The Chairman of the
Dangote Group of Companies, Aliko Dangote, presented a cheque of
₦100million to Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Tuesday.
The donation is meant for the purpose of providing relief materials for the victims of the July 10 flood in Lagos.
Mr Dangote, who was recently adjudged
the richest individual in Africa, also appealed to other benevolent
Nigerians to respond to the state government's call for help.
The state is currently battling to
restore thousands of internally displaced residents as a result of a
downpour which lasted for 16 hours and caused other collateral damage
and loss of lives.
During the presentation, which was made
in the name of Dangote Cement, Mr Dangote commended Mr Fashola's
administration and underlined the fact that the government alone cannot
shoulder the responsibility of building the society. He therefore called
on Corporate Nigeria to assist the state government.
"I keep saying it that if we had 12 of
our governors, that is one-third of our governors like you working so
hard, am hundred percent sure Nigeria will change. We do not need too
many people to change the country," Mr Dangote said.
He also said Mr Fashola's administration
instills the confidence and desire to want to pay taxes because the
government utilises the tax to the benefit of the society. He even
advised Governor Fashola to raise the State's Internal Generated Revenue
to ₦50billion monthly before the expiration of his current tenure.
"Nobody will complain about the high tax
that you are charging here, we are actually happy to pay because we can
actually see our money working. So we are not really upset with the way
that Lagos is taxing us," he said. "We used to get really upset when we
receive these tax bills but come to think of it, when you go out, you
see physically what has been done with the money and then you know that
the money is not being embezzled but being used for roads, schools and
hospitals and we are happy."
In his response, Governor Fashola
applauded the contribution, which he said will help in the development
of the state. He assured that the money will be used to complete the
resettlement centre in Alimosho and the relocation of the displaced
persons to a new housing estate being built by the government.
"We have reordered our budget to enable
the Ministry of the Environment to respond to these challenges. We are
planning to relocate some of the victims to the new housing estate we
are planning to build to which this money will go. We've paid
compassionate payment to some people whose houses are close to the canal
at least to give them the opportunity to rent new apartments and get on
with their lives. We are constructing a resettlement centre in Alimosho
to add to the one we have in Epe. We must be prepared to reduce human
impact," Mr Fashola said.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayAdvertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com