We’re looking ahead to attaining a mega city soon — Ayorinde, Lagos State’s Commissioner for Information

Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, speaks with BOLA BADMUS on the 50th anniversary celebration of the state  and where the state of aquatic splendour will be in the next 50 years.

FOR some days now, Lagos has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of creation of the state so how has been the experience?

It’s been wonderful. I think a lot of people have said that Lagos has created a record of being the first African entity that will have a year-long celebration in the manner that we have celebrated Lagos at 50. You will recall that after His Excellency, Governor Akinwumi Ambode, had inaugurated the planning committee in February of last year, the mandate was to have a year-long celebration with Professor Wole Soyinka as chairman and the late Rasheed Gbadamosi as co-chair.  Later, with Chief Gbadamosi’s transition, we had Hon. Habeeb Fasinro stepping in and they set to work right from May 26-27, 2016, having series of activities and on a monthly basis celebrating all the five divisions of Lagos State and having a symbolic celebration on 27 of every month from May 27 last year till March 27, 2017, which was the International Theatre Day. That was the day that we held the press conference to announce the last leg of Lagos at 50 celebrations.

So, what we have done is to up the ante for the last 50 days beginning from April 8, you know, to the Anniversary Gala that would happen on Saturday on May 27. So it has been a roller-coaster. It has been a celebration that has been well received and the communication of it has been outstanding from outdoor, to TV, to documentation. It has been an opportunity for Lagos State to document its history, the type the state was not able to do when it clocked 40 or when it clocked 25, years ago.

What we have done is to say that if anybody comes around in 10 years’ time when the state will be 60 or even in 50 years’ time when the state will be celebrating its centenary as a state, there will be landmark achievements 50 years before. That is for this year to show that some people thought that they needed to celebrate the essence, the legacy and the history, as well as the culture of Lagos State and thought it wise to document every aspect of it for posterity. And you can see that it has been largely culturally-driven. We have now entered into the intellectual component of the celebration.

So we have touched virtually every aspect. We have celebrated the icons and builders of Lagos. We have documented their contributions. We have thrown a salute at them; we have recognized the roles of visitors in the state, the roles of traditional institutions and the role of women. We have had jazz; we have had comedy and we have had boat regatta. We have had very successful Eyo and this is more than a festival. This is a celebration of Africa’s 5th largest economy. The largest concentration of black people anywhere in the world and we thought we were able to accord the celebration what it deserves and, thankfully, the bulk of the money expended on this worldwide celebration came rightly from Corporate Lagos for which we are greatly grateful.

What could have informed this celebration lasting for almost a year?

Lagos does not do things in half measures; Lagos has always been number one. If you want to be cheeky, you would say, it’s all in line with Eko for show. But as I said, there are deeper reasons for which a one-year celebration was embarked upon. The last 50 days have been a roller-coaster.  Nothing like this has ever been done since the time of FESTAC 40 years ago. No African nation has had to celebrate anniversary or birthday or an individual in a manner that Lagos State has celebrated its anniversary.

We, of course recognise that Lagos State is a blessed state. It has been prosperous and last the 50 years have been wonderful and you know, of course, that 26 of the last 50 years have been without being the capital of the country. In those 18 years, we have actually recorded more success in terms of growth, in terms of continuity in governance and in terms of prosperity. I think Lagos has been blessed with the type of leaders that has been there since democracy returned. Of course, since its creation, look at the first governor of the state, Mobolaji Johnson. He is still alive to witness what is happening. Alhaji Lateef Jakande, perhaps after Awolowo, he is Baba Kekere, has been acknowledged as having had unparalleled record when he was governor of Lagos State. He is also still alive to celebrate with us.

Senator Tinubu, the unrivalled political juggernaut of this generation, who has succeeded in picking worthy successors for the state, who has succeeded in defining the political trajectory of the country at the state level, at the regional level and at the federal level, is also here to celebrate with Lagos. The immediate past governor, who is the super minister in Abuja, holding three ministries at the same time, was around two months ago to say hello to the governor in his office; he is also around to see that his sweat, his contribution, his labour is also being recognised.

And now you have a man who understands how money works, who understands how civil service works, who understands how to grow money in the time of recession, who understands how two flyovers at the same time could be completed in record time, who is doing wonders in managing the affairs of the state so much so that the state has now become the 5th African’s largest economy. These people are around. They deserve to be celebrated. They deserve to have their contributions to the growth of Lagos acknowledged and this is the whole point why we are celebrating this and as I said, it is not as if it is costing Lagos any amount, because those whose companies and multinationals have benefited from the state, from the wealth, from the peace they have enjoyed in the state have identified with why Lagos is celebrating and they have contributed generously to that cause, the same way they did when Lagos had the ‘One Lagos Fiesta’ in 2015 and last December.

If you are going to look at Lagos in the last 50 years, how would you assess the developments the state has attracted to itself?

I think it’s been remarkable. It’s a standout appraisal, particularly in the two components that make a city– state or a nation succeed. One is in the area of governance and the other is in the area of economic prosperity. It’s a coastal state, which is the reason we say it is a state of aquatic splendor. It has always been a commercial nerve centre of the country, if not the entire West African unit of the continent. And that is for the influx, the volume of business activities going on there has translated into the positive growth for the economy of the state. If we had had bad managers, these would have amounted to nothing, because it is not so much about money. The country on its own has enjoyed tremendous wealth from oil, but look at where we are today, because we fail to save to be reasonable on how we manage our resources and how we are accountable to the people, due to years of ill-management until rescue sort of appear two years ago, and we are now bringing people to account. And we are just adjusting people psyche as to how to conduct themselves in the midst of plenty, but plenty is no longer there because oil prices have fallen.

But you see that Lagos, in spite of that, has shown example that recession is not a death sentence and that you can, as a matter of fact, get it right during recession. Guess what, Lagos generates more revenues in 2016 when recession was biting so hard. That shows that Lagos is there because you have a helmsman who understands prudence, who understands accountability, who understands how to grow money and how to apply it.

You know we are also grateful that the governor who understands how economy works met solid structure on the ground particularly as laid down from 1999 when the father of contemporary Lagos, Bola Tinubu, thought of different ideas, you know, that we needed to make Lagos a mega city.

By headcount alone, Lagos is a mega city, but then it was Tinubu that started LAWMA, started LASTMA, controlling traffic, with a new law that would shape people’s thinking. It was under him that the new governor was Accountant-General when money for Lagos State was seized for Local Government by the then president that Lagos State started thinking out of the box and started growing its IGR from N600million as of that time first to N6billion and then to N20billion and to where we are today. And people can see all over the year that Lagos is not doing badly in terms of revenue generation. But this is the first state and perhaps the only state as at this period that the capital expenditure is a lot higher than recurrent expenditure because the more you make, the only way people would feel the impact is when you channel those resources into meaningful projects that can benefit people.

So, I think in 50 years if you look at the last 18 months alone, you would say that we have not done badly. But of course, if you also look at the four years plus that Alhaji Jakande did and look at the about three years that Marwa did too to some extent, you will see that, one way or the other, Lagos has always have the privilege of having forthright people. People who mean very well, people who know their onions at the helm of affairs. But without doubt, the last 18 years and particularly the last two years of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode have been a special blessing to people of Lagos State and I think it is pretty obvious to every other person living elsewhere in the country or elsewhere on the continent that some good is going on in that small but very blessed, very prosperous and safe state called Lagos State.

People always talk about the dreams of the founding fathers. Would you say the dreams of the founding fathers have been met for Lagos or it is yet to be realised?

Yes, largely, it has been realized. It is a work in progress, but at every point, we have always taken steps in the right direction in Lagos State.

You would see a project of this ministry which we are realizing through the Lagos Television and which is also very high on the media. They are on social media. It is what we call “My Lagos Story” and you have people from Chief Femi Okunnu to Chief Mobolaji Johnson to Dangote, Jim Ovia to Baba Bamu in Epe to BRF to Salawa Abeni to Ebenezer Obe to G.O Adeboye, different people, founding fathers of Lagos, visitors who made it in Lagos and who are reminiscing, recalling the good old days of Lagos, the dreams and the vision of the founding fathers and how in 50 years, as statehood, Lagos generally has performed satisfactorily in their estimations.

So this is not so much about what I think. This is so much about how I align with the thoughts of those founding fathers, many of who are still around, many of who have spoken through that special clips that would go in as a bulk, as a documentary on ‘My Lagos Story’ you know recalling the old good days, appraising what has been done and almost all coming to the conclusion that yes, Lagos has changed. Lagos has transformed. It has transformed for the better; it is now a mega city.  Most people who know the story of Lagos would always remind researchers about this that without a doubt, Lagos is intrinsically a Yoruba South-West state.  That is the DNA of Lagos. But Lagos is special and it has always been welcoming. It has always open its arms to visitors and historians would always say part of the DNA is that its success and wealth and prosperity are directly or indirectly tied to its warm- heartless and open-heart to its visitors.

That has been the reason why you saw outdoor, e-frame bill-board campaign that we ran as part of Lagos@50, using at the beginning mostly visitors, entertainers, young ones, graduating it into other classes of people in Lagos State, attributing their successes to Lagos.

Why were people who had already passed not featured on the billboards?

Because the narrative is for those who are here to speak, those who had passed on are being celebrated in another area. You won’t have them on billboards on the streets saying ‘Lagos is my success story.’ That will not be respectful to the departed. So there are other ways that we are celebrating. We are documenting their contributions, we are honouring them. They would be part of the things we are discussing about the Lagos History Lecture. They are Lagos themselves. Lagos must thank them unlike those others who are still living and in different sectors who can say I made it because Lagos allowed me to get it right here, which is why you will have an Eniola Jumoke, the bread seller who could barely speak a sentence of English, saying Lagos is my success story. This is why you will have a Dangote, Africa’s richest man, the richest black man who has lived 40 something years in Lagos, saying Lagos is my success story, that I made it here. This is why we have the African richest woman, in Lagos attributing her success to Lagos. This is why you will have one of the biggest men of God Adeboye, saying that he got saved in Lagos and he got blessed in Lagos.

It is a narrative that has to be appreciated for the purpose for which it served and the moment we saw that it has served its purpose, we moved on to another level of campaign.

So the aim, therefore, is clear, it is not to use the departed icons on billboards. It was meant to communicate a different kind of narrative and I think so far so good, we’ve succeeded with that.

The agitation by the indigenes that they are being marginalised is still on, can you address that?

I am actually not aware that there is any agitation. I am not aware and I do not think that it would be fair to say that Lagos administration would marginalise the indigenes or anybody. It’s unthinkable. We won’t even dare it, because Lagos has a rich history. Its history is never in doubt. The heritage of Lagos is not in contention and, therefore, there can’t be any deliberate attempt to overlook the importance of those to whom God decided to entrust the settlement, the initial settlement into their hands.

But as I said, part of why Lagos has become what is it today is because it has been fulfilling its destiny that it will not be hostile to visitors, particularly those who respect and appreciate the essence, the culture, the history, the heritage and the founding fathers of the state and I think that the governor has been doing his best to make sure that delicate balance, is well catered to so that there won’t be any problem of marginalisation.  There would always be agitation, but sometimes, you need to interrogate the real essence of such agitation. By the time you strip it off all its political colouration, you will see that, frantically speaking, it is not so much about the sanctity of ownership of the land, it is essentially about in most cases the desire to partake.

In the next 50 years, what do you expect Lagos to have become?

The whole part of celebrating Lagos at 50 is actually to chart a way for new Lagos and the defining underlining word for us is to graduate from being a mega city to a smart city.  We are thankful that last year, we were formally welcomed into the 100 Resilient Cities, which means that Lagos is resilient. It is resonant it is relentless that in spite of financial rhetoric and all sorts that might be happening, a resilient city like Lagos will always continue to survive and we think that actually captures her essence. It defines her character, you know, Lagos does not have a mild or gentle character, you know. We are buoyant, we are, if you like, prosperous in a creative manner and we are relentless, poised, passionate, people, 3Ps, 3Rs and, therefore, what will define us will be smartness. We want to graduate from being a mega city to a smart city.

We are probably about the sixth largest city-state in the world and there is a projection that we would be the third in about 20 to 30 years. We do not look at the challenges of head count explosion alone, we are looking at the opportunities. Don’t forget the destiny and the DNA of Lagos that it will ever continue to attract people. So in attracting and welcoming, we are looking at the opportunities.

It is possible that in 50 years’ time, we would be one of the largest populated cities in the world, maybe in the top three.  It is the advantages of that head count that Lagos will strive about in the next 50years of her existence, as a smart city where technology will drive development, will define the character of our state, which is the reason why we have become the first state in Nigeria and Africa to sign an MOU with the Dubai Investment City to have a SMART CITY Lagos. Land has already been provided for them in Ibeju-Lekki, which will require that we have another airport. We believe that in the next 50 years of our existence, a minimum of three airports should be in Lagos without which tourism cannot reach its whole potentials. But we are not looking at when 50 years would come, we are assessing that come May 27, we are starting the whole journey into the next 50 years. 13,000 CCTV cameras are being deployed in next one and half years, which is a build-up on ‘Light Up Lagos Project.’ We reckon that in the next three to five years, Lagos will be able to generate and supply 3,000megawtt that will essentially take care of our power needs through the embedded power initiative of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Lagos State. If you solve the energy need of Lagos State, you would have solved half of the energy crisis in Nigeria which, therefore, means that allowing Lagos to work on its embedded power project so that half of the power need of the nation would have been solved.

Security could be tied into that because with the CCTV cameras, we are taking over 1,000 left over from Jonathan’s administration. We are providing our own 2,000 and we are working with partners to provide another set of 10,000 so that crime and criminality can reduce to the barest minimum, that is technology.

Now, from there, we go into transportation system because for any city, movement or commuting from point A to B would be an integral part of how that city would work. And therefore, you see from what we have started, light up the city, is to enable do 24/7 economy and we are also creating more BRT corridors. We have expanded the Ikorodu Road Corridor to Ikorodu Town, stressing all the way to Marina. Guess what we have achieved? There is 15 per cent reduction in the number of private vehicles and commercial buses on that route in rush hours, because those who would have used their cars or patronized commercial buses are now satisfied with what the BRT corridor is providing them, it’s air conditioner, it is on time, it is enjoying dedicated line and it has provision for the physically challenged. In this year, we are moving to Oshodi and from Oshodi to Abule-Egba, another densely populated area.  For this year alone, there would be more BRT corridors.

And then by the time we also finish the Blue Light Rail Project and start the Red Light Rail Project, vertical and perpendicular routes just like you have in Istanbul and China, one alone would be able to move like 500,000 people on the daily basis. Between this year and 2019, we are phasing out the Danfo buses. This is still answering where Lagos will be in 50 years’ time. The Danfo buses will be replaced with small buses and the bigger ones in blue and white, fully air-conditioned, without the shouting of Oshodi or Abule Egba. Bus assistants would be trained and employed and drivers would be drawn largely from the pool of the Danfo buses’ drivers.

So, if you ask where Lagos will be, I would say see the direction we have headed, the direction of multi-modal transport system that will be at per with any of the type of cities that Lagos is competing with, Hong Kong, Singapore or Cape Town. You see that Lagos is not being viewed and defined within the prism of Island and Mainland. Now people hear of Ikorodu every time, of Epe, of Badagry.  Look at the volume of investments we have done in Epe in terms of infrastructure that we have in Epe.  Look at how we are going to transform Badagry into a Tourism Hub. We are reclaiming and transforming the Epe Marina and the Badagry Marina into the kind of waterfront view that you see in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, you know, in any area that the good Lord has blessed with natural, beautify scenery with waterfront. That is what we should return our Lekkis our Epes and our Badagrys and part of Ikorodu into not to have shanties that harbor criminals and kidnappers there. It does not happened elsewhere, why should we allow it here, are we a different specie? That is where we are headed.