Amidst reactions by the opposition party to the proposed
sale of Edo House, Lagos by the State Government, the Governor Comrade
Adams Oshiomhle during a media chat with top media Executives in his
office, Wednesday, explained Government’s position on the issue.
Here is the excerpts:
First, let me use the opportunity of this meeting to brief
you on a matter that I thought is actually self explainatory but
considering the level of mischief in our environment; there are things
you take for granted thinking that everybody understand, but there are
people who either out of mischief or cheer ignorance seem to create
confusion in the minds of the public.
We reviewed like we have done in every other
aspect of our state; that we look at whenever we have asset, whether
those assets are performing and the need to maintain the one that are
performing and what we can do to make sure that all our investments,
whether they are where we can put them back to work. Where we can’t, we
sell them off so that private people can better utilize them.
Around the world, I think the days are gone
when government claim to be able to control the commanding height of the
economies of states or nations and everyone now agrees that government
is better at providing infrastructures, providing the enabling
environment for private people to go in.
Obviously, Edo State Government doesn’t have
the competence to indulge or manage her estate. And from what we can
see, where governments have such properties, it hardly ever makes money
from it. It is the agents who are connected, who get appointed either as
managing or as tenant or whatever end up benefiting from the asset.
Now, having reviewed the whole situation, we ask ourselves whether or
not for example we need the Edo Liaison Office in Lagos.
That office was built at a time when Lagos was
still the capital of Nigeria and I believe every State Government, every
regional government had a Liaison Office in Lagos. Some also use part
of the Liaison Office as hostel, hotel or guest house where people or
indigenes from the state are able to reside when they are posted to
Lagos, they had a ready accommodation to stay. Edo House happen to be in
a very prime area in Lagos. When the capital of Nigeria was relocated
to Abuja, the status of Lagos changed. Lagos is still a very important
city; but is now a commercial and industrial heartbeat of Nigeria. Is no
longer the political headquarters. If you own a property in Lagos, you
know that like every responsible government, Lagos State Government will
expect that you pay rent. Every responsible government would change on
property or the Land used, like we are trying to do in Edo State.
Now, since my assumption of office here, I have
gone to Lagos with several of my commissioners at one time or the
other. I have also gone there to assess the state of affairs in our
Lagos Office and we were shocked to find the state of disrepair. The
building has been abandoned for long with their lease with private
individuals who use part of it as hotel. They don’t remit the money to
government, you try to make them remit the money, they go to court. We
are moving through one court to the other spending money on lawyers and
so on.
Meanwhile, the property is there wasting away. I
have to ask myself whether it makes economic sense or whether it will
be in the interest of the good people of Edo State to continue to
maintain that property and take Edo tax payers money to pay ground rent
and other charges.
Just recently, we had a bill of about N60
million (Sixty Million Naira) from Lagos State Government for us to
settle various charges associated with ownership of our property of that
value in Lagos.
Now, the question that I have to ask myself is.
Does it make sense for one to make money from Edo State to go and
service our property in Lagos? If so, what do we get in return? Since
being a Governor, I have never stay in the guest house in Edo Liaison
Office in Lagos.
My predecessors never stay, there. Perhaps,
the last time anybody stay there would be many, many years ago when one
or two military Sole Administrator probably had cause to stay there. If I
go to Lagos, I stay in a hotel and Edo State Government paid for that
hotel.
So, what now is the value of retaining the
property. It’s not yielding income for Edo State and is attracting
charges.
We deliberated on this matter at the state
executive council and we felt that the primary purpose or reason for
acquiring that property in the first instance is no longer valid by
reason of the fact that the capital has relocated to Abuja.
Consequently, we have built Edo House Office
where we have staff and officials who liaise with Federal Agencies also
handle protocol issues, when any of us is going to Lagos or anybody who
have any enquiring to make in respect with what Edo State is doing.
So, we now have a building in Abuja, we also
have a land we are going to develop, but the building in Lagos is
therefore no longer relevant. We have decided to put it on sale. But
when I got to know what the PDP government did before, we decided that
the process was to be transparent and there is only one way to make the
process transparent; get the necessary agents, advertise the fact that
we want to sell the house. Rather than doing selective bidding, we opted
for open advert so that whoever have the money to buy can buy. Our
intention is; when we sell a property, whatever is realized can be use
to build a property in Benin.
We have two outstanding viable projects if God
willing and we saw in the time being available, and I intend to
accomplish before the end of my tenure all the projects in Benin City.
The most central one in my heart is building a Five Star Hotel with a
Conference Centre and banquet facilities and seminar home in strategic
place in Benin City because giving our location, gathering to the West,
the East, North and to the South/South. Thirty minutes ride to Benin, 35
mins to Abuja, Benin City is simply the heart of the centre of Nigeria.
We must not forget that we are called the heart
beat of Nigeria. The major weakness which we have why we can’t host
major big events is the absence of banquet facilities or conference
facilities among others.
So, I am convinced that with a 5 STAR HOTEL
completed with such facilities, we can take advantage of our location
and the fact that we have very good air link both to the industrial
capital of Lagos and the political capital of Abuja and we enjoy three
hours (3HRS) drive from Port-Harcourt and we are part of the oil
producing states of the Niger/Delta and for me, it is about thinking of
the future.
Now, having decided to put Edo House in an Open
Market, whatever money we realized from it, makes more sense for Edo
people to divest from Lagos and use the money and bring the investment
down to Edo State and use it in terms of preference, or as a priority to
build a 5 Star Hotel. Even if the money is not enough, it can be used
to start the construction and find other resources to complete it or
partner with the private sector. Incidentally, during my last visit to
Washington, I had a discussion with the American Ambassador, Nelson Bar
to fund the construction of a hotel in partnership and if that comes to
past, we expect to raise and attract as far as $150 million (One Hundred
and Fifty Million Dollars). If we get that, we can have 5 star marior
hotel that will forever change and make a bold statement about our
tourist potential as a state.
Therefore, we will rather relocate the house
in Lagos to Benin. But if we can’t physically move it to Benin, we will
put it in the market, bring the proceed to develop the city. My mandate
is not to develop Lagos, my mandate is to develop Edo State and
therefore, I have no apology for those who felt that barely for
political reason, we keep our landed asset in Lagos to be wasting away.
The responsibility of a Governor is to think not just about today but
about the future.
Secondly, we have designs that are completed to
build a Benin City Business District (B.C.B.D) and some of you may
remember the Agidigbe House and the Bureau de-Exchange house around the
King’s Square, the design is ready to have a very beautiful edifice
around that King’s Square that would cover the Agidigbe and the Bureau
de-exchange where the Comrade Buses are presently using as park. The
Comrade buses have to be on the road moving. Now we want to build the
Benin City Business District (B.C.B.D) and it will complete the
statement we want to make around the King’s Square because you will
recall at the beginning when they said we were just planting flowers but
now they should know that we are not just planting flowers, we are
constructing and we are building and I also said if you recall in our
previous interaction that our vision is clear. By the time we are
through, substantial part of our urban renewal programme in Benin City
must have been completed.
When you stand at the King’s Square at night,
it will be a beautiful site to behold. This is because you have the
Sokponba Road already lighted, well built. Also, we have the Akpakpava
Road which is already done.
We are working on Forestry Road and Mission
Road. We have already completed the job on Oba Market Road, Airport Road
has been completed and when all of these are lighted up and you are at
the heart of Benin City, you could see a Modest City. Everything I have
said we are working on, some have already been completed. I think the
only two left now are the mission and Forestry Roads in which the only
difficult part which is the construction of the side covet is almost
completed. Once these are completed, the heart of Benin City will be
such that every Edo person will be proud of and we will now find
resources to build the Benin City Business District where you will have
all kinds of facilities, office space, banks, hall; the design even have
a space for cinema. Then, we have a city centre that truly works. So,
for me, that is my challenge and if selling Lagos out will give us
resources to transform Benin City, I will do so. The other day, I saw on
the Television an advert where they claim that we said we are not bound
to sell to the highest bidder and that means that we will not give in
to them. There are standard format for advertising sale of property just
like you have standard format for advertising contract. In the case of
contract you might receive all files in courts that say we are not bound
to award it to the highest bidder. But the fact that we advertised
shown that we are more transparent, honest and more committed because
the Previous P.D.P Government sold all kinds of property in the G.R.A.
Today, we don’t have any Guest House, you tell
me, you have been in this state before me, tell me if any of those
property were advertised. One of the PDP senators acquired a Land here
that he paid less than a million Naira on a G.R.A Land. That case is not
yet closed, we are still looking at it with a view to recovering it or
sell it on its market value, if he can afford it, good. If he can’t
afford it, it will be confisticated and put into public use. So they
sold them underground. We advertised and they are making noise. Now if
we as the bid revealed that we are not bound to sell to the highest
bidder, then I am the Chief bidder. It is a standard format but we would
rather want to be challenged if any of them comes out to buy and I’m
believing the fact that they should have the money because they owned
the cow and the head, let them bid. In any case, it should be shown that
you are a serious bidder. You will be expected to attach 10% to the
value of your bid to be sure that you are not just a busy-body bidder so
that those who bid are people who are truly interested in buying the
property.
However, I believe Edo people know better. We
will try the best we can to protect the best interests of Edo State.
Nobody in this government is entitled even to bid on that property not
to talk of acquiring it. None of us is interested. So I ask you to
monitor the process as transparently as you can, devout every time to
carry out investigation. When we begin to receive biding. You find out
how much it is sold and investigate who bought it.
I am sure you will have all the skills to
discover what is on the paper and what is under the paper if there is
anything under the paper. We are not being distracted, we are
proceeding with the sales and we will use the money realized to
develop this great city of Benin.
The third reason for the change is the need to lay a strong egalitarian
foundation for the real democratic take off of the Nigerian state or
states as they circumstances may dictate.
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