Lagos: Africa’s emerging powerhouse
Lagos has not seen its like before. An exciting state governor whose inspirational leadership has transformed a once difficult city and State into a thriving living space in just six years.
Transformational leadership
History has many stories of those who, singlehandedly or with others, have transformed their societies. Now, in Nigeria, another individual has emerged who, within six years has totally transformed a once difficult city and State. He has not done it alone but with a team of hardworking men and women who set and achieved their common goals.
The man is the 49-year-old lawyer, Babatunde Raji Fashola, the youngest man in history elected to become the Governor of Nigeria’s Lagos State. That Governor Fashola has achieved this feat from within an opposition party makes his accomplishments even more impressive. Usually in Africa, it is only politicians from the ruling parties that can succeed with ambitious projects. Fashola has turned that norm on its head.
Fashola is the Lagos State representative of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a party that controls five other States in Nigeria (Edo, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun and Oyo), but does not rule nationally. That honour falls to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Yet through sheer inspirational leadership, Fashola has made the ACN the party to beat in Lagos State. When elections were held in April
2011, Fashola was seeking a second term. This was achieved, but much more besides. The ACN returned all 40 party representatives to the House of Assembly – and elected Fashola with over 1.5m votes, the highest number of votes ever delivered for any candidate in any State in Nigeria.
The people of Lagos and the larger Lagos State clearly know which side of their bread is buttered. For over 40 years since independence in 1960, they had been short changed by successive governors. Now they know a “real governor” had arrived. And they voted en masse for Fashola and his ACN colleagues to continue the good work they started in August 2006 when they first came into office.
By landmass, Lagos state is small but has a population of 18m. It is home to the fifth largest economy in Africa, and were it a country, would rank after only 4 African countries, including Nigeria itself.
It needed a leadership that could use its immense financial, material and human resources to modernise itself and improve the standard of living. And that is exactly what Fashola and his team have delivered in six years.
The improvements have been stunning. Visitors to the city who knew Lagos in the past can hardly believe the positive changes that have taken place. There has been a massive clean-up, a programme of tree planting and a general greening of the metropolis. Pedestrians are being catered for with dedicated walk ways while road improvements have lessened the city’s notorious “go-slows’.
Similarly Africa’s first Rapid Bus Transit System launched in 2008, with dedicated bus lanes speeding the public about the city. A new bridge from Lekki to Ikoyi promises to further reduce congestion, and Fashola has even given the green light to investors to bid to build seven modern intra-city rail lines.
Water and power services are being upgraded and further improvements are also planned. But, of course, all this takes money. So Fashola has broadened the collection of State revenues and
