There is something about the new Lagos State governor that reminds me of a deer stuck in headlights in the middle of a busy road. He is like the Roman Emperor Nero, fiddling away as Rome burns down to the ground around him. His utterances and public statements do not offer any comfort to us citizens that he has a plan to turn the various issues affecting the state around. A few days ago, there was a picture trending on social media of the governor in Ejigbo arresting a commercial bus driving against traffic and the worrisome thing about that picture was how though it was reminiscent of the previous governor’s action where he arrested an army colonel using the BRT lane, Mr. Ambode’s action drew more condemnation than praise which points to the increasing frustration of the people of Lagos State with him.
To be clear, I voted for Mr. Ambode in April during the gubernatorial election. However, I voted for him for only one reason – because the legacy laid down by his predecessors (Mr. Tinubu and Mr. Fashola) in the last 16 years pointed to a patented ability to govern Lagos properly. I voted for him despite the fact that I thought his opponent Mr. Agbaje had more interesting ideas and probably a deeper comprehension of the issues than Mr. Ambode. I thought Mr. Tinubu had a mould and believed him when he said under Mr. Ambode, ‘Eko o ni baje”.
It took a few weeks for me to start changing my mind about Mr. Ambode. It started with the governor’s refusal to announce and inaugurate his cabinet for close to four months after his inauguration (some people say he was waiting for orders from Mr. Tinubu who was busy trying to extricate himself from the Saraki drama in the senate) and then the time wasted on character assassinating Mr. Fashola with the release of selective budget information aimed at destroying the favourable public perception of the ex-governor which I thought was petty.
Now to be clear, I voted for Mr. Ambode and I support him even now. A working Lagos makes my life easy and less stressful, so I am rooting for the governor to succeed because the alternative is hell for the next four years until we can vote him out. However, he has to quickly get his acts together because Nigerians are notoriously impatient and we will soon write him off.
Then came the introduction of the ill-considered and fuzzy traffic policy removing the power to impound cars from traffic offenders from Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and the subsequently firing of the LASTMA General Manager Babatunde Edu. The change of policy showed a strong misunderstanding of the nature of Lagosians. We don’t obey traffic regulations because we are good people, we obey because we are aware and afraid that LASTMA or the Nigerian police will arrest us, waste our time and then extort us for breaking traffic regulations. Defanging LASTMA and firing their boss directly led to the demoralisation of the LASTMA rank and file, and without LASTMA on the streets, traffic snarls intensified dramatically. And these traffic congestions were of epic proportion, stretching up and down the length of Lagos. Tanker drivers in Apapa also lost their minds about the same time and made the situation worse. Journeys that used to take one hour started to stretch to three, and for days it was practically impossible to enter Victoria Island. The traffic situation encouraged robbers to strike in previously safe locations in the city and all of a sudden, we had reverted to the Lagos of the 1990s in six months of Mr. Ambode coming to power.
Now to be clear, I voted for Mr. Ambode and I support him even now. A working Lagos makes my life easy and less stressful, so I am rooting for the governor to succeed because the alternative is hell for the next four years until we can vote him out. However, he has to quickly get his acts together because Nigerians are notoriously impatient and we will soon write him off.
When Mr. Fashola came into power in Lagos, he focused on a few core areas, initially: security, transportation and traffic decongestion, health care, infrastructure development, employment, etc. The new governor needs to do the same. At this stage, he should focus on a core of transportation/traffic congestion, security and infrastructure development.
When Mr. Fashola came into power in Lagos, he focused on a few core areas, initially: security, transportation and traffic decongestion, health care, infrastructure development, employment, etc. The new governor needs to do the same. At this stage, he should focus on a core of transportation/traffic congestion, security and infrastructure development. He should get the Lagos state police command and LASTMA to deploy more officers on the roads and to work together to address security and traffic issues. More cops should be quickly deployed to insecure spots across Lagos. He should engage the military and police and create a rapid response squad that can be delivered by helicopter to any location where a robbery is taking place, specifically on occasions like the recent bank robbery at Festac.
Running the most populous city in Sub-Saharan Africa is the biggest job in Nigeria after the presidency. Mr. Ambode needs to do a better job and do it quickly before he completely fritters away all the goodwill, Mr. Fashola won for APC over eight years. And Mr. Tinubu needs to engage his protégé and impress on him the need to improve his performance dramatically, or in four years he (Mr. Tinubu) will lose his political base to a resurgent PDP challenge led by Mr. Agbaje.
Eko, ti n baje o !
Femi Akinfolarin, a lawyer, writes from Lagos.