THE PEOPLE ANGST AGAINST THE CALLOUS DEMOLITION AND DESPOLIATION OF THEIR PROPERTIES IN JAKANDE ESTATE, EJIGBO OF LAGOS STATE.

Without prejudice to the purported restructuring and delineation of the entire metropolitan, suburban and highbrow areas and all integra section of the only bilingual state in Nigeria and christened the Home of Excellence - Lagos State by its government, I will insist that the execution of certain objectives of the State government should be done in such an orderly manner devoid of chaos, confusion, and arbitrariness. Such commendable steps should wear the human face, the candid concern for, the understanding of the welfare and good of the people who may be affected in the implementation process of the plan of the state government.

It is yet worse when some personnel (I'm careful not to tag them hooligans, as their conduct and comportment aptly characterizes) capitalize on the noble intention to perpetrate and unleash mayhem on the innocent and harmless residents of Jakande low cost housing estate, Ejigbo, disrupting legitimate business activities, demolishing properties and destroying peoples means of livelihood.

With particular focus, I will invite my reader to the recent ugly development which took place in Ejigbo Local council development area (LCDA), where properties and structures worth millions of Naira and owned by certain illustrious individuals were demolished, destroyed, vandalized and other valuables looted.

It only amounts to adding salt to injury such that while the entire citizens of Nigeria not excluding the affected Jakande Estate people, are presently undergoing the biting recession measures and other vicissititudes of life, some disgruntled fellows, who apparently know someone in Alausa Ikeja, Lagos State capital, decided to make life more difficult, almost unbearable to the same people who are supposed to be beneficiaries of the dividends of democracy.

It will interest anyone reading this to be informed that, despite the ordeal the occupants and owners of demolished structures have been forcefully subjected to, few caring and affectionate individuals inspired by the exemplary leader in the person of Honorable Ibrahim Adefenwa(A10) have taken upon themselves to empathize with and rally around the victims of disastrous demolition of houses, shops and other landed properties inside Jakande Estate, Ejigbo Area of Lagos State.

It is said to be the escalation of disputes between a given landlord and a church building owners over land portion entitlement that culminated to what today has ended up removing shelters from the heads of people and depriving others their sources of sustenance. We want you to know that we sympathize with you and we are totally not in support of this act that was perpetrated by the Lagos state government in destroying your properties and means of livelihood in this hard times.

SUBJECTING PRESIDENT BUHARI TO OPPROBRIUM

IT happened twice within a week. First, it was the request for the $29.96billion foreign loans sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari. The Senate rejected the request on the ground that the executive failed to attach to it the details of how the loans will be deployed after it is accessed. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was almost dumbfounded after asking for a voice vote on the matter with the legislators voting that the offer be turned down. He called for a repeat of the exercise and, when the result was the same, had to align with the wish of the majority of senators and ruled that the request be returned to the sender. That was on Tuesday last week.

Then on Thursday, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, raised the issue of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which contains the parameters for the 2017 budget, being empty. Expressing his exasperation, Ndume said, “If you look at this document that they call MTEF, it is empty; it is empty and it doesn’t contain anything. If you have nothing, how do you consider something?”

The impression these two scenarios create is that there is knowledge gap in the executive. Were it not so, how would the executive have sent to the National Assembly a document as critical as the request for foreign loans meant to bridge the nation’s infrastructure deficit without attaching the required documentation? For crying out loud, this is the highest level of governance in this country! What explanation does anybody want to advance for allowing such a lapse? In the same vein, what excuse does anybody have for sending an ‘empty MTEF’ to the Senate for consideration, especially when this forms the foundation for the 2017 budget?

These are the issues that constitute a clog to the country’s progress. If the MTEF is not ready in November, how will the budget be ready in December? How can we hope to avert the situation we had in the current year of the budget being passed in June, which has resulted in a mere 11 per cent execution of the budget in less than two months to year end?

Now that the Senate has returned the executive’s request for $30billion foreign loan, the immediate effect is that the speed the government wants to record with addressing infrastructure deficit in the country has suffered a setback because precious time will be wasted as the executive has to go back to the drawing board to get the documents that it should have attached to its letter ab initio.

This is quite unfortunate because in the life of a country like Nigeria where dependence on government is quite high, every wasted day is thousands of lives lost, millions of people impoverished, millions of hopes dashed, agony multiplied and sorrow increased. But regrettably, this fact is lost on those who lead us. They approach affairs of state as if they have eternity to discharge their duties. Our leaders need to come to the understanding that their actions and inactions shape the destinies of people. So, those who have been saddled with leadership responsibilities should understand that not only does their tardiness slow down projects and programmes of government, it actually destroys lives.

The flip flop that has characterised the management of state affairs is unbecoming of the executive. This is suggestive of its unpreparedness for the serious task of leading the country out of its current challenging economic situation. Those who were saddled with the responsibility of sending these documents to the National Assembly should have known the process and the requirements. It is the shoddy handling of very sensitive issues that results in the avoidable executive-legislature spats. These constant disagreements by these two critical arms of government adversely impact on the country and its people.

The most unfortunate part of this is that the whole situation rubs off negatively on the President. The sloppiness of presidential aides has subjected the President to public opprobrium. To the opposition, it is the President that has bungled the process. To the hungry, hurting and angry Nigerians, it is the President that has slowed down the process. But is the President the one who is supposed to attach documents to his letters to the National Assembly? Is he the one who is supposed to give a detailed MTEF document to the legislators?

Perhaps those who have been suggesting that the President should take a look at his aides and their fitness for the assigned roles are not too far from the point. The undeniable fact is that the leader is only as strong and competent as his lieutenants. A leader’s aides make or mar him. If a leader has good intentions and his lieutenants consistently botch these, the leader is held in derision because in the final analysis, it was the leader who was given the mandate, not his aides.