Perhaps as a parting shot, the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has asked critics of his administration to evaluate the gains of the infrastructure development brought about by the loans of his administration and stop emphasising the figures.
Fashola, who made this clarification at the weekend during an interview session with select journalists at the State House, Alausa, Ikeja, also noted that there was a distinct repayment schedule for the bonds obtained by the state government with credit worthiness.
“The borrowing you are talking about, when you measure it against the asset, today, we took N275 billion bond over about eight years. The first thing we had to do was to repay the old bond of N15 billion because Lagos State drew N15 billion out of the N25 billion bond. We had to repay so that we can take full benefit of what we were trying to do, which was going to be issued in series and we did all these things in public.
“What did we use that money to finance? We used that money to finance infrastructure. So as the monthly Internally Generated Reveue (IGR) is coming, we are refunding 15 per cent of that IGR and don’t forget that the N20 billion you are talking about, 15 per cent goes straight into a consolidated debt service account. We can’t touch it. So, take 15 per cent of N20 billion out. We have close to about N100 billion in that account to pay the debts. So, those who are saying we owe; the system to pay the bond is secured.
“We just paid the second bond, which was the first that I took. We paid it; I think it was last year. The next bond will be due in 2017 and it’s about N60 or 70 billion, but we have N100 billion in the account,” he explained.
The governor however reiterated that the state had “secured our liabilities as far as the bonds are concerned. As far as the local short term loans from banks are concerned, we are able to pay and if you don’t want a life of debt, it means first that Lagosian must agree that let us reduce our budget to only what we earn. We have a budget of about N489 billion, let’s use the IGR example, 30 x 12 is 360, and so, we are already in a hole of about N119 billion,” he explained.
Fashola noted that most of those attempting to criticise the administration are doing so without paying attention to the advantages that the bonds have brought to the people of the state, particularly in the area of improved living standard of the populace.
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