Speeches

5th Annual International Convention of The Eko Club International

Oct 26, 2007 - I congratulate the leadership and members of the Eko Club International on the successful hosting of your 5th international annual convention here in Dallas, Texas. It is indeed a great joy for me to deliver the keynote address at this very important forum. This annual convention has become a very critical and valuable platform to brainstorm various options for the development of Lagos State as well as showcase her immense investment potentials. I commend the ingenious thinking that led to the initiation of this annual convention. I salute the doggedness and commitment that has enabled Eko Club International to sustain what has become a worthy tradition.

The emphasis of this year’s convention on the investment opportunities of Lagos State cannot be more apt. The areas you have earmarked for discussion in the various sessions-health care, education, technology, transportation, environment, tourism, housing and urban development among others- accurately mirror the thinking of our government. This year’s convention is indeed holding at a very critical period in the history of the state. Lagos is today a Mega city state in transition. The last eight years, under the dynamic leadership of my illustrious predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, were utilized as it were to prepare the runway and it is now our historic responsibility to ensure that “Boeing Lagos State” taxis successfully and takes off smoothly on its flight to the destiny of prosperity.
This is the challenge of our generation. It is a mission which we cannot afford to betray. The old Lagos of slums and crime and decay and disorder is dying. A new Lagos of order and progress and prosperity is about to be born.
We are the midwives destined to bring the new to life and preserve only what is worthwhile in the old. I am confident that we have the ability and the talent and the will to transform this abundantly endowed state into a glaring
manifestation of the black man’s genius.

I am going to tell you later about the amazing investment opportunities that Lagos state offers the wise investor. I am going to tell you about the return on investment in Lagos state, which is one of the best in the world. I am
going to challenge you to come home and invest in Lagos state; to be part of the noble venture to build a new Lagos as our enduring legacy to our children and grand children. But first let me convince you that we are a government you can trust. We are focused. We are rigorous in our thinking. We are methodical and scientific in our approach to governance. We are disciplined because we place appropriate value on time, our most critical resource.

The four years of our tenure from May 29th when I was sworn in amounts to 35,000 hours and forty minutes. As at today we have expended 3,624 of those hours. Every minute matters to us. Every day must be made to count in our mission of taking Lagos to the next level. How far have we come in four months? What have we achieved? Within our first 100 days in office, we drew up a supplementary budget of N35.9 billion, which was passed by the House of Assembly and signed into law for immediate implementation. This has enabled us to continue with the major projects we inherited from the preceding administration as well as initiate new ones to reflect our new priorities. As I speak to you work is continuing aggressively on the ongoing expansion of Lekki Express way, construction of Ajah-Badore road and the reconstruction and expansion of the Isheri-Olofin-LASU-Iba road, which were all commenced by the last
administration.

We have introduced a revolutionary approach to road development in Lagos state, which involves the adoption of major clusters of roads in key zones of the state for phased reconstruction and re-development over the next four years. Each cluster will be handled by a reputable contractor who is immediately mobilized to site and will remain on ground permanently.

The major road contracts, which we have already awarded in this respect with the contractors mobilized to site include the construction of Okota-Itire overhead Link Bridge and road works, rehabilitation of Funsho Williams Avenue, Surulere, including the network of roads within the Eric Moore quadrant, infrastructural improvement of Yaba/Jibowu to Iddo in Mainland Local Government and commencement of work on the first phase of the holistic development of roads in Alimosho Local Government. Others include the completion of Adetokunbo Ademola street extension in Victoria Island, rehabilitation of Ago Place road in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government, construction of a pedestrian bridge at Sanya Bus Stop on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and reconstruction of damaged culvert at Ajegunle in Ikorodu.

We have equally awarded the design contract for the transformation of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway into an 8-lane international super highway complete with a bus Rapid Transit corridor, light rail corridor pedestrian walkway and other modern facilities. We are committed to the actualization of this project as the major key for opening up and transforming the entire Badagry Corridor into a world class tourism paradise.

Within our first 100 days in office we procured Intro-Technology and Science equipment worth N256 million for 15 senior and 25 junior secondary schools. We have equally accelerated work on the massive rehabilitation of public schools in Lagos State with a commitment to building 15,000 new classrooms over the next four years. We have sustained
the provision of free health care services in all our public health institutions, while we are continuing with the expansion and modernization of health facilities across the state to cope with the intense pressure on them. Our new emphasis on preventive health is reflected in our initiative of introducing Free State wide screening on diabetes and hypertension, two major silent killer diseases. 38,865 persons benefited from the first phase of the exercise which is ongoing. We have inaugurated the construction of 100 bed children and maternity centres in Ikorodu and Gbaja respectively while the design for the Lagos General Hospital into a 12 storey waterfront edifice on the Marina is being developed.

In the last four months we have moved decisively to address the security problems of Lagos State. We have signed the Lagos State Security Trust Fund Bill into law as a fresh initiative to fund the security needs of the state on a sustainable basis. Corporate organizations have so far donated over N1 billion in cash and kind to the fund, which is to be managed by a Board of Trustees comprising men and women of impeccable integrity to be inaugurated shortly. This has enabled us to re-organize and rejuvenate the state’s anti-crime outfit the Rapid Response Squad, which has been considerably strengthened with the infusion of additional 2000 men by the police authorities. The RRS has been restructured into 34 sectors and 211 units to cover the entire state and the outfit has been provided with 250 new vehicles to enhance its operational efficacy. The officers and men have been supplied 5 pairs of new uniforms each, bullet proof vests and
telecommunication equipment while a life and disability insurance scheme has been introduced for them to boost their morale. I can assure you that Lagos state has one of the lowest crime rates for a Mega city of her population anywhere in the world. But we are not yet satisfied. We are adopting multi-pronged strategies of tackling the economic precipitators of crime by providing jobs and job opportunities.

Our administration has equally moved drastically to check the menace of the so-called area boys and sundry criminal elements. This is a problem that festered over the years due largely to the protracted national economic recession, the attendant large scale youth unemployment and the massive daily influx particularly of young people from within and outside Nigeria in search of the golden fleece. We are determined to rid Lagos of miscreants and I am happy to say we have gone a long way towards achieving this objective in just four months. The State Task Force on Environmental and
Miscellaneous offences has intensified the arrest and prosecution of incorrigible elements who make the streets unsafe across the state. We have established an additional Mobile Court to strengthen the capacity of the Task Force to effectively enforce the law and check social miscreants, and we have embarked on the construction of new state of the art magistrates’ courts across the state to reinforce our capacity to maintain law and order.

Beyond this, however, we have also adopted the creative approach of productively utilizing these previously misguided young people in some of our social schemes and rewarding them for it. They thus have renewed self esteem and more confidence in themselves as valuable members of society. For instance, we have embarked in the last four months on the aggressive greening and beautification of open space across the state. Scores of these boys and girls are engaged in the exercise. They have been taught the skills of planting and nurturing the seedlings. They are also engaged to watch over and protect the reclaimed and beautified open spaces. For these services, they are paid and empowered to fend for themselves. With one stone, therefore, we are able to kill two birds of enhancing the aesthetic appeal of our environment and providing jobs for our youth and restoring their dignity.

In the last four months we have taken bold steps to reclaim the glory of Lagos as the sports capital of Nigeria; especially as our country’s undisputed Mecca of football. For the first time in several years, the FA football Cup final was held at our magnificent Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos. We equally hosted the Super Four Football League. We were the first state government to formally receive and host the Under 17 Golden Eaglets on their triumphant return from their glorious world cup outing in Korea. The Principal’s Cup football competition resuscitated by my predecessor has been sustained and the Year 2007 edition final was played on Wednesday, 24th October, 2007, at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

Again, we have seized the opportunity of reviving sports to rehabilitate and provide gainful employment for the so-called Area boys and girls. They are used as security, crowd control and traffic control stewards at these social events and paid for their services. Within a month of my assumption of office, we also created 4,570 vacation jobs by engaging holidaying students in our Enterprises Registration and Identification Agents program and within various sectors of the public service. They earned N10, 000 Naira per month for the period and had some reasonable pocket money on resumption of school. We intend to continue next year on a larger scale and beyond.

I can go on and on stating our concrete efforts in the last four months to deliver on our covenant with the electorate. For example, we have established the Eko Micro-Finance Initiative, with a seed fund of N250 million in the first instance, to provide credit at minimal interest rate to enable indigent persons establish small scale enterprises. In the housing sector, we have instituted, on Wednesday, the 24th October, 2007, a Mortgage scheme to enable low income earners pay to own homes over a 25-year period at an interest rate of not more than 10%, the first of its kind in many years in the country. Earlier, I mentioned the aggressive beautification and greening of open spaces in diverse locations of the state. In addition to this we are preparing to introduce Dino refuse bins in over 2000 locations all over the state and approved the sum of N1.25 billion to re-dredge 15 tertiary canals across the state to enhance free flow of water into the Lagoon and reduce the menace of flooding.

We have approved and work has already commenced on the 2nd phase of restoration and stabilization of the Bar Beach, which will span 500 meters from Akin Adesola Street to Adetokunbo Ademola Street. This will consolidate the earlier 1000 meters restored and stabilized and enable the commencement of the next phase of our Bar Beach transformation program. We have identified 25 most severe points of traffic gridlock across the state and are currently pre-testing newly designed traffic re-routing alternatives to fundamentally address the problems. The construction of the dedicated Bus Rapid Transit routes from CMS to Ikorodu through Mile 12 is also being aggressively pursued for the full commencement of operations by the high capacity buses. Our water transportation policy is being pursued and we are awaiting designs from our Dutch consultants for the Jetties and passenger waiting terminals to be implemented next year.

It can be seen from the foregoing synopsis of where we are today that we are a serious minded government. We are purpose-driven and have a clear sense of direction. Above all, we are passionate about Lagos, our Lagos. Without
being immodest, I can confidently say that we are a government worth doing business with. I invite you to partner with us by investing in the infrastructural development of Lagos state. The attractions of investing in Lagos are all too evident. Consider the market potentials of a huge population of 18 million people by the sea. Lagos is Nigeria’s financial and industrial nerve center, the commercial hub of West Africa and hosts West Africa’s major sea and air ports. She hosts West Africa’s premier Stock Exchange, harbours 60% of Nigeria’s total industrial investments and serves as the pivot of the telecommunication industry, the media, entertainment, tourism and other service sectors.

Any shrewd investor thus has every reason to put his or her money in Lagos. Our infrastructure challenges are phenomenal. But these facilities also have the potential of generating huge revenues and richly rewarding the
enterprising investor. Let me give you a picture of the gap between demand for various types of infrastructure and the inadequate supply that an intrepid investor can fill profitably. We need at least 12,000 MW of electricity but only 1000 MW is currently being supplied. We currently generate and distribute 170 million gallons of water per day while the actual need is for 720 gallons per day. Currently we have a capacity to collect 1,250,000 Metric Tons of waste per
annum out of a total of 3,285,000 Metric Tons generated per annum. We need investors to fill the gap by investing in refuse compaction and collection trucks and participating in our PSP programme on conversion of the organic waste to wealth. In the transportation sector, there is a current unmet demand of 6 million passenger trips per day. Some see these as problems. It is wiser to see them as opportunities waiting to be tapped. The short sighted will see them as obstacles. The more perceptive investor will see them as stepping stones to the building of viable businesses. The choice is ours.

At the various sectoral sessions, the Commissioners and other officials of the Lagos State Government will give detailed information on the specific investment opportunities available in the state. Let me however highlight one or two areas that graphically illustrate what I am talking about. The transportation sector is one such area. On Bus transportation, for example, we have a potential road network in Lagos state of 100km, a projected annual passenger demand of 100 million people, a potential demand for 40,000 high capacity buses and the establishment of a viable Bus Assembly
Plant. The cost of providing this infrastructure is estimated at US$100 million with estimated annual revenue of US$50 million. On rail transportation, we project a total annual passenger demand of 400 million people on the two proposed routes from Iddo to Ijoko and Ojo/Okokomaiko to Mile 2. Investment in the infrastructure for the routes will cost US$787 million while the annual revenue will amount to US$ 400 million. As for water transportation, we propose to have four routes namely Ikorodu to Marina via Oworo; Ojo to Marina; Lekki Axis to Marina and Oke-Afa to Marina.
The total annual passenger demand for the routes is projected at 37 million people to be transported by not less than 41 ferries conveying a maximum capacity of 100 passengers at 10 minute intervals. The potential annual
revenue for the routes is projected at US$37 million.

Other investment opportunities in several other areas including urban renewal, roads development, waste management, power generation and water supply. We need pioneers. We need daring investors. Our waterways when deployed will require ferries to operate on them. We only intend to provide the infrastructure and regulate standards while the private sector will be left to operate the ferries. We need bold innovators courageous enough to seize and utilize opportunities. You are that investor. Arise today, awaken the giant within and join us in conquering new terrains of infrastructure development in Lagos State.

Thank God, our democracy is growing and we have a vibrant judiciary that can protect and guarantee the sanctity of your investment.

Let me tell you of another of our dreams. Yes, we are a government that dares to dream great dreams and see grand visions. No people can progress without the capacity to dream seeming impossibilities into reality; we believe that only our minds can limit us. Without vision, is it not said that a people perish? Every great and enduring accomplishment of man across time and space was once but a dream. But it takes tenacity, resourcefulness, determination, resilience and faith to birth dreams and nurture them to reality. I urge you to join us in actualizing our planned new Eko Atlantic
City. This will be a residential, commercial, financial and tourism settlement located on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Eko Atlantic City is designed as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project estimated to cost US$3.5 billion which will involve sand filling the ocean 5km backward. All necessary scientific and environmental impact assessment for the project is currently being undertaken by Messrs Chagoury, a reputable firm with a proven track record on infrastructure
development, dredging and land reclamation. This is another golden opportunity for investment which you should certainly buy into.

You are already aware of the amazing development on the Lekki corridor, the fastest growing real estate business zone in Africa. At the other end of Lagos, we are opening up as I mentioned before the Badagry corridor, which we plan to transform into a prime destination for tourism and entertainment. Here again innumerable opportunities await the willing investor and I urge you to come on board. More than ever before, there is the need for Nigerians in Diaspora to come back home and join in the difficult but exciting enterprise of nation building. There is the need to plow back our resources back home by investing in diverse sectors of our promising economy.

We know how the Jews in Diaspora have been so crucial to the development of Israel. Indians are leaving the UK and other European countries in droves to go back home and develop India. Ours should be no different.

Let me in conclusion share with you a pain I harbor deep in my heart. It is about the plight of the black man and our seemingly endless romance with underdevelopment. Why after over five decades of “independence”, do we remain the despised wretched of the earth? Why do we remain victims of pity and objects of charity? Why do we run street beggar economies prowling the international arena without dignity ever in search of aid and financial hand outs? Is it not the same blood that runs in our veins; the same number of cells as other races in our brains? Why must we perpetually seek the comfort of other lands while being so pathetically unable to develop ours?

Friends, brothers, sisters, my fellow Lagosians and country men, it is time to say “enough is enough.” It is time to end the shame of Africa. It is time to prove that we can build safe, secure and prosperous nations that work. We have the intelligence. We have the skills. We have the ability. All we need is to conquer the debilitating paralysis of the will. And we must begin to harness the transforming power of passion for excellence. Let us not forget that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. We need a critical mass of good and competent men to take charge of public life and to chart a new course for a Renascent Africa.

Let us not forget that the great pyramids of ancient Egypt were built by Africans. Those monuments still dazzle scientists today. Let us recall that African statesmen established the ancient Ghana, Mali, Shonghai, Benin,
Kanem-Borno, Oyo and other great empires that compared favorably with the civilizations of their time. Listen to the illuminating words of Professor Patrick Wilmot in his latest book on Nigeria: “Oxford was founded in the eleventh century, at which time there were already universities in Africa, Egypt and Mali precisely. When Henrich Barth visited the
Sultan of Sokoto in the 19th Century, the European brought mathematics books from Euclid to Newton. The Sultan thanked him for these gifts as his own copies were worn out from constant use.” There is, therefore, nothing inherently inferior about the black man.

Friends, I believe strongly that we can make a point with Lagos. We can transform this unique Mega city into the black man’s pride. That is my dream, my driving passion, which I invite you to share. If our generation passes on leaving Nigeria and Africa in her current state, our existence would have been wasted and worthless. May that never be our fate.

I thank you for listening. God bless you and I wish Eko Club International a very successful convention.

“Eko o ni baje o!”

Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)
Governor of Lagos State