.. …’We’re developing an intermodal transport system in Lagos’
Gbenga Omotoso is the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State. As the man saddled with the responsibility of interfacing with the people in terms of showcasing the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration in good light and on a positive note, the editor-emeritus sure has his hands full. In this discourse with BENJAMIN OMOIKE, he bares his mind on topical issues and myriads of challenges alike, as it bothers on a burgeoning and cosmopolitan city as Lagos.
Mr Governor just laid the foundation for construction of the Opebi-Ojota link bridge tagged ‘Legacy Project’, which is expected to last 18months, whereas this administration has less than that time to finish its first term. Analysts say that governor Sanwo-Olu is merely completing projects of his predecessors. What is your take?
You see, the problem with most projects that remained uncompleted is mainly cash. But most of the projects embarked on by governor Sanwo-Olu’s administration have cash backing, like the rail projects we are talking about, there is money to fix them already. And then you will recall that recently we got over N100 billion bond. The money is for capital projects. So for us in Lagos, if we say we want to do anything, then so long as a contractor is ready to move, money will not be the problem, because such things will be considered right from the conception of the projects.
Take for example, the Opebi link bridge, the contractors said that they will deliver it in 20 months but the governor told them that they should be able to do it in 18 months. The governor and the entire Executive Council of Lagos State Government are very keen on it. They feel that it is the kind of project that will really touch the lives of people.
People have lost time going to the airport and they have missed a flight. So people, you know, they will not experience that kind of thing again, because if you take off all the way from Opebi, you can easily connect to Ojota and go your own way. So, I do not see anything that can delay that kind of project.
Those who are talking about legacy projects for this administration, there are so many of them. It’s not enough for anybody to feel that our administration is completing projects started by other people. It is to the disadvantage of the taxpayer of Lagos, if such projects are left to just get rot, to whose credit will that be?
Don’t forget it’s the same party that has been in government in Lagos all these years, so it’s a kind of continuity. It is the same party, so there is no way we can turn our back on projects started by our predecessors.
Look at those beautiful housing projects that we have Commissioned in Badagry, Igando Ibeshe, Igbogbo and other places. These projects were started by past administrations, so are we going to turn our backs on them, just because we want to start our own and leave them to rot and make them abodes of miscreants? No! Nobody does that in Lagos in a civil society like ours, because it is the taxpayers money.
The people who are going to be using those houses, they don’t care who started them. Yoruba people have one proverb that says that it is not somebody who started a project or the person who has worked on the project, but the person who has seen it through. Unless you have seen a project through and it is delivered and members of the public are using it, then we will be able to say this is what we have done, this is what we are giving our people.
Majority of Lagosians are discerning, they wouldn’t listen to beer parlour rumours. Are you going to say that beautiful school in Elemoro, that is a project done by another administration, that we are completing?
Look at the Massey Hospital. We are building that is going to be the biggest in West Africa, are you going to say it is another administration’s project? But we
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