Abuja — Way back in 1854, London was the largest city on the planet. This was some 155 years ago. Today, it no longer enjoys that reputation.

This Victorian era record has been taken over today by bustling giants like Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Lagos and others. For good measure, they also have their own 'shadow cities' - shanty towns - complete with vibrant parallel economies and personalities. Steven Johnson of The New York Times recalls in a recent article, the "squalor and terror of London 150 years ago, a city literally drowning in its own filth, ravaged by disease, and haunted by a scavenger class living off the refuse of the city - a group so large in number that had they broken off and formed their own city.

It would have been the fifth largest in England." But today, for the British capital city, things have changed Johnson notes. "The air and water are far cleaner; the killer epidemics of the Victorian age have been vanquished; life expectancies have doubled; and overall standards of living are significantly higher than they were in the 1850s." In Africa, Lagos stands out as one of the most populous cities. Some fifty years ago, it had a paltry 300,000 residents. It is projected to have by 2020, some 25 million people within the city. However, unlike other mega cities, Lagos is almost devoid of any master-planned infrastructure. For a city of 12-18 million which continues to grow (projections indicate if will become the 3rd largest city in the world by 2020), resources such as clean water, refuse disposal and stable electricity continue to frustrate residents.

This lack of planning, in the face of extraordinary population explosion, obviously supplies the major woes of Nigeria's former capital city. But, as the New York Times scribbler Johnson put it succinctly, "If London could transform itself so dramatically in a matter of decades, there's at least reason to hope that the megacities of the developing world can do the same. They have populations 10 times the size of Victorian London's, but they have one crucial advantage: most of the problems they face we already know how to solve. The Victorians had to invent a whole set of institutions - and learn from a long list of scientific breakthroughs - in order to make large-scale metropolitan living into a sustainable practice. But now we know how to prevent cholera; we know how to build sewer systems and water treatment plants; and we can identify and track emerging diseases with an accuracy that would have astonished the scientists of the 19th century." Unassuming Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State may have leaned heavily on this thinking when he reconceptualised the renewal of Lagos.

His vision of a total upgrade of the city and a different developmental trajectory puts him in the class of thinkers and town planners who changed London. Within just under three years in the saddle, the lawyer-governor has shown a glimpse of the unlimited possibilities of the human capacity for change when commitment, sincerity and focus become key drivers.The final aim in the Fashola project is to renew and reposition Lagos and make it globally competitive. Currently, Lagos State government is deploying massive funds in infrastructure revamp. Roads, transportation, sanitation, health, education and even efforts to change human behaviour in that territory hold centre stage. The traditional challenges in instituting change are major hurdles here. The gross deficiencies in infrastructure and public services have already created a sense of despair and hopelessness in many. But a resolute Fashola has dug in and would not accept anything less than transforming Lagos.With increasing urbanisation, it's simply time to acknowledge that urban renewal is a major development challenge. State and federal governments must grapple with these challenges in a bold, imaginative manner. Interestingly, Fashola is showing the way. In pursuing this course, different interests may be stepped on, but the larger interest of society must take precedence. Indeed for Lagos, it's renewal time. Read on...

In under three years of proactive governance, Lagos State governor, Chief Babatunde Fashola is demonstrating that with firm commitment, vision and discipline, the state can be redirected to give new meaning to the social contract which binds the ruled and the ruler. His bold, at times controversial developmental strides to re-invent Lagos and equip it with megacity infrastructure are becoming the model to beat. leadership's JERRY UWAH and GEORGE OKOJIE write

Lagos was perhaps the world's only megacity with all forms of land transportation concentrated on the roads. There are no metrolines. The rail system is archaic and virtually dormant. The massive waterways were ignored as a means of transportation. Traffic in the city was chaotic as its inefficient public transportation system encourages every commuter to put his car on the road. The city has one of the highest concentrations of vehicles per kilometre of road.Experts on the environment believe that Africa's most populous city, Lagos, has an elastic population.

During the day the city plays host to over 20 million people who troop in from neighbouring West African countries and surrounding states to transact one form of business or the other. At night the population automatically shrinks to about 15 million as most of those who use it as a transit point return to their different bases. The city used to be notorious for its gangs of idle youths derisively tagged Area Boys and the refuse dumps that filled the air with the stench of decaying organisms. All that has changed with the emergence of Babatunde Raji Fashola as governor of the state that plays host to 60 per cent of Nigeria's industrial base. The roads are still congested because Fashola's laudable programme of diversifying the transportation system is yet to be completed. However, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has succeeded to a greater extent in knocking some sense into the heads of lawless motorists who constitute more than 70 per cent of the traffic bedlam in the state. LASTMA itself has been sanitized with the careful weeding out of the handful of extortioners within it. Fashola has wrestled crime to the ground with a pragmatic approach to the monster.

The first step was to defuse the time bomb by taking on the street urchins, a segment of the population that is prone to criminal activities. Lagos State that prides itself as the Centre of Excellence, the Land of Aquatic Splendor, has probably never had it so good. Not in all her 42 odd years has she seen or enjoyed such world attention as this; not even in all those years she played the dual role of both a state and a federal capital territory. The story has changed. Businessmen and hardnosed investors are making inquiries and seeking partnerships with the state government and the private sector in the state. Right from inception Governor Babatunde Fashola left no-one in doubt as to the direction his administration intends to go in relation to the environment of Lagos. It was a cardinal factor of his political campaigns, to clean up Lagos and rescue it from environmental degradation of so many years. In one of his many outings, he told the people of Lagos, "The economy of this state can only grow if we make Lagos attractive for investors. There are vast investment opportunities in Lagos, but we must do everything in our power to attract investors because it is only when the sector grows that you can get jobs.

In totality, we are dreaming of a very beautiful Lagos that we can see ahead and we also believe that cleanliness and beautification must be working in the state". He spoke of investment as the main plank for economic growth. In terms of job creation, the Greening and Beautification programme has created hundreds of jobs for erstwhile loafers and idlers in the city. They were once threats to our peace and security, hiding under bridges and illegal shanties from where they went out at night to ambush innocent citizens and deprive them of their valuable and sometimes their lives. Today, they have been reformed and made to clean the streets and beautify the same places where they once used as hideouts.

More importantly, a new economy has been created in the area of horticulture and landscaping. It was not there before, but today, young men and women are smiling to the banks with huge proceeds from those businesses. The governor put it more succinctly: "It is stimulating the market for seedlings, fertiliser and other agricultural and gardening implements. Most significantly, it is creating thousands of new jobs for previously idle youths who now earn a living by planting, nurturing and protecting the seedlings and beautified spaces." There is no gainsaying that before this programme started, most of the youths who are today working as gardeners and horticulturists were loafers and street urchins who made life miserable for innocent people. Today, they are gainfully employed, making their own living as respectable members of the society and contributing their quota to the development of their State. It is significant to note that most of them are doing these jobs in the same areas where they once lived and used as hideouts for their criminal activities.

The result is a drastic drop in the crime rate. The fact about life is that everybody appreciates beauty- Lagosians cannot claim exception to this. Lagos is gradually, but steadily, emerging as a beautiful garden city that everyone likes to see. Even as they groan over the loss of their stalls and shacks to the environmental sanitation task force, there is little doubt that many Lagosians appreciate the picturesque environment that is emerging from the hitherto slums and refuse dumps, from the under-bridges and dirty street corners that served as haunts for criminals.

They show this appreciation almost unconsciously. At the Obanikoro Bus-stop on Ikorodu Road the other day, leadership weekend reporter over-heard a woman who was travelling in the BRT bus to Mile 12 telling her colleague, "This Fashola sef, he wan turn Lagos into Oyiboland". The stretch of roadside that attracted her attention was from Palmgrove to Obanikoro bus-stop including the space under the pedestrian-crossing at the bus-stop. It was hitherto used as toilet by hoodlums and miscreants who daily made life very unsafe for people on that road, especially late-night workers. The traders, who had turned Kayode Street in Onipanu into a major chicken and turkey market, (they have also been removed), used part of that stretch as dump for discarded chicken parts and entrails which oozed out very offensive odour that made the entire stretch an unhealthy site. But today, that same stretch of roadside has become a beautiful garden. It has been transformed into greenery and a park, complete with chairs and decorative lightings. During the festive seasons of Christmas and New Year, it was one of the numerous spots all over the metropolis that the state government decorated for the season.

It was a sight to see. It still is, especially at night. As it is with the Obanikoro Garden, so it is with the under the bridge at Oworonsoki, the mid-section of the stretch of road between the old toll-gate and Ogudu in the Kosofe Local Government Area, several spots on the Marina in Central Lagos and many other areas that used to be 'sour' and environmentally unfriendly spots across the metropolis. It is not so much that the Government 'wan turn Lagos into Oyiboland' as the fact that the initiative has very beneficial social as well as economic advantages. The great transformation witnessed in Lagos State in the last two years has been more pronounced in the environment. This is seen in the Beautification and Greening programme in the state.

The environmental renewal resulted in the clearing of the Oshodi area, which had degenerated into an area where Lagosians endured crawling traffic for hours in the midst of filth, illegal structures and the menace of miscreants. Many traders who menacingly occupied the road, forcing commuters to compete for space, were dislodged by a task force on the instruction of Governor Fashola. In the area of housing, apart from providing shelter for teeming Lagosians through direct housing construction in various parts of the state, he has also created a N40 billion mortgage facility for prospective home owners to draw funds from, to build their own houses. Speaking at a meeting about the viability of the Lagos and Nigerian market Governor Fashola on Tuesday said he looked forward to the take off of the project noting that he could only see the immense possibilities and not problems.

Fashola stated that Lagos State Government backed housing projects have always been well received by the public, and that investors could be certain of a reasonable and timely return on their investment. He stressed that the developers will be expected to help provide a mortgage or similar payment plan in order to ensure broad based accessibility to the project. In furtherance of its efforts to stem the incident of collapsed buildings the Lagos State Government has established a Material Testing Laboratory at Isheri, Ojodu-Berger to test the state of structurally defective buildings in the state. The laboratory was set up to ensure the safety of lives and property in Lagos state.

The material testing requirement is not for revenue generation; rather building owners are expected to make use of the services of the laboratory once they suspect the stability of their buildings or structures by voluntarily subjecting such buildings or structures to test. The massive infrastructural renewal and beatification process going on everywhere in Lagos had succeeded in rebranding the mega city in two years. His name has been tacitly endorsed in Nigeria's contemporary history as a model in good governance. The massive renewal of infrastructure in the state has captured the attention of everyone including international community. In a bid to create a new Lagos, there is a massive upgrading of infrastructure with priority attention given to roads and public buildings. Lagos as a mega city has an atrociously high concentration of vehicles on the road.

An average of 212 vehicles occupies every kilometre of road in Lagos as against the World Bank standard of 12 vehicles per kilometre. To reduce the pressure on the roads, more than 450 roads are currently under construction. The state government in conjunction with the federal government has commenced work on the 10-lane Badagry Expressway expansion. The project was initiated by the Lagos state government with the Federal government providing counterpart funding. Lagos State government has since commenced the payment of compensation to landlords whose property would be affected by the expansion. Cheques for a total sum of N2 billion have been presented to some landlords under the compensation scheme. The 60.4 kilometre axis from Eric Moore to Badagry, is expected to open the axis as a gateway to other West African countries. A light rail project has also been flagged off in a bid to decongest the roads. The rickety buses built on ageing Mercedes Benz 911 truck chassis, popularly known as "molue" are gradually being replaced by the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. The LAGBUS BRT system has over 534 operational buses in its fleet, offering Lagosians smooth and affordable public transport services.

The air-conditioned buses serve commuters across the city on routine schedule from one section of the city to another. Water transportation is also receiving adequate attention. Three jetties, one at Ipakodo, Badore and Osborne are at advanced levels of completion. It is expected to take off by this quarter of the year. Crime prevention and fighting has taken a different dimension with the adoption of a comprehensive strategic security programme, whereby a fixed wireless monitoring device would complement the Central Security Surveillance (CSS) from a command post with the aid of surveillance cameras. The whole of Lagos can thus be monitored electronically through these cameras would not only prevent violent crimes and crisis, it would protect lives and property and manage critical situations at any location in the state.

The proactive action of the Fashola administration has brought a lot of relief to a larger number of people in the society. To consolidate its achievement on Oshodi and ease transportation problems between Agege, Mushin and Lagos Island and even Sango-Ota, the state government is also working towards the construction of additional pedestrian bridges and new bus terminals. Definitely these efforts are aimed at reducing rampant hooliganism, molestation and robberies in these locations. This project took Fashola to Egypt and Tripoli in Libya to see what makes it work in those cities. Immediately he came back he embarked on Solar powered street light project to circumvent the epileptic supply from the national grid. Lagosians are now gradually getting used to functional street lights in some areas. The automatic street lights get brighter as the day gets darker, while the sensors deactivates as sun light returns. More than ever before in the annals of sports facility development in the state, sporting facilities have been given international benchmarks. To successfully host competitions, the Teslim Balogun Stadium has been upgraded with colourful seats, FIFA Star II artificial turf, well-equipped modern dressing rooms for both officials and sportsmen, as well as modern score board and reliable communication facilities.

In fact, the former National Stadium sitting idly across the road, would serve only as a parking lot during the FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament to be hosted this month by Nigeria. The one equipped by Fashola has taken the shine off the National Stadium Lagos. Also installed are crowd control mechanism, security measures and air ambulance to respond adequately to medical needs before, during and after competitions. Another area where the Fashola administration has made giant stride is in the health sector. Lagosians now have access to proper healthcare; the administration encourages such ideas as Eko Free Health Mission, which is aimed at facilitating the expansion of public access to good healthcare services. No fewer than 20,000 people including non-residents of Lagos State were recently targeted by the Lagos State government to benefit from the ongoing Eko Free Healthcare mission taking place in Badore, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, of Lagos .

He is also committed to free education in the state to secure the future of the younger ones in the state. To this end, the state government had since commenced the distribution of free text books to students and pupils in public schools in the state. So many classrooms are being rehabilitated and furnished, while new ones are also constructed in areas that lacked good schools. In conclusion, the fact that Lagosians, religious leaders and corporate organisations now willingly pay their taxes, having seen taxpayers' money being put to good use, would definitely provide the required funds for the state government to continue to deliver the dividends of good governance in the State of Aquatic Splendour.