Ambode’s Lagos: A beautiful picture of an ugly state

Last week Friday, I saw one of the posters of Jimi Agbaje, an on and off politician and one of the highlights of his campaign is freedom. He is promising Lagosians freedom! When I saw it, I laughed, I was not surprised though. We are in the season when lies fly everywhere as sparks when a welder is working on some metals. Politicians are currently promising what they know they can never deliver. They do not believe in what they are saying, but citizens—who lack true education believe in their hogwash falsehoods.

These are questions begging for the alms of answer: are Lagosians being enslaved? Who are those enslaving them? Is it possible for a people to be under bondage without knowing? Is Jimi Agbaje also benefiting from the bondage of Lagos folks? Also, is he benefiting from the government of Lagos State? And lastly, is he the one that will set Lagosians free from the bondage of traffic and filth?

I doubt if Jimi Agbaje can be trusted. How do I mean? He only shows up—once in four years. After 2019 gubernatorial election, if he does not win, he’d disappear (like it happened in 2014) only for him to show up again in 2023. Also, I doubt if Jimi Agbaje is truly an opposition candidate. They are all together. The person who will disrupt the politics of Lagos is yet to be born. When Jimi had an unusual financial clout and cuff when GEJ was in power, he couldn’t deliver Lagos to the PDP, is it today that the PDP is no longer calling the shots at the highest position in the country—that he would win Lagos State? Another question is; who will bankroll his latest political ambition? It takes a lot of billions of naira to win a gubernatorial election in Nigeria.

Away from Jimi’s theatrical comeback after about four years of being on political holiday, this is probably the second article I am penning on Ambode’s lackluster leadership in Lagos State. Before he lost the last party election, Lagosians began to complain bitterly about the state of Lagos State, but immediately he lost out in the last Lagos State party primaries, things went from bad to worse. Lagosians are now daily wailing as babies.

I write as someone who works and does everything in Lagos State, so I understand what I am saying. Lagos State is probably the dirtiest State in Nigeria and arguably the dirtiest on earth. “Ibadan,” a city in Oyo State used to be this dirty, but without any contest, Lagos has won the award of being dirtier than Ibadan and it is so sad.

When visitors are coming from their varied countries, one of the few places they would first see is Ikeja. In recent times, it is very hard to believe that Ikeja is the capital of Lagos State. It is so dirty and unorganized. The traffic-jam in Ikeja (and every part of Lagos State) is killing. Virtually every junction in Lagos has a heap of refuse! This is happening in 21^st century. It is a huge shame to those in leadership of Lagos State.

How I wish Lagosians would punish the “APC” for keeping them under the bondage of dirt, but Lagosians and Nigerians as a whole are still babies within the context of politics. Instead of punishing them, they would hand them over to God, just as they hand over their roads and electric power supply to God to fix for them. How I wish Lagosians can vote in a new party in Lagos. Anyways, these are mere wishes, because if wishes were horses, beggars they say would ride. Maybe Jimi is right that Lagosians are under the bondage of the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his team, in which Jimi himself is a part.

Governor Ambode has shown to all of us that whatever politicians do in any State is not because of the people, it is because of their political career. This is why projects are done and they do not last. They do projects to recoup, not make the people’s lives better. I look at everything done in Lagos in the last four (4) years and it is very certain that they are not going to last. And if you think I am not saying the truth, three years from now, I am going to revisit this issue.

Law and order have completely broken down in Lagos State. It seems the governor does not care a hoot. “Okada riders” are back on the highways. They are back snatching mobile phones. Two weeks ago, a friend’s mobile-phone was snatched by an “okada rider.” “Sanwo Olu” is exploring the ugly state of Lagosians—making promises as those before him, even promises that are beyond him! “BOS” will win but he can only reign—he will not truly lead Lagos. He knows that, but Lagosians probably do not know.

The traffic jam in Lagos State is so ugly! From “Ojodu Berger” to “Ikeja” that is not supposed to take more than 15minutes now takes hours! Lagosians are not as productive as they used to be as an effect of the ugly evil of traffic-jam. I was somewhere teaching and I told them that every wise industrialist needs to have an office at home. I do have one. If you do not have any tangible things doing outside the four (4) walls of your house, stay at home, because if care is not taken, the issue I am raising would send you to the land of the silent ones prematurely. Today, it is not death that kills folks, it is stress.

Lagos State is a beautiful picture of an ugly State that is not working. A very rich State that appears very poor because bad managers of resources are calling the shots. If Singaporeans and United Arab Emirates folks manage Lagos State for ten (10) years, it would become one of the best places to live on earth. You think using foreigners to build Lagos and Nigeria as a whole is not possible? It is possible. If it can be working in sports, it can also work in governance.