The Minister’s Albatross -By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

 

Adegboruwa SAN

Under and by virtue of section 147 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, “there shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President.” These Ministers serve as members of the Federal Executive Council and they hold weekly meetings with the President to review memos and take decisions on many issues. Ordinarily, Ministers do not have their own specific manifesto except as directed by the President but by the doctrine of collective responsibility, they all rise and fall with the President, in the conception and implementation of programmes and policies. In 2007, an unusual thing happened in the political landscape of Lagos State when a green horn in political circles won the governorship election on the backing of his godfather. He would however proceed to disappoint his critics and prove pundits wrong with his more than sterling record of performances hitherto unknown in governance. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN was at all relevant times a successful lawyer, a bureaucrat and a dutiful professional before fate landed him in government house in Alausa in 2007. I had privileged information then to know that the weekly executive council meetings hosted by Fashola were real intellectual drills for his Commissioners, as Fashola would have read all the papers and memos to be presented cover to cover. He also inspired other professionals to venture into the murky waters of politics like Emmanuel Udom, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN and many others.

I have given the above background to justify the enthusiasm of Nigerians when Fashola was nominated into the federal cabinet and eventually appointed as Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing, more like the Prime Minister of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Earlier during his stint as Governor of Lagos State, Fashola was quoted as stating that his government would fix electricity in six months, a statement he would later deny upon assumption of office as Minister in charge of power. Nevertheless, fate bestowed the responsibilities of supervising some of life’s basic amenities for the people of Nigeria, upon Fashola. The power sector under Fashola performed woefully, with constant power outages, grid collapses and even arbitrary tariff increases. We never really got to the peak of the 5000 megawatts which has been the sing song of every government in power for ages. Fashola came, saw and could not conquer the principalities of the power sector, until he was relieved of that portfolio, wherein his successor had not fared any better.

The rate at which private estates spring up in Nigeria should provide the basic summary of Fashola’s tenure as Minister of Housing, the greatest problem being the outdated Land Use Act that governments in Nigeria deploy to deny the common people of their inheritance. The Lagos State Government under Fashola stoutly resisted all attempts to amend the Land Use Act because land is considered as the oil and gold of Lagos, but that archaic piece of legislation has been his undoing in the provision of affordable houses for the masses of our people. Ownership of land is mostly customary, depending on the traditional history of the founding radical owners. So, for the government to just wake up with legislation donating the power of acquisition of land for very ludicrous and ambiguous purposes, shows the disregard that our leaders have for their people. Why should the government be involved in the actual management of land, when experiences have taught that many only use the Land Use Act as a means of self-aggrandizement?

Should we talk about roads at all? In its manifesto, the All Progressives Congress, APC promised a minimum of 5,000 kilometres of superhighway every year. It is now almost eight years and I do not think that 1,000 kilometres of new superhighway has been added to our collapsed road network. I have not travelled round Nigeria by road so it may not be possible for me to assess the situation of roads in other parts of the country. But I do travel around the South-West and I can say without fear of contradiction that no new expressway has been embarked upon by Fashola. The existing roads have virtually collapsed. What Fashola and the APC have done is to embark upon repairs of some roads, without actual completion. The Sagamu-Benin expressway has been abandoned, as the Lagos/Ijebu-Ode portion has practically failed. I had written in the past to commend Fashola on the good work done on the Ijebu-Ode/Ore portion of the road but such laudable effort has paled into insignificance when one considers the pain and agony of the Sagamu/Ijebu-Ode axis of the road. The Lagos-Ota expressway is now a death trap. Recently, the governor of Ogun State, who is also of the APC stock, had cause to call out Fashola on the state of that road and the negative impact it has had upon businesses and human lives, especially during the rainy season. A friend who travelled to Ilorin through Ogbomoso recently told me that there are still bad portions on the road that need to be repaired. Now to the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. The Goodluck Jonathan administration danced upon the graves of many Nigerians who perished on that road when he rolled out the drums to celebrate a phantom project that never saw the light of the day until he left office. Eight years down the lane, that expressway has been the albatross of Fashola, who by now has exhausted all excuses available on earth and has been drained of futile promises. Unless some kind of miracle happens before May 29, that road will not and cannot be completed before the exit of Fashola.