by Usman Alabi
Governance in Lagos practically crumbled the moment it became obvious that the immediate past governor, Akinwunmi Ambode would not be running for a second term in office, it was obvious that the leadership has given up on administration, basic things that needed to be attended to were left undone, the new governor then a candidate was given a free ride and on some occasion made statements as if he was already a governor, the defects of governance then were the things he rode on in his campaign.
Three month after Babajide Sanwo-Olu was sworn in as governor, the situation does not seem to have changed, except for some obvious optics here and there.
In our assessment, the governor is yet to set the ball rolling after three months in office. There is still no air of someone in charge.
The roads are still bad, pothole infested, the repairs are selective and the speed is slow. There are no new projects ongoing, Lagos Badagry road still remain a menace and the Lagos light rail project continue to hibernate.
The first three months in the life of an administration gives us insight into what the entire four year term will look like, but if we are entirely judging by that, then we should not be expecting much from the Sanwo-Olu led administration.
We are yet to see any fresh initiative in terms of policies and governance direction.
Much is expected from any government in Lagos given the vast economic potential of Lagos, reputed to be the seventh largest economy in Africa, and one of the very few viable state we have in the country.
Lagos had an Internally Generated Revenue of N382billion in 2018, it had 119bn federal allocation the same year, Lagos domestic debt is N530.2billion while the external debt is $1.4 billion.
Lagos is actually underperforming as a state given the resources at her disposal, it has the potential to be amongst the first three economies in Africa.
In terms of accountability and transparency, the current administration has not done better, and there are no plans targeted at making available the details of the state budget or even how monies are spent in the state.
Maybe three month is not enough to judge the performance of a new administration, but based on what we have seen so far, it would take extra dedication and absolute commitment for the current administration to impress Lagosians and even surpass the previous administration which itself is not the scale of measurement.