The Lagos State we Desire and Deserve

By Kehinde Adegbulugbe Over the years, we have been led to believe in the promise of Lagos as a smart mega city. This vision was sold to Lagosians and embraced with the fierce pride every Lagosian, indigenous, and resident, wears like a badge of honor! A cosmopolitan city or state describes a city or state […]

By Kehinde Adegbulugbe

Over the years, we have been led to believe in the promise of Lagos as a smart mega city. This vision was sold to Lagosians and embraced with the fierce pride every Lagosian, indigenous, and resident, wears like a badge of honor! A cosmopolitan city or state describes a city or state with people who have an air of glamour, a sense that they’ve seen a lot of the world, and are sophisticated and at ease with all different kinds of people

This pride transcends ethnicity, religion, and even political allegiances. Citizens of the City of Excellence naturally expect ‘excellence’ to be the common denominator of every policy and project of the administrators of the state.

A metropolitan city, also known as a metropolis, is a large, densely populated urban area that serves as a major center for business, culture, and transportation

Thus, Lagos is a cosmopolitan metropolis, the pride and joy of Nigeria, West Africa, and all of Africa as a contemporary of the top global cosmopolitan metropolises world over.

However, Lagosians also share a similar shame. Like the child whose close relative has soiled the family name and legacy, we are humbled by the ambling rate of development in the state.

The constant loud propaganda references to IGR and commercial hub are not commensurate with the standard of living within the state, especially in terms of social development, infrastructure development, education, healthcare, security, employment, etc.

For those who would mischievously try to side track with, Lagos is the best state in Nigeria, I offer the response that a one-eyed man is a national treasure in the land of the blind. It does not mean the one-eyed man will not be equally blind when approached from his blind side! In fact, he would be at a disadvantage compared with those who are fully blind because circumstances would have compelled these ones to hone their other sensory tools.

It is not a farfetched expectation to expect Lagos to be at the level of similarly compared cities and states.

We have a serious waste management plan, which has translated into a health risk for citizens and residents. Public water, which was available in many parts of the state a few decades ago, has become the subject of urban legends. Roads range from terrible to murderous. Primary healthcare facilities are less equipped than a ‘chemist’s’ shop. Security is locally sourced and maintained using vigilantes.

None of the above matches the vision that was sold to the citizens. The more pressing realities are increased cost of living, increased multiple taxation, state-empowerme t of street urchins as revenue collectors, etc.

This is not the vision we were sold! Is Lagos working for ALL Lagosians or just for a few? Do we have an ongoing state capture by political actors hellbent on self aggrandizement and power?

Again, I ask, is Lagos working for Lagosians? Red line, Blue line, why is it taking forever to implement and deliver? Why is Lagos worse of now than it was in the last decades of the last century? A sprinkling of projects will not suddenly remove the unrelenting stench of underdevelopment.

The most telling pointer to a failure of leadership is that the same group of people have been running the state since 1999. They may change the name of their political platforms, but we know that masquerades are humans in disguises.

These leaders praise themselves for the high IGR generated by Lagos State but engage in ‘shalaye’ when asked how the generated funds are being utilized. Please, what is the point of earning more if your standard of living is depreciating?

LGAs have been converted to rural political platforms rather than being empowered as a major arm of executive governance.

Public utilities such as water, waste management, street sweeping, etc. are being used as compensation for political allies. Competence was never considered as a prerequisite for the award of public work contracts.

This is definitely not the Lagos we desire. And it is definitely not the Lagos we deserve.

Is it too much to ask for a working transport system? Even the days of LSTC are better memories! Is it too much to have functional primary healthcare centers? The neglect of successive administrations facilitated exploitative private hospitals and the proliferation of fake medication.

Is it too much to ask for a functional and productive education system? Public schools, which were the ambition and pride of many before, have become graveyards of learning. It is so bad that most parents will prefer to send their wards to unregistered, ‘jẹlesimi’, contraptions. Can you imagine how bad the education (free o!) at public schools must be for such substandard options to be valued higher?

Is it too much to ask for a secure state? Why should illiterate, criminal, non-state actors wield such great powers over the affairs of the state? They control the state’s transportation system, threaten citizens’ security, and breed fresh criminal elements. Is it a coincidence that cult activities have increased unprecedentedly in the last 2 decades? Do they really think we can not connect the dots between the rise of influence and backing of these guys has coincided with brazen, increased criminal and cult activities?

Is it too much to ask for running water in our homes? We had it when the state was earning less! Good roads have become a recycled myth. It is a shame that successive administrators of the state use these basic amenities as political carrots during elections.

The Lagos we desire and deserve is not fancy. It is not some futuristic Isaac Asimov technology fantasyland. All we are asking for is a state that functions properly as deserving of our pride and joy as the city of excellence, a true progressive cosmopolitan metropolis!

I don’t think we are asking for too much.

Adegbulugbe is the Lagos State Chairman of Action Alliance Party.