By Ikeazor Akaraiwe
1: Hong Kong and Lagos are similar. Humid weather, lagoon, ocean. The street trading around the Marina made the similarity complete. And the incongruity of clothes hanging from the windows of high-rise buildings.
2: When my wife and I visited Hong Kong in 2015 for the World Glaucoma Conference, the MTR (Mass Transit Rail) was announced as carrying 6m passengers daily.
3: The population of Hong Kong in 2015 was about 7m, meaning that the MTR was the major means of transportation daily for about 86% of its people, old and young.
4: Travelling the Hong Kong MTR, you could go as far down as six floors underground (by escalator) to board different trains to different directions.
5: We also couldn’t help but notice the plaque on the wall of each station stating that the Hong Kong MTR commenced in 1979.
6: 1979 was the same year Lateef Jakande became governor of Lagos and in 1981, announced that he would commence the Lagos Metro Line.
7: Jakande did the feasibility studies, and signed the papers with the contractors, firstly, MITSUI (from Japan), and when MITSUI increased the contract sum, terminated the contract and contracted with INTERINFRA (from France).
8: The total cost of the contract was NGN 689.45m (for the total length of 28.5 kilometres).
9: Major-General Buhari overthrew the democratically elected government and became military head of state in December 1983.
10: His administration, through the Military Governor of Lagos State at the time, Group Captain Gbolahan Mudashiru, then cancelled the Lagos Metro Line (LML)!
11: For cancelling the LML, the Arbitration Court of the Chamber for International Trade in Europe fined Nigeria 1.4 billion French Francs, eventually reduced to 650 million French Francs (about NGN 600m at the time, almost equal the initial contract sum!
12: As noted by Bola A. Akinterinwa in his work; Nigeria and France, 1960-1995: The Dilemma of Thirty-five Years of Relationship, Vantage Publishers, 1999, p.159 et s, Nigeria incurred not less than NGN 75 million for the preparatory works and more than NGN 600 million for payment of damages, that is, not less than NGN675 million, whereas the total contract sum for the entire LML project was NGN689 million. There was only a difference of NGN14 million that should have been paid to have the full construction of the 28.5 kilometre LML in place!!!
13: Let me repeat: the total projected cost of construction for the Lagos Metro Line project was NGN 689.45m. For cancelling the contract, Nigeria was fined and paid up damages of about NGN 600m. Added to NGN 75m already spent by Nigeria (Lagos State Government), Nigeria spent a total of NGN 675 m only NGN 14m less than the cost of completing the project.
14: Due to region and religion which trump dispassionate reasoning in Nigeria, and lack of education in critical thinking by a critical mass of Nigerians, Nigerians do not sufficiently interrogate past records of their leaders.
15: And so, Major-General Buhari was rewarded with the presidency of Nigeria in 2015 and 2019.
16: As we enter another electoral cycle, are Nigerians wiser and prepared to question the past records of all the candidates?
17: Desperately Needed! A dispassionate people!!
Ikeazor Akaraiwe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, contributed this piece from Abuja. He may be reached through [email protected].
