Pulse Opinion: Gov Sanwo-Olu is losing touch with Lagosians and that should worry him

Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu mounted the throne after a charm offensive on the campaign trail and some infectious swagger in his first hours on the job. Voters are now wondering if they made a mistake.

The entrance to Lagos Island from the Surulere end of town is a mixed bag of darkness, gloom, crater-sized potholes, an offensive stench and street urchins lurking in the shadows and ready to pounce on motorists and commuters at the slightest opportunity.

Here, the street lamps no longer work and commercial drivers park smack in the middle of the road during rush hour to drop off and pick up passengers. Here, articulated truck drivers obstruct traffic after bribing law enforcement. Here, flash floods narrow the road at the slightest hint of rainfall and compound traffic. Here, the drainage channels are clogged full with waste and are never emptied. 

Welcome to Apongbon in Isale Eko, the very heart of Lagos. You could spend two hours trying to reach the foot of the bridge from the CMS heights. There is no law here. There is no order here. This is Lagos’ Central Business District though, complete with the high rise buildings of the banks, the wonderful architecture and the visceral culture of the aborigines.

The story of Apongbon has become the story of most of Lagos—dead street lamps, refuse heaps competing with cars for right of way, worsening traffic and robbers jumping from nowhere to point guns and cudgels at you in the darkness.

Welcome to Lagos, the city of potholes the sizes of valleys—potholes that have yanked off bumpers, sent tyres exploding mid-commute and condemned whole cars for full measure. 

To drive through Lagos these days is to be ready to write your car off or book a date with your mechanic. Driving in Lagos is now an extreme sport. Lagos is increasingly becoming lawless and rudderless. Yet, the city does have a governor, believe it or not. Social media users have been complaining about a decaying Lagos for months, but no one appears to be listening to them or acting on their concerns.

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was in everyone’s face during the electioneering campaigns. You just couldn’t miss him whether you were driving to work or taking a stroll in the park on a Saturday. He waved at everyone from billboards and from bin buckets. He gave you a thumbs-up sign from pubs and eateries, his images popped up at clubs and at wedding parties and he appeared from beneath manholes to assure you that if you handed him your vote, you were going to experience the Lagos of your dreams in his first 100 days on the job. Songs were even composed with his catchy name for full measure. Lagos was enveloped in a blanket of Sanwo-Olu hysteria.

These days, Sanwo-Olu rarely communicates. And when he does, he speaks a language only a handful can comprehend. Sanwo-Olu still speaks like he’s wooing voters. He speaks about a smart city when all Lagosians can see around them is a city so dull, it can’t clean up after itself. Sanwo-Olu speaks of palliatives that only amount to drops in the ocean in the larger scheme of things.

Yes, some roads are being fixed, but inner city roads are as bad as there have always been and there is no sign that they will be fixed sooner. Sanwo-Olu promises to light up Lagos by deploying a more permanent solution, but he doesn’t say what this solution is. While he dithers, street urchins take advantage of the darkness to seize laptops, phones and wallets. When Sanwo-Olu communicates, he is vague, highfalutin and emptily brash. Gone are the campaign soundbites and buzzwords everyone understood. ‘For a Greater Lagos’ has morphed into ‘For a darker, more chaotic Lagos.’

Yet Sanwo-Olu ran for office with a laudable blueprint to boot. If he eventually finds his way back to the path of workable ideas, he would realise that his THEME development agenda is still a fine plan. He can still fix a chaotic transport sector, address the state’s housing deficit and health concerns, clean up the environment like he promised and make Lagos a 21st century economy. All he needs to do is return to the basics and cut out the showmanship part of him. He's got to emerge from ghost mode.

The man has got to realise that Lagos is a fast paced city--one that requires a leader who dishes out good governance at a frenetic pace and on his feet. Yes, Sanwo-Olu has only just seen 100 days on the job but the early signs do not inspire hope or confidence. He’s been all over the place and his work thus far has been clearly bereft of substance, vision and direction. There is a dearth of a solid foundation on which the remaining three years of his reign should be anchored. 

Sanwo-Olu began his reign by chasing commercial bus drivers flouting traffic laws, marching into dumpsites complete with masks and overalls, showing up at congested road intersections to control traffic, dishing out instructions to traffic control agencies and appearing at really bad road spots to deliver a message of hope to residents. These days, you would be forgiven for wondering if he can still find his way around town. He appears to have disappeared into the Lagos madness. 

While there are a few palliative measures on roads here and there, what Sanwo-Olu needs to do is declare a state of emergency on the road sector and ensure round the clock maintenance of roads.

Nigeria’s bustling and vibrant economic capital city of Lagos has been badly searching for a leader to match its enthusiasm, energy and innovation since Tunde Fashola. Sanwo-Olu looked like that man during the electioneering campaigns. Not anymore. He has one job now—prove through actions that he can fill Fashola’s out-sized shoes and even order for a fresh pair.