By Tunji Light Ariyomo
Does it make sense to have a Lagosian as President and then have Lagos in the opposition? Let’s look at the facts of our history.
In 1983, the Lagos Light Rail project was cancelled because the ruling federal military government was in opposition to the development agenda of the previous UPN government in Lagos State.
In 2000, the Lagos independent power project was frustrated because the PDP ruling party in Abuja was in opposition to the development agenda of the AD-led administration in Lagos.
From 2004, Lagos’ allocations were seized for years because the PDP-led federal government in Abuja was in opposition to the development agendas of the AD-led Lagos State Government.
However, from 29th of May 2023, for the first time in history, Nigeria will be having a Lagosian as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. It is of strategic importance to let Lagos that served as the fulcrum of opposition-led efforts to install a progressive coalition government in Abuja in 2015 to also be a beneficiary of that labour.
There are many unprecedented developmental initiatives and core paradigm shifts in governance that a number of development-aware citizens would love to witness and experience in Lagos State. The very nature of our current conflicted federation does not however naturally promote government-to-government cooperation. Often, opposing political establishments would substitute fierce negative and destructive competition for collaboration.
Yet, we the citizens want to see a federal-state jointly-sponsored 4th, 5th and 6th mainland bridges with several in-city train and tram services in Lagos in the next 4 years. We will like to see most roads in Lagos and street furnishings including walkways and leisure parks redesigned, upgraded or rebuilt to international standard.
We want to see a spatial redesign of the entire Lagos State to give comfort to inhabitants and become the best mega city in Africa and a global tourism destination of choice.
We want to see Lagos excluded from the national grid, ring-fenced as a mega electricity cluster and powered by arrays of private-sector-led independent power projects that are completely outside the menace and wilful limitations that current national centralisation of power administration has imposed upon Nigeria.
Lagos population is in excess of 22 million. This is higher than the population of many countries. To be a first-world state, Lagos requires a minimum of 20 world class tertiary health facilities (teaching hospitals) properly distributed across the state and catering to healthcare needs at a ratio of 1:1,100,000 inhabitants with at least a thousand primary and secondary healthcare facilities or hybrids therefrom with a target physician density of 50:10,000 or lower. If Lagos sees this ambition as being too loud in view of the abysmal gap of Nigeria’s national healthcare programme, the Lagos State government can aim at just half of the above suggestion for a start as a revolutionary intervention in healthcare over the next 4 years leveraging the avowed eagerness of the private sector to invest in healthcare.
The list of the great things we want to see in Lagos State are limitless. But the structure of our federation has guaranteed that those things can only materialize if the federal government concurs with Lagos State. Most international development partners and long-term low-interest financial institutions would not fund development projects in third world countries without sovereign guarantees by the national government.
Gentlemen and ladies, I am a stakeholder in Lagos. Like thousands of others, I pay more property taxes to Lagos State than I pay to any other state in Nigeria. The prospect of a redeveloped, rebranded and re-planned Lagos where the health sector, education sector, security architecture, and social amenities are at par with 21st century expectations and serve as inspirations to the black race excites me. We must therefore take advantage and fully exploit the inherent benefits offered by the tenancy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Aso Rock in the next 4 years. We must leave no stone unturned to re-elect Babajide Sanwo-Olu. He is my candidate as
Governor of Lagos State on Saturday. Vote for him.
May God bless those who shun divisive politics and envy-inspired hatred to harken to this call.
Tunji Ariyomo is an infrastructure expert and a chartered project manager.