How come the APC could not select a less controversial candidate?
If you seek public office first, you have to deal with criticism and more importantly, we did not select we went to the primaries where the preponderance of the delegates felt that the right choice is somebody who has military experience apart from previous federal government appointments. Nigerians think that insecurity is the biggest single issue now because without security you can’t manage the economy.
But Buhari appears to be a problem?
Buhari is older, has managed the NNPC before, was a governor and head of state. He managed public funds; the PTF which is just like SURE-P and you have seen what has happened to SURE-P.
But isn’t that an indication of how shallow the APC is, the only person it could come up with was someone that had tried to be president, but failed a number of times?
I disagree with you. The evidence of unsuccessful presidential attempts is also suffused in a lot of irregularities that characterised those elections and when you look at his first attempt, he was in court and even the 2007 exercise the candidate who ultimately won admitted that the process was flawed.
But you have to also understand that election petitions are unusual. Often times there are considerations about political and national stability beyond the consideration of law.
Can you react to the controversy dogging the production and distribution of PVCs because many Nigerians do not have theirs?
Why should we be having permanent voters’ cards once in four years? Why should we be having Continuous Voter Registration once in four years? Do Nigerian citizens turn 18 years once in four years or every day?
But recently, Prof Attahiru Jega disputed this fact, he said even last year he distributed cards but people didn’t come to the office to collect them?
Is it what he says or what we all experienced? Did they call me last year to come and take my PVC and I did not in 2013 because we are now in 2015? It was in 2014 that they said l should come and collect my PVC and lo and behold they were not even there and I don’t my PVC even as l speak.
So you will not vote?
I will vote. That is their problem. They have to make me vote because the right to vote doesn’t come from INEC but by virtue of my being a citizen. What they must do as the administrators of the voting body is to give me the facility to vote. I have been registering to vote since 1983 when I turned 20. So really why should l register every four years? What kind of government is it that registers and deregisters?
How confident are you that INEC will deliver a credible election?
It is a touch and go situation. I am an incurable optimist, but the evidence before me is not exciting.
Even if we accept that INEC is not perfect, but are the sum total of things that you said are wrong enough to make you believe that INEC is not capable of conducting credible elections in the next few weeks?
If the man who wears the shoe says he will run the election that is his job. But I am able to comment about my understanding of what I see. They are now flying the kite ‘don’t conduct elections’ through the NSA and through youth groups and some political parties. You begin to see that it is not necessarily because they want the elections to be better it is because they know the wind of change is blowing. And it is Prof. Jega’s ultimate interest and a challenge to his patriotism and a legacy for all his people to ensure that an election that becomes so defining does not negatively affect the fortunes and the survival of Nigeria. It is in their hands to get it right and whatever it takes they should do.
INEC said internally displaced persons will be allowed to vote within their camps so long as they are within the state. What do you make of it?
I think instead of making a generalised statement, Jega has come out to make specific statements and I am not going to pre-empt him. When he makes a very clear statement about what he wants to do about elections in the northeast then I will be able to make comments.
This thing is not about generalised statements, but saying okay X number of persons are registered here, Y number of persons can vote, while others may have to vote elsewhere. There are constituencies and therefore measurable. We have taken all sorts of templates and at one time we reserved the leadership of INEC for judicial officers and now it seems that it is now for ivory tower chieftains.
But the truth of the matter is that INEC’s problem is mainly logistic. And have we thought about putting people with logistics experience in INEC? The electoral body has to issue about 70 million cards once every four years and yet they can’t it right.
You were alleged to have borrowed about $1 billion. What did you do with it?
I built a rail station. When you look at the borrowing also look at the size of the population, 21 million people. Lagos State budget is about N490 billion and if you divide that by 21 million people it will come to N23,000 to each person a year.
There is no government at the municipal level, state governments across the world at least in places I am aware of that have undertaken that kind of project on its own without the federal government’s support, not even Washington, they are probably still constructing their own, Dubai is construction theirs with the national government’s support. We started with taxes because nobody was ready to lend money to us when I went to Washington. But I said without or without their support, l will start and then see how far the taxes of Lagosians will take us. However, it was when they saw that the taxes were coming and that it was going to eat into a sizeable portion of the budget that they opted to lend us the money.
How much of the loan is going into the rail?
The expansion of the Badagry expressway, which is a federal government road being an international highway that connects us to the West Coast of Africa. We want to be the powerhouse of West Africa yet people can’t drive in from Togo. From Ghana to Badagry is roughly about three hours drive. Sadly, the last 60 kilometers bringing you into Lagos takes six hours. That is not good for business. All the traders along Orile, Alaba, Amukoko, Oke Odunade, Alafia, Okokomaiko, Badagry were the reason why we made that commitment. We have expanded from three to 10 lanes from Orile to FESTAC Gate.
Do you have enough money to finish the rail project?
You can’t borrow and keep the money in the bank. This is not a one-year kind of project it takes years. What we have done is that in four years, we have built it in sections.
Is the loan staggered?
Oh yes, the $600 million that we borrowed from the World Bank is released in trenches of $200 million every year and the third trench is due for this year and is already factored into this year’s budget.
How much debt did you met?
I can’t remember the exact figure now. There were debts to contractors which is an ongoing thing and I tell many of my colleagues when l hear stories of ‘oh l met an empty treasury’ I always ask them did you contest to be a treasurer or governor? Move on because you also inherited assets, as well as liability.
How is the N30 billion monthly revenue for Lagos spent?
Our salary bill alone is about N6.5 b illion and contributory pension is 7.5 percent and then subvention to institutions like LASU, colleges of education etc amounts to N3.5 billion meaning that you have already spent N10 billion from the federation account accruable to the state. We generate between N18 to N22 billion monthly from driver’s licence renewal, land due charges and monthly income tax deductions.
Source: People’s Daily
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