Sanwo-Olu: The apostle of continuity!
By Charles Okogene
Yes, former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode conceptualised and started it. I am talking of the Pen Cinema Bridge and the BRT Terminal that is directly opposite County Estate that used to be the site of the late Michael Ibru’s Mitchel Farms. The bus terminal currently sits on a parcel of land that used to serve as a rendervozus for yellow buses that plies Iju and it’s environs including parts of neighbouring Ogun State. However, for the reasons he did not explain to Lagosians, Ambode stopped work on the two landmark projects the moment the ‘owners”of Lagos and the powerful chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress Party (APC), denied him a second term ticket to contest as Governor of Lagos State, the richest State in Nigeria, if not Africa.
Well, that is not the crux of this piece, the real mccoy is that Sanwo- Olu is delivering in his words to complete as many projects that his precedessors could not finish before leaving office. He is walking his talk and making the saying that government is a continuum a reality.
By that singular act, he has dmyistified governance; shown that governance is no rocket science and by extension proved to good people of Lagos State that he meant every word of continuity he mouthed during his electioneering campaign. That continuity in project delivery is one of the linchpins of his administration, no matter who initiated it as long as such project(s) will serve the interest of the greatest number of the people.
While time will not permit this writer to enumerate all the projects he inherited from his predecessors that he has been completing without noise, it will be unfair not to name just a few like the Oshodi/Abule -Egba BRT Corridor that dates back to Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), days as the Governor of the over 20 million populous state, to Ambode. Anyone, ….
What of the Lagos/Badagry Expressway? Though, a federal concern, Sanwo-Olu is battling it and other internal roads within the Satellite Town vicinity.
We must also not fail to mention the state of roads in the state of Acquatic Splendour when he took over the nation of governance in 2019. They were replete with craters called potholes to the extent that Lagosians had given up hope of ever driving on a smooth road again. And when Sanwo-Olu took over and vowed to to fill the potholes, Lagosians doubted him but in no time, he shamed the doubting Thomases. Today, most Lagos roads are as smooth as a day-old baby’s head.
His handling of the COVID-19 issue has earned him the sobriquite of an Incident Commander from the public; though twice he has tested positive to the virus including his workhaolic health commissioner, Prof… Abayomi, and twice the good Lord delivered him from the jaws of death. This writer can go on enumerating the areas he had excelled in less than two years of providing purposeful leadership to the people of the State of Excellency, which made The New Telegraph Newspapers single him out for the prestigious honour of Governor of the Year Award. An award the whole wide world described as well deserved and looking forward to the day he will step out in his cut to fit outfit, to receive it.
His commitment at making sure that the traffic logjam that the state is known for, for decades becomes a thing of the past is also commendable with different laws and taskforces he has either signed or established to checkmate erring motorists. The infamous Apapa port logjam/congestion, which from the failed Presidential Taskforce has failed woefully to mitigate, is receiving Sanwo-Olu’s attention as he is seeking to takeover the control of the road leading to the port from its owners, the Federal Government.
Sanwoolu
In short, there is no area or part of the state that has not positively felt the presence or impact of Sanwo-Olu’s quiet/humble giant strides/revolution in governance.
Sanwo-Olu, indeed truly deserve the Governor of the year Award and more.
