Sanwo-Olu: Smashing the Second Term Syndrome

At a recent breakfast parley with some media actors, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, brought them up to speed on the state of play. THISDAY was roundly represented.

About one-tenth or less per cent of the governors serving out their second term in office often finish well. This is even for those who started well or concluded their first term, posting some stellar results.

But, many a time, the moment they return to the office, what has come to be known as the second term syndrome creeps in, and for the people, who are usually at the short end of the stick, it is to their tent o Israel.

Lagos, interestingly, is a different entity. It is not by choice that it is being referred to as Nigeria in her microscopic form. It is a status reference earned over the years.

Although Lagos, too, might have passed through the hands of unproductive leaderships, the current demand for sound and hands-on leaders, who are clearly in tune with trends and progressive inclinations, is in sync with her evolving status.

Strangely, the current Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has not been very lucky in a sense. For one, who landed into crisis from day one of assuming the office on May 29, 2019, his story has been nothing short of grace.

From the basic challenges of governance to several unintended demands of leadership, he has continued to hop from one crisis situation to the other, and, in each of the circumstances, he has acquitted himself well.

Perhaps, it was with such dedication to work and sincerity of leadership that he was able to pull through his first term in office. Yet, and in spite of giving his all, he fought “heavily”to return to office as though his life depended on it in the 2023 elections.

But that’s not all. Sanwo-Olu has a clear understanding of the fact that his legacy is as important as his transition. And so, to sustain the tradition of continuity that has set the state apart since 1999, especially knowing that whoever is going to succeed him will run on his record, he has refused to rest on his oars, working each day as though it was his last.

The last over one year has been engaging in terms of governance, service delivery, and leadership. Sanwo-Olu has not only been addressing these challenges as demanded by time and prevailing local realities. He has also been undertaking many foreign trips geared towards enhancing the Lagos mega city status, and as well advance what is now known as her master plan.

Thus, before the new age revisionists begin to deconstruct his record of over five years as the Lagos governor, Sanwo-Olu, two weekends ago, hosted the creme of media executives and operators to a breakfast parley, where he personally told the story of his governorship so far, taking off from where his first term ended.

The Lagos Night Life

To live in a massive city like Lagos, the governor inferred, comes with a whole lot of responsibility, chief of which is that the city has to be alive. Putting it in his words, “The city has to walk almost 24/7. The city has to be a place, where people can commute, people can do business. People can have a work-life balance.”

Lagos, he contended, “should be a city where people can move from one part of the city to another without any hindrance. So, we think the good news is actually both the nightlife and the daylight. More importantly, people also have to feel safe at night.

“People must feel that they can go to different parts of the city, feel safe before, during, and after whatever visit they have, and they’ll be able to go back home safely. That, for us, is not just a jubilation, but also to say to us that there’s some bit of our job that has been recognised. But what that puts to us is that we need to do more because the easy part for you is to get it done.”

To properly put it in context further, the governor explained that, “a 12-hour economy will never do justice to a big city like this. In bigger cities, it has to be close to 24 hours or 18 hours at the minimum. So, the nightlife of Lagos is part of the economy of Lagos; it’s part of the kind of things that will make Lagos not only a resilient city but make it a liveable city.”

Lagos and the Identity Culture

The world over, mega cities always have distinct identities, which are often their unique selling points. In Lagos, however,  Sanwo-Olu is first chasing after a state, “where you can have predictable journey time.” That, for an average tourist, is a big factor that is not negotiable.

“You can come out of your house or your office and be able to safely say that in 30 minutes, in 35 minutes, plus or minus five minutes, you can get to a predictable destination,” he said.

The governor is also working on a Lagos that “encourages all the creative capabilities, all the creative minds that it has. A Lagos where the strength is in its people – the social life, the creative world, the people that are about ensuring that you do not stop at creativity.”

Equally on his dashboard is “a Lagos where you expect safety and security to be paramount, to be alive, to be a responsibility. A Lagos where the financial sector, the financial transactions continue to bloom and to grow well.

“A Lagos where you see businesses, small, medium, and large, corporate. A Lagos you see as home, see it as a place where their staff members are safe, where their businesses continue to thrive, where there is the enabling environment, where government continues to provide for businesses to thrive and to do well.

“These are the kind of vision that I have to make Lagos truly, really a resilient, workable city for everybody that comes in. But, there’s some little part of it, which we could talk about later. But quite frankly, it’s a Lagos that, you know, has an effective, efficient public transportation system that is working, that is reliable, and that is safe.” Call it the “Spirit of Lagos” Sanwo-Olu is unmistaken in the identity of the state of aquatic splendour.

The Transportation Conundrum

Lagos is infamous for traffic congestion, perhaps, because of its size. But it hardly takes away its beauty, Sanwo-Olu would argue, especially because it’s a challenge that comes with its mega status.

“First is, you need to compare apple with apple. I took a trip to New York less than 18 months ago, and it took us 30 minutes to do six blocks. Six blocks, less than a kilometer, took 30 minutes to do it. That’s New York for you. So, Lagos has a similar demography, right? So, if you go to, I mean, Bombay in India, it has similar demography. If you go to Istanbul in Turkey, it has a similar demography.

“The number of buses and vehicles you see also on the road is also a measure of the economic value of the citizens. But what is government meant to do? Government is meant to intervene in what you call mass urban transportation system. And, for us in Lagos, we’re playing in all of the strata.

“You know, we’ve developed a robust, integrated urban mass transportation system in rail, in BRT buses, on the waterways that has about 20 to 23 to 25% of our total land mass. In taxis, in last mile buses, and in all possible public transportation that people need to move on, right?

“Talking about rail, if you look at both the red line and the blue line, they’re very strategic in identifying where the corridors are, where the population is. The red line moves from south to north, from Oyingbo in the south, straight up to north, up to Agbado. We’re very creative.

“We didn’t let it stop at Ido, which is inside Lagos. We actually pushed it all the way to Agbado, which is inside Ogun State. It’s almost a 29-kilometre rail corridor.

“The blue line, for example, is on the western part of Lagos, moving from Marina, going all the way westernward towards Okokomaiko. Right now, it’s at mile two, and phase two, to get it to Okokomaiko. That’s the western part of it.

“The eastern part of Lagos is the green line, which is just at the MOU stage, which now moves you from Lekki on Victoria Island, towards the upper axis. So, you can see that in terms of a strategy composition, we’re thinking of the western part, we’re thinking of the eastern part. We’re thinking of the north-south part. That’s where the population is, right? So that’s what the rail does.

“All of that intervention in waterways, let’s look at all the corridors that have water transportation. From Ibeshe, you could do straight to, say, Falomo, or you can say Badore, just cross from Ikorodu. From Ojo, in Amuwo Odofin Local Government, you can come all the way to Liverpool.

“You can come from Liverpool, you can come all the way to Marina, and you can also go to Falomo. You have all of those choices and all of those options, both on the waterways and both on the rail corridors that we’re developing.”

The governor believes that the people still do not understand that there are options for them in road transportation. “That’s where you see the pressure on the three bridges that connect the mainland to the island, the Third mainland Bridge, the Kara Bridge, and of course the Eko Bridge. So, you see a lot of pressure there. Part of the things that we’re trying to do is where are they coming from? The Red Line, for example, if I go back to that, is taking you all the way from Agbado.

“From Agbado, it connects to Iju, which is the heart of the Ifako ijaye. From Iju, it will take you to Agege and out of Agege. From Agege, it takes you to Ikeja. From Ikeja, it takes you to the all-important Oshodi. So, you can imagine the aggregate of passengers it’s picking up. From Oshodi, it takes you to Mushin. My people in Mushin are looking forward to it. They are excited.

“From Mushin, it takes you to Yaba. We’re going up. Yaba looks like the centerpiece. From Yaba, it takes you to Ebute-Meta. Eventually, that rail corridor has clearly solved a lot of road transportation issues. A journey that either takes you two hours, two and a half hours, now you can do it in under one hour.

“When we started the journey yesterday, it took us 36 minutes from Ebute-Meta all the way to Ikeja when we came down. It’s going to be another seven to nine minutes to take you to Agbado. So it’s a phenomenon. It’s a game changer for us.”

Balancing Infrastructure Distribution

A debate on how the state intends to capture the people in the lower cadre of the society and also ensures that infrastructure is not only for the middle and the upper class, but evenly distributed is germane. Sanwo-olu, too, is not oblivious of this fact.

But that still sounded like a piecemeal for the governor, especially after just reeling off the transportation network across the different modes.

“You know, I mentioned from Agbado, I didn’t mention Victoria Island. I didn’t mention Lekki. I didn’t mention the Kudu. That’s where my people are. Agbado, Iju, that’s where, you know, the vulnerable set of this population, that’s where they are. That’s where they reside. Agege, that’s them. Mushin, that’s where they live. Oshodi, that’s really where they are.”

Unfortunately, the cost of transportation might pose another challenge – a big one at that. However,  Sanwo-olu did not think so. “It’s not one price – fixed price – that you need. If you take off from Ebute-Meta, for example, by the time you’ve done three, four stops, I think the total price is about 800 to 850 Naira.

“Or if you take the whole journey to the end to Agbado, it’s 1,500. But if you measure that, and you take a train in the UK, and you do six stops, you realise that the cheapest you could get is six pounds. Six pounds today, given the exchange rate, is almost 10,000 Naira.

“Don’t let us even do the conversion. It will be way out of here. So, let’s keep quiet because 1,500 today, if you put it, is about a dollar. So, 1,500 is about a dollar, and 1,500 is less than a pound. But don’t even let us, because they are two different economies.

“I don’t want to put naira and dollar in the same context.That’s not how I’m trained. But the reality is to look at the GDP of our people, their earning capacity and be able to reflect on what we need to do to help them. So it’s 1,500 from Ebute-Meta all the way to Agbado.

“It will criss cross a minimum of 10 local governments. If you need to take an alternative route, there’s clearly no way that you’ll spend anything less than 2,000 to 2,500. But even at that, the plan is for us to start this, and we will do the tests.

“Once we’re able to guarantee what our minimum threshold is, it’s not impossible for me, say in a month from today, to bring it down to another 15 to 20%. You will remember that when we started the blue line, which started with about 800 Naira from Marina all the way to Mile 2, I brought it downby about 20 to 25%, and today we’ve carried close to 3 million people on that rail corridor on the blue line. So, similar things will happen. But this one is a longer route. It has more stations.”

Minimum Wage to the Rescue

Central to all that the governor is doing and intends to still do is the purchasing power of the people. Are they able to afford the lifestyle that he is providing them with, even though everything is tailored towards their comfort and at relatively affordable costs?

But he seemed to have his plan cobbled up his sleeves, and boom, he let the cat out of the bag. “I’m glad to let you know that minimum wage for Lagos, which we’ve conversed and discussed with our union, is 85,000 naira today. I mean, it’s not a competition.

“I’m not going to say that we’re paying more than some other people. It’s a function of affordability, and it’s a function of capacity. But we know too well that when people live in Lagos, Lagos has a premium in terms of even the cost of living. And so we’re fully aware. We actually increased our salary earlier in the year and deserved so for our staff. We’ll continue to do that.

“I would want to come back to you in January and say I’ve been able to increase the minimum wage of Lagos to N100,000, not because I want to make anybody look bad. It’s really because I want my people to have a living wage. I want them to truly, really be able to know that the government is working for them.”

Two Huge Dream Projects

The fourth mainland bridge and the alternative airport are two huge dream projects that the Sanwo-Olu administration wants to be recorded against its reign. But are they still feasible or already in the works?

His words: “We’ve done everything regarding the fourth mainland bridge. I also need to thank Mr. President, especially for the alternative on the Lagos Calabar highway, which will run parallel from Ahmadu Bello way on the Atlantic ocean towards the free trade zone. We have the Lekki Epe express, which is in the middle. The plan is for us to have what we call Lagoon highway on the farthest part of the Lekki peninsula, which will also run towards Epe.

“So the fourth mainland bridge is supposed to be from Ajah and just criss crosses to Ibeshe in Ikorodu. We have done extensive work on the alignment. Everything has been concluded: the audiographic study, the viability study, the feasibility study. Everything is on the table.

“We know what the bucket of the numbers is. We’ve had concessioners, whom we’ve sat with, unfortunately, I must say this, the kind of request that they were making of us, we cannot grant. Asking for a sovereign guarantee? I’m a subnational, I’m not sovereign. So, it’s a difficult call.

“I cannot walk to the Minister of Finance and say, give me a sovereign grant. It doesn’t work like that. He has to negotiate it. It has to be something that they also need to carry in the buckets. It’s a fairly long conversation for you to get that. So, we are looking for other means of agreeing on how to take that forward.

“The airport is a more fairly straightforward investment decision. So, we want to have our skin in the game. We are planning to be able to raise investments, but we need to work with the federal government. So, we have meetings planned out with FAAN, NCA, with the federal minister of aviation. We have approval, I mean, they have given to us, but it’s just more than approval. There are some rules there, some engagements that need to take place.

“We know it’s viable. We know it’s needed in that part of the city given the development that is happening there; given the investment that I’ve seen coming there. But it’s not just about us, it’s about a full conversation with our regulators, with our federal government and ensuring that even investors feel comfortable that they have all the regulatory approval before we move on. So, we’ve gone around; we’ve done a bit of a road show, we’ve done a bit of engagement to be able to attract FDI so that they see the viability and why it’s important for Lagos to have this.

Situating the Debt Profile Debate

As lofty as all of the ideas by the Sanwo-Olu administration might seem, the fear that Lagos could be sinking deeper into debts is also present and evident. Sanwo-Olu thinks differently.

“Let’s use the proper word,” he said. “When you say huge debt, there’s a difference between a huge debt and an affordable debt in which you look at your funding ratio and your funding structure. You look at your ability to pay, and I’ll give you a simple example.

“Why did it take us this long before we could complete the blue line, and why did we start the red line, and we’ve been able to complete it in less than three years? It’s the audacity of the power of you can do. If after COVID in 2020, we did not take the leap of faith to say, we wanted to do it, today, if you had attempted to do any of those infrastructure projects, not only will it be four times the price, you may never ever be able to do it.

“If you lose a chance yesterday, today is the next best chance for you. If you leave it, you don’t do it, then you don’t have any opportunity to do it. We have a strong conviction in our minds. We know that our people are deserving of it. We know that we are doing the right thing in terms of the debts. So,the ability of Lagos to also carry this thing is key. We are not reckless.”

School Fees Palaver

A recent increase in boarding school fees is already causing some stir in the state and a huge bother to some parents, given the current economic situation in the country. Sanwo-Olu, however, has his explanations.

“Let’s just get it right. We increased  boarding fees in model schools. What are the numbers? It’s less than 1.5% of our population. We’ve got over 600 schools and we have 33 model schools. It’s in those model schools that we’ve increased boarding, not even the whole school. It’s just a smaller fraction, less than 50% of even the population in those model schools that have asked for boarding facilities that we asked to increase, and we are taking over the responsibility fully.

“I mean, full responsibility of the pupils or their children in our boarding facilities year in, year out. I spend money refurblishing the beds and the hostels to make those boarding facilities conducive for those children. What we are asking of them is not for the physical infrastructure. It is just the cost to feed them for the three months or for the six months that they are going to be with us.

“So, in terms of costs, it’s not any number to talk about. Like I said, it’s less than 2%. We’ve got over 600 schools in Lagos State that are all public schools. The model schools are just 33 or 34 of them. So, it is half of that population of people. It’s nothing close to it at all.”