5 November 2007
interview
Lagos — What kind of person would willingly want to govern a state like Lagos, with its teaming population and myriad challenges? Someone really passionate about it or just someone who rather enjoys inflicting pain on himself? At the helm of affairs in Lagos since May 29, is Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN. FUNKE ABOYADE sought to find out more about the man who is pulling out all stops and taking his plans for Lagos Mega city to the world stage. The recent annual conference of the International Bar Association in Singapore provided the perfect opportunity
The time is 8.45pm and I'm ensconced in a rather comfortable sofa in the expansive lobby of The Regent on Orchard Boulevard, Singapore. Moji Rhodes, the Governor's aide, has gone to fetch him.
It takes a moment and I blink to make sure it's Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Governor of Lagos State, I'm looking at amongst a small group just emerging from the hotel elevator. A tall, dark, bespectacled young man in jeans and a black T-shirt breaks out from the group and strides purposefully towards my direction as I struggle to my tired feet trying furiously to figure out how best to address him, given that I will spend the next three to four hours in his company. I'm stumped. I settle for, 'Hello Governor Fashola' and a handshake but the Eko o ni baje o exponent is having none of that as he gives me a warm hug and admonishes, 'Funke, let down your hair, and I mean that!' He pauses, 'I can see it's down already anyway!' referring to my free swinging braids.
This will be my third encounter with him and the first full one, having met him briefly three weeks earlier when I'd walked up to introduce myself at the Clinton Global initiative in New York. Then, just 24 hours earlier, at Singapore's Suntec Convention Centre, after the opening ceremony of the International Bar Association's Annual Conference and welcome party at the city state's famous The Raffles Hotel. He'd patiently posed and smiled as excited Nigerian delegates took photographs with him in turn, never once complaining or showing any sign of impatience. No attitude, nothing; on the other hand, quite friendly and down to earth. I'd remarked this observation to my friend Oyinkan then. We'd both concluded he must be very gracious indeed.
Moji joins us as does Nike Animashaun, the Director of Lands at the Lagos State Lands Registry, and we're good to go. The rest of the group go their separate ways.
We get in the limo already waiting at the hotel entrance. We are going to experience Singapore's Night Safari, touted as the world's first Night Safari.
Fashola, I discover, is a man who's very much interested in his environment and animal life generally.
'Yes, I've always done. And I keep a kennel of dogs.'
Another dog lover. I idly wonder why many of the lawyers I've profiled in Away From the Wig & Gown seem to love dogs so much; Mofe Atake (One SAN and His Dogs, 2001); Dayo Adekola (Lawyer By Day, Musician By Night, December 2006); and more recently Leke Alder (The Lawyer as Brand Consultant, October 2007). Each keeps enough of the canine mammals to populate a zoo! There must be something about male lawyers and dogs; it'll be worth a story when I put my finger on it.
'I used to be a very, very frequent visitor to Biney Zoo, in Yaba' continues Fashola, 'Yeah, you're surprised? It existed around the time I was in Secondary School, up till 1978, before I did my A levels. They had apes, baboons, snakes all sorts of rare birds and quite a number of species of wild animals, hyenas and even crocodiles.
'I think the zoo was somebody's initiative in a small premises of about, if I remember the dimensions, two private properties; but it was open to the public, we used to pay to go in. If you went to any school around Yaba it was a popular zoo for a lot of students then', he recalls
'I liked to catch bats by hand' adds the animal lover.
I'm trying hard not to be grossed out. Bats! By hand! A joke, surely?
No, not a joke.
'There were many then at the St. Mary's, at CMS. We could also watch them from Kings College' he says.
Well, good for him.
'I'm interested in animals generally; I watch programmes like Animal Planet on Discovery Channel'.
He recalls regretfully that when he visited the University of Ibadan Zoo in 1986, 'it was a shadow of itself'.
I ask if Haruna the famous Gorilla was still there then.
We pause occasionally to admire the night time skyline of the amazing city state, aptly dubbed by its proud inhabitants, Uniquely Singapore.
Some 30 minutes later, we arrive the Night Safari. Occupying some 40 hectares of secondary jungle, it's billed to 'unfold the mystery and drama of the tropical jungle after dusk with stunning effects'.
Moji disappears to get us tickets and resurfaces a short while later. We are ready to see the 'myriad of nocturnal animals, from fierce predators to timid forest dwellers, in their natural habitat under subtle moonglow lighting'.
As we stroll in a leisurely fashion to the tram, I take the Governor up on mass transportation, critical for a megacity like Lagos.
'It's not as daunting as you think' he smiles confidently, explaining that his government will explore rail, road and water transportation.
'Water transportation is our natural highway in Lagos. Some work had been done before my government. Out of 28 routes, seven have been identified which can be rapidly developed and we've taken three.'
He points out that the Lagos State government is also investing in infrastructure to support water transportation - jetties, dredging of waterways, efficient and modern embarkation and disembarkation structures, providing navigational aids. 'I won't compromise safety' he's emphatic.
At the tram stop the ladies decide to have some ice cream. I settle for the chocolate chip cookie and caramel flavour. The Governor and I continue our discussion whilst Nike and Moji converse nearby in low tones.
How does he intend to plan adequately for the megacity given that the last census figures, though hotly disputed by the Lagos State government, hardly indicate a city on the verge of exploding? A mere population figure of some 8 or 9 million as I recall, less than even Kano.
'The figures that I gave you, 17.875 million, are empirically demonstrable by us based on material documentation of the national population census which they shared with us. It's a figure on which we need to plan and it's the figure upon which our budget will be based. That's the realistic figure! It's the figure that makes sense because it is a state that is offering free education - about the only state that's doing so to my knowledge - that's offering free treatment of malaria to children under 12 and to people 60 above, free anti-natal care for pregnant women. And that state is surrounded by people in dire need in other states where it doesn't exist. And where there's poverty, there's no health insurance ', he let's the sentence hang as I absorb the import and quickly seize the opportunity to savour more of my ice cream.
'And unless we deliberately intend to fake the figures the sensible thing, in my view, to do and our people will be better off really, is if we plan for the worst and hope for the best.'
The Governor speaks animatedly, fervently. Clearly, governing the state is a job he's passionate about. I find his enthusiasm, his can do will do spirit almost infectious, so much so I actually forget about the divine ice cream perched precariously on my laps.
'We are on course, we are committed to remaining methodical, to finding solutions to the problems that have confronted so many governments in Lagos because that's the only way we think we can add value, by employing enduring management solutions to them rather than for political benefit and political gain, only for us to see them eroded shortly after.
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