The Governor Magazine

governor 

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HIS EXCELLENCY 

BABAJIDE 

SANWO-OLU 

Towards A Greater Lagos

Contents 

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Who Is Babajide Olushola Sanwo-Olu? 

Twenty Years Of Democracy In Lagos 

State– Mr. Dele Alake 

Journey To Alausa – HE Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu 

The Babajide Sanwo-Olu I Know – 

Otunba Femi Pedro 

The Babajide Sanwo-Olu We Know – 

Unilag Executive MBA Class 1998-2000 

Towards A Greater Lagos. “My First 100 

Days” – HE Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu 

The Role Of The Deputy Governor – 


My Deputy And I – HE Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu 

Godfatherism In Politics – Mr. Dele Alake 

Lagos Prays – Henry Balogun 

Nigeria 2023 – Chief Akinsanya Sunny 

Ajose (OON) 

The Lagos We Want 

Footprints Of A Leader – LSDPC STAFF 

Expectations 

Closing Remarks – HE Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu 

Appreciation – Henry Balogun 

The Governor - The Business of Government 

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Issue: Special Inaugural Edition 

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The Governor - The Business of Government | Special Inaugural Edition | May 2019

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SPECIAL INAUGURAL EDITION 

THE PUBLISHER 

Bringing Government Closer to the People 

The monthly magazine edition features as 

its main story, an in-depth interview with 

the respective state Governor. The cover 

story of each issue focuses on a specific 

state, but the magazine also contains 

information from other states. 

In order to reap the potential benefits of 

democracy, especially with the recently 

concluded 2019 general elections, it is 

imperative that Nigerians get to know 

much more about matters of governance 

in their various states, their respective 

leaders, the economic opportunities 

available as well as socio-cultural issues of 

respective states. 

The Governor seeks to address the 

information need of citizens and bring the 

governor’s office closer to the people by 

providing regular updates on activities of 

state governors and is primarily distributed 

online, on mobile devices and to social 

platforms. 

he Governor is a unified news 

Tplatform and online magazine, 

focused on the business of 

government and governance, specifically 

highlighting activities of state governors 

and keeping Nigerians updated on socioeconomic 

development, investment 

opportunities and business issues in 

various states in Nigeria. 

................................................................................................. 

This special inaugural edition - a collectible 

innovative digital magazine that bridges the gap 

between print and digital using augmented reality 

and redefining the norm, explores Babajide Sanwo- 

Olu's promise of a greater Lagos and his plans for 

his first 100 days in office. Packed with photos 

from his most impressionable and dynamic 

campaign and featuring a first, in-depth look at the 

incoming administration, this can't-miss inaugural 

edition tells the story of the most surprising 

emergence of an exceptionally brilliant candidate 

to the most resounding victory in Lagos 

gubernatorial elections and provides a preview of 

Lagos in the Sanwo-Olu Era. 

The Governor is published by IBILE Foundation, a 

citizen's sector social-welfare organisation, 

dedicated to promoting the common good and 

general welfare of the Nigerian people through 

social transformation initiatives and citizens 

solutions as well as strengthening the civic 

engagement of Nigerians. 

Ibile Foundation's video 

production unit, IBILE.tv is 

a premier online TV and 

video production platform. 

We curate and aggregate 

news from across Nigeria 

and provide a wide array of 

video products including 

documentaries, corporate 

videos and aerial filming. 

Henry Balogun 

Publisher / Editor-in-Chief.

THE GOVERNOR 


EARLY YEARS: 

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was 

born into the illustrious Sanwo-Olu 

family of Lagos Island on June 25, 

1965, and he has grown to become a 

symbol of integrity, hard work, 

diligence, selflessness and empathy 

that are second nature to his worthy 

family. 

A scion of the Sanwo-Olu family of 

65, Omididun Street, Lagos. Babajide 

had the privilege of proper and 

quality upbringing, which has 

continued to guide his path through 

life. 

MARRIAGE AND RELIGION: 

He is happily married to Dr. Ibijoke 

Sanwo-Olu, a Medical Doctor with 27 

years of professional practice, and 

their marriage is blessed with lovely 

children. Mr. Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu is a devout Christian and a 

firm believer in humanity. 

WHO IS 

BABAJIDE 

Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu? 

EDUCATION: 

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu is an 

alumnus of the prestigious Harvard 

Kennedy School of Government, 

London Business School and the 

Lagos Business School. He also 

earned a Bachelor's degree in 

Surveying & Geo-Informatics and a 

Master of Business Administration 

(MBA) from the University of Lagos. 

His early education was at 

Government Demonstration School, 

Gbaja, Surulere and Ijebu-Ife 

Grammar School, Ogun State. 

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Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu is an associate 

member of the Chartered Institue of 

Personnel Management (CIPM). He is also a 

member of the Institute of Directors (IOD), 

Chartered Institute of Personnel Management 

(CIPM), and Fellow of Nigeria Institute of 

Training and Development (NITAD). 

PROFESSIONAL CAREER: 

Prior to his banking career, Mr. Babajide 

Olusola Sanwo-Olu worked (Post – NYSC) as a 

Seismic Surveyor with United Geophysical 

Nigeria Ltd (a seismic data acquisition 

company) in a role which took him around 

the whole Niger Delta and Lake Chad region, 

prospecting crude oil for Shell Petroleum 

Development Company (SPDC) and NNPC 

between 1989 and 1991. 

Like every entrepreneurial mind and 

adventurous youth, he tried his young hands 

on a start-up business by starting a company 

called “Dial a Plumber” with his funds 

between 1992 and 1993. The experience 

garnered from the venture made him realise 

that Small and Medium-sized Enterprises 

(SMEs) require a considerable amount of 

government support to thrive. 

From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu was a Treasurer at the former Lead 

Merchant Bank. He later joined United Bank 

for Africa (UBA) as the Head of Foreign Money 

Market, and subsequently moved to First 

Inland Bank Plc (now First City Monument 

Bank, where he retired as Deputy General 

Manager and Divisional Head. 

His valuable experience garnered from 

executive-level roles in both the private and 

public sectors have not only distinguished him 

but also made him a valuable resource to some notable organisations on whose boards he served. 

Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu's board roles include being the chairman of Baywatch Group Limited and First 

Class Group Limited 

PUBLIC SERVICE: 

His public service career began in 2003, when he was appointed Special Adviser on Corporate Matters 

to the then Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Femi Pedro, and later Special Adviser on Corporate 

Matters to the Executive Governor, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

Due to outstanding performance, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was appointed acting Commissioner 

for Economic Planning and Budget. He went on to become the Commissioner for Commerce and 

Industry under Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in 2007. 

After the General Elections in 2007, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was appointed Commissioner for 

Establishments, Training, and Pensions by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. 

His meritorious service to Lagos State continued when Governor Akinwumi Ambode appointed him as 

the Managing Director/CEO of the Lagos State Development Property Corporation (LSDPC) in 2016. 

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He is a board member of the Department for 

International Development (DFID/DEEPEN) Fund 

and Caverton Offshore Services Group, where he 

served on the Audit Committee. 

His remarkable aptitude in policy formulation, 

implementation & monitoring, innovation 

architecture & solution design, has also earned him 

a seat at important decision making tables in Lagos 

State. Some of these include being the Chairman of 

the State Consultancy Board, membership of the 

State Tenders Board and serving on New Projects 

Initiation and Promotion Committee. 

Mr. Sanwo-Olu, in addition to his love for public 

speaking, is a member of numerous prestigious 

clubs which include Ikoyi Club 1938, the Island Club 

and Yoruba Tennis Club. 

On the 16th of September 2018, Mr. Babajide 

Olusola Sanwo-Olu formally declared to run for the 

office of the Governor of Lagos State on the 

platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). His 

declaration attracted endorsements from major 

stakeholders in Lagos State politics, including the 

Governor's Advisory Council (GAC), Lagos State 

Council Chairmen and members of the Lagos State 

House of Assembly. He went on to win the Party 

primary elections and became the APC candidate 

for Lagos State Gubernatorial elections which took 

place in March 2019. An election he won by a 

landslide and was announced by the Independent 

National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the next 

governor of Lagos State. 

This is who we have all come to know Babajide 

Olusola Sanwo-Olu as. However as we hop on the 

train towards a greater Lagos, his administrative 

leadership will tell for certain who Mr. Sanwo-Olu 

really is. 

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Twenty Years of Democracy in Lagos State 

As an elder statesman who served as a 

commissioner under Senator Bola Ahmed 

Tinubu, what significant difference would 

you say Lagos has experienced before and 

after 1999? 

................................................................................................. 

Going down memory lane on happenings in 

Nigeria before 1999, we were deep in the 

thrills of militarism for a number of years 

from Jan 1st, 1984 to May, 29th 1999, that's 

quite a number of years if you do the 

arithmetic. 

During that time, we were strictly under 

military decrees, edicts and there was a total 

absence of democracy, it was a rule of force 

by the military establishment, and given the 

nature of the military, is obey the last order, 

orders were issued, there was no single iota 

of pretenses to carry along the public 

because the military usually shot its way to 

power, there were no campaigns, no 

programs, no policies, no elections… nothing, 

so you found yourself listening to the radio 

and just hearing about a change of 

government. Once the military got there, 

they did everything according to their whims 

and caprices and so the nation was held 

down, held by the jugular for those number 

of years, and it took its toll on the 

development of the country, on the progress 

of the country, on the socio-economic and 

political emancipation of the country. And 

some of us were in the vortex of it all, 

because of the absence of democracy, there 

was no parliament, no houses of assembly, 

no senate or house of reps, in short there 

was no legislature, no participatory 

democracy, no representative of the people 

to promote democracy. 

Shortly before Democracy Day on May 29th 

1999, Gen Abdulsallam had opened the 

political space for political activities; of 

course, parties were formed but the major 

Mr. Dele Alake 

ones being Alliance for Democracy (AD), the PDP 

and a host of others. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu 

came back, and insisted he was coming to take 

part in political activities. So he did and we joined 

forces together. I remember he actually came back 

wanting to go to the Senate, but by the time he 

got back a lot of things happened to change his 

mind, and I remembered it was in my office at 

Concord; myself, Segun Babatope, Tunji Bello and 

himself in my office when I said “look, my own 

view was that he had to go for the governorship 

because it would afford us the opportunity of 

coming to implement the programs and policies 

and philosophies of June 12 which we were all 

part of but that had been aborted” and he agreed. 

We took on the whole challenge, we went into the 

campaign and after a very acrimonious primary 

and highly contentious election, he won. Then we 

started the business of forming a transition 

committee and sub-committee, for 

conceptualizing various policies and programs for 

the incoming Asiwaju government, and the rest is 

history. That's what happened before 1999. 

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Primarily, the main thing responsible for what 

you see in Lagos constituency today, the 

progress and development trajectory of Lagos 

constituency today is due to the political 

system Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu instituted 

and the enduring structures he put in place 

starting from 1999. 

I would say with all sense of modesty that 

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu's political system 

is about the only one that I can see in the 

political firmament of Nigeria since 1999 that 

has been well grounded philosophically and 

ideologically. 

If you look at the various political systems in 

other parts of Nigeria, you would have what I 

call an agglomeration of interests, views, 

groups forming political parties. Ideally, by 

definition that should be it, a political party 

should be an agglomeration of this divergent 

interest and all that, but the demarcation 

point with that of the Tinubu's system is that 

those other ones are not grounded in any 

philosophical framework or ideological 

perspective, perception or even inclination. 

The other parties and the other political 

systems in other parts of Nigeria, emerged 

largely “in my own view” as a platform to 

protect peculiar interests, not necessarily 

platforms for altruistic purposes for the larger 

interest of the public, and for the envisioning 

of deep-seated political structures that would 

usher in real progress and developments. That 

has been the marked difference between the 

Tinubu system and those other systems that 

has been the necessary ingredient for the 

continuity of the Bola Tinubu system in Lagos 

state, not necessarily without prejudice to the 

individuals that have occupied offices in Lagos 

state. It is because of the system and the 

endurance of the system put in place, which 

then means that anybody who comes in as 

the driver of that system, would literally have 

little room to maneuver but to go forward, 

and build on the structure that he/she meets 

in place. 

That continuity has largely helped the state 

that is Lagos state in forging ahead with its 

giant developmental strides, progressive 

policies, implementations of social services 

that seek to make life convenient and 

comfortable for its inhabitant. That's really 

the issue, the kernel of the issue. It is the 

philosophical ground norm of the Bola Tinubu 

political system that has ensured continuity 

and the focus on the programs and policies 

that in totality ensure the convenience of 

Lagosians and that has attracted people from 

all works of life from other states in Nigeria 

into Lagos, which is why today Lagos is 

bustling as it seems with population. 

Everybody is coming to Lagos because Lagos 

works. 

The opposition parties are at liberty to spew 

out inanities and mouth slogans that literally 

or metaphorically and figuratively means 

nothing. It is just in the nature of oppositions 

to criticize whatever it is because they also 

are hanging to seize power. So whether you 

are the best performer in the world your 

opposition must seek to run you down. I 

don't take such things seriously because you 

also have to put these “opposition” and its 

people into proper perspective and context. 

What is the track record of achievement of 

any leading light of this opposition? What? 

Where? None… practically none or very 

negligible, so therefore, they don't have the 

basis to make very intellectually rigorous 

criticism. If you must criticize, you must put in 

place viable and constructive alternatives, 

they are not bringing any alternatives to the 

table, they just say “oh, this is a one-man rule 

for 20 years”, compare and contrast in other 

climes or in other states in Nigeria. What has 

been the developmental trajectory in those 

other states? They are all trailing behind 

Lagos state which says implicitly there's 

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something good in that so-called“ one-man 

rule for 20 years”, and now come to the nittygritty 

of it, I would disagree vehemently that 

it's a one-man rule, No, it is a system, that's 

why I ab-initio analysed the major difference 

between the Tinubu system and those other 

systems. Tinubu has put in a system that is 

grounded in a forward-looking progressive 

philosophical framework and it has an 

ideological perspective. Now when you want 

to put a system in place, you have to 

establish the philosophy behind that system. 

That is the envisioning; what do you seek to 

achieve? The methodology, how do you seek 

to achieve it? Then the knowledge. There are 

three attributes of leadership in any clime of 

progressive leadership. The attributes are 

vision, knowledge, and the will which is the 

courage. You must have the vision, you must 

be able to envision long term goals for your 

society or the sphere in which you operate, 

you must have the knowledge to translate 

the vision into reality and to chart the 

methodology of achieving those goals and 

lastly you must have the will, that is the 

courage to push through those policies that 

would achieve your set goals. Those three 

attributes are fortunately for Lagos State 

embedded in Bola Tinubu, and the bane of 

the progress of Nigeria till date has been that 

we haven't had a leader nationally that has 

those three attributes combined. We've had 

one or two with one aspect of those three 

attributes or two aspects of the attributes, 

but we haven't been lucky to have a leader 

with the three major attributes combined in 

him. We are lucky to have had that in Lagos. 

I have worked with Tinubu, I have known 

him, I have been with him in the trenches 

during the NADECO days before we got into 

office, I know the stuff he is made of, he is a 

man with vision, he can envision long term 

goals and I would give you examples. Take 

the revenue of Lagos State for instance, when 

we came in 1999, the IGR (internally Generated 

Revenue) of Lagos State was 600 million naira, 

what we were receiving from the federal 

government as allocation was a little over 1 

billion naira, meanwhile the wage bill of the 

workforce and the civil service alone of Lagos 

was about 1.6 billion naira, that is excluding the 

tertiary institution, the Judiciary, capital 

expenditure, administrative charges and all of 

that. Then the man put on his thinking cap, and 

he started crafting what we call social 

engineering, and by that time we were in the 

executive council and he brought out a memo 

into the EXCO for us to discuss about how to 

make sure Lagos was put on a path of financial 

recovery and eventual path of financial 

independence, we argued for weeks on end on 

that policy and he insisted that was the way to 

go, and we started implementing the mechanism 

he had put in place. 

I remember vividly at a point in 2005, after we 

had started implementing those policies and 

putting the mechanism in place, the IGR started 

climbing, and at a point in the executive council 

in 2004 or 2005, he did say quite unequivocally 

that, “if we went on implementing those policies 

at that pace we were going, that the 

administration or the successive administration 

that would take over from us will start swimming 

in money”, and he became prophetic. Today, you 

know the IGR of Lagos State, where it hovers. 

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There is no state in Nigeria that is close to what 

Lagos State generates, that is what we call 

visioning, He is a man with vision and he's got 

the knowledge, and he's got the will/the 

courage to push through those goals. 

I remember there was a particular incident 

where he demonstrated the knowledge; we 

wanted to embark on radical and massive 

infrastructural development and renewal of the 

urban centres of Lagos, that was when we 

proposed the dualisation of Yaba to 

Itire/Lawanson, the Awolowo road you see 

today, was only two lanes, we dualised it 

without demolishing a single structure on 

Awolowo road, that was close to 20 years ago, 

till today, you don't see a single porthole on 

Awolowo road. Then we embarked on Adeola 

Odeku, then Akin Adesola and a host of others 

that we did, but there was no money. Then he 

said we should go and take short term loan and 

hedge against inflation, because the way he 

saw things, if we didn't take the short term 

loans while looking at the horizon, the financial 

health of Nigeria and the situation, inflation 

was going to rise, we would not be able to 

afford the materials again, but that it was 

better for us to hedge, take short term loans, 

buy all the iron rod necessary, the cement, the 

materials, for all those constructions, so that by 

the time the inflation climbed higher, we would 

have amassed all the materials necessary for it. 

We argued and argued, those of us who are not 

financial experts, we argued against it, 

even those that were finance people in the 

EXCOs, then Wale Edun was commissioner 

for finance, Yemi Cardoso was 

commissioner for budget and planning. We 

confronted Tinubu on it in the executive 

council, and he maintained his stand, at 

some point, some of us kept quiet, it was 

left to Wale Edun, the commissioner of 

finance, who also was on our side, he took 

on the governor, he was wearing suit, 

when the argument ensued and persisted, 

at some point he took off his jacket. Wale 

removed his jacket and the argument went 

on, then he loosened his tie and the 

argument went on, then he rolled up his 

sleeves. I remembered Mrs. Kemi Nelson 

was also in the cabinet then, Mrs. Kemi 

said; “Wale, at this rate, you would remove 

your shirt”, and we all laughed in the 

EXCO. That was how hot our executive 

council deliberation was, because when 

you have a suffix of technocrats and 

professionals, and you are also deep 

yourself, our executive council meetings 

were always like editorial conferences, 

contentious, you bring a memo, everybody 

would draw out their knives, and punch 

holes in your memos, so you must have 

done your homework before you brought 

memo to the executive council, and 

defend. Everybody would bring ideas, it 

was an intellectually robust session that 

we had, and so at the end of the day, 

issues were exhaustively discussed, and 

conclusions were logically reached, and 

from there policies were conceptualized, 

formulated, executed, tracked and 

monitored, so the resultant effect is what 

you have in Lagos today, and that is why 

Lagos would keep moving ahead. So those 

who are mouthing one-man rule, one man 

rule, they are probably quite ignorant or 

mentally vacuous. 

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Journey 

TO ALAUSA 

HE Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu 

12 

t's been about nine (9) months 

Isince I resigned as the head of 

LSDPC, and so far, it has been a 

pretty interesting journey, at some 

point, it seemed like a rollercoaster, 

but I was able to fare well and stabilize 

all of the expectations, both from the 

public and myself. 

It has been an eye-opening journey, 

right from the point of being an 

aspirant, to a candidate and then going 

through all of the turbulent campaign 

processes, going around the 20 local 

governments and 37 LCDAs, having 

several meetings with all level of 

stakeholders and pretty much selling 

my campaign programs to everyone 

and letting them understand the 

different things I am about and the 

different ideas I plan to bring in. 

Debates, interviews, and more 

meetings, down to the election day 

itself and having it postponed again, 

and then the final election day with the 

anticipation of the results and finally I 

was declared the winner. I had to deal 

with post-election fever and the 

transition period. It has been pretty 

interesting, revealing and engaging but 

in my own way I've had to create my 

own positive journey through it all. It 

has been a journey that God has 

personally helped me pull through and 

I have received massive support from a 

lot of people, from the entire 

leadership of the party to the teeming 

population of Lagos, from friends and 

family members and personally, I truly 

appreciate what the journey is turning 

out to be. 

So much greater than what is behind, so 

we all need to be forward-looking and 

expectant because greater and mightier 

things are ahead of us. 

My emergence as the flagbearer of the 

party brought about a sense of belief in 

what the party was trying to achieve, 

which was giving power to the teeming 

party flag bearers at that time. 

It wasn't such a difficult call, just that a lot 

of people probably didn't have any idea of 

my previous experience in governance, so 

it wasn't turbulent in anyway, because my 

emergence as a candidate was something I 

was certain about and I had a lot of 

support coming out from that which was 

really humbling to me. Moving from that 

point, we believed that Lagosians needed 

to be convinced, we never really imagined 

that victory was a done deal, we rolled up 

our sleeves and got to every Lagosian, 

every stakeholder that truly wanted to 

hear us. We went to every nook and 

cranny of the state, visited almost every 

part of the state that we could identify. I 

imagine that we communicated properly 

and sold our programs adequately and we 

ran a campaign that people testified to be 

unique and the most innovative in the 

political scene of the country. Having 

worked that hard and having it being 

capped with a victory at the end of the 

day, one has to be appreciative to both 

God and the people that gave their 

support throughout the entire journey.

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The Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu I know 

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I worked with Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu 

for roughly four years in the banking industry, 

he was our treasurer at a point, and then later 

on he became the general manager for 

investment banking. In all these years, he was 

assigned very sensitive responsibilities and in 

very sensitive positions, that could only be 

held by someone that they trust, someone 

that has character and integrity. He was in 

treasury department, the life-wire of any 

bank, you could not just pick anybody from 

the street, you had to put somebody that you 

trust, somebody who is reliable and has 

competence, and Jide was a thoroughbred 

professional. 

I was quite impressed with him because of 

the way he took his job, he took his job 

seriously in the course of the years we worked 

together at treasury, and if you speak to any 

bank MD, they would say that the closest 

relationship they have with any of their staff 

would be first his treasury manager, and 

second, the foreign exchange manager. 

Jide and I had a close relationship, we worked 

together as a team, I respect his level of 

judgment, his decision making capabilities 

and his competence level, and that's why I 

didn't hesitate when I was appointed deputy 

governor to request him to come along with 

me, because I needed somebody at that level 


whom I could trust, going into a new job. 

In the private sector, he creditably delivered 

himself, I didn't have any problem with him 

whatsoever. In the public sector, we just 

practically continued where we left. He was first 

my adviser, and he advised very well, we worked 

together on several assignments given to us by 

the governor, and I didn't have any reason to 

complain about him at all. At a point in time, I 

felt that he needed higher responsibility, so I 

personally approached the governor to humbly 

and kindly elevate him, to the level of a cabinet 

ranked special adviser, and the governor obliged, 

and from there onward he worked directly with 

the governor, but throughout our tenure he was 

a very, good public officer, and I really didn't

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have any reason to complain about his performance. 

I believe he discharged himself creditably well. 

20 years of Lagos state has been years of progress 

and tremendous development, there's no doubt 

about it, if you grew up in Lagos or you were born in 

Lagos, you would see the difference, there has been 

giant strides. This has happened basically because 

there has been continuity in the governance, the 

foundation has been laid by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed 

Tinubu, he actually had a blueprint for the 

development of Lagos, which was the “Ehingbeti” 

program, which was held every year between 1999 

and I think about 2009 or 2010 before it was 

stopped, so this really formed the bedrock of the 

developmental effort by Lagos state. What has 

changed between then and now is the tremendous 

influx of people into Lagos, the population has 

grown tremendously in fact geometrically beyond 

anybody's imagination, so the state has been so 

burdensome under a weight of demands by her 

populace that it could not meet, revenue growth has 

not been able to match up with developmental 

needs of the state so this has created a lot of 

problems. The second issue is the leap frogging 

technology, the state has not been able to keep up 

with the technological advancement of the world 

and one of the reasons behind it is also because of 

the large influx of people coming into Lagos. It is 

extremely very difficult to cope with the challenges 

of environment, housing, and transportation, 

congestion, providing education and healthcare for 

the populace. These are the problems that incoming 

governor, Gov. Sanwo-Olu would meet. 

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However, if you followed his campaign very 

well, he has the campaign slogan called 

‘’THEME’’, which spell out many of these areas 

that I have mentioned. He is very well prepared 

to meet these challenges because he has 

worked through the system. He knows that 

every year, if we don’t leapfrog, these 

problems would catch up with us and it would 

be more difficult to overcome. I have had 

several discussions with him, I have listened to 

him when he was campaigning, I have listened 

to him on TV, radio, and I know he's ready to 

face this issue frontally, particularly the issue of 

transportation, the gridlock Lagosians face 

every day, the environmental challenges Lagos 

face, the problem of education, the large influx 

and the young population, particularly youth 

and creating jobs for them, I'm sure he is very 

much aware of all these and he is very much 

ready to cope. 

I say this not in any way as a form of flattery, it 

is the sincere truth about the kind of person I 

have come to know Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to 

be. 

I would like to advice Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu 

to remain true to himself, not to allow the 

office to change him, he should stay focused, 

and he should stay in the place of prayers at all 

times. 

15

The Babajide Sanwo-Olu We Know 

Unilag Executive MBA (Class of 1998-2000) 

Engr. Jude Okpala 

My name is Engr. Jude Okpala, I am the 

MD of Cliché Limited and we are into civil 

engineering, petition engineering, and 

metal components productions. 

I happened to be classmates with His 

Excellency in UNILAG while doing our 

Executive MBA in 1999. He specialised in 

Finance while I specialized in General 

Management. 

He is a very amiable man. When we were 

in school, we used to look up to him as 

someone who was very organized, he was 

there to take notes and submit on time. 

Everyone always looked up to him and was 

always saying, “I want to be like Jide He is 

an embodiment of what it takes to be a 

total manager, I think we have got the 

right person to take care of Lagos State.” 

While we were in school we looked at him 

as a man with a very bright future, he was 

so much “together” that he could hold 

sensitive positions back then and until 

now, we are very proud of him and that is 

why we are celebrating him today 

16 

for not disappointing any of us. 

Even after school, our relationship 

continued, he was a down to earth person 

keeping in touch with all his old folks. The 

relationship continued because while he 

was still working with the past government 

in Lagos State, he was keeping in touch, his 

doors were always open, as long as you 

were coming with positive ideas. 

He knew how we all toiled to bring out 

success in our academic works so he was 

always willing to meet with old friends to 

share ideas and tap out of them. It 

continued till this moment, that is why we 

can call upon him every moment and that's 

another reason he likes to spend time with 

his friends. 

I was very happy when I heard of his 

candidacy for the governor of Lagos State, 

as you know I am the chairman of the 

alumni so we celebrated him in absentia, 

then we reached out to him to tell him we 

are so happy to have him in that position. 

It was a thing of pride to know that one of 

ours has been picked for such a sensitive 

position. We were all super excited. 

Lagosians should expect a total change in

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governance for this administration, expect new 

ideas, expect pleasant surprises because Jide 

would like to keep his good ideas within his 

chest and throw them out when you least 

expect it. 

At the end of it all you come out positively 

surprised and excited. We should expect 

positive change, we should be ready for 

dynamism in governance, and we should also 

expect some seriousness, in the sense that he is 

going to bring some clarity from his first 

assignment in the financial industry, he is going 

to bring that to the way things are interpreted in 

Lagos State, so I tell Lagosians that they are very 

lucky to have Jide. They should expect that 

there would be a total change in the way things 

are done and they are going to see a seamless 

approach to governance. 

Finally, we want to wish him well and pray for 

him as 

we have always done. 

We look forward to the energy he is going to 

unleash on Lagos state, and that is my prayer for 

him. 

I also wish that he enjoys this position because 

in everything we should always enjoy whatever 

we are doing. 

Adegoke Omotola 

My name is Adegoke Omotola, I am the CEO of a 

management consulting firm. 

Mr. BabajideS anwo-Olu is a friend and also a 

brother to me and I have known him for about 

twenty (20) years. 

We were classmates during MBA school, and 

while we were in class he was a stickler for 

time, he was also a leader and always had the 

ability to pull people together. He led his 

ideas, was very knowledgeable, and had an 

excellent memory. 

From what I can see and what I know about 

him, I feel Lagosians should be excited and 

expectant because there's going to be a lot of 

transformations and he is going to lead by 

example… That I know of! 

I was quite surprised when I heard about his 

candidacy for the governor of Lagos State 

because I did not see him as a politician, 

however, I think it was a good thing. Having 

his kind of person in the political scene will 

encourage others who are contemplating to 

come in and add value. 

Nigerian professionals are a bit shy when it 

comes to politics, but I believe that the time 

has come for professionals to come into the 

political scene and bring in their professional 

experiences, so Nigerians can benefit from 

them in the long run. I think the next four 

years is going to be quite interesting. The 

programs and initiatives of his excellency, I 

believe will have human faces and will also 

have balance in terms of reaching out to 

Lagosians from all spheres of life. Whether it's 

the businessmen and women or the market 

women or professionals and so on. 

I believe there's going to be a lot of 

dynamism from the very beginning, so 

Lagosians should be excited and expectant 

because I believe that at the end of the first 

four years, there will be so much to be 

grateful for, during his time in office and he 

will be able to leave a lasting legacy. 

I wish him well, I wish him well in office and I 

trust God will give him the grace to carry such 

a huge responsibility, and our prayers will 

always be with him to excel and do well as 

our governor. 

17

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deliberate; they are going to be quite 

considered.” 

Tunde Falase 

My name is Tunde Falase, I am the MD of Brain 

craft, a consulting firm. 

I am a former classmate of our incoming governor 

of Lagos state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu. 

When I heard that BOS “as we know him” had won 

the election, I was really excited because I had the 

privilege of being his classmate for 18 months 

during our MBA studies in the University of Lagos. 

He has always impressed me with his unique 

qualities, if I have to summarize, I would say that 

in class BOS was always very composed, he was 

very calm and he was also very considered in 

terms of his contributions. He was a man of good 

contribution and they were also deliberate 

considerations, he was somebody that stood out 

for being deliberate in his thinking. 

The class actually did well by having BOS as a 

member of the class and it's a bit of a paradox 

because it is almost from one legacy to another. I 

was the first governor of the class and to hear that 

he is now becoming the governor of the biggest 

and perhaps the most considered state in Nigeria, I 

think to him it is an honor and of course, it also 

does us, his classmate an honor as having to be 

part of what we hope is the shaping of BOS. 

“BOS doesn't strike me as a person who is going to 

rush and then access the consequences of his 

actions later. His actions are going to be quite 

One of the things we saw a couple of weeks ago 

was BOS preparing himself for this new role, 

attending a leadership class at the Harvard 

school of leadership. That speaks volumes to 

the type of person he is. 

I know that BOS will have a legacy in mind, this 

is not a small mantle that he has taken on and I 

know that he is not coming into the office to 

enjoy the role of a governor. I know he is going 

there to deliver what the role demands and I 

think Lagosians should lookout and expect a 

person who has a legacy in mind, which is one 

of the things you look forward to in the great 

leaders of today. 

Personally, I think I would like him to work on 

improving the quality of life of Lagosians, and by 

saying the quality of life, it allows me to speak 

about a variety of things. We do know that Lagos 

is probably the envy of all the states but this 

doesn't hide some opportunities that people 

like BOS will be able to address. We start from 

the seemingly mundane; what people are 

talking about at the moment it's almost a 

distraction in a mega-city like Lagos, we 

shouldn't be talking about roads and potholes 

and the likes. I know these are things that are 

with considered leadership, likely to be a thing of 

the past and then we can focus on the things that 

actually touch the common man on the streets, 

like the ease of doing business, quality of life and 

the comfort of life. When you go home to your 

18

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haven, are you proud of the fact that your 

home is in Lagos state because of the things 

your governor has brought to bear for you? I 

think with BOS we can expect to see these 

things brought to bear. 

Power supply, now this might be a federal 

thing but then the state government also has 

its contributions in terms of some of the 

decisions that are taken. 

As for transportation, we are already seeing 

some steps in Lagos State no doubt, but we 

expect this to get even more deliberate and 

touch the lives of those who count; the real 

Lagosians who are making Lagos the vibrant 

city that it is. 

I wouldn't choose one thing though, I would 

offer BOS a basket because he is capable, he 

has been tempered by the right type of fires, 

he has gone through the institutions and the 

work experiences both in the banking sector 

and in public service. 

This is a time for a leader like BOS to step 

forward and deliver what Lagos is really 

looking for. I have every confidence that we 

will be seeing exciting things, lasting things, 

sustainable things coming from BOS. 

I last saw BOS 20 years ago and from the 

pictures that I see of him, he is even looking 

younger perhaps than when we last saw but I 

am really proud of him as I said earlier on, I 

used to be the class governor now I stand 

behind him as he becomes my governor, so I 

look forward to his time in office as our 

governor. 

Mr. Bolade Daranijo 

My name is Mr. Bolade Daranijo, and I have been 

friends with Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu for 

about 30 years now. 

Mr. Sanwo-Olu is a calm, focused and intelligent 

gentleman. I think Lagos has got the best that 

they will ever get because this is someone who is 

calm and does not get agitated even under 

pressure. He listens to everybody, he will take all 

the information that a thousand people have, 

absorb, digest and bring out the best of them. 

Lagosians should expect a very successful time 

and very brilliant time, and I think he will be the 

best that Lagos has ever had. 

I was extremely surprised when I heard about his 

candidacy because I think that for anyone to have 

looked and chosen someone like Mr. Sanwo-Olu, 

there must have been a very big thought process. 

His qualities are in-built and he is always trying to 

develop himself to a point where I thought it'd be 

blissful for Lagos to be governed by a man like 

him. 

I wish him a very successful tenure and I pray that 

the Lord will be with him throughout his time in 

office. 

Omolara Ogunkoya 

My name is Mrs. Omolara Ogunkoya, I am a 

friend of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, and 

we have been friends for almost 30 years now. 

Mr. Sanwo-Olu is a goal getter and nothing 

stops him from getting what he wants to get if 

he believes in it, that is the impression I have 

always had of him since our very early money 

market days. 

The Money Marketers Association of Nigeria 

is association of treasurers. In the days where 

we had just about 89 banks, and among 

members of the association, you will find 

people that will not keep their words and the 

motto of the money market was your word is 

19

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your bond, so for a lot of us that know that 

integrity matters, we were really able to get along 

very well, even when the banks had problems, 

people like Jide and a handful of others were still 

together because even though the banks had 

problems, we the treasurers know that we had a 

relationship that would even transcend the 

banks, so that was the relationships we had those 

days. 

I was really excited when I heard about his 

candidacy, I knew that with the energy he put 

into banking and his time as a public servant, 

Lagos state will be the greatest beneficiary of his 

agility and his intelligence and his uprightness. 

To a very large extent, I will tell you he is a very 

upright person. 

If you look at the way the campaign was carried 

out, you will see that it was a whole new 

dimension, it wasn't the usual everybody is going 

to the stadium with a crowd of people following 

them, make some noise and retire back to their 

homes. This one he tried to touch all the groups, 

all the professional groups, all the local groups, 

the Iyaolojas, the bankers, the Igbo traders, it’s 

like he touched everywhere and that is why we 

saw that kind of result that had a landslide 

victory. 

I would like for him to work on the poor state of 

electricity in Lagos. He has worked with the 

former governor, Babatunde Fashola, who is now 

the minister in charge of power and I know that 

he knows what Lagosians need and he is going to 

use that his relationship to let Lagosians benefit 

immensely. 

I know that he has made a lot of promises to a lot 

of people, I just want to assure them that he is a 

man of his words and that in the fullness of time 

they would know who he is and they will 

appreciate him even more. 

Caroline Odoh 

My name is Caroline Odoh, I worked with Nigeria 

Deposit Insurance Corporation. I retired 2017. 

20 


Babajide was my classmate, MBA, 1998 – 2000 at 

Unilag. We did the course together for about two 

years and we graduated together. That was how I 

got to know him. 

Babajide, honestly when I heard that he came out 

as a governor, I was so shocked myself because in 

class, though he was very intelligent, he was like 

an introvert, always on the quiet side, so I was so 

shocked when I learned that he was going to 

contest for governorship. I was just like waaooww! 

But I know, during that period, his brain and his 

intelligence will get him through. 

He doesn't look for trouble, he is so quiet not 

knowing that…I don't know what to say. He was a 

smooth operator because he was very intelligent. 

In fact most of the things we do, at times he 

solves problems for us. 

As I said, he was very intelligent and I know he is 

going to showcase that intelligence in these four 

years. 

I expect him to be more organised, I expect him to 

be more focused, I expect him to carry everybody 

along and I know Lagos is such a place that if 

you're not focused, you wouldn't be able to do 

what you are supposed to do. We all live in Lagos, 

but I know with his education, with his 

experience, with his intelligence, he is going to do 

wonders for Lagos state. That I know! 

We as his classmates, we have to pray for him 

because Lagos state is not a state anybody can 

rule anyhow, he can easily be distracted. 

My advice to him is that he should be focused as 

he has always been. If he stays focused, he is 

going to be able to do wonders and transform 

Lagos from what it is now. 

There are too many jobs to be done in Lagos state. 

If as a governor, you're not focused and you lack 

vision, you might not be able to achieve what you 

want to achieve. 

I know that a lot has been done under 

infrastructure but there are still more to be done. 

Infrastructure which may include road network 

because we all live in Lagos, we know what we are 

going through, so he should focus on that. I know 

there may be some resistance but if he focuses on 

infrastructure, on road network, he is going to 

perform wonders.

governor 

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My first 100 Days in office 

Towards a 

GREATER 

LAGOS 

I wouldn't want to let the cat out of the bag 

before time, with regards to what I plan to 

achieve during my first 100 days in office. I 

would like every Lagosian to hear and find 

out about it at the same time. 

What I can tell you for certain is that the 

first 100 days will be a period where we 

solve issues that can be quickly resolved. It 

will be a time for us to reflect and think 

about a clear policy direction of how we 

would like to run the affairs of the state. It 

will also focus on the appointments we 

need to make and the various square holes 

and square pegs that we need to put 

together. 

The first three months will be about solving 

teething issues that are critical to Lagosians. 

21

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THE ROLE OF THE 

DEPUTY GOVERNOR 


As a former Deputy Governor there is the 

myth about the role of a Deputy Governor 

and the general notion that based on 

provisions of the constitution, they are 

actually “Deputy” governors and not 

“assistant” governors, thereby relegating 

their role. What are comments on the role 

of Deputy Governor? 

Well it is a myth as you called it because 

there is no ambiguity. 

The role of the deputy governor is clearly 

defined in the constitution, in fact every 

aspect of the constitution that deals with 

the governor, deals with deputy governor, 

the way the governor is elected is the way 

the deputy governor is elected, the way the 

governor can be impeached, the deputy can 

also be impeached. 

The only aspect that is different is the 

responsibilities of the governor and his 

powers and authorities. Those are clearly 

defined in the constitution, but that of 

deputy governor just says one word, as 

assigned by the governor. It then means 

that the deputy governor is second in 

command in the administration but 

subordinate to the governor, and his 

responsibilities is as assigned by the 

governor. 

From my own perspective I had a wonderful 

time as the deputy governor, I had very 

important and sensitive roles to perform, 

DR. KADRI OBAFEMI HAMZAT 

the governor gave me assignments and he 

supported me to the best of his abilities, and of 

course I aligned myself absolutely with the 

programs and policies of the administration 

during my tenure, so there wasn't really much of 

a problem, but the truth must be told, the 

nation is littered with issues of governors and 

deputy governors being at logger head, even 

during my own time at the tail of my 

administration, I had issues with the governor 

basically on the issue of succession not as per 

my role as deputy governor. 

I didn't have any issue whatsoever with the 

governor, it all depends on the attitude and 

character of the deputy governor and of course 

the way he perceives and sees his role. Some 

deputy governors might think they are equal with 

the governor or they may want to be competing 

with the governor, it's not the case, that's why the 

word deputy comes before governor, to deputise, 

you are more like the second in command and 

subordinate to the governor, so I don't think there 

is any ambiguity at all. 

22

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My Deputy and I 

I expect to have a fantastic relationship with my deputy. Thank God he is also my friend and I've 

known him for close to twenty (20) years now. As individuals of varied background, we might have 

slight opinion issues that might need to be straightened out, which is natural with every human, 

but I can assure you that whatever issues that may arise, will be dealt with and resolved swiftly, we 

would espouse ideas and opinions and I believe at the end of the day, Lagosians will be better off 

for it. There will not be any doubt in the minds of Lagosians about any sort of rift between us. 

We would rather concentrate on solving the problems of Lagosians and making life better for 

them, and that is what we would be doing. My deputy and I know what the job entails and we are 

ready to deliver. So, there is actually nothing for anyone to be worried about. The jobs are clear, 

the roles are well defined and the co-operation is very deep, the engagement will be very robust 

and the relationship between my deputy and I goes way back and I hope to keep it that way. 

23

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Mr. Dele Alake 

GODFATHERISM 

IN POLITICS 

I would categorise people who are ranting about 

godfatherism in Lagos politics as belonging to the 

class of the opposition saying one-man rule, they 

are just mentally vacuous or at best merely playing 

to the gallery to attract attention to themselves, for 

their own ulterior motive. Yes, I'm sure it's the 

governor of Kaduna state that brought this into 

focus recently from the lecture, whatever it is that 

he came to give in Lagos, and he made those 

statements about godfatherism. 

Let's define what exactly is godfatherism, even in 

religion isn't there a godfather? Even when you have 

a newborn baby or child, a lot of family members 

aggregate together giving names and some people 

say, “I'm his godmother or godfather” and stuff like 

that, even in religion, isn’t there a godfather? More 

so in politics, and everywhere in the world. My own 

basic understanding of godfatherism, in the esoteric 

format is somebody who helps somebody 

to achieve or to climb a ladder, either social, 

intellectual or business, whatever ladder, can 

be regarded as a godfather. If I'm in a position 

to help you succeed, progress or develop, then 

I can be labelled your godfather that is in the 

esoteric form, in the positive form. Now when 

you say godfatherism in a negative context, 

that is what we don't have here. Awolowo the 

sage, our revered sage, in this part of the 

country, he was a godfather, how? He bred 

many leaders, he gave birth not biologically, 

but he gave birth to many leaders, he created 

many platforms that enabled many other 

leaders to flourish, that's a godfather. So if you 

refer to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as a godfather, 

then I would put him in that mould of a 

godfather because he has also bred many 

leaders, he has created a system, a platform 

that has enabled scores, myriads of people and 

leaders to flourish. However, when you put it in 

the negative form of the El-rufai format, we 

don't have that here and I would like to ask Elrufai 

if he can honestly in good conscience say 

that he is not a beneficiary of godfathers, has 

he not had people who helped him climb the 

political ladder, who was El-rufai before Atiku 

brought him out, and took him to BPE at that 

time, which led to his being noticed by 

Obasanjo, was he Obasanjo's younger 

brother? Did Obasanjo pluck him from his 

cubicle to come and make him minister? 

Somebody gave him a platform to get noticed 

24

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before Obasanjo took him on and made him a 

minister, so Atiku was his godfather, Obasanjo was 

godfather and now Buhari is his godfather, 

because we have seen him genuflecting before 

Buhari, kneeling down and paying obeisance, 

there are pictures of him doing that to Buhari and it 

is common knowledge anyway that he rode on the 

political wings of Buhari to become governor of 

Kaduna state, that's not debatable, you know it in 

Kaduna, so is he himself not a beneficiary of that 

godfatherism he seeks to denigrate? He said he 

had retired some godfathers in Kaduna, I do not 

know of any godfather that he retired in Kaduna, I 

do not know of any godfather that helped him into 

office in Kaduna or on whose back he rode into 

office in Kaduna that he retired, except if he meant 

senator Shehu Sani that he fought, and Shehu Sani 

would never label himself as a godfather or Nkuyi, 

that one who's house he demolished, won't call 

himself a godfather, I think any other person would 

call that one a godfather, so I don't know the 

godfathers that he retired in Kaduna to justify his 

rethorics. I think he was only playing to the gallery 

to draw attention to himself. Again he was like 

Awolowo on one of his birthdays when the then 

head of state General Badamosi Babangida wrote 

him a letter and called Awolowo the issue in 

Nigerian politics. Which meant “Awo” was very, 

very important that whatever was happening in 

the country, you had to think of what “Awo” would 

say, and what he will do. Tinubu has become the 

issue in Nigerian politics, so if you want to attract 

attention to yourself, the easier route is to take a 

pot shot at Tinubu, so that you would draw 

attention to yourself for your own ulterior motive. 

I want to wish BabajideSanwo-Olu lots of goodwill, 

heavy dose of goodwill and good luck because he 

needs it. Governing a heterogeneous society like 

Lagos is not a tea party, I have had the privilege of 

being part of it, and given my proximity to the 

dynamics of Lagos power play since I left school, 

it's not a tea party, but again like I said he is 

mentally qualified, he is well equipped, he is 

socially and emotionally stable for it, and he has 

the knowledge, the intellectual capacity, the 

people skills and above all the humility to see him 

through. His deputy is also quite knowledgeable 

and humble, so they share a lot of attributes. I 

think it's a very fantastic combination and I think 

Lagos state is quite lucky to have this team coming 

in. I wish Sanwo-Olu success in all his endeavours 

and I would enjoin Lagosians to give him maximum 

co-operation, so that his team can take Lagos to 

the land of Eldorado which is all our objective. 

25

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Lagos Prays 

PRAY FOR LAGOS AND COVER LAGOS 24/7 IN PRAYER 

“Open the floodgates of heaven, Lord. Let your grace, mercy, and supernatural insight rain on 

Lagos. Let fresh ideas, kindness, selflessness, humility, and empathy rain on Lagosians even as 

we enter into four years of plenty #ForAGreaterLagos in Jesus name.” - HE Babajide Sanwo-Olu 

26 

Lagos Prays is an inter-denominational 

group coming together to cover Lagos 

with a blanket of prayer 24 hours a day, 7 

days a week. Our mission is to mobilise 

people to pray across the state. 

We gather online or in designated 

locations around Lagos to offer Jesus- 

Centred prayers for Lagos, our leaders and 

concerning challenges that confront 

Lagos. We stand in the gap for our state, 

our leaders and our people. 

The challenges confronting Lagos State are 

enormous and require not just skills and 

competencies but continuous intercessory 

prayers, from traffic and transportation to 

health and environment, from education 

and technology to making Lagos a 21st 

century cosmopolitan mega-city in the 

heart of Africa and from entertainment to 

tourism, arts and culture, coupled with 

recent rapid growth of population due to 

influx from other states, preponderance of 

indiscipline and impunity. The 

regeneration of Lagos demands “praying 

without ceasing”. 

Lagos Prays plans to include governmental 

leaders and walks on strategic sites within 

Lagos. 

Lagos Prays is designed to promote a culture 

of prayer and bring prayer to the forefront by 

igniting, motivating, mobilising and activating 

ordinary people from all godly faith in Christ 

Jesus to pray for state and local government 

leaders, staff, co-workers, family, friends, 

neighbors and all citizens, as we bridge gaps, 

bring unity and change the spiritual climate 

over our state as we invite God into our 

everyday affairs. 

We will pray for all authorities including 

government leaders and pastors, church 

elders, school boards, school principals, 

employers, businesses, art and 

entertainment and media. 

“Guarding” means to encircle, hedge around, 

pray, war, protect, serve, watch, guard, 

patrol, intercede, cover and to shield. The 

Lagos Prays team is composed of 

intercessors, prayer warriors, prophetic 

intercessors, prophets and spiritual warfare 

intercessors whose mission is to guard our 

state.

governor 

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NIGERIA 2023 

Chief Sunny Akinsanya Ajose (OON) 

What is your take on rumours of Asiwaju 

aspiring to be president in 2023? 

It is the expectation of the general populace that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will run for the 2023 

presidential elections. He has not even told anybody that he is coming out to run, but that is what the 

people want. People are flying that kite, unfortunately, some people are jittery about it, but you cannot 

throw away gold or diamond for just a raw iron. If the man is capable of pulling Nigeria out of its death 

root, then there is nothing stopping him. He is Nigerian. He has the qualification, he has the expertise, 

he has the knowledge and he is open to the people. There are so many qualities that the man has that 

the others don't have, so you cannot just adjudge him by trying to blackmail him that he cannot come 

out because that's exactly what people are trying to preempt, but I am sure when the time comes, we 

all will see what the population will say. 

This is the first time in Lagos State since 1999 that an incumbent governor did not get 

the support of the party in Lagos State. As the deputy chairman of the APC in Lagos 

State. Can you shed some light on this? 

You are right that this is the first time in 

twenty years that this kind of thing is 

happening, it is quite unfortunate that it 

happened that way but in our own case in 

APC, we take seriously, the affairs of the 

general populace and members of the party 

especially the down trodden ones. We had 

series of experience during the course of this 

administration, however, the idea of removing 

all the street sweepers from the road and then 

incapacitating the PSP operators gave the 

party leaders a lot of concern. As you can see, 

there is so much garbage in every nuke and 

cranny of the state which turned the state almost 

to a point where it was during the period of the 

military when Asiwaju came in before 

restructuring the pattern of how we evacuate 

refuse from all the homes. 

Deviating from that, gave us a bad image both 

locally and internationally and during that period, 

there was fear of Lassa fever because rats were 

beginning to have a place of abode in all the 

debris that are all over the state. So they brought 

in the vision scape. The concept vison scape 

27

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brought into the state was quite different from 

the revenue we generate, it was not as 

effective as we expected in Lagos state. With 

that, there was concern from the leaders and 

they felt that they were not consulted neither 

was the intention made known until this people 

came into the state. It appears that they don't 

even know their terrain. The operations were 

not as effective as it could have been, so that 

was what gave the final straw to the patience 

of the leadership. Later, they actually closed 

down LAWMA headquarters by moving all the 

staff back to Alausa, as if they are going to start 

a new process and that in itself gave the PSP 

operators concern and they started protesting. 

So with that, the leadership now felt that well, 

we were informed that the incumbent was 

invited and matters were discussed with him, 

but it yielded no positive result. At that point 

they felt that well, if given the opportunity for 

the second term, it may be an adverse 

damaging effect on the party itself so that was 

how they took that decision and was not even 

the governor-elect alone that was considered. 

There was a screening process. He just 

happened to be the one that emerged at the 

final stage of which he himself doesn't even 

know. There are People that they put on the 

line and they screened their antecedents in 

terms of their professional skills and the ability 

to govern Lagos state with all its uncertainties 

and then the governor elect has also been 

through the meal in the public service so he 

wasn't a novice so he knew exactly all the nitty 

gritty that needs to know and he's equally a 

professional, So that opportunity came to his 

28 

door step. And I can assure you when he was 

initially informed, he was dumbfounded 

because he could not speak for like, twenty 

five minutes or so because the thing hit him 

with surprise but as a person, you have to 

take up the challenge. You have been given 

an assignment which people believe that you 

have the capacity to man so there's no way 

you can now turn back and say I'm sorry I 

cannot do it. Put your talent to skill and put 

all your ability at it. With the support of your 

peers and the general public, you'll be able to 

achieve success but one thing is that, don't 

allow power to consume you because at the 

bottom line, one is responsive to the 

generality of the populace. So that was how 

he emerged. 

Do you think Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu will 

meet up with the expectations of the 

people? 

I have no doubt. He will meet the challenges 

and he will even surpass the expectation 

everybody is looking at. But one thing for 

sure is that, he's going to meet a huge 

challenge on ground. He needs to restructure 

the entirety of the public service. He needs 

to put a structure in place, going back the 

memory lane of what happened in 2006 

when civil service was restructured. Some 

ministries that are very cogent to the needs 

of the generality of the rural areas have been 

appropriated or scrapped; they need to be 

resuscitated. All our parastatal organisations 

need to be properly monitored for 

effectiveness of discharge of their 

responsibility. Not necessarily because the 

ministries are

governor 

the 


supposed to be supervisory ministries, there 

must be an independent body that will have to 

monitor their activities. That was how and why 

things were moving at a very fast pace during 

the era of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Fashola. One 

thing is that, by scrapping it, you don't even 

look at the effect of it, then you move them 

under another ministry without looking back. 

In Lagos area metropolis today, you have a high 

level of people migrating from the rural settings 

to Lagos. That is why you have over congestion. 

Many people sleep under the bridge because 

many people want to come for greener 

pastures. Things that are supposed to go to 

them in their own area has been taken away so 

they have to struggle to get back to Lagos. 

Most of them don't even have any place or 

people to come and meet here. You go around 

Iganmu area, you see so many of them sitting 

or lying on the floor or sleeping on the street 

there. So I think we need to go back to the 

drawing board and do a proper restructuring of 

the service in order to meet the challenges 

that will bring a holistic approach to the 

development to the entirety of the state and 

not one segment of it. 

I'm sure a lot of things are going on now, trying 

to reinvent the will of progress. I think with the 

work that they have done so far, in terms of 

preparation for taking over the mantle of 

leadership here in the state. 

They have looked into an area where they can 

incorporate some new agendas into the whole 

ten point agenda that was being used by the 

two earlier civilian administrations besides that 

of Jakande. Jakande too came in with a focus. 

29 

Definitely there must be a drive that we need 

to do and there must be something we call 

continuity. Like the governor elect has said, 

he's not going to abandon any project that this 

administration has done. He's going to 

incorporate the whole administration's project, 

which has been abandoned for quite some 

time and revive them because it's the public 

fund that was used in developing all this 

projects for the benefit of the generality of the 

populace. You don't just set it aside as if 

nothing has happened. Even if we're setting it 

aside, the populace knows that these 

structures are there so I think it's time that we 

must not try to be a preposition where we set a 

project, a people oriented project at bay for 

the purpose of our own personal something. 

What is Godfatherism in Politics? 

Godfatherism is not a question of just picking 

or pushing any kind of person, I tell you about 

some people jittery is exactly what is 

happening with El Ruffai's statement. I want to 

know how El Ruffai retained his own 

governorship candidacy. Is he the best 

candidate in the north? He is part of the cabal. 

So he cannot come and tell us here in Lagos 

that we have godfatherism. Yes! Asiwaju 

mentored so many people and you can see the 

quality of the people that he has mentored. 

They are not just riffraff's'. They are people 

that can stand their ground anywhere. So 

definitely it's not a question of that. If you're 

good, you're good; if you are not good, you are 

just not good. So it's not a question of you

governor 

the 


want to lobby me to become something that you are not or cannot even mange. These are 

things that I believe. He should manage his own Kaduna that he has he turned into a war 

zone rather than coming to Lagos to tell us what we are doing. We can't even put Lagos 

state on the same pedestal with Kaduna. Is he telling me that Lagos state is far behind 

Kaduna or they are still coming here to learn what we do? I'm very certain that we are not 

complaining. If it is godfatherism, we love it ate lest it's a progressive godfatherism and we 

love that so we are okay by what we are having. 

What should Lagos expect from 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s Administration ? 

Under the administration of Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu, I am almost certain that we are 

going to move at a very fast pace, and I know 

that is what he is determined to do. Although 

the magnitude of the financial position of the 

state will have to be properly determined. 

Nobody knows the financial status of the state 

at the moment, not until the final take over. 

Then you begin to see or examine the volume of 

debt that has been owed to contractors, stages 

of things that are happening within the 

ministerial structure, and the needs that we 

actually need to improve upon. All those 

aspects have to be looked into. Determine the 

volume of the finance base that we have, before 

you can now project how you're going to do or 

tackle projects. We all know that Lagosians are 

very very restless, they will be expecting a 

miracle to happen overnight so we must also 

challenge ourselves to meet the needs of the 

people so that they don't feel disappointed and 

I'm sure they will never be . 

I want to wish the incoming governor a very 

successful tenure and I want to suggest that 

he should listen to advise and not allow 

people that will surround him to mislead 

him into something that will damage the 

image of his government. 

30

governor 

the 


THE LAGOS 

WE WANT 

My name is Sunday Salami and I 

am a building materials supplier. 

Considering that the incoming 

governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is a 

member of the APC political party, I 

am very certain that we will achieve a 

Greater Lagos, because I believe that 

party has already laid the ground work 

and platform for Mr. Sanwo-Olu to 

succeed. 

I think one of the major challenge we 

are facing in Lagos is the issue of poor 

electricity, which everybody is 

clamoring for something to be done 

about it. Not only the people staying 

here in Lagos but other investors 

coming to Lagos are also clamouring 

for stable power supply. I would like 

for Mr. Sanwo-Olu to address this 

issue first when he comes in. 

For self-employed Lagosians like me, I 

think our major challenge is the capital 

to develop our business which is not 

really available at the moment. If Mr. 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu can set up a 

scheme for us to borrow money and 

also a panel that will monitor the 

growth of businesses so they can be 

inclined to return the money 

borrowed from the scheme, I think 

self-employed Lagosians and 

entrepreneurs will be empowered. 

31 

My name is Stella and I am a cloth 

seller. 

I want the incoming governor to build 

markets, roads, and improve the 

standard of the state of education in 

Lagos. I also want him to support the 

beggars on the street because they 

don't have Jobs and find it difficult to 

eat. 

The governor also needs to provide 

jobs for graduates because we have 

many of them still seeking for jobs 

after years of graduation. 

My name is Gift and I am a Market 

woman. 

I want the incoming governor to 

build markets for us to sell our 

products and find a way to stop the 

AGBEROS ( Area boys) from 

disturbing us, so that we can make 

enough money to live a nice life.

governor 

the 


KOFOWOROLA - ORANGE SELLER 

I wasn't selling orange before, it was 

because the government demolished my 

shop that I am selling oranges. The only 

thing I want the government to do for me 

as a business woman is to support and to 

make my business grow. I don't want to 

sell orange again I want to continue my 

initial business, it was during Fashola’s 

administration that my shop was 

demolished. 

I am a member of the APC, the platform 

which the incoming governor, Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu, ran under and I would like for 

him to help me and others like me so life 

can be better for us. 

My name is Nasir Abdul and I am an 

“OKADA RIDER” 

I like the new governor of Lagos state. I 

would like him to come to the aid of bike 

riders by helping to reduce the amount of 

money we pay to our union from seven 

hundred Naira to three hundred Naira. I 

would also like him to help us deal with 

the issue of Area Boys, in Lagos. 

Sometimes they beat, harass and 

humiliate us, just to extort money from 

our hands and it's not like we make a lot. 

My name is Victoria Obi and I am a 

fish seller. 

What I want the governor to do is build a 

market for fish sellers, so me and other 

fish sellers like myself can have shops to 

sell our fishes. Not everyone has the 

resources to collect the regular shop that 

are available because of the expense. I 

think it is the responsibility of our leaders 

to help us get shops that we can sell our 

products'. 

32

FOOTPRINTS 

OF A LEADER - LSDPC STAFF 

My name is Jibike Onigbanjo, I am the Assistant General Manager, Property and Land Management, 

LSPDC (Lagos State Development and Property Corporation). Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, to 

me is a well-rounded person. He is hardworking, he is compassionate, he is full of wisdom, he's got 

so much empathy, a leader, and a team player. I have worked with so many bosses in the course of 

my career but honestly, thumbs up to him! 

He walks the talk. He doesn't just give you direction, he does it with you. He is a leader in all 

ramifications. That is the Mr. Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu that I know and I have worked with 

in the last two years and three months before 

he vied for the governorship of Lagos state. I 

joined LSDPC in year 2000 so this is my 19th 

year. Mr Sanwo-Olu is a total package. I've had 

the privilege of working with about five CEOs 

directly, maybe one indirectly and Mr. Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu surppasses them all. 

I always try to analyse what his weakness is and 

usually I end up realising that his weakness is 

actually more of his strength. In administering 

maybe a penalty or punishment for any erring 

staff, he will turn it into positivity. He doesn't 

see anyone as being totally useless. He would 

rather call you and have a chat with you and tell 

you about life experiences, give you examples 

and before you realise, the person is better off. 

So in comparing him with the other CEOs, he 

comes down to everyone's level and he takes 

people as they are and he believes everyone 

has a role to play and everyone must play. So to 

me, his management style is totally different 

and very worthy of emulation and it worked. He 

was here for like two years, three months and 

he was able to impact the people, the 

environment and the process. 

He started what we call the “Project Eagle”. It's 

33 

still an ongoing thing. The project eagle is to 

come up with new processes of doing things 

easier, faster, interacting with the public, ways 

of doing our jobs and service delivery. 

Generally, public servants, service servants are 

seen as lazy, not doing their jobs, not ready to 

work and all that but he changed that notion 

and with regards to the working 

environment;anyone coming into LSDPC, in the 

last two years or one and half, and has been 

here before Mr. Sanwo-Olu came would notice 

that the environment is totally different. Even 

my office, compared to before Mr. Sanwo-Olu 

came is so much more better now, it looks like a 

bank you know. So he actually affected all the 

facets of the corporation. Total Package! 

Honestly, BOS! 

He was still at work on Friday, of course 

weekend was full of activities, and then we 

heard that Mr. Sanwo-Olu has been chosen as 

the party's candidate, and everyone was like oh! 

We were all shocked. On Monday morning he 

didn't come to work and for the next 

management meeting, he had to call and he was 

put on speaker and everyone was like…just like 

that? He was still working, we even carried 

some files to him, “oga please can you look at 

this?” So it was sweet and sour for us; sweet in 

the sense that Yes! Higher calling for him and

governor 

the 


the best for Lagos state. If given his 

antecedent and knowing who he is, and 

having had conversations with those he has 

worked with in the past, and his person, it is 

quite obvious that he is the best person to 

lead the state, and God helped him by giving 

him the best running mate. 

Sour for us because oh my God!, this was a 

dream, changing the whole face of LSDPC, 

everyone is already keying into his ideas and 

now he's just been yanked from us. We were 

shaken a bit but we have to continue his 

legacy; we must not let him down and we are 

trying our best and I hope that we are 

maintaining the standard he left behind. For 

example, he started what we also call the 

merit award day. In times past, we usually 

have end of year get together to thank God, 

and the party, but he said he will rather have 

a merit award day to appreciate and 

recognise members of staff who had worked 

meritoriously in the last one year and this I 

think started in June 2017, he came in 2016 

June, so a year later we had this and he said 

he will like for us to have a choreography 

group as well so we interject an put a little bit 

of fun inside the merit award day and I like 

dancing that's my best hobby so I became 

that class captain or the coordinator of the 

choreography group and Mr. Sanwo-Olu is a 

student. He would come for practice every 

day, with us. He practices with us. We usually 

have the practice for one hour, between2- 

3pm and everyone goes back to work. The 

days he cannot come, he will tell us to please 

record and send to him and he will practice. 

He suits to present awards and attend to 

people but when it is time for the 

choreography, Mr. Sanwo-Olu will yank off his 

jacket and join us. 

Honestly, he's a leader who walks the talk. 

What we have seen him do during his 

campaign, like him getting down to help 

people, the hair dresser, the mechanic, etc. 

That is actually the kind of person he is. He 

will say “roll up your sleeves, roll up your 

sleeves”. He is not a leader or an MD that will 

sit down and expect you to do. No! Everyone 

must be involved. That is the kind of leader 

and man he is. 

Thank God for the kind of people or the kind 

of candidate or the kind of breeding that the 

former governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has 

been able to come up with. He came up with 

the likes of former Governor Raji Fashola who 

is currently a minister; he came up with Dr 

Femi Hamzat, the running mate, and Mr 

Sanwo-Olu. These are people that have 

served in his cabinet. So I am expecting that 

Lagosians will see the best of governance 

with two technocrats that have learnt from a 

former performer and now coming to deliver 

to Lagos state. They have been schooled, 

they've learnt and they have performed 

during the regime of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

Dr Femi Hamzat also served under the 

current minister Babajide Raji Fashola, what 

are we to expect? They are very humble and 

down to earth human beings. They've got the 

values, they have the right interpersonal 

relationship, they've got the technocrats, 

they've got the brain and they're ready to 

work. 

Judging from the way the campaign went, 

going to every sector, having discussions, 

identifying the needs and the challenges, you 

can tell that they are already putting down a 

book on what the challenges are, and what 

are the likely solutions? They want to hit the 

ground running. Like Mr Sanwo-Olu himself 

will always tell us, let's pluck the low hanging 

fruits especially the ones that will reach the 

populace. So I expect that in the next four 

years, and by God's grace, Lagos will 

experience the best of governance, judging 

from what I have experienced in working 

here, judging from their campaign. 

Putting into consideration what his running 

mate Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, what has done at 

the state, and at the federal level with the 

current minister, because he was his special 

34

governor 

the 


adviser on works, I expect the best for Lagos 

state. I expect that the dark areas that 

Lagosians are mourning about will be 

addressed immediately. So I believe 

governance will be felt in the next one year 

and that things are really going to change 

for the better within the next four years. 

That is my belief and I pray God proves me 

right and they prove me right. 

Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, this is for 

you boss! My oga, oga mi, we know your 

worth, we know your standard, we know 

what you can do and we believe you're not 

going to change and if you do, it is going to 

be for the better. Most of us have stuck our 

neck, we've staked all that we've got on you 

as a performer, God willing. Please go ahead 

and dazzle Lagos with performance. Let 

them say “oh my God, it has been good 

during Asiwaju, it was good during Fashola, 

and now we are having a blast in Lagos”. Like 

he said, he wants to take Lagos to his 

“THEME”. We're talking of Dubai; we want 

Lagos to be the “Dubai” of Africa. 

I believe that God has deposited all that you need, 

ably assisted by your deputy governor and I 

believe that with your cabinet, the one that you're 

going to be having, you're going to be putting 

round pegs in round holes and they will key into 

your vision and mission and you are going to 

ensure that they perform in your gentle manner 

and ably assisted by your lovely wife because 

without the support of your spouse, and having a 

peaceful home and peace of mind, a man would 

come to work and he's just disoriented. That is my 

prayer my belief and what I think Lagos is in for 

best in the next four years 

e 

My name is Olorunnimbe Ismail, Snr. SA Surveyor 

Valuer, LSPDC 

Personally, I will describe Mr. Babajide Olusola 

Sanwo-Olu in two ways; 

1) As a union person; I am presently the secretary 

of senior staff association of the corporation so I 

will describe him from the union point of view and 

from a staff point of view. I remember one of the 

first things that Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu did when he came into office was to invite the union 

representative. One of the statements he made that day was that he invited us because we are all 

stake holders in the corporation and to me that was a very wonderful idea because he saw us as a 

partner in progress, which is very wonderful and going forward, he ensured that he engages us 

periodically when there are issues. This is actually being very proactive because before issues start, 

we've already discussed them with him and this is very, like I said, it means that he is a person that 

prioritises staff welfare. 

2) As a person, I have been opportuned to meet and interact with him on many occasions. I see him 

as a mentor, as a father, as a leader and someone that has a very vast knowledge of experience. 

Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu is someone that encourages hard work and rewards hard work too. He 

usually tells us he is very finicky. He's very particular about his things. One of the few things he did 

when he came into office in 2016 is the present block we are in. (he made a lot of changes to the 

corporation). He actually turned the block around and like he says, for a total overhauling of the 

system, you need people and a process. Process is easy but you have to change the mind-set of the 

people which he actually did. He is a people's person, he makes sure he interacts with you when he 

sees you and if he forgets your name, he will ask again. That is one of the good things about him. 

As a leader, he has three qualities which I admire. He is accessible, he is a listener and he is selfless. 

Like I said this block is one of the physical examples of the impact of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu as well 

as the reception. Asides that, he actually invested a lot in staff welfare. Like during his program, 

most staff actually went for training. 

35

governor 

the 


This is part of the process. It is like feeding the goose that lays the golden egg. He invested so much 

in staff welfare which is a very nice thing to do. He made each staff feel like a part of the 

development process itself. One of the programs he actually engineered was project eagle. Project 

eagle is actually an initiative to take LSDPC to the next level, and why did we choose eagle? We chose 

eagle because of its peculiarity, its ability to survive. We realised we are in the construction industry 

and whether we like it or not, LSDPC of today, is not the same LSDPC of 30 years ago. LSPDC was the 

only company 30 years ago that builds houses, now we have a lot of competitors and we need to 

have an edge and put our head above course if we want to remain relevant in the industry, that is 

one of the reasons we had ‘’Project Eagle’’, to revive the corporation; the total over hauling. 

I was really excited when I heard about Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu's candidacy. They say “he that is 

tested with small shall be tested with large”. In the small capacity, within two years, he has done a lot 

for the corporation like I said, so I can now imagine with a lot or resources and the bigger scope, 

what the state will enjoy when he is the state of power. 

I am just happy for Lagosians because he is one of the best things that has happened to Lagos in 

recent times. 

My name is Ayo Alabi, Head of council, LSDPC 

Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to me is a man that fears God and I believe that makes him wise, and that 

has helped him in his work in LSDPC. The wisdom that he exhibits has given him a better edge in the 

corporation. 

He achieved so much in so many areas while 

in LSDPC; he improved the life of staff in 

LSDPC, staffs were well trained, officers that 

had never been out on training were out on 

training and most people that had not been 

considered for capacity building or to improve 

themselves in any area, had the opportunity 

of adding knowledge to what they know 

before. I can say he had that as a credit to 

himself; Improving the lives of members of 

staff on the job and even in their personal 

lives. Most people were well taken care of 

while he was in LSDPC. 

During his tenure, everything was going on 

smoothly, if you are lacking in any area, you 

can go to him, even officially you will be 

considered. Your life gets better. Leave 

bonuses were paid, furniture allowances were 

paid, people became more comfortable when 

he was around and you can see a lot of 

improvement still going on in the corporation, 

those are his handiwork. That is what he 

started when he was here, he has added to 

36 

the colour of LSDPC, more buildings, better 

infrastructure in strategic places, like this office 

that we are in, was completed just some few 

months before he left LSDPC and as a 

management staff, we had the opportunity of 

riding new cars, that was to his credit. He did 

quite a lot for us. 

When I heard about his candidacy, I was surprised 

and along the line I had to adjust myself because I 

saw it as an improvement on his own personality 

and he is a man I've always been praying for; that 

God will take him to higher grounds because he is 

been so good to us, members of staff of LSDPC so 

I have to adjust myself quickly as to “this man is 

going for something better you better allow your 

mind come together and just wish him well as a 

person” which I succumbed to. Lagosians should 

expect the best because while he newly came into 

LSPDC, we heard about him that during his time at 

the state office, he added a lot of improvement to 

people's life, staff welfare, and in the ministries 

where he had served before. So we were also

governor 

the 


watching if in LSDPC he will do something similar or better and he didn't perform less than that. So 

Lagosians should expect the best. I will continue to pray for him that as God has given him the 

opportunity to advance, God himself will sustain him. He is wearing a larger shoe and I believe he 

did not scheme himself to become the governor of the state. 

God that has lifted him, brought him up, will sustain him, back him up, and give him the wisdom 

beyond that which he has exhibited in LSDPC because he is now going to get himself involved with 

the state as a whole, that he will be able to perform even beyond his expectations. 

I told him when we met with him that people's expectations are so high but I believe that God that 

backed him up in LSPDC will see him through all his tenure. He will be able to perform even beyond 

the expectation of men by the grace of God. 

Femi Ajayi - Security Man at LSDPC 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu is a leader and he is an ideal boss. He is an easy going man and he is very 

generous to me personally and the other staff members as well. 

He made an immediate impact from the very beginning of his time with LSDPC. Personally, for the 

nineteen years that I have been working here, I only got a promotion and the other basic things but 

when he came, he promoted and gave me 

an award. 

When I heard about his candidacy, I felt it 

was a good thing, but considering the 

quality of his time here, we didn't want him 

to go. I personally didn't want him to go but 

I know the next level is where he is going. 

Personally, I'm happy. 

Lagosians should expect that Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu is a man that will bring about 

changes to Lagos. I trust that from day one, 

he will impact everyone both young and 

old. 

The promise he gave during the campaign, 

he should ensure that its fulfilled and his 

impact will also be felt at LSDPC now that 

He is Governor. 

Olusola Martins - Deputy GM, corporate, 

Comm. & Marketing LSDPC 

Mr Sanwo-Olu is someone I find to be an 

astute administrator, he's a man with a 

vision, he is a man with a purpose, and he is 

a man that takes measured steps towards 

achieving his purpose. He spent only just 

about two years and about three months, 

here in LSDPC and he was able to achieve 

very major positive changes. I will say he left 

37 

lasting legacies. I am sure you have seen some of his 

legacies around, in terms of physical infrastructure 

and he left legacies in terms of human capital 

development, in that short period of time. 

There were times when things were a little bit at the 

low end for the corporation, operation wise; we 

were a bit on the low side, but despite that 

situation, he was able to achieve a turnaround. You 

would recall that was the period that even the 

national economy itself, was not doing too well and 

finances were hard. Mr. Sanwo-Olu applied his 

ingenuity, and by the time he left, we had close to 

about six projects with three or four at advanced 

stages and all out of almost nothing. 

He was able to open about three projects in lekki 

axis, doing very well and another three projects on 

the mainland. So I would say that he is an ingenious 

person. He applied himself to the job, he was able 

to bring in his wealth of experience; he has a wealth 

of experience, having been in government for a long 

period of time and he was able to leverage on that. I 

am sure there are good things in his confines for 

Lagosians 

If you are given little resources and you cannot 

manage it, how do you want to manage bigger 

ones? Let us not forget that this man has operated 

at the bigger level before coming here so for him, 

managing Lagos state, the challenges are not new.

governor 

the 


He had participated in the conception of the developmental programs that were done between 

1998 and 2003 most of which is what is being implemented in the last 20 years. 

I don't have any doubt, he will take Lagos state to greater heights no doubt about it. There is so 

much to expect; I know what happened to us, he turned around this place, he improved the 

personalities here, people were trained, bigger exposures, bigger responsibilities, people were 

challenged, people were fulfilled, people were motivated and that is what happens when you 

motivate your staff, they will deliver bigger. So Lagos state government staff should be thrilled. 

They are going to be motivated, they will be happy doing what they are doing and God willing, 

Lagos will be better for it. 

We should all join hands with the governor, support him with our prayers, we should also support 

him with what is expected of us, in terms of our civic duties and once we do that, the sky is the 

limit for Lagos state. 

Oluwakemi Lateef - GM, Admin & HR LSDPC 

I can describe Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu in many forms because he is many things to a lot of people 

but from my own purview which is HR, he is a man that has workers welfare at heart. Right from 

his inception here at LSDPC, he took staff welfare as his priority, even when there were 

challenges. Initially when he came in, the system wasn't too smooth, there was the challenge of 

funding, the challenge of labour issues and many other challenges, but he came in, and probably 

due to his vast experience at the private and the public sector, he was able to resolve all the 

lingering problems within few months that he was here. In fact, I am also a testimony to one of 

his early achievements here at LSDPC. Before he came in as the managing director, the highest 

that any staff could get to here was the deputy general manager so he came and he said for him 

he doesn't see anything stopping any staff here, a deserving staff from getting to the zenith of 

their career; so he changed the existing rule. He was the one that brought in the idea of elevating 

staff to the position of general manager. That is how few of us in the system were able to get to 

the position of general manager. 

Before he came to LSDPC, we had this idea of, training is done only when there is money, but 

when he came in, he said if you want to get the best from staff, you need to motivate them. He 

took staff motivation as his priority and no matter what constraint he has at that time, he 

ensured that every month or at every point in time, staff training and other welfare are taken as 

priority and at times, some of us wonder how he is able to achieve these things that he achieved. 

The other thing that I also see is, since I got to LSDPC, I dare say I have not seen the 

infrastructural regeneration that he undertook and he completed most of them. This office is a 

testimony. You need to be here some few years back and see the state of the office but he went 

round and he said look, if you want your staff to give you the best, it is not only training them, 

you also must give them the best environment to work and that will challenge them to give you 

the best. So he undertook that project, he started with Block A, that's where he was when he was 

here and when he completed that block A, people thought “oh this is the best LSDPC has ever 

seen” but, little did they know that he was just bringing out the bird from his pocket. He took this 

one too and he did a complete renovation. At some point, some of us were thinking he was overtrading, 

when we looked at the cost implication of what he was doing, but he was able to achieve 

all those with the problem of cash flow that was inherent in the system at that time. 

Apart from his love for staff welfare, he also came with a genius financial engineering that some 

of us do not really understand and we have never seen before he got here. 

38

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The other area that I can also comment on is 

his ability to bring out the best in every 

member of staff. Some of us were not so 

challenged to bring out the best of ourselves 

before he came. When he came, he gave us 

the environment to excel and also challenged 

us with tasks. He will give you a 

commensurate task to what he thinks your 

experience should carry. For some of us, it 

was a new experience because we were used 

to the usual standard, but when he came, he 

brought that touch of excellence and he 

demands the best from you every time and 

that was a challenge to every one of us. Most 

times we had to go back to crosscheck, before 

we even go before him to make presentations. 

He will ensure that you go back and check and 

double check to make sure that what you are 

bringing will meet his standard. 

I wouldn't say it's a pity he left shortly 

because if you compare what he did here to 

the number of years he did with us, you will 

probably want to say he was the shortest 

serving CEO in terms of his achievements. We 

served under those who served ten years and 

they hardly achieved a quarter of what he 

achieved. So for me, he was a wonderful 

person, and in so many aspects, in terms of 

welfare, he was up there, in terms of bringing 

out the best in staff, he was there. 

Also, I need to mention this, he never failed to 

reprimand when necessary. When you take 

things to him and he feels this does not meet 

the required standard, he wouldn't fail to 

chastise you and he wouldn't do that because 

he hates you, some times when you leave, he 

will find time and call you and tell you “look. 

That thing could be done better than what 

you did and he wasn't just out to hurt you but 

there to correct you and ensure he brings out 

the best in you. 

When I heard about his candidacy, I was 

happy for the state. If using his achievement 

here as a parameter, he probably will take the 

state to the level that we've never seen 

before, because I think cumulatively, he spent 

two years or less here and you need to go round 

and see what he achieved compared to most of 

his predecessors who were here for so many 

years, so taking that and applying it to the state, 

I am assured that he is going to transform the 

state. More so, he's not new to administration in 

the state. He was a commissioner and his 

footprints are everywhere in the record of Lagos 

state on things achieved during his tenure when 

he was in treasury and when he was also in 

establishment “that is the ministry that deals 

with HR and Human resource issues”. I have this 

belief that he is going to take the state to great 

heights. 

I am asking Lagosians to give him the maximum 

support, and to be rest assured that he is not a 

man that will disappoint them. 

Aladeloye Leo Francis - Asst. Town Planning 

Officer, LSDPC 

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu is an astute 

leader, he is a man of character, he is a leader 

and a mentor per excellence. 

He is ever interested in bringing out the best 

from his employee and I have benefitted 

immensely from his wealth of experience and 

his leadership style. 

Before Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu got to 

LSDPC, the corporation had a process but the 

process was not as defined as much as it is now. 

The major cardinal points while he was here was 

the people, the process and then the 

environment. 

He was so much interested in the people, 

knowing fully well that it is the people that will 

drive the process and that was why he invested 

so much in human resource development. 

During his time, a lot of staff both senior, junior 

and middle ranking staff in the corporation went 

on training within the state, outside the state 

and even outside the country. 

He was also much interested in the environment 

and you can also see that in the transformation 

that took place in Block B and in Block D and he 

39

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had already started in Block B before the clarion call came for him to lead the state as the 

governor. 

When you also talk about the process, he made the process seamless, he made the process easy 

currently, he made the process to flow and that was why he also started a project while he was 

here and they call it the project eagle; trying to make sure that the process in LSDPC is seamless 

and also as fast as it could. He had started working on that before he left. The difference is too 

clear and we are sure that in his coming to the state, the state will move forward and get better 

for it. 

I was very happy to hear about his candidacy. While he was at LSDPC I used to say he is like 

somebody that has capacity for 50 and is only given five, so he still has forty five. I worked with 

him closely and by God's grace, he is somebody that rewards hard work. I benefitted from that. 

When he went to pick the form, I was very excited because I know that Lagosians will be happy 

for the governor that they have chosen. I am very excited, I look forward to his leadership in 

Lagos state, I look forward to a Lagos where things will work again. So I'm very happy and I'm 

looking forward to his ascension of the leadership of Lagos state come may 2019, by God's grace 

Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, you have excelled before especially in the private sector and 

also in the public sector, and I have no doubt in me that you're going to excel in Lagos state as 

you take us steadily, step by step, as we follow you, and in four years' time, when we look back, 

we will say “no, this cannot be Lagos, this is actually the Lagos of our dreams”. 

Jibike Onigbanjo 

Oluwakemi Lateef 

Olorunnimbe Ismail 

Ayo Alabi 

Aladeloye Leo Francis 

Olusola Martins 

Femi Ajayi 

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EXPECTATIONS 

Lagosians 

of 

My Name is Hon. Babajimi Benson, I am a 

member of the Federal House of 

Representatives, I represent the finest 

constituency in Lagos State, Ikorodu Federal 

Constituency 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been a great 

mentor and a big brother. I've known him 

for couple of years and I have always loved 

his antecedents, pedigree and he comes 

with a lot of work experience. He has 

worked in the private sector and the public 

sector. 

Mr. Sanwo-Olu is a trisector athlete, he can 

view things from three different lenses or 

dimensions. Looking at his history, he has 

worked in a lot of private sectors, public 

sectors and done social works. He is 

someone I also look up to, he has capacity, 

and wisdom. I am sure he is bringing 

something fresh and new to Lagos. 

I think he has the capacity to take Lagos to 

great height. 

He was commissioner for budget, planning 

and establishment and M.D of LSDPC. So 

that gives him the requisite skills and 

should be able to add value to what he 

meets on ground. 

I was extremely happy to hear about his 

candidacy and fortunately, LSDPC breeds 

super intelligent people which I am one of 

them. I used to be the company secretary 

and legal adviser before he assumed office 

as the M.D. Anybody that comes out of 

that institution and establishment, comes 

with a rich pedigree of experience and 

capacity to change things positively. 

I am happy that he is our number 1 citizen 

in Lagos and I know he is going to add 

value and ensure that the GDP of Lagos 

increases and improve. I am sure he is 

going to put Lagos in the pride of world 

smart cities. 

I know that BOS will assist Ikorodu in 

attaining its eminence that the good 

qualities offer. 

We have infrastructure deficit, we need 

more political positions so that our people 

can enjoy the dividends of democracy. If 

you look at the last election Ikorodu really 

surpassed all expectations, Ikorodu came 

first in delivery of votes to its candidature, 

so we expect a very good thing and he has 

promised to deliver. 

41

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...................... 

My Name is Moses Patrick and there are quite a few things I expect from the new governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu: 

1: Reduction of Traffic on our Roads 

2: Cleanliness of the state; Virtually everywhere is dirty, so we have to engage people that will do a thorough 

cleanup of the state. 

3: Unemployment: I would expect him to Create New Jobs for Lagosians, so that more people will be recruited 

into the working class level. 

This also means that more roads need to be built in order to reduce the traffic that might be created as a result. 

As for people in my field of work, which is engineering, I believe the governor can ensure that every household 

and business in the state,have a prepaid electricity meter. People all over the country are clamouring for that and I 

believe it's something he can look into. 

My name is Akintade Olayinka Victor, I work in 

Dolphin Estate for Gosslink Engineering 

Limited. 

I believe God himself anointed Mr. Babajide 

Sanwo-Olu to be our governor and not any 

man. If it were to be by the will of man, he will 

not be successful during the past elections. 

I will like to encourage him to continue the 

projects left behind by his predecessor. Most 

governors would not continue from where the 

previous governor stopped, but I would 

encourage him to promote continuity. 

I would also like him to look into improving the 

standard of education in the state. Another 

area I would like for him to look into are street 

roads. 

We all are praying for better Lagos, we want 

Lagos to be like the U.K, US, Dublin, and 

Canada and this means that there's a lot of 

work for him to do in order for Lagos to reach 

the heights that those cities have attained. I 

expect him to visit other countries and come 

with results that will improve the state. 

As an engineer, I think the current issue of 

PHCN delays with distributing prepaid metres, 

is one pressing issue that needs to be looked 

into and resolved as soon as possible. I will like 

him to see into this as I believe it's very 

important. 

42 

My name is Temitayo Israel, I work at Gosslink 

Engineering Limited 

First and foremost I would like to welcome the 

new governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu 

into office. 

I expect him to focus on the educational sector of 

the state. I understand that there are other sectors 

in the state that demand attention but I feel like 

the educational sector is poorly monitored and it 

is the same sector we might all turn to in a few 

years time as it is the bedrock for the future of the 

state. 

Let the school be a training ground when it comes 

to developing skills. What we need in Lagos state 

is people who are great with creativity who can 

actually mentor students who can bring in 

something new to the state. 

I work in the power sector and in Lagos, I must 

admit that power supply is nothing to write home 

about. 

The power sector is very cogent; when you 

channel more resources on building human efforts 

it will go a long way towards yielding increase 

concerning the capital aspect. So I expect the 

incoming governor to look into the building of 

manpower. 

There are many other areas of energy; we have 

the solar, wind, hydro, and renewable energy 

through biomass and other sources of renewable 

energy, yet we are not actually making use of any 

of them. We are not taking advantage of their 

resources. 

I generally will expect the incoming government to 

focus more and increase the capacity of power 

supply not only on the electrical and the manual 

part that we use as before but with the many 

available options that can be explored.

governor 

the 


My name is Olatunji Olusogo, and I do not 

expect anything less from the incoming 

administration of governor Babajide Sanwo- 

Olu, than the level of success the outgoing 

administration was able to achieve. 

Lagosians will be expecting Babajide Sanwo- 

Olu to actually complete all the projects that 

the outgoing governor was unable to 

complete because governance definitely is 

about continuity, and if that is broken, it will 

have a negative effect on Lagosians. 

Looking at the recent collapse of buildings in 

Lagos, I believe Babajide Sanwo-Olu should 

try as much as possible to raise the standard 

of engineering in the state, particularly when 

it comes to the building and infrastructure, to 

ensure that due processes are followed as well 

as the standardization of the materials that are 

being used. 

I think the governor should look at ways to 

generate power for the state internally so that 

Lagosians can have a better power supply. 

I am a media executive and I would expect the 

incoming governor to invest more in the media 

industry. I do know the field is doing pretty 

well for itself right now but it can get better… 

way much better, and I know Mr. Sanwo-Olu is 

into entertainment and media and I expect him 

to do a lot, to the extent of his capacity as 

governor of Lagos State. 

During his campaign, he spoke about the media 

and has done a lot of things in that regard. So I 

expect him to supercede our expectations, 

really and just make sure the media sector in 

the state is working and improving. 

My name is Kehinde Adegboyega, I am a 

sustainable development expert and a 

documentary filmmaker. 

My expectations from this new government is 

first, the completion of abandoned infrastructural 

projects. I think the incoming governor needs to 

look at the huge number of uncompleted 

infrastructural projects in the state. Not just bad 

roads and transportation but all abandoned 

projects need to be completed in order to ease 

the living situations of Lagosians. 

I also wish that Governor Sanwo-Olu will take a 

look at power supply , because when there is 

better power in the state, small and medium 

scale businesses will flourish, which will enable 

them to pay up their taxes. I think he has to look 

at alternative power generation and supply 

methods, such as renewable and solar energy. 

Unemployment is another issue that needs to be 

looked into; I love the initiative of Lagos State 

Employment Trust Fund and I understand an 

MOU was signed with World Bank, I believe that 

should be judiciously used to reduce the 

unemployment rate in the state. 

Another issue the state government needs to 

look at is the NURTW members. These people 

have become so unlawful and have started 

harassing citizens. This is a major security issue 

st 

and in a 21 century, that should not be heard of 

as It's very embarrassing to a state like Lagos 

State which has global recognition. 

Lastly, I really hope the incoming governor looks 

for ways to support young filmmakers and 

documentary makers because apart from 

technology, we are still scratching the surface of 

this industry. 

He can look at investing in buildings and structure 

for the filmmaking industry. 

43

governor 

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I am a corp member and I also do media related things. 

My expectations from the new governor is continuity. I think it is very important that projects 

that have started from the outgoing administration are continued and completed as I believe 

that continuity is very important. 

I also feel that he should tackle the seemingly never-ending issue of traffic in the state. Traffic is 

the major problem in Lagos and I know for sure that some of the issues that cause traffic are 

bad roads and bad drainage systems, because when it rains in Lagos, you already know that 

there's going be traffic. 

Sometimes there are just too many cars on the road so transportation is something he should 

look into as well. I believe there is so much he can do with our waterways, he just needs to 

make sure that they are safe and people can make use of them properly. So I think proper water 

transportation can help reduce traffic. 

We also have the railway transportation system that was started a long time ago, but we don't 

know what has happened to it, I wish that can be worked on as well. 

Transportation and traffic go hand in hand so I think this is something that should be worked on. 

Traffic lights! yes, traffic lights before I forget, I feel our traffic lights should be wired in a proper 

way that works with traffic flow. You know, not just 60 seconds, 10 seconds and all that. 

Something else Babajide Sanwo-Olu should work on, is tourism in Lagos. Lagos is a business hub 

and we have a lot of people coming in and going out and feel there are a number of places we 

could turn into tourism hubs for the many visitors that flood the city. I know that Badagry is one 

of those places that could be developed into a globally recognised tourism hub. I recently 

visited Badagry and the road was horrible and that should be looked into. Like I said, 

transportation, our road system, Badagry itself should be at the top of the priority list as it is a 

great place for tourism which is a very good way for the state to make money. 

I also think housing is another sector that needs to be worked on. 

There are so many things, but I think for me, what is really important is transportation, our road 

system, good roads and all that. 

Also, continuity; continue projects that were started by the outgoing governor. 

44

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CLOSING 

REMARKS 

HE Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu 

would like to let Lagosians know that I am 

Iexcited about what lies ahead of us, I am excited 

about the inauguration and I am excited that we 

will be able to show Lagosians a clear roadmap of 

how we will achieve all the things we have said we 

will do on a month to month basis. Our government 

will be open, our government will be inclusive, our 

government will be transparent, our government 

will be participatory. With regards to engagements 

we can continue and burning issues in the hearts of 

Lagosians that can be resolved swiftly. We will bring 

about solutions that will improve the quality of life 

of Lagosians, we will ensure that the ease of doing 

business in Lagos will be part of the immediate 

issues we can resolve. We will ensure that all of the 

challenges that are within our immediate 

resolutions will be resolved pretty swiftly. 

On the medium to long-term, we will 

clearly articulate our plans, policies, 

programs, and vision for Lagosians so 

that as they are being carried out. The 

people will know what we are doing 

and why we are doing them. We will 

have a plan that will transparently 

explain to Lagosians what they should 

expect in one year, two years and so on. 

The relationship, however, has to be 

both ways, so we will have to have a 

contract with Lagosians, regarding what 

the administration will be expecting 

from them, behavior wise, culture wise, 

the attitudinal change, the expectations 

of revenues that we will need to 

achieve our goals once Lagosians fulfil 

their part, we will definitely fulfil our 

end of the bargain. 

I would like to assure Lagosians that 

they have made the right choice and 

voted for the right team and the right 

team will ensure that the quality of life 

in Lagos state is improved, security of 

life and property is assured, ease of 

doing business is well defined and well 

anticipated, such that at the end of our 

first tenure, Lagosians will be most 

certainly better off for it. 

45

Dear contributors/Readers of The Governor, 

It is less than three weeks now since the idea of The Governor was first mooted, a unified news 

platform and monthly magazine focusing on the business of government and governance in Nigeria 

and specifically highlighting activities, projects and social transformation initiatives of state 

governors in Nigeria. 

The platform was launched online on May 5th 2019. The idea was to bridge the gap between state 

governments by keeping citizens informed and bringing government closer to the people and the 

people closer to government, as well as showcase business and investment opportunities in various 

states. In this short time, The Governor has undergone rapid growth and is fast becoming the go-to 

news platform for public sector news and updates. 

This Special Inaugural Edition in such a short time frame is a tremendous achievement. Clearly there 

was scope for a sector specific news platform which could offer fast track insight into the business of 

government and governance, whilst maintaining internationally accepted standards of peerreviewed 

publication. 

The rapid acceptance of The Governor has resulted in a greatly increased workload for the honorary 

editors and editorial board members as well as the highly committed staff of The Governor. 

As The Governor is evolving, so also have the expectations for publication standards and the 

requisite review processes. 

I would like to thank all the contributors to this Special Inaugural Edition of The Governor, for your 

interest in the publication and for granting our request for interviews at very short notice. We are 

extremely encouraged by your support and ask that you send us your invaluable feedback and ideas 

for further improvement of our publication. 

I am indebted to the Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Adeyinka Igbinoba, for the tremendous support she has 

given me since the instigation of The Governor and I am pleased to announce going forward she will 

act as Joint Editor-in-Chief of The Governor. 

I wish to acknowledge the contributions made by the dedicated members of our Editorial Board and 

the hard working, professional staff of The Governor, the media crew at Ibile Foundation Lagos and 

AIG Media Pro, who worked day and night to ensure we delivered on our mandate. This Special 

Inaugural Edition is a testimony to their commitment. 

Henry Balogun 

Publisher / Editor-in-Chief. 

The Governor- The Business of Government | Special Inaugural Edition | May 2019

The Governor Magazine

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