Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, prides itself as the Centre of Excellence. It is a name that the city preferred to the other, State of Aquatic Splendour, suggested in the earlier days. Notwithstanding the tag Lagos gives itself, no Nigerian or foreigner alike who has to do business in Lagos would deceive himself as to the grim nature of life and living in the congested city.
Besides the ever-present aquatic splendour and the beautiful skyscrapers that dot the landscape of Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki axis, there are the practical slums of Makoko, Ajegunle and other areas fast wearing the toga of notoriety, including Ojuelegba, Mile Two, Mile 12, Ojota and Kirikiri canal.
To residents of the city, life is barely liveable in some areas, including Agege, Iju, Agbado, Akowonjo, Alimosho, Surulere and even Apapa, as residents contend with poor road networks, stifling traffic and unending commotions on the streets and major arteries.
To those who experience life in the Nigerian former capital, the report of the survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its 2012 Global Liveability index would not come as a surprise.
The report, which surveyed 140 cities of the world, listed Lagos as the 138th, making it the third world’s worst city to live in. According to the report, Lagos actually dropped from the 137th position it held in 2011 to clinch the unenviable slot. Lagos, according to the survey beat Port Moresby which took the 139th position and Dhaka, Bangladesh, which took the 140th position.
In keeping to its standards, the survey x-rays and assesses the best or worst living conditions and scored them on the basis of political and social stability; crime rates and access to quality healthcare; diversity and standard of cultural events; the natural environment; education (school and university); and the standard of infrastructure as well as public transport. It reported that while Lagos and others breathe the rear, Melbourne in Australia, Vienna and Vancouver in Canada ranked the first three.
The report indicated that while Melbourne showcases the best living condition with an overall rating of 97.5. Vienna, Austria and Vancouver, in Canada ranked second and third best cities to live in third. Other notable cities ranked in the survey include Johannesburg and Pretoria, both in South Africa which came 92nd and 96th respectively, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, also shares the 92nd position with Johannesburg, while London, in the United Kingdom is ranked 55th.
Expectedly, the report of the survey is being received with mixed feelings in Nigeria.
While those at the political front would easily politicise the report, others in the business line who have particular attachments to the city would also not want such negative projections about the city they do business in. But the facts as provided by the EIU should ordinarily create the avenue for further introspection on the level of service delivery in the Centre of Excellence.
There is the need for proper examination of the deliverables, commonly called dividends of democracy, beyond the media colourations, to determine whether there is actually a backward train as reported by the EIU. Incidentally, Lagos has been under the leadership of the Nigerian acclaimed progressive politicians since the dawn of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999.
How it all started
In 1998, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was persuaded to contest for the governorship of Lagos by the leaders of Afenifere who, even though they accommodated the late Chief Funsho Williams in the Alliance for Democracy(AD), did not feel comfortable enough to hand over the reins of Lagos to the former civil servant and former Commissioner for Works in the state. Williams had then unarguably emerged the most visible governorship candidate in Lagos, following the structure he had erected as a frontrunner in the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) during the transition programme midwifed by the late General Sani Abacha.
At the start of the General Abdusalami Abubakar-led transition of 1998-1999, the indication was that Tinubu, who only returned from exile shortly after Abacha’s death, would contest the senatorial seat, but the Yoruba elders, under the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, headed by the late Senator Abraham Adesanya, felt Tinubu could do the job as governor of Lagos. They felt that Williams had been tainted by Abacha politics and that the pro-democratic profile of Tinubu during the despotic Abacha years should earn him the governorship seat.
Thus, the gubernatorial primaries of the AD went in a way that showed that Tinubu was clearly favoured and he went ahead to win the election. A great expectation lay ahead of the Tinubu administration in Lagos and many agreed that he started well. There was the promise of the Fourth Mainland bridge, a new hotel concept around the Bar Beach/CMS corridor, the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT), mega school projects and reconstruction of major roads.
Within the first anniversary of his administration, Tinubu had inaugurated the Simbiat Abiola Way, former Oregun Road, which was dualised in his first term. He also delivered on the Igando road dualisation work. The Public Works department was kept busy, especially during the dry season, such that pot holes on major roads were minimised. But along the line, the lure of politicking took the better of him and he was to take a decision which has continued to define his politics till date.
Tinubu decided to carve a political empire for himself, while jettisoning what was termed Babasope (the elders said so). It was a design aimed at taking away the shine off the Afenifere leaders as the Babakekeres (the new fathers) moved to set themselves away from the politics and shadows of the known Afenifere leaders, who incidentally made way for their election into public office.
Tinubu then empowered the Justice Forum (JF) to rival Afenifere in all the 20 local governments of the state and thereby created a political structure separate from the all conquering Afenifere, which scooped the six South-West states in 1999.
It was a development that practically reduced the extent of deliverables at the government front as much energy was then devoted to playing politics and entrenching the political structure.
That era also witnessed constant squabbles between the rising JF and the Afenifere structure in Lagos. It was around that period that the rivalry between Tinubu and the late Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, commonly referred to as the GOD of Lagos Politics, crystallized, leading to a total breakdown of relationship and the political confrontation of 2003. At a stage, Tinubu had stopped attending the regular meetings at the Ijebu Igbo residence of Pa Abraham Adesanya and it was apparent that the Lagos governor was out to midwife a new political structure.
By the time he won his re-election in 2003, it had became clear that the then last man standing of the South-West would take his politics to higher grounds.
What observers saw between 2003 and 2007 was more of attempts to consolidate the Tinubu politics, while some efforts were tailored towards service delivery. It had been said that the praises that were heaped on Babatunde Raji Fashola, who took over from Tinubu in 2007, were as a result of the fact that the state had become rotten at the time he took over.
Fashola and the Lagos conundrum
Notwithstanding the growing rot that had set into the service delivery process in Lagos at the end of Tinubu’s administration in 2007, the man was credited with a good sense in picking Babatunde Raji Fashola as his successor. Fashola, a former Chief of Staff to Tinubu, had started preparing for a return to his law chambers when Tinubu vested the gubernatorial ticket of the Action Congress in him. The man had no choice than to take Lagos higher than he met it. He cleared the rubbish Oshodi had become and started some road woks.
He also modernised the BRT transport system and kick-started the ambitious Eko Atlantic project.
Notwithstanding his shyness in the media, Fashola became the toast of many for “doing something” in Lagos. Even the opposition parties recognised the efforts Fashola put in to rescue the rot in Lagos and in some quarters, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) actually scouted round for an opponent against him in 2011.
A leader of the PDP told The Friday Edition that he advised a friend of his, a former senator in the state, to stick to his present assignment rather than contesting against Fashola. Indeed, the PDP at a stage prayed that the crisis being orchestrated against the governor by suspected Tinubu’s associates who wanted to deny him of a second term shoulad fester so that the party could snap Fashola from Tinubu’s hands and get an unbeatable candidate for the 2011 race. However, to many in Tinubu’s camp, Fashola wasn’t doing anything fantastic.
He was said to be merely executing the blueprint put in place by Tinubu. Somehow, Fashola scaled the huddle within his own camp and secured a second term in office in May 2011.
Incidentally, the question since his re-election had been whether he has slowed down from performing. In recent interviews, Fashola had defended the fact that his administration has not slowed down and that it was keeping faith with its development agenda. But analysts would claim that the fact that the man has to defend himself against non-performance was an indication that he might have stopped working.
It was said that he did not advertise his accomplishments in the first term before the media blew them out of proportion. Again, those who affirm that he has slowed down observe that the man could be getting worried of what some called “lack of apparent political future.” it was said in some quarters that the governor could have lost his motivation because his party seemed not to have a future role for him after his current job.
So, could the verdict of the EIU be a correct assertion of the true state of life in Lagos? Not a few of the millions of Nigerians who come face-to-face with the grim realities of Lagos on a daily basis would agree. While Fashola was credited twith having done something in his first term, the local governments and the Local council development areas under his watch have been turning in dismal performances. Those who live in Lagos would say that there is hardly a council that can boast of having tarred one kilometre of road in Lagos in the last 12 years. Many also query the performance of the Fashola administration itself as apparently overrated.
An analyst said that with over N22 billion in Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) monthly and about N8 billion from the Federation account, Lagos should come forward with far more achievements than what Fashola and Tinubu have on the ground in their combined 13 years of administering Lagos. One of the criticisms against Tinubu and Fashola is their preference to carry out more repair works on roads in Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki axis, while neglecting the thickly populated Alimosho, Ikorodu, Agege and Amuwo Odofin axes.
A commentator said that Capitol Road in Agege, which is less than three kilometres, has been under construction in the last three years, while the just completed Iju Road, which terminates at Iju Waterworks, took more than four years to complete.
Thus, whatever commentaries would trail the EIU report on Lagos, the situation that daily confronts many in the most populated Nigerian city would indicate that the survey is not far from the truth and this should serve as a wake up call to duty for those saddled with service delivery in the state.
