Special Inaugural Edition
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governor<br />
the<br />
SPECIAL INAUGURAL EDITION<br />
brought into the state was quite different from<br />
the revenue we generate, it was not as<br />
effective as we expected in Lagos state. With<br />
that, there was concern from the leaders and<br />
they felt that they were not consulted neither<br />
was the intention made known until this people<br />
came into the state. It appears that they don't<br />
even know their terrain. The operations were<br />
not as effective as it could have been, so that<br />
was what gave the final straw to the patience<br />
of the leadership. Later, they actually closed<br />
down LAWMA headquarters by moving all the<br />
staff back to Alausa, as if they are going to start<br />
a new process and that in itself gave the PSP<br />
operators concern and they started protesting.<br />
So with that, the leadership now felt that well,<br />
we were informed that the incumbent was<br />
invited and matters were discussed with him,<br />
but it yielded no positive result. At that point<br />
they felt that well, if given the opportunity for<br />
the second term, it may be an adverse<br />
damaging effect on the party itself so that was<br />
how they took that decision and was not even<br />
the governor-elect alone that was considered.<br />
There was a screening process. He just<br />
happened to be the one that emerged at the<br />
final stage of which he himself doesn't even<br />
know. There are People that they put on the<br />
line and they screened their antecedents in<br />
terms of their professional skills and the ability<br />
to govern Lagos state with all its uncertainties<br />
and then the governor elect has also been<br />
through the meal in the public service so he<br />
wasn't a novice so he knew exactly all the nitty<br />
gritty that needs to know and he's equally a<br />
professional, So that opportunity came to his<br />
28<br />
door step. And I can assure you when he was<br />
initially informed, he was dumbfounded<br />
because he could not speak for like, twenty<br />
five minutes or so because the thing hit him<br />
with surprise but as a person, you have to<br />
take up the challenge. You have been given<br />
an assignment which people believe that you<br />
have the capacity to man so there's no way<br />
you can now turn back and say I'm sorry I<br />
cannot do it. Put your talent to skill and put<br />
all your ability at it. With the support of your<br />
peers and the general public, you'll be able to<br />
achieve success but one thing is that, don't<br />
allow power to consume you because at the<br />
bottom line, one is responsive to the<br />
generality of the populace. So that was how<br />
he emerged.<br />
Do you think Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu will<br />
meet up with the expectations of the<br />
people?<br />
I have no doubt. He will meet the challenges<br />
and he will even surpass the expectation<br />
everybody is looking at. But one thing for<br />
sure is that, he's going to meet a huge<br />
challenge on ground. He needs to restructure<br />
the entirety of the public service. He needs<br />
to put a structure in place, going back the<br />
memory lane of what happened in 2006<br />
when civil service was restructured. Some<br />
ministries that are very cogent to the needs<br />
of the generality of the rural areas have been<br />
appropriated or scrapped; they need to be<br />
resuscitated. All our parastatal organisations<br />
need to be properly monitored for<br />
effectiveness of discharge of their<br />
responsibility. Not necessarily because the<br />
ministries are