The recent report of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which ranked Lagos as the Fourth Worst City to live in did not sit down well with the state government as well as several residents of the former capital city of Nigeria.
In this interview with The Nigerian Xpress in Lagos, a political analyst and Convener/National President of Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG), Comrade Razaq Olokoba, blamed the mess-up on the lack of information about the peculiar challenges, facing the city.
Olokoba expressed the conviction that, if the organisation had the correct information about the challenges facing the city, the outcome of its report would have been different. He spoke with Razaq Bamidele:
What is your take on the EIU reports, ranking Lagos as the Fourth Worst City to live in?
The report was borne out of the recurring level of misunderstanding of Lagos. I think the government of the state and members of the public, who have a clear conscience and knowledge about Lagos have the responsibility of educating and sharing knowledge about Lagos with academics, intellectuals, the people, and the world generally. We have discovered that the understanding of what Lagos is, many people that deficiency in terms of data and what Lagos means in its entirety.
Let me try to explain what I have just said. There is nowhere in the world that is meant for an occupation that does not have a limit for habitation; that is, the number of people that a civilised habitation could accommodate. There is no city in the world and Lagos State is not an exemption. But look at the population of people living in Lagos. Long before now, we had been raising the concern that the rate of the influx of people into Lagos is alarming. We said it would get to a point where habitation would become very difficult.
So, if you have this kind of knowledge in mind, any assessment you would want to make about Lagos would reflect what we have said. But most of the time, most of the academics, intellectuals, journal gurus, and environmental experts, who have assignments of putting things together don’t or pretend not to know these challenges about Lagos. And that is why it should be part of the duties of Lagos to always point out these areas of challenge that the people living in Lagos have exceeded the number required to be there in excess of millions.
Can you be more specific?
Yes. As of the last time, the assessment was carried out about the capacity of people Lagos could accommodate; it was just between 12 million and 16 million. I don’t know whether my data is accurate or not. But today, we are aware that the number of people living in Lagos is over 20 million. There is no how a state would witness the influx of people in excess that would not tell on the responsibility the government is performing. And we expect anybody that has this knowledge to allow space for it in whatever they want to say. That is on one side.
The second aspect is that, for a city like Lagos, it is not the duty of the government of the state alone to see to the welfare of the people of Lagos. In fact, it is not also the responsibility of the Federal Government. All international organisations must also play a role in ensuring that habitation in Lagos is conducive. The reason international organisations in the world like the United Nations (UN), the Red Cross, and other humanitarian organisations across the world pay attention to the population of cities like Cairo in Egypt, Johannesburg in South Africa, Lagos in Nigeria, New York City, London and so on is to avert a humanitarian crisis.
But if one looks at all these denials on Lagos, we have to commend what the Lagos Government is doing. I mean starting from the number of people who are supposed to be living in Lagos, which is in excess in the last 15 years. When we plan a budget, it is to cater to a particular number of people. When we prepare a budget, it must be commensurate with the financial responsibility of the people.
For instance, if 70 people live in a place and all 70 people pay their taxes, it would be easy for the government to meet up with its responsibility of catering to all 70 people. But if only ten per cent or even only 25 per cent of the people living in a state pay tax, the burden would weigh down the state.
Now, people who are not in Nigeria conduct a survey of assessment of Nigeria from outside Nigeria, such assessments always go over the bar. So, they place Lagos side by side with where they live and where they are coming from maybe London, New York, or wherever they may be. But when they are aware that there are certain facilities that the cities in the United Kingdom or Paris enjoy from international organizations, Lagos does not enjoy it they would have a rethink! Lagos lives in that denial. We have a government in Nigeria at the centre where in the exclusive list Lagos appears not a priority. And that is also part of the facilities Lagos is supposed to be enjoying. But it is missing in Lagos. As a government, Lagos is catering to the people in excess of about ten million.
Now, if you come to Lagos and walk freely without security challenges, you conduct your business and safe from the traffic, what is expected as a minimum standard from anybody in the area of assessment is to commend those in charge of affairs in Lagos State. This is where we are coming from. No other persuasion than that. Against this backdrop, I, as a person reject that report.
In some quarters, it is believed that the report was induced. Do you fall into that line of thought?
Not really. While I would not say that the report was an induced one, I would rather conclude that the report was a result of information available to them when carrying out their research. However, the report is inadequate, misleading, and unacceptable.
What then is the way forward to avoid a repeat of the perceived mess up?
It’s simple. Lagos State government should have the courage to speak up. As a stakeholder and patriotic citizen, I pay my tax. But it is always painful when you pay your tax and you see the level of what the government is dishing out. It is also painful if 50 per cent of the population is paying taxes, how would the transformation be? And that is why we want to open a debate with anybody who would want to convince the public that the meagre resources available to the Lagos government do not commensurate with the physical performance of the government since 1999. Let us open a debate on that.
Let us roll out our data. Let us analyse sector by sector. Economy, Environment, Transportation, Health Sector, Regional Panning, and all others, let us begin to look at them one after the other. The money that is used to recycle the waste produced by 25 million people from the tax paid by less than 10 per cent of 25 million people! That is a big contradiction and a big challenge to the Lagos State Government. Lagos Government collects money from less than two million people to take care of the affairs of 25 million people. The more we fail to admit this challenge, the more we are causing damage not only to Lagos but to the nation as a whole.
What do you mean?
I mean when you have a state that houses 52 per cent of the economy of your nation, any damage you are causing to the state is damage to the economy of the whole country. Any harm caused to that state is not harming that state but also harming the whole nation. And that is what the Lagos State Government should dwell much upon about the challenge we have. As a chartered administrator, I don’t know the method of the economy the government adopted that the state is achieving success all over the place. I don t know, I must confess. And for me, that is commendable and I dare say that is the type of economic strategy all states should come and adopt, emulate, and put into practice in their various states.
Isn’t it a miracle putting 25 million people in the smallest parcel of land in a state in Nigeria that is less than 1,200 square kilometre and people hold their businesses every day successfully? The time being wasted in the traffic in Lagos is reducing gradually. In the past, you spend almost half a day in traffic. But today, nowhere in Lagos that people waste much time in the traffic before it eases up unless there is an emergency like an accident, road construction, and the like. And that is a feat for commendation for the state government. The government should constantly speak out because if a city or even a nation has a challenge and that challenge is not exposed to the world, people would assess you based on the facts available to them and not with the challenge tucked under the table. That, I am sure, informed the misleading reports of the EIU. If the EIU had access to all these challenges, the report would be different. The outcome of their report would be different. If we want to move forward, we don’t run a state by sweating to do more and at the end of the day the success would not be appreciated because people don’t know the challenges you encountered to attain that success. And the challenges exposed would assist the people to rate you adequately. Or else, expectations of the people would be that you should be able to do more. But if you cover your challenge, if you cover what is happening to you as a government, you may not be able to take the people along.
So, as for us, and for some people who have read the report today, know that Lagos State faces some challenges Lagos State that no other state in the country encounters. Is it in the land mass, the population, and the lack of expected support from institutions particularly from our Federal Government? These are some issues people must understand before drawing conclusions about who we are as a people in Nigeria.