The Governor Magazine

governor
the
SPECIAL INAUGURAL EDITION
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
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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