Ambode, Duke advocate more funds for Lagos from FG

Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, and former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, on Thursday raised alarm over the danger of abandoning Lagos state to shoulder the developmental challenges posed by incessant migration from all parts of the country alone.

Warning that the continued expansion of the 24 million population within a territorial land mass of 923, 773 square kilometres was leading to huge infrastructural deficit that federal allocations and Internally Generated Revenue have not addressed; both urged state governments to create productive economies to stem the drift to Lagos.

Duke spoke as the guest speaker at the LEADERSHIP 2017 Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony, organised by the Leadership Newspapers at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, where Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, represented by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan, received the Governor of the Year Award.

Noting that the N1.4trillion budget of the state for 2018 was too meager to fund needed infrastructures, Duke said, “the leadership at the state and Federal level must recognise that a state that contributes more than 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and majority of industrial activity needs urgent support.”

Accepting the award on behalf of the governor, Bamigbetan adopted the positions canvassed by Duke while dedicating the award to Lagosians for working with the Ambode administration for better governance.

“Governor Ambode’s determination to put his expertise and experience at the service of the people to ensure continuous infrastructure and human development as well as sustain the economic growth of the state is not in doubt.

That is his social contract with the people which he is totally committed to fulfilling,” he said.

Earlier, while declaring the Conference open, Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, advocated that states must operate as if they are countries by drawing inspiration from the Western Region which executed landmark projects and programmes in the First Republic.

He said the giant strides of Lagos state since the administration of former governor, Bola Tinubu, which planned the re-development of Lagos on aggressive Internally Generated Revenue, has demonstrated the importance of taxation to the provision of infrastructure.

Welcoming guests and awardees, the Chairman of Leadership Newspapers, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, urged governors to act as the Chief Executive Officers of companies, who must make profits for their firms to keep their jobs.

“The days when states would go cap in hand every month to the Federal Government will soon be over because the Federal Government itself will be too busy struggling to solve its own federal problems.

The good news is that every state in Nigeria can survive as a rich entity, with a little imagination from its leaders,” Nda-Isaiah said.

Nda-Isaiah postulated that, perhaps, it might take the states to suffer some hard times in order to come to terms with the new reality.