Did you know that Lagos lost $100 million and ₦100 million after Muhammadu Buhari cancelled the state's Metro Line contract that was signed by Governor Lateef Jakande?
Most analysts believe that it would have been a major solution to the constant
gridlocks experienced across the state today, but here is what happened:
Following various unsuccessful bids to end the traffic situations in the state, the Lateef Jakande administration came up with the idea of establishing a Metro Line which should have been a mass transit system that would run across the city.
In fact, the project valued at ₦698.5 million and awarded to Inter Infra Company of France would have included a combination of 30 trains, each carrying up to 570 passengers per trip.
The Lagos State government was to provide the counterpart funding. By the time the project was cancelled by the military government, the state had spent ₦100 million. By this time, Jakande had been removed from office. Power had been taken over and Commodore Mudashiru Lawal was the governor.
The military claimed that the cost of the project was too high. Then, the French contractors went to court. They won the case making Lagos State to eventually cough out $100 million in damages for breach of contract. This was equivalent to ₦72,400,000 at the time.
This action which many called a poor decision affected the state for many years leading to constant complaints of traffic challenges.
Ironically, on January 24, 2023, Buhari was in Lagos to inaugurate the Blue Line rail project described as the first-ever inter-city light rail system by a subnational government in Nigeria.
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