The current administration of Governor Akinwumi Ambode in Lagos State has, in the last two months, been upbeat. The chirpy mood is all about the 50th birthday of Africa’s largest city, Lagos, counting from May 1967, when the military administration of Major-General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi upgraded it to a full-fledged state.
Hitherto, Lagos had been a federal territory, being Nigeria’s capital, even dating to the colonial era of pre-1914, when the Southern and Northern Protectorates had not been amalgamated.
Lagos Colony, as it then was, started out as a British colonial possession with the port of Lagos as its hub. In 1906, the erstwhile colony became a protectorate and was incorporated into Southern Nigeria, so that by 1914, Lagos became the capital of Nigeria. For Nigeria, Lagos has always been an economic nerve-centre, leveraging on its seaport that virtually monopolises shipments, in and out of the country.
A particular counsel towards a sustainable Lagos in the modern era may well count in the need for the Federal Government to open up the hinterlands, in terms of industrial development
Besides, Lagos particularly dictates the economic pulse for the West African sub-region, having a 60.7-kilometre international express road (Lagos–Badagry Expressway), linking Nigeria with the neighbouring countries of Benin, Ghana and Togo.
A commercial city of gargantuan potential, Lagos’ current population of 17.5 million, as averred by the state government, has in no small means shot it up, from a metropolis of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, to a megalopolis of the 21st Century.
So far, Lagos, from 1967 till date, has had 14 governors, both military and civilian, each having various achievements to parade. Interestingly too, the allure of Lagos was not diminished in any way by the relocation of Nigeria’s capital to Abuja by the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida in 1991, 15 years after military Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, created Abuja as Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.
Starting with its pioneer leader, Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson, Lagos has recorded so many leaps under its military governors (and sometimes administrators) in the course of their respective tour de force. Nigeria, as could be recalled, had 26, out of its 57 years of independence, effectively under the military rule.
However, Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1979 also made Lagos have its first civilian governor. Then, Alhaji Lateef Jakande of the now defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, a party under the watch of Nigeria’s renowned ideologue and social welfarist, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was on song.
Jakande’s performance has been roundly upheld as superlative, considering remarkable feats like building over 11,000 classrooms within four years; building the current Alausa secretariat complex; erecting many low-cost housing estates and constructing many roads that opened up the alleys.
Others, who had been governors in Lagos, like Commodore Adekunle Lawal, Commodore Ndubuisi Kanu, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Air Commodore Gbolahan Mudashiru, Navy Captain Mike Akhigbe, Brigadier-General Raji Rasaki, Sir Michael Otedola, Colonel Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Colonel Buba Marwa, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Mr. Babatunde Fashola, also had commendable feats, tacked to their respective periods.
Same way, the incumbent, Ambode, has been showered with diverse accolades, considering his performance in two years, having transformed the face of Lagos through infrastructural upgrade and ground-breaking capital projects. He, however, should not rest on his oars as the Lagos project is such that requires tact, tenacity and continuous hard work.
Lagos, being Nigeria’s major provider of employment and a city of virtually limitless opportunities, has over the years been attracting citizens in millions, who ditched their dreary locales to relocate to the supposed magic city, in search of the fabled Golden Fleece.
By this unrestrained influx of people to Lagos, among them foreigners and illegal emigrants, the state’s administration is often overwhelmed as facilities designed for a projected population are easily overstretched with the addition of the daily entrants, many who arrived only to be dazed by the reality of want of what to do.
A mishmash in the ranks of Lagos residents has also brought along it, the burden of curtailing crimes, which successive administrations have had to grapple with. These days, armed robbery, kidnapping, ritual attacks, and fraudulent deals, among others, are commonplaces, amid efforts by both the state government and the police authorities to stem the tide.
A particular counsel towards a sustainable Lagos in the modern era may well count in the need for the Federal Government to open up the hinterlands, in terms of industrial development. This way, Lagos would be eased out of the crowd surge of unemployed youths, among them competent professionals, who straddle the streets, in search of unavailable jobs.
The Federal Government can particularly leverage on its 10-point economic roadmap by siting big industries across the 36 states, in collaboration with the private sector, with a distribution of three industries per state, and an industry per senatorial district.
This way, a man from Enugu, Ondo or Kaduna, who is jobless in Lagos, could easily key into the job opportunity available in his home state. Assuredly, if the development trend is improved upon in other parts of the country, the seeming bombardment of Lagos will naturally abate.
As Nigeria’s leading city continues in this celebration of its Golden Jubilee, stakeholders in the Lagos project must ensure that the grandeur of the city is continually uplifted, and never diminished.
