Speeches

7th Lagos State Executive/Legislative Parley

Nov 25, 2011 - Your Excellencies & Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

It is with abundant hope and immeasurable gratitude to Almighty God that I stand before you this morning.

This is the seventh Executive-Legislative Parley of our administration, but it is the first since our electoral victory and the commencement of the current term of office. We have here several new members on both the executive and legislative sides and, as usual, we have in attendance our distinguished party leaders.

Let me therefore express my heartfelt congratulations to all of us, new and old, and especially to our great party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, which has now established its stature as our nation's fastest growing political party and its reputation as a purposeful, progressive, innovative and people-oriented organisation.

Our enviable pedigree of deep philosophical and ideological commitment to welfarism; our penchant for hard work and integrity in the service of humanity and our ability to deliver on our promises have made us the party of first choice among our people and an increasing number of progressive-minded Nigerians.

This reflected once again in the recent local government elections which our people have seized as yet another opportunity to affirm faith in our leadership.

Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, these victories confer on us the right to engage in some back slapping and joyous celebrations, but, more importantly, it imposes on us a very great, even onerous, responsibility, not to lie at ease.

This is because these are very challenging times which require us to keep ourselves on the side of the people and to keep the people on our side, it will therefore not be enough to demonstrate the consistency of purposeful and effective leadership.

After all, we all know that there is so much more to do, as our societies are still far away from the ideals of our dream. Continuing to do what we do is therefore the barest minimum.

Whilst sustenance of progress is hard enough, as the economy grows tougher, our people in fact expect more. Wherever ACN controls the government, people instinctively expect to see accelerated development.

Among several other things, they expect better health and educational facilities, better access to portable water, better access to justice and a better environment for their private and business life.

Lagos and other ACN States are not the richest in Nigeria. Yet, I believe that nature is everywhere full of abundance and unlimited potentials. We just have to work harder and be far more innovative in finding ways to make life more abundant to our faithful and justifiably hopeful followers.

This is where all of us here, whether executive or legislative, state or federal, must pull resources together, put personal convenience and personal interests aside and work with the same goals in mind in the service of those who voted for us and who pay the taxes that keep us in service.

According to the famous writer, Andrew Carnegie, 'Teamwork 'is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.' Undoubtedly, teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success. However, team spirit can only manifest when the common purpose is superior to the individual goal. Individual goals tend to be divisive and they deter progress where it matters most, i.e., at the level of collective aspirations.

For the benefit of our new members, I must say that this forum was created to foster friendship and unity of purpose between the executive and legislative arms of government and, especially to promote a common developmental agenda for our dear State.

Despite the concept of division of powers, we have come together in affirmation of the essential unity of purpose which is a precondition to progress, and the realization that we are, each of us, mutually dependent on each other. As Thomas Jefferson put it over two centuries ago, "The Legislative and Executive branches may sometimes err, but elections and dependence will bring them to rights."

We have also used this forum to share ideas on how best to formulate and implement developmental programmes.

Laws are the foundation of societal order, and without well thought out laws, the executive will labour in vain. Also, the dynamics of our federation is such that our legislators at the Federal level must remain constantly in touch with the demands and interests of their State which they have to doggedly pursue in the midst of very diverse opinions.

This therefore is an occasion for constructive engagement, for exchange of information and ideas. In the past four years, this parley had served us so very well.

I therefore hope that our new members will imbibe the pervasive spirit of cooperation and take it with them as they go about their duties in whatever their spheres of influence might be.

Before I conclude this speech, I wish to highlight some issues which confront us as a State and the challenges that we have to respond to as we approach the new year.

Recently, I announced a budget proposal of N485.292bn for year 2012. 53% of this will be devoted to capital projects while 47% is reserved for recurrent expenditure.

Our defeated opponents in the Poverty Development Party, being the very bad losers that they are, now have the temerity to question the size of the budget. They conveniently bury their heads in the sand and refuse to see the developments and progress that the majority acknowledge within and outside our shores.

Perhaps most surprisingly, they shamelessly fail to accept responsibility for the gross mismanagement of the national economy by their party in Federal Government, and its consequent devaluation of our currency, our human capital and our standard of life.

Our Government remains too focused to be distressed by their idle pranks.

However, it is noteworthy that, as inflation erodes the value of money, we are increasingly buying less goods and services with more. Yet we cannot make tax increase our general answer, as taxpayers are also affected by the adverse economic conditions.

We have however made a singular exception of the Land Use Charge, which was first introduced in 2001 and has only had a single episode of rate adjustment since its inception. That adjustment was in fact a substantial reduction which took place in January, 2002.

At that time, our commitment was to also keep the reduced rates for a period of 7 years; but we have done so now for almost 10 years. Furthermore, we consistently refrained from using prevailing market prices for land use charge valuation, choosing instead a far more conservative approach.

In the meantime, we have and continue to invest massively on infrastructure development, covering roads, drains, bridges, parks and gardens, construction of public health and educational institutions, water supply, and we plan to continue next year.

We have also expanded and fine tuned our traffic control and environmental clean-up exercise, all of which have dramatically improved the value of our properties. Furthermore, we have undertaken the enumeration of properties in Lagos to enable us plan effectively and administer rates in a fair and efficient manner.

In order to sustain these achievements and keep up with the expanded scope of our public infrastructure maintenance, it has become necessary to have a marginal rate increase which will also enhance the revenue of our local government authorities who are also beneficiaries of the fund

It is expected that this will empower them to serve the public better and sustain their clampdown on illegal taxes. With effect therefore from January 2012, we will therefore see 0.05% increase in Land Use Charge rates.

In the meantime, we are also reducing the charges related to land documentation, perfection and regularisation with the hope of facilitating and expediting real property transactions, thereby freeing much-needed capital for business development.

With a 2% reduction in consent fee and 50% reduction in the penalty charged for regularisation, we hope to see more untitled properties being brought into land registry records, thereby reducing land speculations and unapproved building developments.

Increase of school fees payable in our tertiary institutions, especially the Lagos State University, is another issue which has and may continue to generate much controversy. Before taking the decision, the State Executive Council carefully considered the current state of infrastructure and personnel in the university vis a vis what it should be. We also considered the cost of properly funding the institution as against what currently accrues to it by way of revenue from all sources.

The inescapable fact is that even though we must still continue to support the University with substantial funds, the resources of government are not unlimited and other urgent, important and competing interests abound, especially in the areas of basic education, healthcare and infrastructure development.

At the university level therefore, parents and guardians therefore have to pay more to supplement government's efforts; more so when you consider that even the increased fees can hardly cover the personnel costs of the university. For indigent students, government will of course continue its scheme of scholarships and bursaries, as it is done all over the world.

As a legitimate government, we must never hide problems from our people. We must share our difficulties with them and our proposals for overcoming them.

This is the time we must commit ourselves fully to the development of a first class institution which will compete with the best around the world and sit easily at the forefront of innovation and generation of ideas for economic development.

As we see all those that can afford it running off to foreign or private universities, we cannot continue to run a pretend university, which will soon be only for the poor because it charges little or no fees. Should we allow that trend to continue, I fear that the negative and potentially explosive social dichotomy and tension which it will generate.

As I speak, plan to enhance the status of the university are already being implemented and, after a huge investment by the State Government, most courses that were denied accreditation earlier have now been duly accredited.

Only yesterday, I approved the returns from the State Tenders Board for the award of 4 (four) new contracts for the renovation of an existing lecture hall, the construction of a new lecture hall, the central library and Senate building in the State University.

But we need to do much more, and in all these parents must contribute while the State retains its obligation to subsidise the costs.

Once again, I welcome you all with the hope that after the presentations, deliberations and interactions of these two days, our administration and contributions will be stronger, more cohesive and more purposeful both at the state and federal level.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State