One of the most respected legal luminaries in Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola, has made some startling, courageous recommendations on how to move Nigeria forward. In summary, the legal luminary wants democratic practices to be paused for six months while Nigeria undergoes some structural surgeries and operational changes. May exemplary elders like Chief Afe Babalola stay more alive and healthy so the country can continue to benefit from their wise counsels.
As sterling as Baba Afe’s recommendations appear to be, it can equally be argued and asserted that democratic governance doesn’t have to be put on hold before structural/policy changes can take place in any country. Whether in piecemeal or in wholesome interferences to Nigeria’s democratic structures and principles, structural and operational changes can be adequately effected within a tenured lifetime of an elected administration under a courageous, altruistic, and politically willing president.
Before 1999 when democracy resumed in Nigeria, Lagos State was as badly ruled and ruined as any other states in Nigeria. But Lagos has become an embodiment of success, the State of Example, it has become today because Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarked on massive development plans which represent blueprints of how Lagos State is going to be continually developed in the next five decades. After Bola Tinubu, no governor, from Fashola, through Ambode, to Sanwoolu, has brought fresh blueprint on Lagos’ development strategies. Fashola and Ambode worked to develop Lagos following the development template drawn by Tinubu for the state, while Sanwoolu continues in that strides.
In specific terms, there’s no sector of governance which is not experiencing continuous reforms and facelifts in Lagos State. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarked on the financial reengineering of the state. If Lagos State has been seen to be self-sufficient in financial prosperity, it is because Asiwaju Tinubu established a revenue generation template which continues to ensure that Lagos ranks eminently among some African countries in terms of GDP and other indices of economic ratings.
It needs not repeating that a committed, dedicated civil service is a sine qua non to the success of any government, federal, state or local. Asiwaju Tinubu did not only know this, he set assiduous machinery in motion, bequeathing a solid, professional, competent, motivated and committed civil service to Lagos State. It is therefore no gainsaying that Lagos State public service is ranked as the best in Nigeria, and of course, in Africa.
On transport, the strategic plans Asiwaju Tinubu left behind in 2007 enable the state to continue to take adequate care of the vehicular movements of the astronomically growing Lagos populace as successive governors build on Tinubu’s strategic plans on transportation by continually investing in road, rail and water transportations. Sectors of security, health, education, judiciary, and infrastructure are in excellent shape as they function optimally to the benefits of Lagosians and multitudes of Nigerians residing and doing businesses in Lagos. There is the evidential confirmation that Lagos continues to work by the number of states, from the North, to the South-South and the South-East, which have sent their officials to Lagos to understudy the operational policies, strategies and implementation which make these sectors of governance tick.
As the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, Bola Tinubu institutionalized some far-reaching policies to engender true federalism. He was the first governor to create more local governments in form of Local Council Development Authorities. Despite the seizure of Lagos’ allocations by the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for daring to create the LCDAs, Bola Tinubu ensured that Lagos State, the existing local governments and the LCDAs he created survived the financial storms. It was Tinubu’s nobly novel idea to have Lagos generate her electricity. If his efforts to establish Independent Power Plant had been allowed to stay, the menace of epileptic power supply would have been consigned to faint memories of Lagosians as we speak. He fought the then federal government in court on many salient issues of federalism.
If Bola Tinubu could achieve these excellent feats as a governor, will he not do much more when he becomes the president of Nigeria? Tinubu didn’t govern Lagos by accident, or on trial-and-error template. He was intentional about taking the state to highest heights he envisaged for Lagos. To challenge the words of Chief Afe Babalola, with Bola Tinubu in the presidential saddle, there is going to be intentional leadership which aim is to turn things around for the betterment of Nigerians and Nigeria. If there is something bad with transactional leadership, there is nothing bad in recycling brilliant leadership, one which will repeat the fabulous feats of the past as exemplified in Bola Tinubu’s administration of Lagos State.
With Tinubu presidency, Nigerians are going to have their way, and their say.
