Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, Friday cited delivery on promises as the major difference between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) saying while the former continuously delivers life changing projects to the people, the latter specialises in groundbreaking ceremonies that end in uncompleted projects.
Speaking at the official handover of Shogunro Housing Estate, Scheme 1 and 11, a Lagos Home Ownership and Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS) project in Ogba, now renamed Chief Anthony Enahoro Housing Estate, Fashola said over the last six years, the PDP-led Federal Government had engaged in groundbreaking ceremonies to celebrate projects it was about to start while the progressive APC governments delivered completed projects to the people.
The Governor, who said he visits ongoing projects only for inspection to identify and address any grey issues on such projects, added that the Anthony Enahoro Housing Estate, amongst other LAGOSHOMS units, constituted the housing model of his administration “with each block containing 12 flats of 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms that are delivered on a 10-year mortgage with not more than 9.5 percent lending rate”.
He said while the APC led government was engaged in building houses and giving to residents on mortgage with affordable lending rate, the conservative PDP-led Federal Government went to the World Bank and borrowed 300 million Dollars for the country when the exchange rate was still N165 to one dollar which, according to him, would have come to a total of N40 billion for the whole country.
Giving a commitment that an APC administration in the State headed Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode would retain the lending rate at 9.5 percent, Governor Fashola said the ironic thing about the borrowing of $300 billion by the Federal Government was that the money was meant to be used to refinance mortgage.
“This translates to the fact that a beneficiary would first go to a bank to get a mortgage loan before going to get a house and then going to the Federal Government for the refinancing loan,” the Governor said adding that the Lagos Housing Model was not only about building the homes and giving the beneficiaries mortgages but also creating jobs in the process.
