By Adeoba Michaels
(adeobamich@gmail.com)
If there should be anytime governance in Lagos should be topnotch, it is now. The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC is seeking to retain the mandate of voters in Lagos and its main challenger Jimi Agbaje, a known and popular brand of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP who is taking a shot at the top job for the third time by all standard not a pushover.
Agbaje who was taunted as Just kidding (Jk) during the last gubernatorial election in Lagos State proved his mettle. He gave a good fight and almost clinched the governorship seat. He should not be waved aside as inconsequential in this race.
Meanwhile, it appears the governance structures in Lagos have been suspended since the incumbent Akinwunmi Ambode lost his second term bid to Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Perhaps, this could be a deliberate ploy to ensure that the ruling party pays dearly for denying him a second term.
The above theory gains credence in the light of the ongoing in Lagos. Contractors handling critical road projects in highly populated areas like Ikorodu have reportedly left sites when the governor allegedly reneged in making payments as at when due. The all important Agric-Ishawo-Arepo road that the government started since November, 2017, has been abandoned.
This writer gathered that construction firms have started moving his machineries out of sites signaling that the roads might never be completed. The story is the same at Igbogbo/ Bayeku Road in Ikorodu , houses were demolished for the road construction just for it to be abandoned shortly after Ambode lost second term ticket.
Ikorodu like any other high density local government area is critical to the victory of the ruling party. Worst still, the candidate of the PDP, Jimi Agbaje hails from Ikorodu. If the Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration has indeed agreed to work for the party preferred candidate Sanwo-Olu, he should not have abandoned Ikorodu, the stronghold of the main challenger of his party.
Whilst the quick intervention of the Lagos State House Assembly and the immediate reinstatement of former Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA boss, Ola Oresanya and sacked PSP operators had reduced the menace of heaps of waste that spiraled out of Governor Ambode’s control, there are still much areas that needed urgent attention ahead of the elections.
The nasty experiences of motorists and commuters in the last two months in Lagos should be a cause for concern. This writer is a fan of Lagos Traffic Radio where harrowing tales of chronic gridlocks partly occasioned by bad roads and unending road constructions are lodged.
In Ambode’s Lagos, you can’t predict traffic again. Both during off peak and rush hours, the roads are usually locked down. From Ikorodu , Aja, Mile 2 to Lagos/Abeokuta expressway, it is a sad story. The plight of commuters and motorists plying Lagos/ Abeokuta Expressway has become a daily harrowing experience.
The Strabic Construction and other sub-contractors under Laralek Construction Limited that were awarded the long stretch Truck A Lagos/ Abeokuta Expressway don’t have the expertise to handle such huge project. They construct like apprentice bricklayers.
The trailer queue has stretched from Apapa, Western Avenue, Ojuelegba and now at Palmgrove, Ikorodu road. The trailers and tankers are permanently stationed the only alternative route to Island after Third Mainland Bridge. The question is, can’t the government get them off the roads and put in place a call system which will decongest the roads.
Even in the secretariat in Alausa, power outage has become a common phenomenon in recent weeks. This write confirmed this on Thursday, 1st November, 2018. The entire ministry of Information multi-storey complex was shut down due to power outage. Civil servants opened windows to survive.
We understand there was an Independent Power Plant that powers Alausa Secretariat, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH and the Court complex in Ikeja during the days of former governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. What happened that everything gradually collapsed under Ambobe’s watch?
I chuckled when I read that the governor asked the people of Epe to forget the past and vote massively for the party’s governorship candidate, Mr Sanwo-Olu and President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming general elections. Ambode should not be taken serious as his moves contradict his empty words.
He has irredeemably undermined the ruling party. Federal Mass Housing Scheme that would have become a strong campaign point for Buhari in Lagos was stopped by thegovernor because of his vindictiveness and hatred for Babatunde Fashola, his predecessor and current minister for Power, Works and Housing.
Thirty-five states including Federal Capital Territory have signed on and provided lands for Fashola to build mass housing except Lagos. In the same way, just to spite his predecessor, Ambode insisted that he would reconstruct Airport even when Federal Government was ready to take up the project.
What was the immediate response of the governor when one of his trusted lieutenants from Epe division and a serving commissioner in a thriving Ministry Of Energy, Olawale dumped the party for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Would Oluwo who enjoyed paraphernalia and comfort of government decamp to opposition PDP where his future is not certain without Ambode’s nod? I doubt.
The nebulous alibi to the alleged rancorous APC governorship primaries is just a camouflage and decoy. If he was so concerned about entrenching democratic tenets, he should have left APC immediate his principal lost the battle to another aspirant.
The boss at the Alausa Round House had shown his hands through Oluwo. Well, I don’t sympathize with the leadership of APC in Lagos. They were naïve enough to allow a chef they sacked in the morning to prepare the dinner for them.
I read that the governor has been begging and explaining why he dealt cruelly with perceived foes. (https://completenewsng.com/exclusive-ambode-begs-sacked-fasholas-sister-to-be-re-instated-ministers-sister-rejects-appointment-complete-news/). Well, if truly he wants to atone his misdeeds, he should sincerely reach out to other people he has willfully cut to size and do the needful
Adeoba Michaels, a Public Affairs Analyst wrote from Lagos
