How Am­bode Un­der­de­vel­oped La­gos

The truth be told, La­gos has de­gen­er­ated greatly since the exit of La­teef Jakande as gov­er­nor. Un­der Am­bode, it de­gen­er­ated fur­ther. Lagosians yearn for the re­turn of the Jakande era; an era when devel­op­ment was in­clu­sive and peo­ple­ori­ented; an era when gov­ern­ment touched the lives of the masses of the peo­ple di­rectly with qual­ity health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, wa­ter sup­ply and pass­able inner roads.

The big­gest hin­drance to Nigeria’s quest for devel­op­ment is the ma­jor­ity of its peo­ple. Many are ig­no­rant of what con­sti­tutes de­vel­op­men­tal strides. They are obliv­i­ous of steps ca­pa­ble of mo­ti­vat­ing devel­op­ment, and so, are per­sis­tently ap­plaud­ing things in­ca­pable of pulling them out of the in­glo­ri­ous club of un­der-de­vel­oped coun­tries. I am per­sis­tently shocked to see even sup­pos­edly ed­u­cated Nige­ri­ans ap­plaud­ing medi­ocrity in gov­er­nance, ap­par­ently for self­ish rea­sons. In Nigeria, you will find gover­nors build­ing worth­less bridges while pub­lic hos­pi­tals and schools are in tat­ters. The cit­i­zens lack ac­cess to things as ba­sic as pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply and driv­able inner streets; yet, you will find so many peo­ple prais­ing th­ese gover­nors for build­ing stu­pen­dous fly overs, cin­e­mas, bus stops and hope­less multi-lane city roads.

Dur­ing a visit to Nigeria last year, philanthropist and founder of Mi­crosoft Cor­po­ra­tion, Bill Gates, tried to re­di­rect this coun­try to the path of progress by urging the Nige­rian gov­ern­ment to spend more on hu­man cap­i­tal devel­op­ment in­stead of splendor projects. For Gates, the present eco­nomic tem­plates be­ing used by the Buhari ad­min­is­tra­tion lacks the abil­ity to ad­dress the unique needs of Nige­ri­ans. This also ap­plies to our gov­ern­ments at all lev­els in this coun­try. Gates be­lieves Nigeria has the abil­ity to at­tain up­per mid­dle-in­come sta­tus like Brazil, China and Mex­ico, but says that achiev­ing this sta­tus de­pends on the choice Nige­rian lead­ers make.

Gates’ com­ments at the spe­cial and ex­panded Na­tional Eco­nomic Coun­cil on in­vest­ing in peo­ple were pen­e­trat­ing. He de­clared: “The most im­por­tant choice Nige­rian lead­ers can make is to max­imise the coun­try’s great­est re­source, which is the peo­ple. Nigeria will thrive when ev­ery Nige­rian is able to thrive. If you in­vest in their health, ed­u­ca­tion, and op­por­tu­ni­ties – the hu­man cap­i­tal we are talk­ing about today – then they will lay the foundation for sus­tained pros­per­ity. If you don’t, how­ever, then it is very im­por­tant to recog­nise that there will be a sharp limit on how much the coun­try can grow.

“Nigeria is one of the most dan­ger­ous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst ma­ter­nal mor­tal­ity rate in the world ahead of only Sierra Leone, Cen­tral African Repub­lic and Chad. One in three Nige­rian chil­dren is chron­i­cally mal­nour­ished. In up­per mid­dle-in­come coun­tries, the av­er­age life ex­pectancy is 75 years. In lower mid­dle-in­come coun­tries, it’s 68; in low-in­come coun­tries, it’s 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still, just 53 years.”

Gates’ words are words of wis­dom. This is the spirit Nige­ri­ans must em­brace, if in­deed, we gen­uinely want progress in our dear Nigeria. We must be per­sis­tently blunt with our lead­ers at all lev­els and de­mand for peo­ple-ori­ented projects. Un­for­tu­nately, this is miss­ing in our coun­try. An av­er­age Nige­rian is al­ways eco­nom­i­cal with the truth. Even when it is ob­vi­ous that Nigeria is in a mess, we still find a le­gion of syco­phants around the Pres­i­dent and gover­nors. Even the op­pressed masses rally around them.

I had to prop­erly sit­u­ate what con­sti­tutes devel­op­ment – with the Bill gate epis­tle – to elu­ci­date the fail­ings of Ak­in­wunmi Am­bode as Gov­er­nor of La­gos State. With cash of al­most N3 tril­lion in four years, Am­bode focused on grandiose projects, while crit­i­cal sec­tors like pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply, health­care, ed­u­ca­tion and roads suf­fered. He plunged pub­lic fund into projects that, or­di­nar­ily, should be pri­vate sec­tor driven. A for­ward-look­ing gov­ern­ment has no busi­ness buy­ing hun­dreds of com­mer­cial buses and erect­ing $70 mil­lion trans­port in­ter­change. He even plunged La­gos funds into a need­less Air­port Road project (road be­longs to the

fed­eral gov­ern­ment) while mil­lions of Lagosians struggle to get to their homes, dom­i­nated by shabby inner roads beg­ging for at­ten­tion. At the end of his four years, Am­bode took La­gos State 20 years back, with de­gen­er­at­ing slums, tat­tered roads, wrecked pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply, de­cay­ing health and ed­u­ca­tion fa­cil­i­ties, worn-out waste col­lec­tion sys­tem, and all the neg­a­tiv­i­ties you can think of. The de­te­ri­o­rat­ing tat­tered com­mu­ni­ties in Iko­rodu West, Iko­rodu North, Ig­bogbo-Bayeku, Ay­obo, Ipaja, Abule Egba, Okoko­maiko, Ojo, Ijo­raBadiya, Alimosho and sev­eral others, tes­tify to this.

I al­ways use com­mu­ni­ties in Iko­rodu West and Iko­rodu North to il­lus­trate the tragic rot in Am­bode’s La­gos. Th­ese ar­eas are worse than war zones with very lit­tle gov­ern­ment pres­ence. For ex­am­ple, in the en­tire Iko­rodu West, there are only three roads with as­phalt. Over 500 other inner roads are ragged. Many in th­ese ar­eas have re­lo­cated and aban­doned their build­ings. Then, Am­bode came with a bogus plan to con­struct a six-lane road through Iko­rodu West i.e. AgricI­sawo road. He ended up de­stroy­ing lives of thou­sands of peo­ple in this area. How did this hap­pen? His con­trac­tor came in, ex­ca­vated vir­tu­ally all ex­ist­ing as­phalt and drainages on the road and dis­ap­peared, leaving the com­mu­nity in pain. I have never seen this kind of wicked­ness in all my life. When it rains, this road be­comes one big hell. Am­bode repli­cated this wicked­ness in Ig­bog­boBayeku and Oshodi-Isolo, where his con­trac­tors also de­stroyed good roads for imag­i­nary mega-roads.

Am­bode spent huge amount on the con­struc­tion of the­atre houses in a state where over 99% of homes have no ac­cess to pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply. His ab­surd 2017 bud­get made pro­vi­sion for the con­struc­tion of five cul­tural the­atres in parts of the state. The bud­get also made pro­vi­sion for the con­struc­tion of five mini sta­dia. I could not un­der­stand why the bud­get that came with a heavy N170 bil­lion deficit would in­clude tri­fling things like the­atres and sta­dia. It is a shame that Am­bode is un­aware that th­ese should be pri­vate sec­tor-driven projects.

The La­gos State Wa­ter Cor­po­ra­tion was one big mess un­der him. It strug­gled to get funds for com­mon wa­ter treat­ment chem­i­cals. Many com­mu­ni­ties that en­joyed pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply, prior to his emer­gence, no longer did dur­ing his ten­ure. Many homes re­sorted to dig­ging bore holes. The pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply fail­ure in Su­rulere typ­i­fies the cri­sis in the en­tire state.

While his reign lasted, Am­bode spent bil­lions of naira on gigs and car­ni­vals in a state where pub­lic hos­pi­tals, roads and schools are in tat­ters. Drains across the state con­stantly emit stench, while hum­drum things guz­zle the state’s money. End of the year party, Christ­mas party, Ed-el-Fitri party, Ed-el-Kabir party, Easter party and all man­ner of non­sense dom­i­nated Am­bode’s ten­ure. He was al­ways par­ty­ing.

It was also heart-wrench­ing see­ing pub­lic funds be­ing wasted by his aides and com­mis­sion­ers at­tend­ing car­ni­vals abroad in the name of search­ing for tourists for La­gos State. The truth is that tourists will come look­ing for La­gos State if we put our house in or­der in terms of se­cu­rity and qual­ity in­fra­struc­ture.

In­fra­struc­ture in pub­lic health in­sti­tu­tions across La­gos State nose­dived in four years of Am­bode ad­min­is­tra­tion. The 26 gen­eral hos­pi­tals and one Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal in the state strug­gled for sur­vival while pub­lic funds went into mun­dane things. Th­ese hos­pi­tals be­came even more over-crowded, with di­lap­i­dated struc­tures and un­mo­ti­vated staff. Pa­tients now spend more hours wait­ing to see doc­tors and pay for vir­tu­ally ev­ery­thing. At LASUTH, pa­tients of­ten queue for weeks wait­ing for surgery be­cause of inad­e­quate op­er­at­ing the­atres. Many will not for­get in a hurry how foot­baller, Ray­mond King, died in one of the the­atres af­ter a power fail­ure.

In La­gos, classes in most pub­lic schools are over­crowded with di­lap­i­dated struc­tures. They be­came shod­dier un­der Am­bode. Many will be shocked to know that pupils in some La­gos schools still sit on bare floor in class­rooms. You will shed tears for La­gos when you visit schools like Orile-Agege Com­mu­nity Ju­nior Sec­ondary School; Ife­sowapo/ Aboru Ju­nior Sec­ondary School; Dis­trict Se­nior Col­lege, Meiran; Ije­gun Com­pre­hen­sive Se­nior Sec­ondary School; Ake­san Com­mu­nity Ju­nior Sec­ondary School and To­mia Com­mu­nity Ju­nior Sec­ondary School, Mos­alashi, Alag­bado. The list is end­less. You will find di­lap­i­dated Jakande school build­ings even in places like Apapa and Ikeja. Again, vir­tu­ally all pub­lic schools in La­gos lack run­ning wa­ter be­fore Am­bode as­sumed of­fice. The story re­mained al­most the same while his reign lasted.

Un­der Am­bode, La­gos State be­came an even more dan­ger­ous place to live, with higher crime rate. Ab­duc­tions, vi­o­lent rob­beries and killings as­sumed fright­en­ing level. Cult groups, armed rob­bers and kid­nap­pers con­stantly ter­rorised the pop­u­lace, even at day time. Lagosians per­sis­tently lived in fear. This ex-gov­er­nor spent bil­lions of Naira pro­vid­ing equip­ment for se­cu­rity agen­cies with­out lay­ing out proac­tive strat­egy for com­bat­ing crime, as done dur­ing the Buba Marwa era in La­gos. Am­bode did not reckon with the fact that the se­cu­rity ar­chi­tec­ture of the state needed to be redesigned. He un­so­phis­ti­cat­edly thought it was just about spend­ing on equip­ment for the se­cu­rity agen­cies.

Within four years, this former gov­er­nor de­stroyed the waste col­lec­tion sys­tem in La­gos, turn­ing the state into the garbage cap­i­tal of the world. I have never seen this quan­tity of waste on the streets of La­gos in all my life. There is hardly any­where you turn to in La­gos today with­out be­ing as­saulted by un­prece­dented heaps of refuse. Res­i­dents, who can no longer bear liv­ing with refuse in their houses, sim­ply push them into the streets. Waste dis­posal in La­gos ev­i­dently col­lapsed. Am­bode de­stroyed the sta­te­owned waste man­agers, LAWMA, and brought in a lethar­gic firm called Vi­sion­scape. The “vi­sion­less” firm was sad­dled with the re­spon­si­bil­ity of clear­ing res­i­den­tial waste in 20 lo­cal gov­ern­ment ar­eas and 37 LCDAs. Vi­sion­scape wob­bled and fum­bled, leaving frustrated Lagosians heap­ing waste on the streets in tons.

While Am­bode’s reign lasted, pen­sion­ers of the La­gos gov­ern­ment wal­lowed in pain. Am­bode pum­meled them. Some died wait­ing for their pen­sions. Many are bed-rid­den with no money for med­i­cals. Sev­eral others be­came beg­gars. Re­tirees of the La­gos State Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion were the most bashed. Many of them are still wait­ing for their pen­sions over three years af­ter re­tire­ment. The Am­bode ad­min­is­tra­tion failed to faith­fully re­mit pen­sions to the Pen­sion Fund Ad­min­is­tra­tors. The Chair­man of the La­gos State As­so­ci­a­tion of Re­tirees and PFA Pen­sion­ers, Michael Omisande, re­marked: “Those who re­tired from 2016 till date are yet to re­ceive a kobo. You know quite well that the PFAs will not pay un­til gov­ern­ment cred­its re­tirees’ ac­counts.”

Many of th­ese re­tirees spent the last 35 years of their lives serv­ing La­gos State. What they got in ap­pre­ci­a­tion from Am­bode was hu­mil­i­a­tion. This has never hap­pened in the his­tory of this State. A gov­er­nor that spent a ter­ri­fy­ing $70 mil­lion on an op­u­lent trans­port in­ter­change failed to pay re­tirees their dues. What a gov­er­nor!

The truth be told, La­gos has de­gen­er­ated greatly since the exit of La­teef Jakande as gov­er­nor. Un­der Am­bode, it de­gen­er­ated fur­ther. Lagosians yearn for the re­turn of the Jakande era; an era when devel­op­ment was in­clu­sive and peo­ple-ori­ented; an era when gov­ern­ment touched the lives of the masses of the peo­ple di­rectly with qual­ity health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, wa­ter sup­ply and pass­able inner roads. There is an ur­gent need to con­struct hun­dreds of inner roads with drainages in or­der to re­gen­er­ate th­ese blighted com­mu­ni­ties. That was what Jakande did to open up many parts of La­gos like Mile 12, Ketu, Ojota, Agege, Mende, Onig­bongbo, Palm Grove, Oni­panu. Em­pha­sis must be placed on inner roads to mo­ti­vate devel­op­ment and en­hance the value of prop­erty in th­ese shat­tered com­mu­ni­ties. Any gov­er­nor in La­gos State, long­ing for devel­op­ment, should work on giv­ing more peo­ple ac­cess to qual­ity pub­lic health­care, qual­ity ed­u­ca­tion in pub­lic schools, good inner roads and pub­lic wa­ter sup­ply; not spend­ing on the­atres, for­eign tourism fairs, trans­port in­ter­change, sta­dia, and all sorts of things that should be pri­vate­sec­tor driven. This is the only way for­ward for my beloved La­gos State.