Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola Presents 485.3 Billion Naira Budget For 2012

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, presented a budget estimate of N485.292 billion for 2012 to the State House of Assembly for ratification, saying his administration’s purpose and commitment towards delivering the greatest good to the greatest number of citizens of the state remains unchanged.

The amount which, according to the Governor, is being proposed in consideration of the prevailing economic climate, exceeds by 7.66 per cent the 2011 budget estimate which stood at N445.180 billion. As has been the hallmark of the present administration since inception in 2007, Capital Expenditure again took the lion share with N257.821 billion which represents an increase of N30.351 billion over Recurrent Expenditure which stood at N227.470.

However, Capital to Recurrent ratio for 2012 is lower than that of the previous year standing at 53.47 as against 56.44 in 2011, an occurrence which the governor explained was “dictated by recent wage increases and also partly informed by the emerging recurrent costs of maintaining and staffing the various infrastructure projects we have embarked upon over the years that are now being put to use such as new schools, new hospitals, new water works, skill centres and so on.”

Details of capital expenditure for 2012 showed that a total of N222.868 billion will be spent on core capital while capital development (dedicated) will take N21.920 billions. Other areas of expenditure, according to the estimate, are Special Expenditure which will take N6 billion, Grants which will take N3.468 billion, Counterpart Funding which is expected to consume N3.465 and Risk Retention Fund with the least amount of N0.100 billion.

According to the Estimate, General Public Service took the lion share in sectoral allocation gulping a total of N108.526 billion or 22.4 percent of the budget followed by Economic Affairs which is allocated N154.419 billion or 31.8 percent while Education and Environmental Protection respectively got N72.346 billion or 14.9 percent and N44.227 billion or 9.1 percent.

Housing and Community Amenities was allocated N42.812 billion or 8.8 percent, Health N39.75 billion or 8.2 percent. Public Order and Safety N13.894 billion, Recreation, Culture and Religion N5.989 billion or 1.2 percent while Social Protection got N3.37 billion or 0.7 percent.

Details of Recurrent Expenditure, according to the Estimate, shows that Total Overhead Cost is N145.960 billion while Total Personnel Cost stood at N81.511 billion. Components of the total Overhead Cost show the Overhead Cost taking N79.797 billion followed by Subvention with N28.668 billion, Dedicated Expenditure N25.595 billion, Debt Charges (Internal) N6.958 billion, Debt Charges (Bond) N3.842 billion Debt Charges (External) N1.050 billion and Staff Housing Fund N0.050 billion.

Governor Fashola, who said the 2012 budget would be “a significantly most challenging budget to implement”, declared, “Critically it is the first full budget in this first term of great expectation when we must again begin to fulfill new electoral promises at a time of enormous economic and security challenges”. The Governor, however, assured, “We have a clear plan, informed by a progressive manifesto of the fastest growing political party, the Action Congress of Nigeria. We are concerned about the quality of life of working and middle class people and those who are vulnerable in our State. This has led to many strategic policies aimed at making life better and less challenging”.

Governor Fashola who said the policies are both administrative and legislative, explained, “Three of such policies that readily come to mind are the recent laws to create the Office of Disability, review the Criminal Law and the Tenancy Law. The law creating the Office of Disability gives legal backing to some of what we are doing already, to recognize that some people are physically challenged and require special provision to make them lead as normal a possible life in spite of their disabilities”.

“Many of you will have observed that our Television Station has blazed the trail in Nigeria by being the first to offer sign language translation on its 8 pm news belt, for people with hearing difficulties. The Disability law now compels Government to do more such as dedicated car parks, provision of ramps in public buildings, dedicated seats on our buses and so many more”, the Governor said. He added, however, that more funding would be required to achieve the policies.

The Governor said the Criminal Law has helped the administration “to dispense with one of the last remaining colonial vestiges, a Criminal Law made by Europeans about 97 years ago which they themselves have dispensed with but which sadly continued to remain in our statute books until our legislators repealed it and replaced it with a more contemporary law that makes special provision for women and introduces many ground breaking reforms including non-custodial sentence such as community service as a way of punishment for crime”.

On Tenancy Law, Governor Fashola declared, “While Government is pursuing its housing policy, this law has the capacity to give relief to all concerned and reduce the trauma that we are all involuntarily inflicting on ourselves. Yes it will not solve the problem of housing, but the fact is that we all pay directly or indirectly for the outrageous demands for multiple years rent without adverting our minds to the cost.

It is one of the identified causes of desperation and difficult living to ask a worker, a trader or other person in self or paid employment to bring 2 to 3 years rent in advance”. “Apart from the fact that the impact of the desperation to meet the multi-year rent affects our society as a whole and examples are legion, what really happens is that we simply pass the cost into the cost of goods and services and we all pass it around in a way that creates inflation and reduces our disposable income and the money available to deal with other things such as payment of school fees, healthcare, feeding costs and so much more”, the Governor further explained.

Enjoining all stakeholders to comply with the Tenancy Law, Governor Fashola, who said the Law also protects the landlord from the defaulting or difficult tenant, declared, “It dispenses with many of the previous difficulties of the old law that makes recovery of possession difficult. The law is therefore a victory for landlords, tenants and the Lagos economy. Its success will be defined by voluntary compliance for mutual benefits rather than by the coercive authority of the State”.

“We have demonstrated our capacity for hard work and we are poised to exceed our efforts. The only request we make now is for your support and for funding through taxation and mutual restraint and voluntary compliance to rules and regulations that secure law and order”, the Governor said.

Reviewing the performance of the 2011 budget, Governor Fashola assured that the budgetary policy of alleviating poverty through infrastructural renewal which formed the focus of the previous budget would continue adding, “While we would deal with the emerging issues of workers welfare and the demand for increased wages, we would also be responding to the emerging challenges of accreditation in our tertiary institutions especially the State owned University”.

“In the 2011 budgetary presentation, I also stated very clearly that our focus would be to continue and complete as many on-going projects as we could, whilst starting only critical ones that we could fund, with the intention of leading our Party to victory at the general elections with great optimism that our performance score card would be good enough to secure a return for us”, the Governor said. According to him, “In spite of the very turbulent economic environment after a global recession in 2009-2010 and a very keenly contested election, I am happy to report that we have achieved quite a significant portion of the goals we set for ourselves in the 2011 Budget with almost 6 (Six) weeks still to go in year 2011”. 

Such areas of achievement, the Governor said, include Education where the implementation of the budget commitment “to resolve the challenges of our tertiary education will be seen in the rapid infrastructural development going on in the Lagos State University” while more projects are going through tender adding, “we are currently exploring a proposal for the delivery of broadband internet connectivity to the entire campus to improve the capacity for learning and access to information”.

“At the lower education level, we have approved the renovation and rehabilitation of 314 (Three Hundred and Fourteen) primary and secondary schools across the State, in Yaba, Ipaja, Alimosho, Ejigbo, Badagry, Lekki, Ikorodu, Aguda and Ojo areas to mention a few”, the Governor said.

Other areas of success, according to Governor Fashola, include the number of projects that have been completed and handed over such as the 2 million gallons per day mini water works in Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Badore and Ojokoro; the 12 classroom blocks each in Gbara Community Junior Secondary School, Gbara Community Senior Secondary School, Olowon Community Secondary School Ajah, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Complex, the provision of 250 (Two Hundred and Fifty) Taxis, the Skill Acquisition Centre in Mushin, the house and clinic for physically challenged children in Owode-Elede, Ketu, the Lagos Digital Mapping and Geographic Information System, the provision of 100 (One Hundred) new waste compactor trucks for refuse management and the provision of 60 (Sixty) high power motor cycles, 50 (Fifty)patrol vehicles, 10 (Ten) armored personnel carriers, 200 (Two Hundred) bullet proof vests to the Police for crime prevention and control, to mention but a few.

“During the period under review, our Public Works Corporation lived up to its promise to address the problem of heavy tonnage and its wear and tear on our roads by rehabilitating 900 (Nine Hundred) roads, while construction works continue on critical roads like Eti-OsaLekkiEpe Expressway, the Badagry Expressway, the Lagos Light Rail Project and many other inner roads about which I will also speak. 

“In Alimosho, we have completed a total of 23 (twenty three) roads of various kilometres while work is going on in 14 (fourteen) roads; in Agiliti, Tedi, Erikiti-Ajara work is going on, while Igbo-Elerin Road, Murtala Mohammed Way from Yaba to Iddo have now been fully completed; and plans are at an advanced stage to award Mile 12 to Ikorodu”, the Governor said.

The Governor, however, regretted that as a result of the politically motivated resistance to the commencement of toll collection on the Eti-Osa, Lekki-Epe Expressway, the State Government had to part with N4 billion for year 2011 “which could have been used to provide more schools, inner roads, hospitals and social needs in Eti-Osa, Ibeju-Lekki and Epe areas”, adding “Regrettably however, our financial realities cannot sustain such funding to the detriment of other developments that are crying out for funding in other parts of the State”. “It is undeniable that Property values have risen in that area because of the road work on Eti-Osa-Lekki-EpeExpressway; we have also recently completed the Falomo ramp. It is only fair that the investors begin to collect their toll”, the Governor pointed out.

Governor Fashola urged all Lagosians to voluntarily pay their tax saying “while our State has been receiving an average monthly income of N6-7 Billion from the Federation Account, and some States in the oil rich regions without our size of population are getting as much as N20-30 Billion per month, Lagos State has looked inwards, without oil derivation and taken her destiny in her hands to use the collective taxes we contribute to build the Lagos of our dreams”. 

“Self-sufficiency through tax compliance has certainly proven more reliable than depending on oil revenues which are proving increasingly unstable, as the key to building our prosperity. This, ladies and gentlemen, we must continue and improve upon. Our State has become better for it. We are receiving global attention and attracting international interest for what the people of Lagos have done with their taxes”, the Governor said. 

Thanking all Lagosians, Party faithful and the media for the huge vote of confidence on his administration, the Governor again declared, “Not only did we succeed at the general elections, your massive turn out at the polls which we acknowledge as a large endorsement of our service to you, helped us to inflict a decisive and crushing defeat on all opposition in an unprecedented victory that returned all elective offices in the State to the Action Congress of Nigeria. You have reinforced that mandate by again returning all 57 (Fifty Seven) Local Government and Local Council Development Areas to the trust and care of the Action Congress of Nigeria”, adding that the success of the budget plans and the manifestation of its implementation were evident across the State”.

In his address, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, RT Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji commended the State Governor for performing excellently and exceptionally well in making Lagos State a better place for everyone. He stated that past budgets have been judiciously used in road construction and rehabilitation, traffic management, waste management, flood control, greening and beautification programme, clearing of drainages, clearing and expanding the canals as well as provision of street lights,

Other areas, he said, include systematic physical planning for sustainable development and slum upgrading, job creation, building of new schools, upgrading and rehabilitation of existing schools, provision of new health care facilities and improving the existing health centres, ultra-modern court rooms, pension and gratuities as well as provision of houses across the state among others. “Let me point out that the past budgets have been systematically deployed to ensure the greatest happiness to the greatest number while not jettisoning the inherent needs and desires of the minority”, the Speaker said.

He charged the State Governor not to rest on his oars but to continue to work assiduously, conscientiously and relentlessly to take Lagos State to even greater heights, giving an assurance that he and his colleagues will continue to give all the support and encouragement that he needs at all times. The Speaker also urged the Governor to pay particular attention to the activities and governance at the local Governments and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to ensure that the successes recorded at the State is replicated at the grassroots.

Prominent among those who attended the budget presentation were the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Princess Adejoke Orelope –Adefulire, former Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Former Deputy Governor, Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, members of the State Executive Council, traditional rulers including the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu I, the Chairman of the Action Congress in Lagos State, Otunba Henry Ajomale, the Body of Permanent Secretaries, captains of industry and several other important dignitaries.

Source: Vanguard