10th
of April, 2020
To
Babajide
Sanwo-Olu,
The
Executive Governor of
Lagos, State
Open
Letter to His Excellency Lagos State Governor
Dear
sir,
Let
me begin by congratulating you for winning the election as the
executive governor of the Lagos State. But the bigger compliment goes
to your ability to set us a rapid rescue team for the Covid 19
pandemic without waiting for west world to come and help you like
most African leaders does. It shows that the lagosians did not make a
mistake by electing you.
Having
said all that, the main aim of this open letter to you is to point
out on certain abnormal things that has been going on the Okokomaiko-Iddo-Marina Blue rail Line, in Lagos for
the past 12 years. Your predecessors started a mega project of
building a Red/blue rail, which is commendable.
According
to Wikipedia, “In April 2008, the Lagos State Government approved ₦
70
billion for construction of the Okokomaiko-Iddo-Marina
Line, with an estimated completion date of 2011. However, the project
suffered many delays due to funding shortfalls. The opening date was
revised to June 2013, then December 2016, then 2017. As of November
2016, only 16 km of the 27 km Blue Line had been completed”.
For
your information sir, this rail line from Okokomaiko-Iddo-Marina
Line, the construction has been going on for the past 12 years
without bringing any income to the state government. Yearly, the
state will complain on how to borrow money to finance the same
project which is annoying and the delay is causing hardship to the citizen in your State.
Your excellency,
this is not how to build such a project, in a society that solely
depends on monthly allocation from Abuja and an import economy. Sir, when building such a mega
project, first thing one needs to ask is how to finance the
project without a debt burdens to the State. I’m not from your
state, but I feel consigned seeing how people are suffering because of the delay on the project and also because each time I’m in Nigeria, I
spent 70 percent of my days in Lagos.
Leaders should learn
how to build to solve problems, and not how to build to get praises.
What I’m seeing on this project is a political manipulation to use
the project to stay in power. Without knowing that, finishing that
project will also give the person, those things that they have wished for at
the same time. Which are Praises, income, staying in power longer
than anticipated and above all, solving the congestion problem that
Lagos State are facing today.
So
the question is how do you build such project, and not feel the
burden of over indebtedness it will cause to the State government? For example, If the cost of the 27 km
was 70 billion Naira, all your predecesors need to do was to check the cost of the
10 km rail line, and start with the first 10 km. When they have completed the
first 10 km, next was to open it to the public. Let’s say from Marina to Iganmu
is 10 km, let the first face terminates at Iganmu before starting the second face to give time to generate money from the first section of the rail line.
Let’s
say that 1,000 people are boarding from Marina to Iganmu every day and you
are charging them 200 Naira per a
passenger trips. You will be making 200,000 Naira
a day, 6 million a month, 72 million a year. Give
the period of 3 years to generate more money from the people that are
using the rail and if possible, add little money to start the
second face of another 10 km or use the money generated from the first face to start the second face, which will start from Iganmu and terminates at Mile 2. Then
when the second face to Mile 2 is ready, you then open it to the
public. The blue rail will then start from Marina and terminates at
Mile 2. Marina to Mile 2 is the busiest place, which means the number
of people using the rail line will increase and the amount of money it generates will also increase.
I
have heard that you have banned Okada people from operating on this
road? You don’t need to ban Okata or Moluwa that are operating on
this road, they will ban themselves when no one needs their services.
While the people are now boarding rail from Mile 2 to Marina, you
will be generating more income and upon that creates more jobs. The
third face will continue from Mile 2 and terminates at Trade Fair.
And when it was time to open it to the public, people will now take a
train from Marina to Trade fair. The fourth face will start from
Trade Fair and terminates at Okokomaiko.
Your
excellency, have you seen the amount of money Lagos State government
is losing for the past 12 years that this projects has been going
on? And the funny part of it all is that by the time you will
commence operation in 2022, on this idle rail line,
you will still need to borrow another money to maintain the rail line for
durability. Allowing this mega project to be laying idle for the
past 12 years, without generating any income shows that our brains
are not working. We all have complained about lacks of Funds to complete the projects, at the same time, we have
the funds to complete the projects at our disposal without knowing how to generate them.
This is the difference between western world and Africa. Lagos sea
port, Airport and rail system can build a world class city without
looking for help from outside.
Transoprtion
business is one of the lucrative business in the whole world,
countries without natural resources, developed their country from the
money generated from their transportation business and other
technologies. Rail systems, reduces the burden our roads are facing
because of heavy usage. It also open the society because everyone
must not live in Island/Lekki.
If
we have a good rail network, Apap congestion will disappear because all we need to do is to construct a rail from Apapa wharf to Trade Fair, and other big markets to reduce the number of trucks that ply on the roads. Someone can live in Ceme Boarder still
be going to work in Island within 30 minutes, without having any stress from heavy
traffic jams. We all have travelled to the Western world, but the
funny part of it was that we only traveled there to enjoy without
learning anything, without asking question.
In
every human being, there are three important questions we should be
asking ourselves. The What, Why, How questions, if anyone is able to
apply these three structures in anything he/she wants to do, believe
me, it will be perfectly done. I lived in Europe, studied there, and
gained a lot of experience. I did not go there to look for only money
and good life, but to gain a lot of experience which I’m giving
some to you for free.
We should not
surround ourselves with bunch of selfish people that reason from
their anus instead of from their brains. I think it is time for us to
start reasonably like humans, let’s use this opportunity the Corona
virus has brought to us to unity ourselves and also look inward to
found the ability on us, instead of looking outside. You don’t need
the western world to develop your country because they have developed
theirs without you, to show superiority.
China
that every one are running to for help today was once isolated, segregated and
even ridiculed from the rest of the world as they are doing to
Nigeria and other African countries, before the Chinese people looked inward, to discover
their ability and potential.
Today, any country that avoid China is doing that at their own peril.
The wealth of a man does not lay in the content of what he has but in
the content of his character and his ability to discharge services to the people. When preparation mixed up with
opportunities, it often result to success. And every job is a self
portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with
excellence. It is time to force/task our brains to start working, instead of
allowing it to be idle waiting for when help will come from above.
Our
Leaders failed because they were not prepared to govern. They see
governance as a lucrative business, without knowing that people
became rich by offering services to the people. Countries become
wealthy by selling what they produce, and not by selling what they have. That
is why Africa and Nigeria are poor because we are selling what we
have and not what we produces. Thomas Sankra says “Imperialism
often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail . We
have been blackmailed by the western world thinking that we cannot
survive or do anything without their help, and we all have bought that idea which is
a neocolonialism.
Thanking
you for your time spent in reading this open letter and I pray to God to bless and
protect you and also to give you the wisdoms, to continue to lead the
people without sentiments.
Yours
faithfully,
Mr
Oscar Iwuama (Bc, MA)
CEO,
ZINNOB TRADE LTD
WhatsApp
contact: +41779854634
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