Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubus imperishable legacy in Lagos State (Part 1) A rash of several online ingenue information being circulated and obviously sponsored to tarnish the image of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former Governor of Lagos State, I find it necessary to put this issue in proper perspective both to refresh our collective memory and to prevent the general public from being misled by such misleading distortions. Any discerning observer of governance and politics in Lagos State since 1999 will readily dismiss this kind of utterance as sheer nonsense and a demonstration of gargantuan political ignorance. In the first place, it must be recalled that the 2003 and 2007 elections were fought and won by the Action Congress solely on the basis of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s sterling performance in office. The PDP did not hide its desperation to ‘capture’ Lagos on both occasions. Indeed, in 2007, to actualize its several boasts in this regard, not only did President Obasanjo personally come to campaign in Lagos, soldiers were deployed all over the state during the election to intimidate the electorate. But all these efforts came to nought as the AC political machinery propelled by eight years of unparallelled performance by Asiwaju’s Administration proved unstoppable. To properly appreciate the pre-eminent place of the Asiwaju Tinubu Administration in the history of governance in Lagos State, we must correctly situate the Administration within the context of Nigeria’s political economy in 1999. At Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999 after over one and a half decades of military dictatorship, Lagos was in every sense of the word a failed state. The state was one of the worst victims of the planlessness, lack of vision and ineptness of military rule. Public infrastructure had decayed abysmally. Delivery of social services had collapsed in virtually all sectors. The environment was in chaos as Lagos was routinely described as one of the dirtiest cities in the world. The state was largely dependent on insufficient financial allocations from the centre as she lacked the capacity to generate adequate revenue internally to meet her numerous challenges. Lagos was a classic case of great but unfulfilled potentials. The public sector was demoralized and ill-equipped, psychologically and logistically, to effectively perform its functions and achieve set objectives. While the citizenry was alienated from the state and thus demotivated from paying taxes or the ones they paid being stolen making the state technically bankrupt, the organized private sector had little or no incentive to partner with the government in meeting the immense developmental challenges of the Mega City. The story of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu years in Lagos is essentially that of the utilization of visionary leadership, the best and brightest talents as well as creative strategies to turn this situation around and transform the state into a viable entity capable of fulfilling its potentials. It was an eventful period of eight years that saw the revitalization of the machinery of state, the turn around and resuscitation of public finances, the systematic restoration and reinvigoration of qualitative service delivery in diverse sectors including education, health, justice, roads construction and rehabilitation, traffic management and public transportation, agriculture, environmental renewal, rural development, housing, job creation, women empowerment, local government administration and poverty alleviation among others. These achievements, it must be emphasized, were recorded against the background of vicious partisan opposition particularly from a federal government bent on impeding the progress of the state by all means in a desperate bid to ‘capture’ Lagos. It will be recalled that when Colonel Mohammed Marwa assumed office as Governor of Lagos State, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue was about N300 million monthly. The Marwa Administration then engaged the services of the Adekanola Tax Consultancy firm, an initiative that helped to raise the state’s Internally Generated Revenue to N600 million monthly as at 1999. Thus, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue on Asiwaju’s assumption of office in 1999 was an average of N600 million monthly while the monthly civil service wage bill was N800 million excluding subventions to parastatals. Despite this technically bankrupt and poor revenue scenario,the Administration had to respond to the challenge of infrastructural decay, environmental degradation, incessant population pressures, inefficient public transportation, mounting unemployment; inadequate supply of potable water, unbearable rural poverty and the need to modernize and completely re-tool the public service for efficient and qualitative service delivery. The Administration had to re-invent governance, task its intellectual ingenuity to the utmost and come up with measures to strengthen the financial base of the state. The engagement of the Alpha Beta Tax Consultancy firm after due process was an initiative that paid off handsomely helping to raise the Internally Generated Revenue profile of the state dramatically. Of course, Alpha Beta was not involved in actual collection of revenue. It only provided the technical expertise and sophisticated technological back up for more effective revenue monitoring and blockage of sources of revenue leakages and fraud. One radical measure taken in this regard, for instance, was the introduction of the Electronic Banking System/Revenue Collection Monitoring Project (EBS/RCM), which enabled the utilization of high level technology to create a robust data base of taxpayers, eliminate ghost workers, plug loopholes of revenue leakage and enhance revenue performance by partnering with the private sector to ensure more effective monitoring of collected revenue. Other revenue enhancing measure the Administration took was the rejuvenation and re-organization of the state’s Board of Internal Revenue (BIR); an outfit that used to be a center of corruption was re-engineered to enhance its revenue collection capacity through greater autonomy, professionalism and motivation. The Board was strengthened to collect optimum revenue at least cost while earning the trust and confidence of the public. Today, the BIR, now Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), has become an agency of pride to the state. A third revenue enhancing step by the Tinubu Administration was the thoroughgoing reforms in the Tax administration process through intensive computerization of the state’s tax assessment records culminating in the introduction of the electronic Tax Clearance Cards (eTCC), which is a fraud free and convenient method of keeping taxpayers records. This was accompanied by the continuous renovation/upgrading of the state’s Tax offices with modern facilities to aid electronic collection and reporting of taxes. A fourth measure adopted to boost the finances of the state was intensive publicity through the mass media to sensitize the public on the imperative of paying their taxes willingly, voluntarily and promptly as a precondition for the delivery by government of quality infrastructure and social services. Indeed, the Administration devised the strategy of having huge sign boards with the inscription ‘Taxpayers’ Money At Work’ at various project sites. The result was an increase in the number of those willingly coming to pay their taxes once they saw concrete evidence that the revenue was being expended for the public good. The introduction of the Land Use Charge, which consolidated the hitherto fragmented collection of Ground Rents, Development Charges and Neighbourhood Improvement Charges by the State and Local Governments respectively also helped tremendously to boost revenue collection to the advantage of the two tiers of government. The new Land Use Charge Law promulgated in 2001 stipulated that once Land Use Charge Demand Notice is levied on a property, Ground Rent, Development Charges and the Neighbourhood Improvement Charge Law will cease to apply. This innovation led to the collection of the sum of over N3.5 billion as Land Use Charge between 2001 and March 2007 and the value of this revenue source keeps rising. As a result of these measures among others, the Internally Generated Revenue of Lagos State rose from N600 million per month in 1999 to a monthly average of N5.025 billion in 2006 and peaking at between N7 billion and N8.2 billion monthly as at March 2007. Determined to deliver on its promise to undertake the radical modernization of infrastructure in Lagos State, the Tinubu Administration was the first to approach the capital market to source long term funds to prosecute long term projects. Through this strategy, the 1st Lagos State Floating Rate Redeemable Bond 2005/2006 was floated in September 2002 and the sum of N15 billion was raised at the capital market as a re-financing option with a two year moratorium. The floating of the bond enabled the Administration to refinance locally sourced short term funds while fast tracking the construction of major projects in diverse sectors thus beating incessant inflationary spirals that would have made the delivery of such major projects impossible without the bond. On redemption of the bond in 2007, we had saved the sum of N22 billion in the Sinking Fund against the bond of N15 billion thus demonstrating the state’s credit worthiness and significantly enhancing its financial rating. The bond was utilized to deliver such key projects as modern highways with ancillary amenities comparable to the best anywhere in the world, Millennium Housing Schemes, Global Computerization of the public service, Millennium Micro-Water works, Construction/Rehabilitation of High Courts, Waste Management Projects and Millennium classrooms among others. During this period, the Tinubu Administration equally continued to strengthen the state’s investment portfolio through the Ibile Holdings Limited (IHL), the Lagos Building and Investment Company (LBIC) and the Lagos State Assurance Company (LASACO). Thus, as at March 2007, Ibile Holdings Portfolio of equities had a market value of N11.46 billion. Through IHL, the state invested N3.84 billion in Celtel (formerly Vmobile/Econet) in 2003 and by the time she divested from the company in 2007, Lagos State had reaped a dividend of N19 billion in four years. Also through IBH the Administration invested N11 billion in the state’s LAGBUS mass Bus Transit Project with N6.5 billion going into the acquisition of brand new Marcopolo buses and N4.5 billion into the provision of infrastructure and maintenance facility for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that is today a phenomenal success story. In the same vein, the Administration increased the share capital of the Lagos Building and Investing Company (LBIC) from N100 million to N500 million to enhance its capacity to be an effective player in the modern mortgage business while also supporting the Lagos State Assurance Company (LASACO) with over N1 billion to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive on the re-capitalization of insurance companies. Asiwaju’s Administration was also one of the first to pursue Public-Private Partnership projects as a mechanism for infrastructure delivery against the backdrop of the inability of the public sector to solely fund the infrastructure needs of a modern Mega City. Perhaps the most far-reaching in this respect is the on-ongoing construction of the N44 billion Lekki-Epe Expressway and accompanying Coastal roads, which is the largest concessionaire project of its size and complexity in Africa. Several other projects delivered through PPP arrangements by the Administration include the rehabilitation of Bishop Kale Close on Victoria Island by Starcomms Limited; rehabilitation of Olakunle Bakare Street, Victoria Island by Vee Networks Limited; rehabilitation of part of Molade Okoya Thomas Street, Victoria Island by Zenith Bank; Construction of Access road to Beach Resort Estate, Victoria Island, by Beach Resort Nigeria Limited; rehabilitation of Orofin Street/Old Ojo road junction, Mazamaza, Amuwo-Odofin, by Intercontinental Bank Plc; rehabilitation of Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, by a consortium of companies; powering and maintenance of street light on WEMPCO road, Ikeja, by WEMPCO group; rehabilitation of Adetokunbo Ademola Street as a partnership between Lagos State Government and Eko Hotels; rehabilitation of Danmole Street, Victoria Island by Intercontinental Bank Plc; provision, energizing and maintenance of street light on Ligali Ayorinde Street, Victoria Island, by Pan Ocean Oil Corporation; rehabilitation of Buraimoh Kenku Street, Victoria Island, by Liquefied Natural Gas Company (LNG) Ltd; re-development of Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, by Zenith Bank Plc and rehabilitation of Jimoh Odutola Street, Surulere, by Flour Mills. advertisement. One of the Tinubu Administration’s greatest legacies to posterity is the very sound financial pedestal on which she placed Lagos State. From a situation of near total dependence on statutory allocation from the Federation Account in 1999, the Administration had reduced the state’s reliance on allocations from the Federation Account to not more than 25 % by its exit from office in May 2007. As a result of sound management of the state’s finances, the Administration was able to pay salaries/emoluments totalling N180 billion to approximately 50,000 civil servants between 1999 and 2007; N70 billion as civil service operational running costs within the same period while also meeting its financial obligations to the state’s 15,000 civil service/teachers pensioners, 51,000 primary school teachers and local government workers and also promptly paying subventions to the 50 parastatals including tertiary institutions in Lagos State. Not even the politically motivated seizure of over N24 billion of funds statutorily due to the Local Governments of Lagos State for over two years could destabilize the state financially or incapacitate the Local Governments from functioning in the interest of the grassroots; another indication of how rock solid the state’s finances were. Some of the major projects which the Administration was able to undertake solely on the strength of Internally Generated Revenues include the renewal, re-development and re-construction of the Lagos Island Central Business District comprising sixteen highways at a cost of N15 billion; re-construction and modernization of such key roads as Awolowo road, Ikoyi, Akin Adesola road, Victoria Island, Adeola Odeku road, Victoria Island, Oba Sekumade road, Ikorodu, Yaba-Itire-Lawanson-Ojuelegba road, Agege Motor road, Ikotun-Igando road, Kudirat Abiola road, Oregun, commencement of LASU-Iba road and Ajah-Badore road to name a few; Upgrading facilities and buildings at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to meet world class standards thus ensuring through the vision of Asiwaju Tinubu that the institution is today an acclaimed centre of excellence in health care delivery; Construction and modernization of high courts; Expansion/rehabilitation of General Hospitals in Lagos, Gbagada, Epe, Isolo, Ikorodu, Badagry and Island Maternity Hospital; Construction of new hospitals at Mushin, Shomolu, Ibeju Lekki and Isheri-Iba; Upgrading of existing Health Centres to full fledged hospitals at Ijede, Ketu, Agbowa and Agege; Massive rehabilitation and construction of new public primary and secondary schools in all divisions of the state; Provision of infrastructure in newly constructed housing Estates such as Abraham Adesanya housing Scheme, Ajah, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan housing scheme, Lekki, Ikeja GRA housing scheme, Lekki 1 Millenium Housing Scheme, Ayangburen Housing Scheme, Ikorodu, Gbagada Housing scheme, as well as massive rural electrification and micro water projects. Of course, it is impossible to give a detailed itemisation, in this short piece, of the innumerable block and mortar legacies of the Asiwaju Tinubu Administration across diverse sectors of the state. The solid financial and developmental foundation laid for Lagos State by the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration is obviously one of the critical factors that have enabled the administration of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) to hit the ground running and to raise the standards of governance and service delivery in Lagos State. If the kind of firm and purposeful foundation laid for the transformation of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 had been provided at the national level, Nigeria would today be soaring to higher heights and Vision 20: 20/20 would be a more realizable objective. The indisputable reality is that Asiwaju Tinubu deserves commendation for visionary and selfless leadership; not surreptitious media smear campaigns. As we celebrate and thank God for the growing prosperity of Lagos today, we must always commend Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s exemplary vision, tenacity of purpose, political will, financial wizardry, unalloyed commitment to true Federalism and relentless pursuit of the rights of Lagos; all of which have contributed immeasurably to the unfolding realization of the Lagos dream. More so as he demonstrated uncommon political sagacity, perspicacity and selflessness by identifying and firmly supporting the emergence of a competent successor capable of carrying aloft the banner of continuity, progress and transformation in the Centre of Excellence. To be continued...... Source: CMA
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:41:21 +0000