PDP’s losing campaign in Lagos

PDP gubernatorial candidate, Jimmy Agbaje, has apparently mastered the craft of innuendo and myth-making. This time round, he has concocted some mythical figure in whom he has invested superhuman political powers. Agbaje claims this imaginary mythical figure controls all that happens in Lagos, from every decision made in the largest corporate office in the highest skyscraper to what price the tomato vendor charges at the local street market. If you stub your toe going to the bathroom at night or a kid drops a bowl of porridge, Agbaje attributes such prosaic events to this force of nature which he has conjured. Compared to any PDP-ruled state, Lagos has been much better governed over the years by the progressive party the people have elected to lead this state. While states under the PDP banner have stagnated or experienced diminution, Lagos has improved in all aspects of governance and provision of public service. Business flourishes. Infrastructure has improved. Educational, judicial and health care reforms have made Lagos the most innovative and most copied state in the federation.

Wise fiscal policy and management enabled the Lagos government to increase internally generated revenue while still promoting economic growth and embarking on strategic infrastructural projects.  No PDP state comes close to achieving this delicate balance. Lagos is a mega city that has benefited from successive administrations that remained loyal to a benign developmental plan created in 1999. As a consequence, Lagos will soon be one of the world’s few mega cities that also can claim the distinction of being one of the world’s few smart cities. Lagos did not become smart by listening to Agbaje’s casting of myths or by following the PDP’s manual of mis-leadership and misdeed. As Lagos has advanced, PDP states languished under the yoke of economic malfeasance and lost opportunity. Lagos has accomplished this in an atmosphere of openness unparalleled in few places inside or outside the country.  Mindful that Lagos is the nation’s cultural and intellectual center, progressive governance here has catered to freedom of expression and of action, even by political opponents. No one can say the APC or its forerunner parties suppressed anyone from doing or saying what they wanted.

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The press has not been burdened by the state government. Any citizen can speak as they wish without fear of reprisal from the state. PDP-oriented business men profit and flourish without interference or intimidation. We are Lagos, a progressive and enlightened place that accommodates even those who would try to use our openness and good nature against us. Agbaje has the nerve to try to frighten the people about some mythical political figure that holds the people in thrall. The average Lagosian may face his share of life challenges. Being politically entrapped has never been one of them. Agbaje’s campaign slogan defeats itself. His posters proclaim “freedom.” Never mind the nebulous quality of the call, his very use of the word shows this slogan to be a con.  If Lagos was so “unfree“ and under the thumb of this mythical political character, Agbaje’s posters would never see the light of day.  Instead, his posters are pasted all over Lagos even placed where posters are illegal. No one is tearing them down and no booming voice is emanating from angry, billowing clouds demanding that the posters fall.

Jimmy cries “let my people go” as if to emulate Moses. This is all dramatic and entertaining. We are left to ask does he really have people, who are they and how are they being held against their desire? As the economic magnet of Nigeria and West Africa, Lagos welcomes 8000 thousand newcomers daily. A great city and state must be designed by compassion yet built of strong stuff. Curious how Agbaje has acquired the sudden temerity to clang about freedom and letting his imaginary people go. Too bad he came about this courage to fight pharaoh so late in time long after Pharaoh Olusegun no longer lorded over the nation. As president and pretend Pharaoh, Obasanjo spitefully withheld funds intended for state’s coffers and the people’s development. He took what belonged not to him yet still hectored the Lagos government.

That state government was forced to serve the people without the resources due it.  Obasanjo effectively asked Lagos to make bricks without straw. Still, our progressive government did better than its PDP counterparts. When the PDP-led federal government refused to work the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Agbaje did not object to this wrong that compelled continued usage of a stretch of road as dangerous as any. This made travel costly and, at times, lethal. Yet he opened not his mouth against this injustice. Again, he rather pay obeisance to another pharaoh, this time Jonathan I of Otuoke, than fight for the rights of the people of Lagos. Agbaje says that when one person sleeps, Lagos too goes to sleep. Evidently, with the protracted growth Lagos has experienced over the past 20 years, this mythical man of Agbaje’s imagination gets very little sleep.  Agbaje, the freedom you seek is not the freedom you need. You should rather liberate yourself from the grand delusion you live.

• Ibidapo is a public affairs analyst and concerned Lagosian