How Do You Campaign Against Someone That Has Taken The Bar So High?

If any state was badly hit by Covid-19 and the aftermath of #EndSARS like Lagos, I can bet it would take them years to recover. Sanwo-olu did excellently well in managing the crisis without losing focus on delivering excellent results for Lagos.

There’s definitely something in that water they drink at Bourdillon school of leadership.

From Tinubu’s properly navigating the state from the dark days of military administration to laying the master plan and foundation for Fashola who took it further by shattering the leadership ceiling his style to Sanwo-olu who was the nation’s golden boy on his effective management of coronavirus, even when the world were predicting doom and gloom due to the large population of Lagos state.

Many feared and anyone could have imagined a sporadic spread of the covid 19 virus mainly due to the fact that asides from the over 1 million residents, more than a 100 people come in and out of Lagos state every day, let’s not forget the fact that those in diaspora had entered into the country even before counter measures were put in place. Countries that had access to great medical facilities and equipments recorded higher number of casualties and death rates and this became a reason to panic but Governor Sanwo-Olu did well by actively curbing and controlling the spread and also ensuring that those who had the virus were well attended to and the total number of deaths recorded was nothing compared to that of even foreign countries. Through this singular act, Nigeria became the fourth best country in the world who effectively and impressively curbed the spread of covid 19 Virus according to the World Health Organization.

This great man has successfully impacted every sector of the state. Talk of the agricultural sector, the Educational sector, transportation (rail, road, water), infrastructural development, Job and wealth creation in form of grants to business owners, monthly payments to 4,000 unemployed youth, top notch health care programs and facilities, 24 hours help line for security and fire emergencies, cleaner environment as well as active involve in the sports sector.

It would interest you to know that most of these projects were funded through internally generated revenue (IGR) which is majorly sourced from taxes. According to the National Bureau of Statistics report at state level for Half year 2021, Lagos state has the highest internally generated revenue in the country with the country’s capital following Loosely behind. In 2021, Lagos state tops the chart as it generates 267,232,774,434.06 billion Naira in H1.

In the agricultural sector, governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu introduced the Agricultural value chain enterprise Activation program with a major aim of proper sensitization of men and women of different age groups on the economic benefits of agriculture. Through this program, over 12,000 women and thousands of youths were trained in various agricultural practices and has positively impacted the lives of many youths thereby giving them a means of sustenance and livelihood.

In addition to this, Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu’s administration has made it a continuous act to ensure that both employed and unemployed women as well youths become self dependent and employers of labor. This singular act drastically reduced unemployment rate and also decreased the rate of insecurity in the state.

You will agree with me that an administration that does not make a positive impact on the educational sector of its state can be said to have failed in its service to humanity as education is of paramount importance to the country as whole and this cuts across every level of education, from pre-nursery to the university level.

This great man has however transformed the state education policy which is why Lagos state’s education policy is second to non in the country till date. Babajide Sanwo-olu began the turn-around in this sector by successfully increasing the 2020 budgetary allocation to 65 percent and giving his full support to programs like Eko-Excel initiative- Excellence in Child Education and learning, tagged “Leave No Child Behind”.

This administration constructed and upgraded facilities in the entire health sector and has in the last 12 months donated over 80,000 chairs and tables to public schools in the state with more constructions still ongoing for further delivery across the state and won’t stop until every school is touched.

In addition to this, the governor approved 2,000 school personnel for primary and 1,000 for secondary arm for employment into the state’s workforce. After employment, These personnel went through proper training and orientation to ensure that they perform their various duties efficiently and effectively once work begins.

There would be a great imbalance to talk about the transportation sector with laying emphasis on the infrastructures and roads built to further improve transportation in the state because, how can one improve means of transportation, drastically minimize the rate at which accidents occur and limit unnecessary traffic congestions with bad roads?.

Over 51 major infrastructural projects have been construction over in just two years. These projects includes the Pend Cinema fly over, Lagos-Ogun Boundary roads, ramp and road networks, phase II, Lekki Oniru traffic Circulation projects, network of roads in Ikoyi, Somolu, Ojokoro, constructed rehabilitation of 301 inner roads in the 20 Local government areas and 37 Local Council Development areas popular known as the LCDAs, the Oshodi-Abike Egba BRT lane, and the Eleko junction to Epe concrete pavement.

Have you seen the railway tracks and sophisticated trains in Lagos recently? If not, then you should take out time and take a ride on one of these machines. Blue line stations have been built at Festac, Alakija, Trade fair, Volkswagen, LASU, Okokomaiko, Mile 2, Alaba, Iganmu, National Theater, with a possible extension to Agbara in ogun state and about seven stations concurrently being built. This will definitely redefine mass transportation in Lagos state.

This great humanitarian has continued to take the needs of people as a paramount. Whilst ensuring that they have a conducive and healthy environment by donating 30 units of 12- cubic meter trucks, 60 units of 24-cubic meter trucks and 12 hook loaders to compliment the already existing 850 and more PSP compactor trucks to enhance efficient service delivery in all communities across the state, He has also continued to reach out to people with various incentives to help boost their standard of living.

This he has done through payment of  N40,000 monthly allowances to 4000 unemployed graduates as well as some direct gratifications to widows. Business owners are however not left out as grants and MSME are been made available to provide financial support and assistance to their various businesses.

Without any form of doubt, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has successfully made Lagos a modern Mega City surrounded by 21st century infrastructural and social amenities massively touching  Traffic management and transportation, Education and Technology, as well as Health and Environment sectors of the state within his first term. These achievements are quiet impressive and a performance worthy of emulation by every other governor and their administration.

-Babajide Fadoju