Press Releases

Federal Assets In Lagos: FG To Partner With Lagos On Maintenance

Jun 20, 2008 - The Federal Government Friday declared its commitment to partner with the Lagos State Government to ensure that Federal assets in the state are put and maintained in working conditions.

Minister of Transportation, Mrs. Diezani Allision-Madueke, who made the commitment in Lagos, said the Federal Government was conscious of the fact that maintaining the infrastructures in good condition would be in the interest of both governments and people of Nigeria.

Speaking at the Lagos House Marina where she had gone to pay a courtesy visit on the State Governor, Mr. Batatunde Fashola (SAN), the Minister declared, “it is in our best interest to work in partnership. It is a waste to both governments and people of Nigeria to allow these assets to lie waste”.

Mrs. Allison-Madueke who was in the entourage of President Umar Yar’Adua said her purpose of visiting the State was to inspect the Federal assets, including bridges and other structures, in different parts of the Metropolis in order to ascertain their structural condition especially those needing urgent attention.

“We will look at areas where we can work in partnership with the Lagos State Government in order to ensure that they are put in good condition”, the Minister said adding that all the assets, whether roads, bridges or buildings, were of equal importance to the government.

“Whether bridges, roads or buildings they are of equal importance to us because they constitute the integral part of what we plan to in the country”, the Minister said.

Responding, Governor Fashola called for a supplementary appropriation by the Federal Government to enable it attend to some of the infrastructure that needed urgent attention in order to avoid any disaster.

The Governor who blamed gross misuse facilities by the people for the dilapidated condition of some of the over time infrastructures, declared, ”it diminishes all of us when we suffer a disaster that is totally avoidable. It is also better for us to repair the damage instead of waiting for the structure to collapse first and then we rebuild, it saves cost”

Fashola commended the Minister for undertaking “the visit describing it as a demonstration of the commitment of a public officer who wanted to get things done in a proper manner”

Fielding questions from newsmen later, Fashola said the State Government was not expected to contribute to the maintenance of Federal infrastructure in the state, pointing out that there was a commitment by the Federal Government in 1975 not to leave the burden of those assets to the Lagos State Government.

“The assets were put there by the Federal Government. There was a pledge by the Federal Government that it would be unfair to expect Lagos State to bear the burden of infrastructures that were put in Lagos to support the Federal Capital Territory” Governor said adding that there was a promise also that a special status funding would be created for Lagos.

He continued: “That commitment remains outstanding and, as I always say, it is a debt on any successive Federal Government since 1975”

He said both the Federal and the State Government were nevertheless doing a lot of work on road transportation adding, however that infrastructure development involved a lot of planning and designs to come to fruition.

According to him, the State Government is planning a rail road for Okokomaiko even as the Federal Government was also planning to develop the Iddo – Ijoko – Lagos – Kano rail route.

“Everything cannot be done at the same time. When you see a road being constructed you should know that no less than 12 months planning must have gone into it”, the Governor said.

Earlier in his introductory remarks, the State Commissioner for Transportation, Professor Bamidele Badejo, listed the issues that bordered on the development of Lagos State to include the release of Federal Government jetties in the State to include the State Government carry out its water transportation project, the release of the watch towers in the metropolis which, according to him, is essential for both traffic management and security in the State and the release of the work yards in Ijora to enable the State Government use them as for new buses being purchased for the Bus Rapid Transit programme.