Daily Independent Online.
*
Friday, June 25, 2004.
Okonjo-Iweala threatens to stop World
Bank’s N13.7b assistance to Lagos
By Sanya Adejokun
Senior
Correspondent, Abuja
Finance Minister Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala has threatened to stop the $100 million (N14 billion) World Bank
assistance to the Lagos Urban Transport Project unless the long drawn political
intrigues stalling its implementation is quickly resolved.
But in a swift
reaction last night, the state government said carrying out such a threat would
damage the external image of the country.
A statement issued by Lagos State Commissioner for Information and
Strategy, Dele Alake said: “The
Lagos State Government does not believe that the hounorable minister of
finance issued such a statement. But if it is true, we are appealing to her not
to carry out her threat in the overall interest of the citizens of Lagos in
part and Nigeria in general.
“Roads are not
about politics, so we must not politicise it. We have one country, one
economy”, Okonjo- Iweala had said in response to an appeal by the
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Lagos Metropolitan Transport
Authority, Dayo Motereola, who complained that Works Minister Adeseye Ogunlewe
is responsible for the inability of the state to fully utilise the facility
meant for the project.
Motereola lamented
that when Anthony Anenih was Works Minister, both the state government and the
Federal Ministry of Works had reached an understanding on the need to allow
Lagos take over the portion of roads belonging to the Federal Government since
they are all part of the state and form part of the project.
He, however,
complained that since Ogunlewe took over, he has frustrated the understanding
thus slowing down the pace of the project.
The occasion was a
meeting of Okonjo-Iweala with project managers of all World Bank assisted
projects from both the states and the Federal Government to determine why they
are not able to promptly draw the credit facilities for their projects.
Okonjo-Iweala, who frowned at the continued
accumulation of the commitment fees on World Bank facilities to the country
because of the refusal to draw such, threatened to stop the grants if they remain
unutilised or direct them to “serious states” rather than allow the
country pay avoidable fees.
Although World Bank
grants are interest free with a repayment period of 35 years and a moratorium
of 10 years, unutilised grants attract 0.75 per cent commitment fees per annum
until it is fully drawn.
While admitting that
she was already aware of the bottlenecks in the Lagos project, the minister
promised to speak with her colleague on the issue and help resolve the problem.
She also frowned at
the rigidity of the World Bank on some issues and blamed the posture for the
inability of some projects to quickly progress.
This was in response
to complaints by Babatunde Osotimehin that his National Action Committee on
AIDS (NACA) has not made remarkable progress in drawing the bank’s $90
million grant for the fight against HIV/AIDS.
He said the insistence
that the money be spent on awareness campaign and capacity building is his
committee’s handicap and appealed that part of the money be diverted to
buy anti-retroviral drugs, extend the campaign to more states and that other
distribution channels be allowed, such as faith-based organisations.
Okonjo-Iweala proposed
to meet the coordinators quarterly and
charged them to work hard so that at least five of the problem projects
such as Universal Basic Education (UBE), health system and HIV/AIDS are removed from the problem list before
the next three months when the World Bank board would deliberate again on what
projects to support.
