Chinelo Obogo

The national convener of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG),  Razaq Olokoba, has  expressed confidence in Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s 20-point agenda, saying it has the ‘required ingredients’ needed for the development of a cosmopolitan city like Lagos. He also appealed to Lagosisnas to give Sanwo-Olu time to succeed and not criticise him unnecessarily at the risk of derailing the government.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu recently rolled out his 20-point agenda which he plans to implement within his first four years. What do you make of it?

I have examined his agenda point by point and I have to congratulate the people of Lagos State because they elected a very competent person. He excelled both in the private and public sector, so I am confident in his capability to govern Lagos.

Nigeria has been slowing Lagos down in the speed the state has been moving. If you look at the economy of Africa now, Nigeria, sadly, occupies 17th position. But there are three states that have attained cosmopolitan status; They are Johannesburg in South Africa, Cairo in Egypt and Lagos in Nigeria. And what makes a city cosmopolitan? It means having sophisticated transport system of the 21st century, enabling environment for business and security of life. All these come together to make a city metropolitan or mega city.

Even financial institutions have confidence in Lagos. In terms securing loans from financial institutions like the World Bank, you would notice that they put Lagos on a privileged list. Until recently, no country wanted to loan Nigeria money easily. But for Lagos, it is not so because you can lend out money to the state without thinking of how to get your money back and we are aware that Sanwo-Olu is an expert in facilitating funds to move the state forward.

The only challenge he may have is that the governors who came before him always had solid structure on ground. In spite of the fact that Buba Marwa was a military governor, at least, Bola Tinubu had a soft landing when he was coming in and that helped him. When Fashola was leaving, he put down fantastic structure for Akinwumi Ambode to succeed. But I don’t think Sanwo-Olu  would meet the kind of structure that others met before him. If you look at the state now, it is in a sorry state. The roads are bad, there is traffic gridlock everywhere.

But I can assure you that, a governor like Sanwo-Olu is aware that there is a limit to the number of policies you can execute within four years. As an experienced person, he should be aware that he must hit the ground running from the very first day; there should not be time for procrastination. Ambode wasted some time when he first came in and because of that, he was not able to finish some of his projects.

Can you point out aspects of Sanwo-Olu’s agenda that you think should immediately be set in motion?

In his agenda, he mentioned the Blue Rail line which  he has promised to complete and the expansion of the waterways. All the countries that prosper all over the world have a fantastic transport system and an alternative means of transportation has been needed in Lagos for the last ten years.

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If you look at the physical planning, the number of roads that should be constructed has been exhausted several years back. In all organised countries of the world, they create alternative means of transport because in the physical planning, there are portions for recreation centers, portions for buildings, portions for industrial and other facilities, portions for roads and so on. So, the portion for roads in Lagos have been consumed long ago. What that means is that we have to improvise by creating a sort of transportation other than the road and that is why the rail line is very important.

For instance, in the Apapa axis, I don’t think we make ten thousand dollars from there every day and I don’t think that the trucks on that road are up to one thousand. Whereas, there are countries in the world where they make billions of dollars and have thousands of trucks but they don’t pass through this kind of agony we pass through along Apapa.  This means that we have to be more organised.

We members of the civil society have been to Apapa several times and we have written series of recommendations on how to tackle the congestion problem.  Spending four hours to office and spending four hours back is a waste of production time that will definitely tie down the economy of a state.

He also mentioned the Forth Mainland Bridge. It has been on for so long that he would be lucky to be the one to execute it. When Tinubu was there, he tried to bring it up, Fashola also tried to bring it on board. So, all those templates that had been laid by Tinubu that had to be consolidated by Fashola, it is Sanwo-Olu who will be the beneficiary.

He said something about security. If there is no peace of mind, nobody would want to come and do business in your state and that is why the South-West is densely populated because of security of life and property. Records show that there is higher number of people coming to Lagos than the number of people that are going out. If you have such a challenge in a state, you have to turn it into victory. You should take advantage of that population just like China and India have done and other big countries with huge populations and see what that has done for them. We have to do that also in Lagos.

What then are your expectations from people towards the new government?

I expect sustenance of goodwill and understanding from the people because too much criticism can derail the government. Unnecessary criticism can cause confusion for the government and that is why we should constantly urge the people to avoid criticism for just criticism sake. We should constantly appeal to the people to criticise constructively and proffer solutions at the same time for the government to perform better.

Sanwo-Olu needs the goodwill of the people because it is precious to survival of any government. If a government has goodwill and he invested in it correctly, it would be a source of inspiration for that government to want to do more.

So, what I am trying to say in essence is that solid support from Lagosians is very important. But that does not mean that people should not correct some mistakes when the need arises or share views with the government. It is through such interaction that superior argument would come out that would make the government to do the right thing.

Rolling out the agenda is an exhibition that he is out for serious business. Some governments in the past failed because they took the wrong step forward. So, Sanwo-Olu should find out what is upper most in the minds of Lagosians at the moment with a view to hitting the ground running from that side.