Tinubu Decries FG's Inconsistent Policies
By Shaka Momodu
Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said the Federal Government has failed to take advantage of the dynamics of a globalised economy due to inconsistent policy formulation.
Speaking at the weekend in Lagos after his conferment with an "Award of Excellence" organised by the Nigeria-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Tinubu, said "apart from incoherent and inconsistent policies being pursued at the micro and macro economy levels, the Federal Government's policies fail to speak the language of the international financial transactions."
The governor, who was als named the second Honourary member the chamber after the late Chief Bola Ige, noted that it is absurd to still run a cash and carry economy in the 21st Century as indicated by the Letter of Credits involved in the international financial transactions.
While canvassing the issuance of a bond underwritten by the World Bank with Nigeria creating a sinking fund over the next 35 years to cover repayment based on its oil reserves and earnings, Tinubu said the idea is not new and is cheaper for the nation and can afford the nation an opportunity to transform its economic practices.
He argued that "rather than seek debt forgiveness, the rescheduling involving World Bank will offer copious advantages to the nation."
Tinubu also explained that the ideas for which he should have been given national honours, having used his contacts to secure a better and efficient power generation for industries, had been frustrated on the altar of politics and for which Lagos State is charged N225 million monthly.
He noted that despite the withholding of statutory allocations, the state continues to function properly without owing staff salary even at the local government levels.
He noted that there was a need for the Federal Government to review its strategy of borrowing at very high interest rates at the market which tends to kill small businesses as they are forced to borrow at higher rates when banks add their charges.
Giving basis for the award, the chamber noted the governor's path breaking policies in the area of infrastructural development, environmental sanitation, healthcare and improved medicare for the less privilege, policies in the education sector especially the deregulation of the sector and the return of mission schools.
Others are his frontline line posture of ensuring the survival of democracy in Nigeria, religious tolerance, massive housing policy, the Independent Power Project, guaranteeing the right of the individual through the judicial reforms within the state and his antecedents in the Third Republic by aiding the removal of the military from governance.
Commenting, President of the chambers, professor Jide Oshuntokun, said Tinubu has courageoulsy met with the challenges of being a lone ranger and "it is easy to flow with the majority opinion even when that majority is wrong but it is more difficult to swim against the trend of political order even when it is wrong. No one enjoys confrontation for confrontation sake. The hallmark of political leadership is that one must be prepared to champion even an unpopular cause when it is in the national interest."
While describing Lagos State as a "frontier of oportunity" and a 'refuge" for many Nigerians, Osuntokun decried the abysmal attention it gets in terms of the revenue available to prosecute the myriads of problems besetting the state.
According to him, "in normal federations such as that of Canada the US and Australia, a statelike Lagos would keep asubstantial part of the VAT collected in it. It would have conrol over the ports and the airports and many of the vehicles plying Lagos State will pay toll for the maintenance of the roads. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We even have a situation where some federal authorities challenge the right of Lagos State to keep its streets clean on spurious ground that these streets and roads belong to the Federal Government."
Oshuntokun stressed the need for political debates and conflicts within the political environment to be "conducted without acrimony and with full understanding that constitutional issues are never settled until there is a proper adjudication by the highest court in the law.
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