The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was finally moved from Lagos to Abuja over 30 years ago. But the Atlantic Ocean, the ever-busy port, and indeed, other vast economic potentials, have remained immovable, drawing constant attention to the vast city as the business capital and economic nerve centre of the country.
Although 75 per cent of the state is water, which earns it the sobriquet, ‘The State of Aquatic Splendour’, its recurrent ecological challenges, flash flooding, and overcrowding have not eroded its magnetism to people from diverse backgrounds. It has also remained a vital and viable destination for domestic and foreign investments.
Lagos is the city of small and big commerce; a unique melting pot, an industrial and manufacturing hub, banks’ headquarters, host to representatives of all families in Nigeria, the preferred location for foreign embassies, home of modern theatre, host to the busiest airport, and a preferred tourist destination. These and many more account for its indisputable status as the fifth-largest economy in Africa.
Lagos is the target of many youths seeking real and imagined greener pastures; it is a place to live, work, raise families and prosper. It is also, like other thriving cities, a hidden place for homeless deviants and the pride of miscreants appropriately labelled as ‘area boys’.
How Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been able to tackle the mounting security challenges, like his predecessors, attests to the wonders of the Centre of Excellence.
A diplomat, Dr. Dere Awosika, who chaired the recent Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) maiden Distinguished Lecture delivered by the governor, paid tribute to the city’s resilience and its capacity to withstand the threats by the men of the underworld who trouble other states and make them unsafe.
The lecture, titled: ‘Lagos and Nigeria 2030: Projections of a World Power, offered a veritable opportunity for the assessment of the “Lagos factor” in the making of Nigeria and how it can contribute more meaningfully, based on its endowment, to the nation’s latent ambition to be a world power.
In the 1950s, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (U.S.A.), and other world powers envisioned that by the mid-seventies, Nigeria, due to its vast natural resources and rising human capital, would have, at least, become a medium-ranking power and clear African leader in the comity of nations. It was a promising country that had television service before France got one.
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However, its leaders never measured up after independence, causing the country to regress from the progressive ladder. While the Asian countries that were at the same level of development in the sixties rose to become tigers on the wings of visionary, dynamic, determined, dedicated, and transformational leaders, the opportunity eluded Nigeria.
Historically, nations that have achieved prosperity endeavoured to lean on their resources, better managed by their leaders, before attracting partnerships with other forward-moving countries. There is inter-dependence among nations, but only healthy, resourceful and well-managed entities have the chance of survival. The motivation for development should come from within.
It is by mobilising and maximising the human and material resources to fuel development that a country can achieve a breakthrough.
The NIIA Director-General, Prof. Osaghe Eghosa, drew national attention to what Lagos can consistently contribute to making Nigeria a world power in the future – the quantity and quality of population, now put at 220 million, which makes it Africa’s growth centre. Thus, Lagos becomes the leading commercial city on the continent; a typical model mega city; a hub of civilisation, enterprise and culture; a sports city and producer of sports giants; the seat of judicial innovation; pioneer of the Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sexual Offences Court; the cradle of nationalistic struggle, civil society onslaughts and pro-democracy agitators who laid down their lives; the root of the private sector, big banks and systems that run African finance and the core of creative leadership.
Lagos, perhaps, is far beyond what people see and how they perceive it. Its image, in every context, looms larger in national and continental reckoning than the residents might be able to decipher. Alas, a prophet is not sufficiently honoured in his domain.
Echoing the political scholar, Sanwo-Olu alluded to the economic realities and potentials that make the former federal capital a factor in national growth.
These include the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant, Eko Atlantic City, the Coastal Road, Badagry-Sokoto Road, Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail, the Proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge, and the Lekki International Financial Centre, which make Lagos a hub of global commerce and finance.
In addition are “the mass of undersea cables and state-of-the-art data centres heralding a digital revolution; the array of poise for unicorn status, an expanding light rail system that has carried over five million passengers so far without a single incident, and a network of stock and commodity exchanges that are driving unprecedented wealth creation, entrepreneurial and financial innovation.”
The state has also set the pace in sub-national security trust fund, sub-national leadership in tax reform, and traffic management emergency response, which are being replicated in other states.
Thus, as Sanwo-Olu contended, Nigeria’s economic ambitions will be enabled by industrial and free trade zones, logistics infrastructure, financial centres and 21st-century urban developments – all areas in which Lagos is showcasing leadership.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared the goal of making Nigeria a $1 trillion economy by 2030 and reiterated the national commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement that would halt gas flaring and the generation of electricity through renewable sources.
In Lagos, the Sanwo-Olu administration has also unfolded the ‘Lagos State Development Plan 2052, which is a 30-year plan launched in 2022. It articulates the goal of Africa’s Model Mega City and a Global Economic and Financial Hub that is safe, secure, and productive.
The Lagos 30-Year Plan is anchored on four pillars – thriving economy, modern infrastructure, human-centric city, and effective governance. To the governor, Nigeria can actually become a global power in economy, diplomacy, technology, culture, defence, demography, resources, and endowment.
Alluding to human capital development, he said if the human asset, which should be prioritised over and above oil and gas, marine and forest wealth, is properly harnessed, the country may as well be on the right path. Also, Sanwo-Olu said Nigeria should fully embrace tech knowledge and make itself felt in the areas of cutting-edge technical competencies, including cloud computing and artificial intelligence, adding that the state should become producers instead of consumers of foreign technology. The audience nodded affirmatively.
Sanwo-Olu renewed the call for a special status for Lagos, not because other states do not matter. The governor stressed that the country can scale up its growth and development by treating the state as a pivotal leverage that can help unleash collective national potential.
Long before he became governor, Lagos leaders had intensified the agitation for special economic assistance to the state. The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, sponsored a Bill on the matter when she was a member of the Red Chamber some years ago. However, the proposed legislation was frustrated by other interest groups, even though many of them have family and business roots in the city-state.
Since the Bill was rejected, no other federal legislator has attempted to renew the struggle. They limit their interventions to barking without biting; not thinking about raising a meaningful dialogue with their colleagues from other zones to see reason and buy their understanding on this issue.
Many Nigerians and foreigners troop into Lagos daily, putting pressure on its social infrastructure and housing facilities. Most of them do not return to their roots. They join numerous others in the struggle for daily bread.
A major challenge in Lagos is the refusal of many people and organisations to pay tax. Many companies operate in Lagos through the cul-de-sac. They neither have signboards or other means of showing their locations. They deliberately do this to evade the state’s signage agency.
Lagos shoulders enormous national, regional, and continental responsibilities due to its distinct and peculiar position. This was among the reasons the Committee on the Relocation of the Federal Capital, chaired by the eminent jurist, the late Justice Akinola Aguda, recommended that Lagos should be accorded a special status along with Abuja, Kaduna, and Enugu. After the Federal Government officially relocated the federal capital to Abuja on December 12, 1991, it has failed to implement the recommendation.
Why can’t Nigeria emulate Germany, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia, and Tanzania, all of which, after relocating their former capitals, never abandoned the old ones but have continued to develop them simultaneously?
The pressure on Lagos as the first choice for economic survival makes it compelling for the public and the private sectors to work together in providing modern amenities that would make life easier for the residents. This should not be an issue for debate but a necessity to strengthen the nation’s economic nerve centre to absorb the daily influx of opportunity seekers and accommodate people of diverse characters.
