Lagos, Oh! Our Lagos

I have always had this pet theory, that in Lagos, criminals and miscreants and law breakers and those who generally operate outside of the fringes of what is legally codified for social order and good government have made it a point of duty to test if every new government, nay every new governor, has balls. From our recent history, any new governor in Lagos, appointed or elected, has less than three months to impose the force of his administration on those who live by a different code of conduct, or lose the plot. When a new government wastes too much time to immediately, to borrow a military parlance, dominate its environment, it emboldens criminals and their associates to spread their wings. And when that happens, Lagosians, not being very patient people, easily tune off. And when that also happens, that government, permit my language, is in deep shit.

I still remember the lethargy that pervaded the administration of the late Sir Michael Otedola between 1992 and 1993 despite a general breakdown of law and order in Lagos. In no time, he was given the sobriquet, Baba Go Slow, and he quickly lost the people. I remember the helplessness of then Col. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, appointed administrator of Lagos State following the late Gen. Sani Abacha coup in December 1993. He was easily nicknamed ‘No Bitumen’, arising from his stock answer to questions on why roads in Lagos were so terribly bad.

But then I also remember when then Col. Muhammmed Buba Marwa was appointed administrator in place of Oyinlola. Marwa had barely settled down when robbers embarked on what appeared to be a coordinated reign of terror. He quickly rallied, set up Operation Sweep, a joint police and military crime unit, and publicly dared the men of the underworld to cross the line that he said he had drawn in the sand. He also found bitumen, which had disappeared under Oyinlola, to embark on massive repairs of Lagos roads and was respected for his efforts. I remember how Bola Tinubu, on assuming office in May 1999, first removed the mountains of refuse that had taken over Lagos roads before laying the foundations for the structures and institutions which today have made Lagos a more livable city. I remember how Babatunde Fashola, on taking the baton from Tinubu in 2007, hit the ground running and indeed raised the bar of governance, administration and public discourse.

The new administration of Akinwumi Ambode has his job clearly cut out for him by the exertions of his two immediate predecessors. Since he’s a product of the same political family as Fashola and Tinubu, the expectation was that Ambode would hit the ground cruising. It is debatable if Ambode has lived up to such high expectation. Perhaps taking a leaf from the government at the centre, Ambode took almost all of four months to form his cabinet. That is rather curious. For unlike the Buhari administration, which could be said to be a new government, it wouldn’t be out of place to describe the Ambode administration, again to borrow a military lingo, as an offshoot of the Fashola administration, which in turn was an offshoot of the Tinubu administration. One of the strengths of the administration of Lagos State since the Tinubu years is the quality of men and women appointed to serve in the cabinet. First under Tinubu, and later Fashola, Lagos always received credit for the quality of thinking driving the developmental vision. Despite how long it took Ambode to put his cabinet together, could one say his team, collectively, is as solid as Fashola’s or Tinubu’s? That, again, is debatable.

What most Lagosians have found disturbing in the last two months is the near traffic paralysis and the increasing insecurity of lives and property. Since the Ambode administration publicly declared that LASTMA (Lagos State Traffic Management Agency) personnel have no power to arrest or impound vehicles of traffic offenders, the traffic situation, which at the best of time is chaotic, has practically crippled the city. Vehicular movement inward or outward the Island either through Third Mainland or Apogbon has become a nightmare. The Mainland is no less difficult to drive around. There is no perceptible difference between rush hour and normal hour. Everywhere you go, day and night, night and day, there is confusion. The yellow buses park in the middle of the road to drop and pick passengers. Commercial drivers have returned to major roads in which they had been banned by the immediate past administration. Motorists have no more fear of driving on the BRT corridor. Driving against traffic has become the option of least resistance at the slightest traffic bottleneck. Whatever may have been the excesses of LASTMA personnel under Fashola, there was no question they were fairly effective in ensuring smooth traffic flow. In any case, the Fashola administration constantly advised motorists to check the nametag of LASTMA personnel and report those who overstep their bounds to relevant authorities. Even if LASTMA personnel do not have the power of arrest, the organization’s administration should have a way of dealing with that. The government resort to public censure has inadvertently empowered traffic offenders to continue to drive irresponsibly.

It is not enough to say, as government officials have done, that various road constructions going on in the metropolis is partly responsible for the traffic gridlock. Road repairs and construction in mega cities like Lagos should be a given. Such construction shouldn’t provide excuses for incompetent management of traffic. Previous administrations also carried out road repairs and construction without crippling vehicular movement in the process. It is also not enough to say, as Fola Adeyemi last week explained on behalf of the governor, that the state government wanted to act in a civilized way by making enforcement a “last resort.” Strange. Do those who break traffic rules at will and act with impunity on the road behave in a civilized way? What is civilized, in commercial vehicle drivers ignoring a designated bus stop to drop or pick passengers in the middle of the road, in military personnel driving on BRT corridor and beating up LASTMA officials who attempt to stop them, in motorists driving against traffic on a motorway, in heavy duty vehicles and beaten up cars ambling on a fast lane, in hawkers trading on the highway, and in pedestrians running across the road where there is a footbridge available? In cities that work, where residents have respect for laws and regulations, and where there is order and discipline, enforcement is never a last resort. Those who break the rules are immediately forced to, by institutions so empowered, take responsibility for their choices. Compassion may be a necessary quality of leadership, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of applying sanctions for willful violation of social code. To make enforcement of traffic regulations a last resort simply to be seen as acting civilized is to cede the roads to uncivilized motorists. The result of course is self-evident.

The recent brazen robberies and kidnappings by men of the underworld are another cause for concern. It does the Ambode administration no credit for robbers to, in broad daylight, operate for two hours in the centre of the metropolis as happened in Festac Town last week. The gang of robbers, who raided some banks, shot sporadically in the process, killing mother and child in their house. A similar robbery operation had taken place in Lekki some weeks earlier. There has also been increased mugging of those trapped in traffic. What has happened to the security infrastructure, which Fashola put in place with Lagos Security Trust Fund, and which had effectively contained criminal activities? How did Ambode allow the Lagos Rapid Response Squad to drop the ball so quickly? Does this administration have what it takes to give Lagos the leadership required? When will Ambode begin to show the criminal elements and social deviants that he has the balls? When will he, like Marwa, draw a line in the sand and dare them to cross?

Governor Ambode should realize that the Tinubu political hegemony in Lagos is built on a tradition of vision, commitment and performance. Whatever may be the internal contradictions in that political family, we shall not accept any attempt to lower the standard of governance. Fashola raised the bar before handing over the baton, despite the controversies surrounding his N78m website and N139m boreholes. Lagosians expect Ambode to further rack up things a notch higher still.

 

This Day