I have answered this question many times and it seems people just dwell on debt but in the context of debt, let us look at the assets too. I am leaving behind hundreds of kilometres of roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, courtrooms, social services, skill centres, streetlights and traffic lights. I am leaving behind also people who now have jobs, who did not have jobs seven years ago. I am leaving behind a stronger security force; a stronger LASTMA, a stronger KAI. That is where the money went. I am leaving behind a rail system. I am leaving behind so many assets for the continuity of life. I am also leaving behind a bigger workforce – a better equipped workforce.

I think we should talk less about debt and more about development.
Lagos State Government still has to continue to raise more money and this takes me to the Internally Generated Revenue that you are talking about. The IGR – standing on its own – is averagely N20 billion. Let us do the math. Some months it is more than that, some months it drops. The monthly allocation from the Federation Account is averagely N10 billion; sometimes it goes up to N11 billion, sometimes it drops to N9 billion. Let us use an average of N10 billion, even though in the last few months it dropped to six and half (N6.5 billion). If we have averagely N30 billion, do the math, divide it by 21 million people. You will get one thousand four hundred and something naira per person in Lagos. It is easy then to say let us collect the IGR you think is big but you are seeing the IGR alone and not seeing the responsibilities.

Our population has also grown by forced migration in terms of the Internally Displaced Persons across Nigeria. I just sent a team to somewhere in Apapa where there are people displaced from the North-East of Nigeria in camps. We have to go and intervene; we cannot leave them there without help. The sanitary condition there is horrendous. If we want a government that only deals with what is available, then every month is the government going to tell everybody, ‘go and take your N1,400; go and build your roads, go and build your schools, go and build your hospitals, manage your security?’

But we have to be futuristic, we have to think ahead. The IGR that you also talked about does not come as N20 billion to us. It comes when somebody pays N1 million for land today, somebody pays for his vehicle registration tomorrow, and somebody pays his ground (land) rent. It is because we are accountable that we always announce at the end of the month, ‘this is what we got.’ If we wait for 30 days for the money to accrue, it means we won’t do any work.
People should understand that we won’t do any work because the money has not accrued. What do we do? We borrow against it. The banks which we collect it from know that we will pay because the money (IGR) comes through them.

So, we take a loan. But we don’t borrow to pay salaries; we don’t borrow for recurrent expenditure, we borrow for capital investments. I cannot go and tell the person who is waiting to take his child to the hospital and there is no hospital space; that they should ‘wait, I am waiting to collect money.’ If I give you the contract to build a hospital, I cannot tell you ‘take one naira today, I am waiting for two naira tomorrow.’ It is not a way to plan construction. You must gather your building materials and you must move men to the site. We borrow from the banks. When the monies come, the banks deduct them.

[b]The borrowing you are even talking about, measure it against the assets. We took N275bn bond over eight years. The first thing we had to do was to repay the old bond of N15 billion because the Lagos State Government drew N15 billion out of the N25 billion bond. We had to repay that so that we could take the full benefit of what we were planning to do, which was going to be issued in series. And we did all these in public. What did we use these monies to finance? We used them to finance infrastructure. As the monthly IGR is coming, we are returning 15 per cent of the IGR into a consolidated debt service account. We can’t touch it. Take out 15 per cent of N20bn. We have over a N100 billion in that account to pay the debts. Those who are saying we owe, the system for paying bond is secured. We just paid the second bond, which was the first that I took. We paid it last year. The next bond will be due in 2017 and it is about N60 billion or N70 billion but we have N100 billion in the account. In any event, we have over-secured our liabilities as far as the bonds are concerned. As far as the local short-term loans from banks are concerned, we were able to pay.[/b]


If we don’t want a life of debt, then Lagosians must agree that we reduce our budget to what we earn. We have a budget of about N489 billion. Let us use our IGR as an example: N30 billion multiplied by 12 months is N360 billion. We are already in a hole of about N119bn. If Lagosians want us to reduce it, then will Lagosians agree to stop demanding more services? Certainly, no! Thus, this is the context.

And when you look at the countries we aspire to be like: America owes $16 trillion – they owe the whole world – but they have the best space ships, aircraft and army, and they can decide what our military does with the debt they owe the world.

[size=14pt]So, we take a loan. But we don’t borrow to pay salaries; we don’t borrow for recurrent expenditure, we borrow for capital investments.[/size]

And when you look at the countries we aspire to be like: America owes $16 trillion – they owe the whole world – but they have the best space ships, aircraft and army, and they can decide what our military does with the debt they owe the world.

I am leaving behind hundreds of kilometres of roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, courtrooms, social services, skill centres, streetlights and traffic lights. I am leaving behind also people who now have jobs, who did not have jobs seven years ago. I am leaving behind a stronger security force; a stronger LASTMA, a stronger KAI. That is where the money went. I am leaving behind a rail system. I am leaving behind so many assets for the continuity of life. I am also leaving behind a bigger workforce – a better equipped workforce.

NgeneUkwenu:


Mumu Go School, you no go gree! You see ya life?

yimikaa:
This guy I so intelligent. Fash baba

Backing it up with facts and figures,laying it bare,even a layman would understand his explanation.

yimikaa:
This guy I so intelligent. Fash baba

Backing it up with facts and figures,laying it bare,even a layman would understand his explanation.

NgeneUkwenu:


That is it! Even that Taniod above you couldn't comprehend!

NgeneUkwenu:


That is it! Even that Taniod above you couldn't comprehend!

Fashola visited Toronto earlier this year to inspect the TTC trains.

The Lagos deal would be the first of its kind for the TTC. Decommissioned cars are usually sold for scrap metal and can fetch up to $1,500 dollar each. While Ross declined to discuss specific figures, he says the sticker price for Lagos is "significantly more" than scrap prices, putting the potential profits to the TTC in the millions of dollars.

It is not unusual for technology from western nations to end up in poorer countries. Marketplaces in Africa and Asia are flooded with North American clothes, computers, and even cars, but the purchase of larger technology like trains is rarer.

The cars will have to be significantly refurbished to fit existing infrastructure in Lagos, and some Nigerian media reports have lamented that the government appears to have settled on "tokundo," or used, trains instead of brand new vehicles.

Although half the cars are more than 30 years old, Ross is adamant they are perfectly safe and are only being decommissioned for capacity reasons. But he also admitted the TTC is not required to make sure the cars meet any safety standards before selling them.

"Once sold, it's up to the new operator to ensure they are in good working order," he said. "They do need to be maintained much more frequently than the new trains, simply because of their age. At some point they will run out their useful life."

Murtaza Haider, director of the Institute of Housing and Mobility at Ryerson University, said the age of the cars is definitely a cause for concern.

"We should be ensuring that there is some service life left in these vehicles and we're not going to be playing havoc with the lives of those who would ride these vehicles," Haider said. "There's metal fatigue, and that metal fatigue could result in dangerous conditions. I would be paying a close watch on this for the next ten years to see how many accidents do happen in Lagos."

More from: https://nowtoronto.com/news/next-stop-nigeria/

Lagos light rail’ll be ready in June – Fashola
JANUARY 9, 2013

The Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on Tuesday said the first phase of the state Blue Light Rail project would be completed by June this year(2013).

He expressed confidence that Lagosians would start enjoying the services of the lrail project immediately.

The first phase would run from Marina and terminated at Okokomaiko area in Ojo Local Government.

Fashola spoke during an inspection of ongoing projects in the state which took him and his cabinet members to Orile-Iganmu, Alimosho and Ejigbo areas among others to assess the level of works being done by contractors.

The governor, who inaugurated the trackwork of the blue light rail at Alaba Suru, Coker-Agunda Local Council Development Area, said the level of work on the road and those of the National Theatre and Alaba-Mile 2 rail stations, would ensure early completion

He said, “In order to finish the project, the contractor did not go on vacation during the festive period. This will ensure that the project is delivered on time for the use of Lagosians.

More from: http://www.punchng.com/news/lagos-light-railll-be-ready-in-june-fashola/

How We Spent N160bn World Bank Loan on Light Rail Project
11 Sep 2014
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He, therefore, explained that the state government already “has in place, strategies to repay the loan. The federal government was in the know of the state’s decision to take the bond and it approved it.”

He added that the truth “is that what they do not also say is that no state in Nigeria can borrow money outside, from any multilateral agencies without the approval of the federal government.

“What they did not say is that they approved it. No state can raise money by bond the way we have done without the federal government’s approval. Both SEC and NSE are all federal regulatory agencies through which we must pass. If they said okay, it means there must be something good about the debt.

More from: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/lagos-how-we-spent-n160bn-world-bank-loan-on-light-rail-project/188736/

Why I reached out to Igbo voters –Ambode, Lagos APC governorship candidate
APRIL 4, 2015
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When is the light rail going to be delivered, the project seems to be going on for years?

I just said it, it’s being funded by Lagos State and the Federal Government support is not there. But I believe strongly that we will create a financial restructuring that will allow us to deliver that light rail within the next 18 months.

More from: http://www.punchng.com/feature/hotseat/why-i-reached-out-to-igbo-voters-ambode-lagos-apc-governorship-candidate/

NoMoreTrolling:


You guys are grave Behind lickers.

Like are you guys for real?

How can someone who incurred that amount of debt be so intelligent when you can't even place your finger on what it was used for?

Where is the light rail for instance? A system that was to be in operation by June 2013, that's like 2 years ago, smh

BackDatAssUp:


They started off here as opinion crafting shills and have since graduated to fabricating propagandists.

Don't blame them. They have little or no conscience and need to feed. It is the hate filled fools who gobble down every senseless rubbish they are paid to post.

three:
These are mY top 10 'Dodgy' Contracts as listed in the Awarded Contracts Section of the Lagos State Public Procurement Website http://www.lagosppa.gov.ng

Please peruse, do your research and make informed comments.

I must commend LASG for publishing the awarded contracts online as very few if any other state government does same, however, this covers only 2 years of the BRF administration 2013/2014




www.nairaland.com/attachments/2439980_binder1page1_pngbcadc9d307231b1ae58d4947114f401c

NoMoreTrolling:


So the man with the most debt is now viewed as intelligent? Chai!

Sycophancy is real

And when you look at the countries we aspire to be like: America owes $16 trillion – they owe the whole world – but they have the best space ships, aircraft and army, and they can decide what our military does with the debt they owe the world.

bettercreature:
You are a deadly tanoid,I will bookmark your moniker sadly am on mobile phone,would've put you where you belong

BackDatAssUp:



Just click on my handle then click follow

Silly janjawiid

NgeneUkwenu:


Mumu TANIOD! So America with the highest Debt should be viewed as "unintelligent"? Economic illiterate!

Read below!

bettercreature:
I don't follow tanoids I make them abandone their moniker and create a new one

NgeneUkwenu:


Mumu Go School, you no go gree! You see ya life?