. Thank you.
Governor Fashola: I want to start first with the gentleman Omoyele Sowore / Yes If you are correct / the fire/the pipeline explosion [SR cuts in, not pipeline it was an accident involving a Dangote truck that killed thirty people this year, it was a fire accident yes.] That happened in Ogun state not in Lagos. [Applause]
It was an unfortunate incident but there is a boundary there which separates Lagos and Ogun , it was an unfortunate incident no doubt and we wish we could have done more in spite of where it was, to save lives, but that is the case.
In terms of the toll road, the reality of the toll is that, first of all, at the time that road was commenced, Lekki area is the area that I have alluded to in my presentation. It is one of the fastest growing real estate corridors in Nigeria today andd that estate was served by just that road, in a way that created that genuine fear / where and nobody wantd to leave there. And this concerned / and there wasn’t enough money to / we
We went and leveraged on the goodwill of government at the time and got private company to come and finance the toll road It was . / IT is the first toll road of its type ever to be undertaking in sub-sahara [inaudible] and a lot of credit must go to government rather than condemnation because it was the biggest endorsement of investment attraction of our state and really the question there is , what is so overly offensive about the Toll, How much really is the toll ? because I Watch people before the development of this road, I watch people rob and kill in the long hours of drive, was it the lives that are unimportant / every lives entrusted to us is sacred and we will do everything that we think is right and reasonable / there are few serious case that / it is a challenge of organisation and the /mix match that we have between the rate at which people are settling in our state makes it impossible and impracticable to improve the infrastructure quickly and with pace / especially when government has many other social obligations / I think what we should be concerned about is that as a government we should ensure that the private sector makes the investment, makes decent profit, and do not profiteer. I think that is where we should /focus / our time.
Whether it is roads, whether it is hospitals, whether it is schools, it has always been the combination of public and private sector that delivers in every economy. commitment of government and private secotor. Some people never use public transport / and if we use the same private sector funding / why should it / I think we must take the
As for Ayobo – well, let me say that, ayobo is only a small part of the larger Alimoso and what we have designed for Alismoso is that the programs similar to what we have done in Yaba and in apapa and in Ajegunle, we are building a level roads / that is the design of the / Now, alimoso area is one of the biggest and far flung areas of Lagos/ Densely populated, I do not think that there is any road that is less than two or three kilometres in Alimoso / There are roads that run for as long as six/seven kilometres. In the more metropolitan areas of Lagos that many of us are familiar with, what it will cost to build one road in Alimoso will do about four roads in Yaba or Surulere. / But I think we have completed about five or six of the roads in Alimoso.
The Fani / association avenue / and the Aiyetoro – Ipaja road is under construction– there are plans to finish these roads. As people come and think “you haven’t done my road / you haven’t done my road / it affects our plan / and we will not implement our plan in that way because that was not the
We take it as a plus, people are asking us to come and do it, they haven’t asked us to leave which means that we are doing something.
Now there is a question that I want to deal {]
The question of Alpha Beta. And I think that this audience deserves to know. I operated in the private sector before joining government / and I knew what it took to pay money into Lagos state government coffers. You could actually run a government account without actually being in government. And all you needed to do is collude with somebody in the bank and they will open a bank account in the name of the government and only you and I, and therefore government did not get all of its revenues. They will forge receipts. This was the service that this company conferred and provided to Lagos.
And that is why the revenues of the LASG grew from N600M a month in 1999 to over N14B today. [applause]. This company is offering service. I think it is only being fair to renumerate. Now, the jury will be out ‘what is fair renumeration’ and those will be the issue. As far as I am aware, this company is not owned by governor Tinubu and unless you have proof. I Think we should be very careful in making very very unverified statements. And these goes to the allegations that you have alluded about me corrupting myself. I challenge anybody that has evidence to bring them out. I will not run a government on the pages of newspapers. I have a job to do here. I make no apologies for how I do my job! [applause] but I do my job with every believe that I will be called to account. And I am ready to account but if anybody has any evidence of allegation.. it is easy to make allegations, that is the burdern we bear in public office, true and false, but if there are allegations I wont respond to them, let them bring the evidence. It is easy to allege that Mr. Fashola has stolen.
I have asked people who suggest for example that governors take money from Abuja and they share it to even ask themselves how money is transferred at the montly federal allocation in Abuja, nobody gets a cheque – that is the reality, at the meeting that goes on in Abuja with the 36 finance commissioners. All they do is give each state its account of the revenues that came into the country, the sharing formula, and what your balances are so that you can falsify and sort out the account if the figures if you disagree. Once you all sign up , the central bank transfers the money each state’s account. Now, how can any governor lay his hands in the bank account without it being traceable? None of my commissioners sign cheques. The accounting officers in the lagos state public service are the civil servants / the permanent secreataries. All I do is sit down and approve recommendations for expenditures incurred[inaudibkle]. [applause]
In case you do not know, the Lagos state public service finance system is computerised and therefore you cannot expend money in that government without the budget head and budgetary code, it is only when you have fed that into a computer, that it generates a cheque with an account that has credit against which you can pay. This is reality and I Think you should do more investigation, and let those who read you, because I don’t
SR: Governor Fashola, we would have loved if you answered the part of going to court instead of getting upset.
Governor Fashola: Oh! Did I look upset ?
To be telling us you do not read Sahara Reporters sounded sounded as if you are upset. Why did you go to court, if you wanted to be open with your accounts?
[inaudible noise and background noise]
SR: It is always good to have some respect for citizens who ask you questions instead of getting upset. Its absolute respect if I was BBC, he would give me attention but because I was Nigerian internet based website that you don't read, you do not give me attention.