Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has appealed to the Senate to revisit the bill seeking 1 percent allocation to Lagos from the revenue accruable to the Federal Government.
Governor Ambode, who spoke at the Lagos House, Ikeja, when he received on courtesy visit members of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, on oversight visit to some federal institutions in Lagos, said Lagos being a cosmopolitan city and the economic capital of Nigeria deserved some assistance from the Federal Government to address its infrastructural challenges.
The governor said considering the fact that Lagos used to be the capital of Nigeria and was home to every tribe in the country, the passage of the bill by the senators should be viewed from the point of its importance to the country, and not just to Lagos.
“Come December 12, 2016, it will be 25 years that the capital of Nigeria was moved from Lagos to Abuja. So, 25 years after, this is where we are. So, I like to use this platform firstly to say a big thank you to the Senate president and the deputy Senate president for allowing us to table our 1 percent special status because we have been struggling to put that up in the seventh Assembly, it was not done but it was through this eight Assembly that it was actually tabled and so we thank them for that.
“If we have about 12 senators here and we are looking for two-third, we are saying here that it would not be out of place to revisit our appeal and our bill. Lagos is thoroughly cosmopolitan; it is a mini-Nigeria and then the wellbeing of Lagos is the total wellbeing of Nigeria, and everybody has a stake here in Lagos. As a government, we have continually addressed the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos in a way that is suitable and comfortable for all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, creed or religion,” he said.
While clarifying the essence of the bill, Governor Ambode said “it only seeks 1 percent special allocation from the revenue accruable to the Federal Government,” adding: “If we are able to do that, you can imagine what we would have done 25 years ago based on the understanding of gentlemen that Lagos would not be left behind or forgotten.
“So, that is the platform we want you to try and help us to have a re-look, a re-think and then think more of Nigeria in the bill rather than of Lagos because that is what that one percent assistance will address and then tends to create the image of the kind of commercial capital we want Lagos to be.”
He said: “Another very important point is that the infrastructure around Apapa Port is not really befitting of what it should be. The real estate around Apapa Port has actually overtaken the activities of marine business there and that is why we are forward looking, thinking there must be a different way to do business or commerce.
“We like to use this opportunity also to appeal to the Federal Ministry of Works to assist the haulage business in the Apapa area so that we can get federal roads well prepared for the kind of commerce we have there.”
Chairman of the Senate committee, Sani Yerima, said members of the Committee were in Lagos to perform oversight function on federal institutions in the state.
He commended Ambode for the development going on in Lekki, especially the Lekki Deep Sea Port situated at the Lekki Free Trade Zone.
“Lagos is not only for Lagosians. If you look at Lagos, it has been the national capital and up till this moment, you find people from all states of the federation earning living here and so anything we do for Lagos, we are not doing it for Lagos alone and I will call Lagos a mini Nigeria. So, by the grace of God, we are going to look at the bill again,” Yerima assured.
