Quote:Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere has said the money Lagos State Government is generating on a monthly basis as is not reflecting in the lives of Lagosians, citing bad roads in the state as an example.

The report by the Economic Confidential, an intelligence magazine in July indicated that the Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) of Lagos State which stood at N398 billion is higher than that of 20 other states put together.

Also, Sam Egube, the state’s Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget revealed that it targets about 73.86b monthly IGR to finance the state’s 2020 N1.169trn budget. He also said the state government projected IGR for 2020 is N886.041bn.

In July 2020, the state also received the sum of N10.16 billion federal allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

However, speaking in an interview with Daily Independent, Odumakin who lauded the efforts by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to repeal the pension laws also challenged him to beam his searchlight on the activities of Alpha Beta Consulting, a private company that reportedly got over N150 billion as 10 per cent commission for “computing, tracking and reconciling” Lagos State’s Internally Generated Revenue since the year 2000, according to its former Managing Director, Oladapo Apara.

The rights activist also condemned the extravagance and lavish spending in the seat of power, Alausa, saying cars that cannot be purchased by oil companies are being used by officials of Lagos state government.

He said “Ordinarily, we commend every efforts to reduce the cost of governance by repealing that insensitive pension. It is a step in the right direction. The questions must be answered. Lagosians deserve to know and the media should help us find out who are the people that have been collecting these pensions. We know all the ex-governors who are alive, is it all of them that have been collecting this money?”

“Let us have an idea of how much they have collected so far in order for us to know what that kind of money could have done in the lives of Lagosians because I know that a former governor of Lagos once said he has never collected the money and he is still alive today”.

“Yes, the cancelation of the pension is okay but what of Alpha Beta? Will we continue to pay 15 percent of Lagos state revenue to a private company? That should have been a place for Governor Sanwo-Olu to start”.

“I see the way they spend money in Lagos. Go to Alausa, the type of official cars you will not see in oil companies, you will see it in Alausa. With the kind of money Lagos is making, you cannot see the commensurate impacts in the lives of the people. Look at all the roads in Lagos state now”.

“If you buy a brand new car in Lagos today, you will change the absorber within a year. So, I have the feeling that they may want to reintroduce some reforms from the top, but let it nor be about deception. It should be thorough reforms, not playing games on the intelligence of our people”.

https://www.independent.ng/money-generated-by-lagos-state-not-reflecting-in-the-lives-of-lagosians-odumakin/