Lagos — and it appears a case of three governors, three different destinies.
Babatunde Raji Fashola charged in and stormed out, turbo-charged. Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican reggae great, would have crooned: Gone clear like a rocket!
Akinwunmi Dapo Ambode ambled in and hobbled out — the gubernatorial equivalent of a vanished comet.
Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, is BOS of the new order. Will he boss ideas and let the team bloom? Or boss people and let the team wilt? So far, a quiet, cautious cruise.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the gubernatorial paterfamilias himself?
That was another era — of David securing the kingdom, against the fierce political Amalekites, Philistines and Amorites, that gave no quarters: the imperial president, roaring from his Abuja liar; his Lagos viceroy-dogs, sniffing cheap partisan blood.
It was an era of the power jungle, of the most reckless hue. Yet, a foundation had to be laid. Yet, the path had to be tracked — a Moses tracking post-Red Sea, to the Promised Land; a David fending off fearsome blitz, from formidable foes.
Twelve years after Tinubu, it’s not quite the easy peril of Solomon. But the kingdom would appear strengthened and stable enough to establish a pattern; and track a legacy.
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Fashola dazzled his electors with low-hanging fruits — the BRT tracks and BRT Red and Blue buses; a restless environment policy that re-greened the Lagos Marina and allied city concrete jungles; cleared Lagos of filth, and rid the city of outlaw traffic, in ways never previously imagined.
Eight years later, Fashola exited in near-universal cheer — the policy equivalent of Plato’s philosopher-king, though in a democracy that Plato decried!
Ambode, at dawn, ran into a vicious LASTMA ambush, which hideous traffic gridlock sent fickle folks screaming: bring back our Fash!
Four short years later, he hobbled out as virtual gubernatorial garbage — no thanks to a refuse reform turned hideous deform.
In-between, he showed brilliant flashes. The most spectacular rural-friendly Lagos governor, for one: witness his glittering infrastructure in Epe and rural Alimoso. Rural Lagos was never so blest!
At the city hub, a mixed grill: breath of fresh air, cruising on the new Lagos Airport-Oshodi road; unmitigated pestilence on the comatose Iganmu-Orile-Ojo-Badagry road-and-rail; sweet-sour on the Pen Cinema-Agege motor road-Oshodi front — no thanks to too many constructions at the same time.
Ambode exited power the ultimate political equivalent of the tennis unforced error — the gubernatorial symbol of avoidable self-ruin, from blatant rotten choices. Yet, he wasn’t the worst governor in town!
Sanwo-Olu, after 100 days? Neither the blistering entry-and-exit of Fashola; nor the sweet-sour hobble-and-tumble of Ambode.
Gboyega Akosile, the BOS chief press secretary (CPS), would probably not echo Segun Ayobolu, Governor Tinubu’s first CPS, that the 100 days were sheer hell for the administration, given the media’s all-too-familiar penchant to just bark and bark, without recourse to context.
Still, lobbies can legitimately claim BOS’s first 100 days have been comparatively quiet — lacking the blistering glory-to-glory of the Fashola years; or the grass-to-grace-back to grass of the Ambode era.
Yet, there are serious problems requiring blistering solutions — the Lagos brazen road outlawry, for one.
With the Lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012, Fashola was already winning the war against Okada road outlawry until “gentleman” Ambode entered and the battle flagged. Now, though the first thing BOS did was sign an Executive Order to declare a traffic and environment emergency, free-wheeling outlawry still reigns on Lagos roads.
The governor should walk his talk on this score. Visit the Mile 2-Oshodi-Oworonshoki expressway (now under reconstruction) and see the menace of Okada, zooming against on-coming traffic, on an express on which, by law, they have been barred!
And the Danfo commercial minibuses? Sheer yellow peril, in that same corridor! Of course, with no sanction in sight, private motorists have joined the bedlam — driving against the traffic from Oshodi to Mile 2! Only God knows how many lives this brazen show would claim, if not checked.
Words are rife that the administration is pondering working out some cohabitation with the Okada operators. Whatever deal is cut, it should not include a triumphant legal return to expressways.
Indeed, any thinking that concedes mass transportation to two wheels, with all its inherent dangers, can only amount to net-retardation in 21st century Lagos. Some “choices” are just no choices!
Still, away from traffic anarchy, BOS has displayed trite wisdom, which nevertheless cost Ambode dear — the wonders of continuity and low-hanging fruits.
While Fashola zestfully harvested the BRT, low-hanging fruits the departing Tinubu government had planted, Ambode wilfully shunned the housing estates the Fashola governorship started.
For at least four years, those estates, under construction, stayed arrested. But BOS, in three months — well, 100 days — raced to complete the Igando arm, rightly named for the public icon of contemporary mass housing, Alhaji Lateef Jakande.
Wisdom of continuity; pleasure of low-hanging fruits; blessing of 100 days!
It’s good the governor has pledged rapid completion of these estates, scattered in different locations. But he should also ensure the allocations conform to the original protocols, so that the houses don’t end up with trader-shylocks; but with those who sorely need them.
Learning from the Ambode pitfall is smart thinking for BOS early in his tenure. But as the Bible says, the beginning is nothing. The end is everything.
Which is why BOS should also move fast to complete those Ambode era projects, particularly those ones that promise maximum impact on the people.
One is the Oshodi transport interchange and shopping hub. That completed, it could transform Oshodi into a 24-hour polite business hub; and boost city-wide security.
Another is the gleaming Airport road. It’s sheer bliss for motorists. But it’s also pure hell for pedestrians, linking Ajao Estate to the opposite Mafoluku. The many pedestrian bridges, on that road, need fast completion.
Yet another is finishing the Epe-Eredo artery, which incomplete end rather plagues the Mojoda-Odo Ayan folks. The other leg is completing the Epe-Ejinrin-Itoikin end of the project.
As the administration grinds on, these two uncompleted ends will pose local challenge to “home boy” and Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat. If not given attention, it could well be another avoidable unforced error at election time!
It’s reassuring though that BOS has committed himself to completing all the Ambode-era projects. When he does and at commission time, he should give the former governor his due mention, recognition and honour.
Not even Ambode deserves the black-out he gave Fashola, at the commissioning of the Okota-Amuwo Odofin-Mile 2 link-road. The former governor was there, ironically as Works minister. But no one acknowledged he, as governor, did and opened no less than 70 per cent of that vital artery!
BOS, after 100 days? Slow and steady! But even that would win the race, only if the governor pushes less of individual success; but more of collective glory.
That was the Ambode pitfall. BOS must learn from that fatal slip.
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