The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, revealed on Thursday that approximately 6,000 people enter Lagos daily, with only about 3,000 leaving, resulting in a net increase in population.
Hamzat expressed concerns about the pressures this influx places on Lagos’ budget of N2.2 trillion ($1.3 billion) for 2024, especially when compared to New York State’s $237 billion budget for a population of 19.5 million as of 2023.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Directors (CIoD) Nigeria’s 2024 Annual Directors Conference Dinner, themed “Business Meets Government Dinner,” Hamzat stated that Lagos’s growing population, estimated at 27 million, is straining the state’s resources.
He compared Lagos’ budget to New York’s Children Protective Service budget, which alone is $5.5 billion—more than the combined budgets of Lagos, Rivers, Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, and Katsina states.
Hamzat stated, “The budget of Lagos 2024 is N2.3 trillion. Now the next one is Rivers, N700bn, look at the gap. But that N2.2 trillion is $1.3bn. The budget of New York State with population of 19.2m as at 2023, the budget is $237bn.
“The budget of Lagos with 27m people and counting because every day over 6000 will come in and only about 3000 will go back with no known address. So it keeps increasing because people want to live a good life. You can’t blame them for that. But our budget is $1.3bn, the highest in the country.
“The next one is less than half, it is about one-third which is Rivers but the budget of the State of New York with less population (19m) is $237bn.”
Speaking further, he added, “So a lot of times you receive text. I keep receiving text, I need help, I am a widow. So I was now wondering how many widows we have in Lagos.
“What did we find out? There are widows but the husbands are still living. As at the last count when I said enough, we had 138,000 women. The high percentage, the men just leave. So a man has a wife with three children, four children, five children and you just leave. So those are the problems in this country. If we don’t solve the family unit, nothing will work.”
According to him, the budget of Children Protective Service in New York alone is $5.5bn bigger than the budget of Lagos, Rivers, Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and Katsina.
“Out of that $237, $5.5bn is just to make sure that the children don’t get abandoned. If you can’t take care of those children, they will take them from you,” he added.
Hamzat told captains of industries, government officials and participants at the dinner to clean their corners.
“We don’t hold ourselves accountable. We all criticise other sectors. As a professor, how is it that our girls are complaining that in order to get marks, you need to harass them? So you should solve your own problem. Clean your own environment. So if we all clean our environments, this country would be great,” he stressed.
The dinner was chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Amina Adamu Augie, with Alhaji Tijjani M. Borodo, President of the CIoD, highlighting the importance of collaboration between government and business to address infrastructure and policy challenges.
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