Tinubu as a tested and proven problem-solver

Tinubu as a tested and proven problem-solver

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in contesting for the Presidency of Nigeria, brings along an impeccable record as perhaps, Nigeria’s best-proven problem-solver who stands the best chance to identify the nagging problems assailing the Nigerian nation and deploy capable men and resources to deal with them for the greater good of every Nigerian.

In expressing this optimism, we have the Lagos story to show how Tinubu, through proper problem-identification and deft deployment of humans and resources, was able to turn the prospects of a dejected, abandoned and crumbling Lagos around to assume the role of an impregnable bright spot in Nigeria today. How Tinubu was able to identify the challenges and deploy humans and resources to change the narrative of Lagos hugely recommends him for the task of re-directing and changing the Nigerian narrative from 2023. In this regard, no other candidate amongst those lined up against him today has a testimonial that nears his in governance.

For the records, governance is all about identifying community problems, identifying the right and sound minds to tackle them and deploying them to tackle those challenges and getting results. That remains Tinubu’s forte, as he demonstrated in his years as Lagos governor, the fruits of which Nigerians are still harvesting today.

Tinubu is an egg head and a master planner, just qualities desperately needed in governance. He knows the best and most efficient approaches to unleash to get lasting results in government and politics, and nothing enriches democracy more than this ability.

When he came in as Lagos governor in 1999, Lagos was practically on its knees. The roads were terrible, the health and education sectors were down on all fours, security was comatose, with sundry criminals taking over all nooks and crannies of Lagos, and the environmental state of Lagos was murderous as giant refuse dumps, with nauseous odour took over every street, the transport system was primitive and chaotic as rickety molues was the face of public transportation, disorder and chaos reigned supreme all over Lagos, public infrastructure crumbled, urban crime surged, the justice system withered around obsolete facilities and Lagos was one massive ball of disorganised disaster; unplanned, untamed and mangled.

The former President Olusegun Obasanjo saw this hopeless picture and derided Lagos as one huge slum and looked away in sadistic contempt!

But, Asiwaju was not deterred. He assembled a crack team of technocrats made up of the best brains any state can assemble and unleashed them on the vast problems afflicting Lagos.

The first challenge in dealing with the overwhelming problems Asiwaju met as Lagos governor was the money to finance the governance of a state with perhaps the most rapid population growth in Africa. Lagos was then receiving a paltry allocation from the federal government. What’s more, the Obasanjo/PDP federal government illegally seized the allocation of local governments in Lagos just because Asiwaju hearkened to the need to take governance closer to the grassroots by creating additional local councils to augment the paltry 20 that Lagos had. So Asiwaju met Lagos under a scorched earth financial regime which he must deal with or else fail as Lagos governor.

With this bleak financial picture, Asiwaju drew from his reservoir of professional competence as an accountant of international repute to launch perhaps the most ambitious financial engineering Nigeria has ever witnessed.

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo Olu, confirmed at the 149th Joint Tax Board Meeting in Lagos in December 2021 that Lagos State  Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) grew by 7,400 per cent between 1999 and 2021! From the monthly IGR collection of N600 million in 1999, the monthly IGR accrual for Lagos today stands at over N40 billion; this was Tinubu’s ingenuity at work, and it funds the tremendous growth Lagos has achieved today.

With the resources guaranteed, the Tinubu government went to work. Rapid construction and rehabilitation of roads in all parts of Lagos ensured that in record time, Lagos roads recovered their bounce, leaving the dilapidated federal roads as the sore points in the emerging Lagos of that era. Let us recall that many Lagos roads were abysmally impassable before Asiwaju became governor. The situation was so bad that one of his predecessors, a former Military Governor of Lagos who is today a chieftain of PDP, was asked why Lagos roads were so bad. He retorted that it was because there was no bitumen; this earned him the infamous nickname of Mr No Bitumen among Lagosians.

The Obasanjo-led PDP federal government chose to act as a greedy dog in a manger by disallowing the Lagos State government from taking over the decrepit federal roads and fixing them alongside the state roads when it had no plans to rehabilitate these federal roads. When the state of these federal roads became intolerable, the Tinubu government had to plead for the understanding of angry Lagosians by placing giant signposts on these impassable roads with the message: ‘This road belongs to the federal government, please bear with us. As damning as this message was, it was impotent to stir the slumbering Obasanjo/PDP federal government to act.

The quality and durability of the roads done by Tinubu as governor remain incomparable that some roads have not had any crack to date. A case study is the Kudirat Abiola Road that runs from Ikeja to Ojota!

On the issue of procuring a safe and healthy environment for Lagos, we should recall how giant dump sites distorted the entire Lagos landscape before Tinubu came. Besides this, almost all streets in Lagos became dumpsites, and vast mountains of waste were standard features on Lagos streets. Acrid smells and putrefying emissions made Lagosians victims of deadly environmental pollution that seriously impaired their health. Tinubu came, and in record time, these dump sites were cleared, the streets restored, Lagos regained its environmental sanity, proper waste disposal system was developed. In record time, Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) was set up and tooled with the requisite competence to manage waste disposal in Lagos. The state  started competing for the cleanest and healthiest state with gardens and lawns created in every part of Lagos and an efficient and durable safe environment guaranteed for all Lagosians despite its huge population.

Tinubu saw the need to decentralise power. Hence, he saw the creation of more local governments as a way of taking governance further down the grassroots. He created 37 other local councils to add to the 20 councils in Lagos, but this did not go well with the Obasanjo/PDP federal government, which clamped down on Lagos by seizing its local government allocations. Tinubu fought at the courts, and eventually, the Supreme Court validated the rights of states to create local councils, albeit it ruled that the National Assembly must list such councils. The Supreme Court further ruled that the withholding of Lagos local council allocation was illegal though the Obasanjo/PDP government flouted this ruling by still withholding the allocations.

But, the shenanigans of Obasanjo did not daunt Tinubu, who went along to infuse life into the newly created councils. Today, they are run effectively as the Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) and function perfectly to serve the people more. It is even gratifying to note that other states have copied the template and have created LCDAs to expand governance further at the grassroots

The revolutionising of Lagos State judiciary under Tinubu saw the obsolete, rickety judiciary upgraded with modern court buildings, modern equipment and other accoutrements that have not only fastened the justice delivery system but eased adjudication in Lagos. Furthermore, Lagos judicial officers are the best remunerated and best motivated in Nigeria today. Again, Tinubu as governor, instituted and won several landmark court judgments against the then federal government, which had gone a very long way in redefining the country’s federal structure.

Tinubu met the health sector in shambles. The general hospitals were reeling under decay and neglect. He started changing the fortune of the state general hospitals by building modern state hospitals, equipping them and then launching into the vital primary health care delivery, which sees every corner of Lagos having well-staffed,  well-equipped and easily affordable Primary health centres to cater for the health needs of millions of Lagosians. Lagos today ranks unchallenged among states in primary health care delivery – thanks to Tinubu’s long-sighted vision.

Tinubu re-wrote the education story of Lagos. He started rebuilding the collapsing Lagos schools and building model schools with modern infrastructure and other learning apparatchiks. He reintroduced the bounce in Lagos public schools and revolutionised the reward system for teachers and competition in public schools. He not only restarted free primary and secondary education but paid WAEC fees for Lagos pupils during his time in power.

The face of public transportation Tinubu met was pure bedlam. The ubiquitous molue ruled Lagos roads, and the buses popularly called danfo made transportation a living nightmare in Lagos. Again, transporters operated untamed, without any form of order and the roads, apart from their terrible state before Tinubu came, reeked of total anarchy. Tinubu introduced the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to give Lagosians a decent transport system befitting the state’s status. He drew a future plan to see the phasing out of molue and other undesirable transportation models in Lagos. He then introduced the Lagos Transport Management Authority (LASTMA) for the task of enforcing discipline and order on Lagos roads, and these have all combined to make public transportation in Lagos today much more orderly, civilised and organised as in other major cities of the world.

Today, the Lagos transport master plan, which Tinubu drew, covers very efficient Lagos Ferry services that take care of sea transportation and ambitious Red and Blue line intra-city rail services setting an African record.

On the intractable power issue in Nigeria, it should be recalled that when Asiwaju came in as Lagos governor, he identified the need for adequate power supply to fuel the drive of Lagosians for growth and development.  He concluded that the existing public power supply was inadequate. Thus he went to the United States to bring Enron, a power company, to generate and supply the needed power to Lagos; this was to be the dawn of private involvement in power generation and supply, but the PDP federal government would not hear of it, coming from an opposition governor, so they frustrated it. With this went the hopes of Nigeria to break the asphyxiating monopoly and stranglehold the state power company (PHCN) holds in Nigeria. Indeed, this would have broken this monopoly and unleashed a needed diversification to ensure we have stable and efficient power today. It was an element of Tinubu’s vision that was not seen by PDP then. Nigeria is still suffering the consequences of that petty partisan action today.

Before Tinubu came, the whole area now known as Lekki was an expanse of vast swampy, water-logged land.  Tinubu saw the vision of a sprawling city and started the development of Lekki, which is today one of the nation’s hottest prime cities in terms of the land value and real estate, where millions of Nigerians inhabit today.

Equally, before Tinubu came, the entire area of Victoria Island was besieged by a surging overflow of water from the Atlantic Ocean. This forced many companies and corporate bodies who hitherto located their head offices in that area to flee and relocate from the surging Atlantic Ocean and made prime properties along that shoreline uninhabitable. What did Tinubu do? As Lagos governor, he mobilised men and resources to chase the Atlantic Ocean back to its boundaries; thus, the invading ocean took fright and fled. The battle was brought fully to it as a sizeable chunk of the ocean had been reclaimed, and on it built a brand new modern city: Eko Atlantic City, prided as one of the most expensive real estate items in the world today! It is in that city that the United States of America is building its largest ever consulate today!

What of the Ibeju-Lekki Free Trade zone? It is fondly called Nigerian Dubai. The current Lagos State Governor. Sanwo Olu talked of how he, as a commissioner under Tinubu between 2003 and 2004, was on Governor Bola Tinubu’s entourage to China, where the Ibeju-Lekki Free Trade Zone was conceptualised. Today, the free trade zone hosts Africa’s largest fertiliser plant, the Dangote fertiliser company, the world’s largest single refinery, and the Dangote Refinery, a deep-sea port. At the same time, an airport is being planned for the zone!

Let us not forget that before Tinubu came, Lagos was a haven of crime as sundry criminals made life unbearable in Lagos. Life was painful in Lagos as all manners of criminals found the bustling population of Lagos a big room to operate untamed. Tinubu thought hard about dealing with this ennui and guaranteeing the safety of Lagosians. He came up with the idea of a Lagos State Security Trust Fund through which the state would leverage the collaboration of private individuals, corporate organisations and multinationals in Lagos to fund an influential security outfit for the state. This fund took over the funding, equipment, and remuneration of the state security outfit, which the Tinubu government named the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) and unleashed on the criminals making life unbearable.  In the same sequel, the government prioritised the clearing of seedy slums and ghettos where criminals are domiciled, and this saw the recovery of such criminal heavens like Oshodi, Ojuelegba, Obalende, Ajegunle and several other black spots of Lagos.

In record time, the criminals were on the run as the Lagos Security outfit gave them a hot chase.  What’s more, the Lagos State security outfit became the most funded. Best-equipped, best motivated, most modern security outfit in Nigeria today, Lagos remains the safest state in Nigeria today despite its overwhelming population- all thanks to Tinubu’s vision.

I have just enumerated a few. Tinubu created hundreds of very efficient agencies that are today thriving subsets in the efficient running of Lagos. Thus, it is no wonder that Lagos has become an impregnable success story that takes in millions of other Nigerians from all states of Nigeria seeking succour in Lagos.

From a seedy collapsing city when Tinubu came in 1999, Lagos is today Africa’s fifth largest economy and drives the economic growth of Nigeria, courtesy of Tinubu’s foresight.

We will not forget the leadership succession plan Tinubu put in place as he was leaving office as governor, which ensures that Lagos doesn’t just fall into any hand but tested, trusted, carefully selected governors that will advance the Lagos master plan Tinubu rolled out when he was governor. This deliberate, orderly and careful succession outlay has worked to give Lagos the stability it needs to excel further and Nigeria, as a nation, is the biggest beneficiary.

So, my purpose in this long treatise is to show that Asiwaju is a tested and proven problem solver. He solved the problems of Lagos and turned it into an instant goldmine. He will naturally replicate it in Nigeria if elected in 2023.

He could do all he did in Lagos because he was gifted with the capacity to get citizens engaged in acts of productivity. He made Lagosians active, productive citizens who are partakers in the governance of Lagos. Today, these same citizens are equal partakers in the fruits of governance Tinubu brought to Lagos. He understands the technicality of the high-top utility of integrating activities to get the best out of everyone. He equally has a reward system that is second to none, which was why he recorded resounding success in governing Lagos.

Tinubu has the political will to take critical decisions that would surely bring results. Evidence is seen in the financial engineering he undertook to mobilise the needed finance to govern Lagos. The exponential mark-up in the state’s IGR resulted from this intense political will. At this period in history, that is just what Nigeria needs to change its economic story for the better.

Asiwaju is the Nigerian best gifted with the capacity to identify and tap the talents of men and channel them to productivity. This is what Nigeria needs badly. He did it in Lagos, and the results are overwhelming. There is no doubt he will do it in Nigeria if he is elected president in 2023. As is very obvious, none of those competing with him for the presidency is equally gifted in that wise, so he remains the best man for the job.

So, let proven Nigerians’ fairest problem-solver, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, do the job of taking Nigeria to economic and political glory, just as he did for Lagos, which today is Nigeria’s biggest success story!