The Land Use Charge, an avoidable controversy

The Land Use charge thing is no doubt a plan not to succeed but to fail.  Quite understandably Lagos State Government has done greatly from the beginning of the ongoing Fourth Republic in matter of governance.  Although nothing much was seen during the administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu because no politician who give more space for politicking as government can do much as political players don’t so much concern themselves with welfare of the people through provision of social amenities such as good road, health facilities, education, electricity and food security except their pockets and stomachs and just that alone.  It is the reason Ekiti State people had wallowed in shame and underdevelopment since 2014 when Ayodele Fayose came to office on the singular agenda of stomach infrastructure.  This, but political will to do better by Tinubu, was the reason nothing much was seen during his time but many more positive things were obvious with that government.

If not Bola Ahmed Tinubu, People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s President Matthew Aremu Okikiolu Olusegun Obasanjo would have been able to make his political destruction of Nigeria’s South West a total disaster.  It would be recalled that Obasanjo tried to take the entire South West from Alliance for Democracy (AD) and so he deposed Aremo Olusegun Osoba from Oke-Mosan and Ibara in Abeokuta, deposed Chief Adebayo Adefarati from Alagbaka in Akure, sent Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo packing from Oke Isha in Ado-Ekiti, down-graded Chief AbdulKadir Adebisi Akande from Abeere and Oke Fia in Osogbo and, to crown it up, deposed Alhaji Lam Adesina from the Secretariat and Agodi Gate in Ibadan.  HE tried it in Lagos but he failed during the 2003 offensives against opposition thereby making Tinubu the only surviving governor of the Alliance for Democracy.  A keen study of states taken over by Obasanjo for his party, PDP, at that time at this time in terms of development and improvement of governance will tell what the situation of Lagos would have been had he succeeded to make the Centre of Excellence a PDP state in 2003.  PDP, as it seems, just sets out to fail as none of his governors or even President was able to do anything except in the Northern part.  All they could do is “share the money”.  Too bad!

Ondo State began to improve only when Dr. Abdul-Rahman Olusegun Mimiko came to office as Labour Party (LP) Governor and he changed the face of Ondo State to the colourful one that even Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, when urged to probe him, reportedly said Mimiko did nothing wrong for him to probe him and all he (Akeredolu) should have done in Akure particularly he (Mimiko) had not done, adding that he did well with governance of the Sunshine State.  Oyo State did not see improvement until All Progressives Congress (APC) finally stepped in with Abiola Ajimobi and the state is now truly the Pace Setter for the old Western Region turfs.  Osun State that was full of potholes all over the place under PDP’s Olagunsoye Oyinlola became a better place the moment AbdulRauf Aregbesola a.k.a. Omo Iya Ol’obi came to office some eight years ago.  Any discerning mind, traveling to Akure, Abuja, North, from Lagos would see the hand of APC’s Aregbesola a little of it from the Gbangan junction with the modern bridge that now allows for easy maneuver for people going in and out of Osogbo.  With Ibikunle Amosun, Lagos alone no longer lays claim to great governance as Abeokuta and many other parts of Ogun State under him have been given massive road infrastructural, school infrastructural, hospital infrastructural developments almost concurrently.  But the allegations of arrogance and unwarranted rigidity, Kayode Fayemi would have been great in Ekiti.  All the same, South West is back today to its feet, thanks to Asiwaju Tinubu for holding out against the mischief of Obasanjo’s PDP at time to retain a stronghold from where the regional recovery became easy.  Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), working on the goals set by Tinubu, took Lagos to next level that it became the template for negotiation when then General Muhammadu Buhari-led Campaign for Progressives Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Nigeria’s Peoples Party (ANPP) began the plan for merger. Akinwumi Ambode followed the footstep of Fashola and he has moved governance fully into the hinterland of the mainland.  Abule Ega and Ojodu barger are surely places in Lagos for the common masses and it is good work.

That, not withstanding, Governor Ambode should have consulted more widely to come about the idea of Land Use Charge that will never be considered to be qualified for acceptability by any class of houses’ owners in Lagos State.  Yes, listening to the performing governor, one would ordinarily agree with him that proceeds of the Land Use Charge are going to be used to continue to develop Lagos more than Lagosians have applauded his government’s massive infrastructural performances for.  But Ambode should however have a second thought to know that government in the first instance has no business in declaring profit or surplus.  All that a government has been able to gather in a given period of wealth is meant and should be meant for spending for things which make life better and easier for the people.  The Governor should remember that there was no Land Use Charge when he was able to embark on massive developments that he has done in Ojodu, Abule-Egba, still doing in Oshodi, already done in Ajah and Epe.  He should also consider the fact that even most of the developments he is doing or has done in Lagos are done on behalf of the Federal Government.  He therefore is only executor of most of the jobs on behalf of the Federal Government and, being the same party at the Federal, Lagos State government gets its reimbursements from the Federal without stress.  So, where is the justification for the claim that the Land Use Charge – now considered to be untenably unaffordable by any Lagos house owner – to enable government do more?

Ambode should remember that APC lost from the hands of Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti to the stomach infrastructure Government of Ayodele Fayose not because Fayemi was not performer.  APC lost to PDP in Ekiti because people chose to drink poison because they felt economic policies of Fayesi and his lack of consideration for the downtrodden were unfriendly.

It is as a result of this that the good governor of Lagos State should listen to the voice of reason and rescind his plan to unleash the Land Use Charge on the people of Lagos because by the time house owners will begin to pay it, they will push the effect on the tenants and it will therefore up the rent charges and in a situation where earning of the tenant does not increase, no common man of Lagos will any longer look at Ambode as a performing governor as the hardship his government policy on Land Use Charge inflict on the state community would have blinded their eyes from seeing him in that light.  The people are already overburdened with taxes.  Much as no one advocates for free lunch if all are desirous of better society, if governance is about the people, therefore, the Land Use Charge should not only be reduced but completely cancelled and government of Lagos State allow the status quo with tenement rate to remain.

A stitch in time, adage says, saves nine!