While speaking on a programme titled the Midday Dialogue on Nigeria Info FM yesterday, Mr. Ben Akabueze, the Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget said that the duty of the government is not to create jobs but rather to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
He explained that by investing in infrastructure, the state government had indirectly provided jobs because it would encourage private sector investment. He said, “One thing people need to understand is that governments don’t create jobs, governments create the enabling environment for the private sector to create jobs. “We can never create enough jobs. All of the agencies of government in the state and local governments can only employ about 150,000 people out of about 22 million residents. “And if you ask a lot of public commentators, they will tell you the government is over-staffed and yet people expect the government to employ more. By investing in infrastructure, we create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.” He however urged Lagosians not to worry over the debt profile of the state, adding that the recent AA+ rating of the state by Fitch was evidence that the state was credit-worthy. When asked why there were many bad roads in the state despite the huge funds borrowed by the government, Akabueze said, “Right now, there are about 10,000km of roads in Lagos State. There is no other state in the country that comes close. Of this 10,000km according to statistics of the Public Works Corporation, about 70 per cent of them have been paved.” “In a lot of places that people are complaining about roads, nobody approved for them to live there. All of the houses that were built there were built illegally, they had no approval to build. So, it is a difficult challenge for government running to meet up with this.
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