Àwa la lèkό (Lagos is ours). But who are we?

How to turn a state with N1.2b monthly IGR in 1999 into a N6.9b state in 8 years is one thing we all want to learn from the former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu. The 500% increase in IGR is nothing but phenomenal. Successive governments have managed to stretch this further incrementally to its current N45 billion monthly. But why is he yet to give the formula to Buhari? While Lagosian knows how much the State generates yearly, they don’t know the details of how it is spent. Kudos for the publication of the State’s yearly financial statements which tells part of the story but do not tell us details yet.

Also, what many Governors would like to learn from Tinubu is how to be a billionaire without any business. This is the biggest wealth hack which should avail him a teaching position at Harvard or London Business School. Every company we know linked to Tinubu has been denied by him, yet he is stinkingly rich. It is reported that Sanwo-Olu has recently increased Alpha Beta’s monthly commission or allocation from N800 million to N2.5 billion. This means that Tinubu collects over 5% of Lagos IGR from the state monthly. But with a 3^rd party ownership structure, it is easy to deny his involvement. Ten years ago, Dr Ademola Dominic questioned the propriety of Alpha Beta’s commission scheme and sought more details into the business relationship with the State government. Fashola refused and his refusal is a red flag. Why is public finance shrouded in secrecy if it is fair and just?

By law, Lagosians enrich Tinubu yearly through the sleazy ex-Governors allowance of 300% salary, cars, healthcare (which has recently become a monthly foreign ritual), pensionable domestic workers, security personnel, Abuja home, and other benefits. Don’t mention off-record property allocations without due process which includes conversion of public properties.

It is indisputable that Lagos is a unique state with many attractions. Federal presence in Lagos includes federal governments institutions, liaison offices, international and local airports, seaports, coastal beaches, a national theatre, a national stadium, specialized banks, companies’ registry, several government institutions, educational institutions, and parastatals, all of which combine to make sure Lagos never sleeps and contributes in no small measure to the wealth enjoyed by Lagos today. The importance of the former longest bridge in Africa at 11.8 km linking the mainland to the island is colossal to trade and commerce. If it is undisputed that Tinubu did not facilitate any atom of these, then we can agree that Lagos was long built before 1999.

Imagine for a moment that the FCT is moved away from Abuja tomorrow and someone comes after some decades to lay claim to building Abuja after constructing and resurfacing some intracity roads, some 100 meters overhead bridges, planting flowers, and sweeping the roads! Tinubu’s followers compare a former capital territory created in 1967 to Anambra created in 1991 which a few years ago was still unearthing civil war landmines of the late 60’s. Images of Lagos in the 60’s and 70’s are all over the internet and the efforts of several former Heads of State in Lagos stare us in the face daily, but the allies choose not to acknowledge them. Yes, we had the molue and bad roads, but are we saying we don’t have rickety roads on Lagos roads today or that the roads are in perfect shape? Jakande built the secretariat, house of assembly complex, low-cost estates, general hospitals, and numerous other projects just in four years. Tinubu just needed to upgrade the hospital, but no, he ‘built’ Lagos and forgot to upgrade the hospital already built for him. If he did, then he should stop travelling abroad to another hospital every month at the expense of Lagosians.

Tinubu has repeatedly stated that he will replicate his Lagos mojo in Abuja. If this includes increasing the IGR, it also includes enriching himself. For every N100 Tinubu’s company collects, over N5 goes into his pocket. We know from the statement on oath of Dapo Apara that Tinubu owns Alpha Beta. The company has its business in many other States beyond Lagos and they are not experiencing the Lagos mojo because it is no mojo. You simply cannot give what you don’t have. The uniqueness of Lagos with the infrastructure of a former Federal Capital Territory as stated above is what makes it able to generate revenue as much as it does. Again, there is the ethical revenue generation in the areas of income taxes which is the duty of LIRS and not Alpha Beta and most annoying the unethical revenue generation as exemplified by LASTMA particularly. Not long after LASTMA was created a year after Tinubu’s stewardship in Lagos, it became a revenue-making agency rather than a traffic agency.  With a set target of revenue yearly, it is beyond doubt that there will be injustice in its operation, and I can attest to it that trials in court are formality as personally experienced. What Tinubu created was a beast to extort and inconvenience Lagosians daily. The penalties range from N20,000 to N100,000. The big IGR of Lagos is more of a rip-off in many shades. The Lagos state MVAA has perhaps the highest rate for vehicle licensing in Nigeria, others are motorcycle riders licensing scheme, commercial vehicle stickers fee, unjust tolls on roads, signage and advertisement costs increasing the IGR. All these compounds cost of businesses on Lagosians.  

Tinubu is a model crook cum politician, able to deceive and blur the footpaths of a shady past with a dependent army of sworn followers, a piece of the media space, and most importantly a host of pawns in various offices from the State level to the Federal, with a Governor in Lagos who is not actually a ‘Governor’, and those in the federal executive currently managing a battered nation.

Nigeria’s problems are multi-faceted, and I do not envy the next President. But I am sure the Tinubu that said, ‘…your voter card is expired, they may not have told you’, the one that implied that labourers are the wretched of the earth, the one who thinks Boko Haram would end by employing 50 million youths is not going to take us anywhere. We may not all agree with Hundeyin reportage but please how did the young daughter pay millions of dollars for that property? We would be fools not to reject Tinubu at the polls if we say we want a better country than we have.

The few owners of Lagos make personal gains from the inconvenience passed to Lagosians daily and inflated contract like the rail-line, road tolls, self-allocated properties, and are the ones entitled to claim Lagos as ‘Our Lagos’. The earlier we realise this, the better for us and the need to reclaim it from them. Àwa la lèkό! But who are we? Shareholders, taxpayers, or party members? This is a question that begs for answers next election.