Back in 2003 when Ex Governor Bola Tinubu was campaigning for re-election, one of his major campaign promises was that if re elected he will build the 4th Mainland Bridge.
It’s eight years now and I hardly hear anyone within the Government circles talk about it as much as they did back then. During his second term people attributed Tinubu’s inability to fulfill his promise to his long standing fight with the FG over revenue allocation. This was resolved was Fashola got elected and of course Lagos state resumed receiving allocation from the FG once again.
This matter was brought to limelight again in yesterday’s debate. From what I gathered, Fashola expects the bridge to cost about N400b and will be funded by the much polarized public private partnership, rather than wait for the FG to fund it. The idea is for the Govt. to concession the construction of the bridge through a B.O.T (Build Operate and Transfer). That way a private company will build the bridge, collect tolls enough to recoup their investment and make some profit for an agreed number of years and then hand it back to the State Government. Laudable as it may sound, why is it taking so long to materialize? It’s 4 years now since Fashola took the mantle of leadership and all I can see is little progress made in that direction. How much longer can we wait?
