Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu appeared at the Journalist Hangout Programme of TVC on Monday and gave insights into the work of his administration in the first six-months in office in an interview with the crew of Ayo, Babajide Otitoju and Mojeed Jamiu. Excerpts of the interview monitored by THISAGE in Lagos:
On People from other states in Nigeria coming into Lagos on a regular, daily basis
I do not have the Constitutional right to stop any Nigeria from coming in and out of Lagos. It is just for us to ensure that people who are coming into the state are coming to do genuine and legitimate businesses and they are going to obey the laws of the state and be responsible citizens of the state. That is what the law says. In terms of free movement, we cannot do any thing about that. We cannot put a border post at Ojota and say that you cannot come in. We are all Nigerians and we are all from the same country.
However, the only thing we are going to do is to have everyone registered under our Lagos residency scheme. We have rebranded that exercise and in the first quarter of next year (2020), together with Lagos State Residency Agency, LASRA, we are going to have our own Lagos Resident ID card. That would help us in our planning for Lagosians; so we can arrest the blighted areas we have and know the requirements and those to provide for in our communities, provide for education and health and so on. I am going to enjoin that once we start the exercise, people need to know it is for planning.
Another thing we are going to do next year is to provide rice mills and agriculture extension services to open up areas in the, Epe, Araka, Ikorodu corridors and other areas outside the metropolis where people can find opportunities. The intention is open up the system and everything that is produced in Lagos is consumed by Lagosians.
On Public Compliant About Lagos Task Force and Extra-Judicial Killings allegations.
I won’t agree that there has been any extra-judicial killing under my watch. We have had one or two unfortunate incidence that involved some police officers discharged their bullets indiscriminately, which the Nigeria Police, Lagos Command is handling currently. There is no extra-judicial killing by the task force that I am aware off. But there are people we have asked to work for us and we are monitoring them. We have given them what they require to do their work well. On a weekly basis, they report to me and I keep track of their activities.
The Political Will to implement Laws passed by the Assembly such as the traffic law and anti-land grabbing law
We know that LASMA cannot arrest and we are working with our judiciary to have more courts to try traffic offenders. That is what we are doing. It is only if you wish to exercise the right to pay the fine as stated in the law, not to go to court, that is only when money payment comes in. In terms of the political will to implement the law, I can assure you this administration will not leave any thing unturned. So we are doing it with a human face and do it within the law.
Harassment of street traders in Lagos without a fall back option for the traders in the face of unemployment.
The intention is not to impoverish people. We are setting up an agency where we can list issues on street trading. There are social issues there, there are traffic issues involved, these people also endanger their lives. We have seen people use that chance that they are involved in streets to rob people on the streets and cause traffic gridlocks. Yes, there are many who are genuinely doing trading. So what we want to do is to register them and formalize their trading through registration. That agency is coming on board and we are working out the fine details on it and we will bring them out in the first quarter of next year.
Gov Sanwo-olu during the presentation of N250 Million Cheque for tech start-ups
But there are no enough markets and where there are, the cost of renting stalls is prohibitive.
You are right but we are identifying areas where we can build more markets. But one of the challenge we have is that even the ones that we have built people don’t want to stay inside. They believe that when they stand on the streets, they will get patronage. So we also need to change the psyche of our people too. There are some financial institutions that can give out soft loans over the next fifteen years that would assist the traders to pay on a monthly basis the cost of rent. I am aware of Oyingbo market, Tejuosho market and Oluwole market that have these schemes that would assist them to pay rents on a monthly basis. Nobody is asking them to pay a lump sum. I agree we need to build more markets and encourage private partners who can realise their investments over the years.
Commitment of your administration to eco-friendly system, environmental pollution and waste management. Any Plans for new dumpsites far from the city.
We have two plans to address the issue. We want to develop what we call sanitary landscale sights to ground down Oluhosun, many eliminate dumping refuse there in a years time. One is on the Lagos west corridor towards Badagry and other one on the Lagos east corridor.
We are also talking to our sister state, Ogun to see if they can give us a place to build sanitary site on Lagos Ibadan expressway where many of our compactor trucks can go and discharge. But the major solution to waste management is waste conversion. It could be waste to fertilizer, energy, card board or whatever. That is why we kept telling our people to start waste management through a plan called waste sorting from the various residences, from our kitchen.
We will continue to produce waste bags for our people distributed through our LGAs and communities for use so that people who need the waste can pick them up and recycle. Another thing we are going to do in the new year is to re fleet our truck so their turn around time is fruitful. If we get the model right we could reduce the waste by about 60 per cent. But a lot of advocacy needs to be done. We need to take the conversation to our schools, churches, mosques and communities.
Any hope for Badagry Deep Sea Port Project? What about the Lagos Power Project, infrastructural developments touching all LGAs and payment of N12,000 to LAWMA road sweepers instead of minimum wage.
There is a master plan for the Badagry deep sea port. I am aware and I know that both the Tin Can and Apapa ports are full. That is why we started the Lekki Sea Port and we believe that as Lagosians we can also take on the Badagry deep sea port. But you know it is a Federal decision in terms of approval. We have the land. Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA and other federal agencies also need to do an environmental impact analyses to know if the project meets that own requirements. That process is going on and we need to exercise patience with them. We know some operators who are interested in the sea ports.
In terms of infrastructure reaching various parts of Lagos, we deed something in the 2020 budget. We brought all our 377 councillors and directed them to go to their communities and bring one project that we would implement. So in the 2020 project all these request have been taken care off. Same thing we do with our 40 House of Assembly legislators who went to their constituency level and identified projects. They are also included in our budget plan That is why we call it bottom up budget. The power project has some misconception. But the initiative did not meet all of the requirements from the Federal government whose legislation did not let the project to work. You cannot jettison the Discos that are federal government licensees and say you want to have your own. So what we have done now is to have willing buyer-willing buyer concept. We have six IPPS now in the state
We are working with other power providers. All we need do now is to identify some neighbourhood where we can do distribution embedded location and give the provided licenses to operate and you have a mutually agreed tariff and you can be off the grid. We are also working off grid models that do like some solar panels to work in our schools and hospitals. So we have no jettison the project.
I am hearing about the pay of N12,000 pay for the first time. But a lot of them are on contract basis. But as from next year we are going to put them on out minimum wage bill.
You mean N35,000?
Absolutely.
Mothers are complaining at the mother care centers at Ayinke Hospital. One woman said she paid N500,000 to get a caesarean operation done at the Ayinke hospital. Costs are high at Ayinke hospital. Patients also complain of being turned back in general hospitals due to lack of bed space in many state hospitals
I can assure you the woman who said she paid N500, 000 did not give you the full information. That cannot be true for a Caesarean operation, even if you stay there for one week the bill can never be up to N500,00. I am monitoring the case. You will know that for the last two months we have also opened two Mother Care Centers, MCC in Alimoso and Etiosa, to increase capacity, which are targeted at mother child care alone. In the next few months we would open two additional ones in Epe and Badagry. Seating down here, I cannot tell you how much they charge but my wife is a medical doctor and I can tell you that under normal delivery, the charges is under N20,000. It is only if you have complication the bill could get to may be N30,000 or N50,000. The charges they do at the hospitals are not for operations but consumables like syringes, blood replenishment.
But the solution to health is for us to go health insurance. One of the thing we are doing as a government is to have all of our almost 200,000 staff under the scheme, our contractors are being encouraged to join and government is doing enumeration to involve the poorest of the poor in every LGA to put them in the scheme. Once this is done we can also access accredited private health facilities. Another thing we have done is to put a standing approval to replace any staff that either retires or resigns. We health universal coverage and we have just signed the governance structure for the primary health institutions that involves LGAs with the state government taking the lead.
What are the expectations of Lagosians in the 2020 N1.7trn budget.
We are committed to delivering on the project. It is 62 per cent capital intensive, 38 per cent recurrent. On all our capital expenditure lines we see almost double numbers on health, education health environment especially of drainage. Our infrastructure would be improved upon, roads , education , roads rehabilitation would be improved upon because we have put more money in these areas. So Lagosians should expect democracy dividends in all areas that would affect their lives. We are not going to increase tax but to increase areas of tax coverage.
Housing: Many of those who bid for houses under the state housing scheme are still waiting for allocation. Why?
We have several uncompleted projects in the housing sector, which we budgeted for in the 2020 budget. But the ones that have been completed and yet to be occupied have to do with issues of capacity. I have said to them in the Ministry to reduce the deposits for those houses so people can make deposits and move in and take benefit of ownership. So we would see a lot of traction in the first quarter of 2020. The Ilubirin housing scheme is now a Private Partnership model meaning there is an agreement with a private developer who has indicated their willingness to wrap up that development. I have told them if I do not see massive development in the next twelve months we would look at the arrangement again. But I want to give them time to prove themselves. We need to also encourage investors.
Govt recently signed a deal with private developer to build 8,000 bed hostel for LASU. Any second phase of the project?
That is innovative and it is an initiative we will continue to work with and it would be extended to other state tertiary institutions once we wrap up capacity in this area
Three persons were not cleared by the Assembly and assigned portfolio in Amuwo Odofin and Badagry. What about the Lagos-Badagry Expressway?.
A new replacement has been sent to the House and once the person is cleared we would appoint him. Regarding infrastructure development, the Lagos- Badagry expressway is actually a 10- lane road major international corridor. It is a development we are committed to and push to complete it. There is another road from Agalato, which would connect Agbara and Alimoso. It would connect Badagry people with people in all those areas and Ojokoro.
Water transportation
Government need to make investment first, to build the infrastructure first like the terminals, jetties and dredging before private people can come in. For now we want to build the infrastructure to enable their participation. We have ordered for boats and are about to launch four water routes in January; from Ikpakodo to Marina, another from Badore to Marina, from Ijede to Ebutero and Ijede to Badore. We also have private investors who want to participate. We would ensure they meet safety standards.
Plans to rehabilitate dilapidated schools in Lagos and revenue goes up with every government in
For 2020 budget of N1.69 tr, we are expecting a revenue of N1tr, which means our revenue would have to go up will do everything to make sure our revenue goes up not necessary by increase of tax but coverage. For schools we have identified over 100 schools out of the 300 we are taking up in our 2020 budget. We are going to improve the skills of our teachers so that output is increased. Now, about 5,000 teachers are being trained and on resumption students will find brand new teachers with hand held devices before them.
