Sanwo-Olu: To make Nigeria better, we should restructure governance system

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, says there is a need to change the structure of governance to ensure development in Nigeria.

Sanwo-Olu said this in Lagos at the premiere of ‘UNMASKED’, a documentary feature film co-produced by Kadaria Ahmed and Femi Odugbemi, structured around the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The governor added that the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to improve the welfare of the people.

“The lessons are certainly not lost on me personally and my government. I know that indeed what COVID brought forward to us, these are things that if indeed we take the positive side of it, we can use to galvanise and create tomorrow,” he said.

“It is really not governance that has failed but people; it is really not religion that failed, it is also the people. So, let us look at ourselves in the face and ask what are the lessons that COVID has indeed passed to our generation.

“What are we doing differently that will ensure that all of our mistakes known and unknown that COVID has caused us — how are we positioning ourselves to ensure that they do not happen again?

“The truth to be told is that the structure of our government system is the kind of thing that we should look into and change. If it is to say that the cost of governance is heavy and big, those are some realities we need to look up and ask ourselves the sincere truth. And we can only make the change when we have the opportunities to make those changes.

“The change has to be about all of us; that change that we desire. COVID has fast-tracked it for us, that is to say that we are living testimonials to the fact that things can still be better in this country, things should get better, and things have to get better.”

The governor also said participation from stakeholders in different sectors of the country is required to prepare the nation for another pandemic.

“So, leaving here today is to ask how we are going to push this narrative forward. People in government, media, academics and entertainment need to learn lessons from this and get all of us better prepared before another pandemic will come.

“It is not about medical pandemic alone; it could be hunger pandemic, security pandemic, governance pandemic. Whatever it is, how prepared are we? What is the level of our resilience?”