i'm a Nigerian and I'm one of the few that wont mind an Ijaw man to hand over to Ijaw man so far they av d interest of d country @ heart. I voted for Shekarau in d last election cuz of his performance in d presidential debate.. Fashola, El-rufai, Donald Duke, Kwankwaso and so on are all fit in my opinion to rule d country bt wil d cabal allow dem

Nigerians continue to make the same mistakes and our politicians continue to cash in on the mistakes. What we need is not any heroic leadership. We need a structure that works and institutions that work. What can a honest and hard-working President do in the midst of 400 legislators who are likely mostly just interested in chopping?

We need our institutions to work, and with the present setting, even a strong leader could not do much! If he sees that he cannot beat the corrupt system he will likely join it. That in my opinion explains why it appears that most of the presidents were corrupt.

OBJ was once described as a president who came, saw and was overwhelmed! Tht could happen to Fashola and to anyone. Maybe that is happening to GEJ already.

ypzilanti: Fashola can use Lagos successes

December 19 2012 at 05:23pm
By Bloomberg
Comment on this story
A caller to Traffic Radio in Lagos, a city that is a byword for chaos, pollution and crime, complained that an illegal building blocking a drain was flooding his neighbourhood.

“The governor will send a team to take it down,” taxi driver Billy Ganiyu said as he listened to the state-run station. “He hates that sort of thing.”

That residents of the city believe the authorities will act on their complaints shows the progress Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola has made. Re-elected last year with 81 percent of the vote, Fashola is courting residents and investors by building roads, an urban railway, bridges and hospitals, and cutting red tape.

In a city ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the third-worst place to live, his successes may set Fashola up to bid for Nigeria’s presidency.

Global hotel chains Intercontinental, Sheraton and Radisson have either set up or expanded in Lagos since Fashola took office in 2007. So too have supermarket groups Shoprite and Massmart and luxury car manufacturer Porsche.

His government plans a free trade zone with an international airport and a port. Two years into his second four-year term, Fashola is selling bonds to raise funds for infrastructure in the city of 22 million people. Expectations have grown so high that “if there’s a blip, the impression is you’re slacking”, Fashola said in an interview.

On his achievements, he lists “cleaner streets, the ability to repair roads in a much more sustainable way, and keeping the streets lit up at night”.

Fashola has faced criticism for some measures considered draconian and detrimental to the poor, such as restricting the movement of motorcycle taxis, imposing tolls on a key highway and partly demolishing the waterfront slum of Makoko. The government says it plans to build the Makoko residents a new, safer neighbourhood with utilities.

“These people are expendable to them,” said Felix Morka, the executive director of the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre, which advises the Makoko community. “If the government has its way this place won’t exist, maybe within five to 10 years it will be glass houses, penthouses.”

David Cowan, a London-based Africa economist at Citigroup who has been travelling to Lagos for more than a decade, said: “Things have definitely changed for the positive. I’d put a pretty high percentage that he [Fashola] will use Lagos as a platform to run for [presidential] office and I think that would be very good for Nigeria.”

Fashola, a member of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria party, bats away the speculation, saying he “still [has] a lot of work to do here”. The state needs to invest $5 billion (R43bn) in infrastructure annually over the next 10 years to make up a decade and half of neglect under military rule that ended in 1999. Lagos state sold 80 billion naira (R4.3bn) of debt in November, its third issue in six years.

Chike Nwagbogu, who co-runs the Bogobiri hotel on Lagos’s Ikoyi island, said that while infrastructure in Lagos had improved, Fashola still had a lot to do. He said he was spending 50 000 naira a day on diesel to run generators because of power cuts. – Chris Kay from Bloomberg

http://www.iol.co.za/business/international/fashola-can-use-lagos-successes-1.1443194

What achievement? LASMA and LAWMA?

teskyg: Fashola for President,Fashola for President,usuall Media hype. Please,visit Oshodi,Mushin,Ajegunle and other parts of Lagos and let us know if Fashola has been able to govern Lagos well before we then talk of Nigeria. If fashola with the enormous amount of wealth available to him has not be able to provide infrstractures for many part of Lagos after spending over 5 years in office,please,let some syconphants tell me how he wants to govern Nigeria.Is corruption not common in Lagos?Does he have the Balls to order for the prosecution of the Speaker,Commisioners and Directors?We have quickly forgotten that most of the infrastractures in Lagos were put in place by the Federal Govt.

The Irony is that Fashola can not even win Lagos again if contest for Election.If in doubt,kindly conduct and opinion poll for the real people on the street and not Internet rats and Mafia kings living in Lekki,VGC,Ikoyi and Omole.

Thank you very much. Fashola's so-called performance is a myth, propagated by a compromised and corrupt media, and reinforced by a tiny fraction of middle class and upper class elites - along with their 'internet-based' wards in the diaspora.

You need to go to the suburbs where majority of the people live to see the true face of Lagos. The fake 1% in Ikoyi/VI/Lekki etc cannot be the ones to determine that the governor has performed. Put that question to the masses, and then you would get the real story.

blink182: Fashola should please run o make Nigeria no go kpafuka finish o. I think an online letter needs to be addressed and signed by a million nigerians asking Fashola to run.
For once when we see a good thing, we need to accept it putting all our sentiments aside and being rational to secure our children yet unborn future.

you guyz are just wasting your time.he might have made you guyz believe he has transformed lagos .he should wait when its their turn then he can come out for presidensy.that should be 2030.yan banza.

He who is faithful in small things will be faithful in big things.
Success is in him... not because it is Lagos.
Take him to my village, he will turn it to a big city .
All he may need is just enough time.

Comrade Governor, Iroko, donald duke are my three candidates and they are well versed, intelligent, resourceful, dey also gat ball also they don't displace the working class.

Jonathan worked very well in Bayelsa state but you don't just come into power in Nigeria when the North thinks its still their turn and have a peaceful reign especially if fuel marketers and subsidy theives are at your throat. Then you mix in a corrupt legislature and a very powerful governors forum. Even Buhari will get weak at the knees at this prospect considering the fact that he needed Idiagbon to do the dirty jobs for him back in the early 80's. This Fashola ticket will be hard to sell, we all saw people protesting angrily after the last lg elections in lagos saying they didn't vote acn but pdp instead not to mention the fact most people outside the south west see the acn as a tribalistic party a problem the acn caused for themselves bringing ethnic sentiments into politics.

Nothing more hilarious than many Lagosians living in that giant slum, wasting their lives away in insane traffic jams (recently caused by Fashola's inane ban of motorcycles) and yet hailing their Governor.

Still haven't forgotten how Fashola's folly in handling the Lagos Doctors' strikes led to the deaths of tens of Lagosians that he swore to protect. All to massage his ego and that of his master, Tinubu.

He still remains better than the likes of GEJ...but my eyes are open, and I scorn the blind worship of this man as the 'messiah' for Nigeria.

texazzpete: Nothing more hilarious than many Lagosians living in that giant slum, wasting their lives away in insane traffic jams (recently caused by Fashola's inane ban of motorcycles) and yet hailing their Governor.

Still haven't forgotten how Fashola's folly in handling the Lagos Doctors' strikes led to the deaths of tens of Lagosians that he swore to protect. All to massage his ego and that of his master, Tinubu.

He still remains better than the likes of GEJ...but my eyes are open, and I scorn the blind worship of this man as the 'messiah' for Nigeria.

An objective post. But Lagos was a bigger slum before Fashola. I could not co-ordinate mundane tasks such as clearing refuse, which we take for granted today. I agree that the bar has been set very low by past leaders, but unlike the federal government Fashola has started tackling Lagos problems one by one. You can sense a direction. There are reasonable achievements that he can hit his chest and boast of. Many of them. I do not worship him,i disagree with many of his policies...(lekki tolls come to mind) but I acknowledge that he is a pretty good administrator.

Nigeria is too big and too complex for one man to manage properly. Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama, Theodore Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Obafemi Awolowo, Azikiwe, Michael Opera, Julius Nyerere, Margaret Thatcher etc would not perform well as a Nigerian president in 2012.

Split the country up, develop the split units and then merge them together again.

In 2015, Nigerians will be face with 3 choices viz: continue with GEJ, rotate power to the SE, or the North. The Northern political gladiators, GEJ, and SE/SS will eventually need to sit down and hammer out a deal. SW presidency doesn't even feature in this permutation. But again Fashola flag bearers will hype his performance as if Fashola's mediocre performance in the face of abundance resources someone carries more weight that those who achieve decent feat with less resources. Shout your voice hoarse people, but we have a unique way of doing things in this country, pending restructure. Let's get real there is no major political role for Fashola, not even in 2019!

PointB: In 2015, Nigerians will be face with 3 choices viz: continue with GEJ, rotate power to the SE, or the North. The Northern political gladiators, GEJ, and SE/SS will eventually need to sit down and hammer out a deal. SW presidency doesn't even feature at in this permutation. But again Fashola flag bearers will hype his performance as if Fashola's mediocre performance in the face of abundance resources someone carries more weight that those who achieve decent feat with less resources. Shout your voice hoarse people, but we have a unique way of doing things in this country, pending restructure. Let's get real there is no major political role for Fashola, not even in 2019!

Nigerian elite have their peculiar way of sharing power, but a popular movement can bring a bloodless revolution. I propose Adams oshiomole as a candidate most of Nigeria can rally behind at the moment.

I smell hmm*mani*. Anyway, he's fit

Fashola is not just fit to govern in Yorubaland, but all of Nigeria. As an Igbo living in the Southeast, I appreciate his efforts in Lagos State to make things better for business (better roads, better public transportation, more areas to do business) and I think most Igbos and indeed Nigerians regardless of ethnicity would want that.

Fashola is by far the best governor that we have here in Nigeria. May he succeed in Lagos, and may he bring that success to all of Nigeria!

onitshaigbo: Fashola is not just fit to govern in Yorubaland, but all of Nigeria. As an Igbo living in the Southeast, I appreciate his efforts in Lagos State to make things better for business (better roads, better public transportation, more areas to do business) and I think most Igbos and indeed Nigerians regardless of ethnicity would want that.

Fashola is by far the best governor that we have here in Nigeria. May he succeed in Lagos, and may he bring that success to all of Nigeria!

I dey laugh you. This Fashola and other yoruba people call you 'omo igbo' not as a compliment but in a derogatory manner. They see you as less than a nuisance that should be kicked out of their domain preferably with your properties and investments left intact for them to share. I have said it before I will rather vote a boko buhari than a tribalistic fashola who has his puppet master Tinubu screwing his yan/sh. No need for me to shout sef, if GEJ doesbt contest in 2015, the presidency will swing btw the north and the SE because its too soon for anotha yoruba presidency...

Big question for these ACN trolls on NL

If Fashola is such a big success in Lagos like their media want us to believe, why did ACN loose several LGAs in the last LGA election to PDP and ACN had to rig it?

SMH at the level of propaganda from these peeps!

If you want to be sincere, then you have to talk in specifics, not this generalised successes you lot talk about.

What has he achieved in:

Education: Lagos schools are worse of today than they were 10 years ago. Dilapidated structures everywhere with not enough teachers and it isnt even free because the students still pay all sorts of fees. In Lagos, it is only the very poor who cant afford private schools that send their children to government schools. In Benin city, which is ironically another ACN state and in which the governor has done less time than Fashola, It is the other way around. People are widthdrawing their children from private schools and sending them to public schools because the public schools are great. Fashola is the only governor in Nigeria and in the history of Nigeria as far as I can recall, that has increased schools fees by over 1000%. He increased LASU school fees from 25k to 250k and as much as 300k for some courses. This is not even imaginable. It is as diabolical it gets. Then when the students protests, he sends in bruttal policemen to chase them away. Many have had to drop out from school because they cant afford it. This is the same guy who said the FG was too high handed by sending the army to Ojota

Health Care: This one is just humorous. Fashola and ACN in 13 years havent built one new hospital for Lagos. Still the old LUTH and general hospital. No change. Instead, they are praising him for renovating small 30 by 30 maternity centers. centers that where even renovated by MTN foundation, with their sign post conspiciously displayed. His only achievement here was to sack 788 doctors in one day. That is one of the worst administrative blunders in the history of Nigeria. I laughed when I read a previous post that he is a great administrator! Great administrator? Someone whose solution to doctors strike was to sack the whole doctors in the state? Ha! Is that how he will rule Nigeria? The presidential guard will pursue him back to Lagos! lol! If he cannot manage such crisis in one state of Nigeria, how will he manage Nigeria? Those who call GEJ clueless forget that he has continued to manage crisis after crisis and continues to pull everyone along. Love him or hate him, he has continued to hold everything together from North to south.

Roads: Its about six years now and Fashola cannot point to one major new road built in Lagos. I am still wondering where Lagos allocations go. It is funny that every time some credit is giving to Lagos in terms of facility and infrastructure, some of these ACN peeps quickly shout "Fashola is working" as if the facilities are built by Fashola. Lagos has become a business city powered fully by the private sector. All the infrastructures we enjoy in Lagos are built by the private sector, not Fashola. From the cinemas to shoprite to the various entertainment centers et al. I dont understand how that is Fashola working. Propaganda of course. After adding extra lanes to Lekki, he introduced toll gates to a residential area. I mean, that is a first again in Nigeria. Toll gates in a residential area? Some people go from Lekki area to main VI like 5 times daily and back and they have to pay toll fees each time they pass the road. And when the residents protest peacefully, the response, just like the LASU one, is a bruttal assault by his thugs in alliance with the police. He attacked hapless old men on a peaceful protest, yet some pumpkin heads here want us to believe he is a sane and civil guy. If it was GEJ that bruttalized people like that, these same political and tribal jingoist would not let us hear word on NL! Ridiculous to say the least!

Water ways: This is just a funny one. Promises and more promises right from Tinubu's time. Nothing has even left the ground. Total failure here. Nothing to talk about

Transportation: This to me should have been his biggest achievement, but the ban of Okada has rubbushed it. How? The ban of okada has shown that the BRT project is a failure. Totally inadequate. Doesnt even come close to solving half the problem of Lagos transportation. Now, people are trekking like real villagers that Fashola has turned them into and they are swearing for him while they trek. Lagos is now total chaos. The traffic has escalated like times 4. What Okada ban was supposed to achieve, has turn into a total disaster. 3 to 5 hours now to go from Ikeja to VI or back, gauranteed! The traffic is alraming now! No transport on the road. People wait at the busstop for 2,3 hours trying to get a bus or keke. That is the legacy of a failed administrator who knows nothing of how to manage a metropolitan city. He thinks you can just wave a magic wand and scare everyone into submission. And some propaganda crew here wants us to believe he can manage Nigeria. He tops it up with the enactment of the Lagos traffic law 2012. A draconian law that looks like it was written by arrogant baby lawyers. I have read and re-read the law and it makes for a fine comic relief. many of the laws there will not stand a challenge in court. They are as draconian as it gets and many parts of that law contradicts the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. The late Gani would have made a piece meal of it!

Public Amenities: Another big zero! Lagos, after 13 years of ACN rule, still doesnt have public water. I mean in 2012, you cannot open your tap and get clean portable water. You cannot even get unclean water, with all the water in Lagos. A city where you dig only 5 feet in some places and hit water, you cannot get pipe borne water in your house. Yet the state government collects all sorts of taxes like there is no tomorrow. I dont know how a government that cannot even provide something as basic as public water is considered fit to rule Nigeria. Only sychophants would endorse that!

After 13 years of ACN rule, Lagos still reminds me of the movie, slum dog millionaire! That movie should have been shot in Lagos. Would really fit! Fahosla is like a doctor who rubs skin lotion on a sore and closes his eye lid tightly, believing that when he opens his eyes, the sore would have been completely gone. That is what he did in places like Oshodi. He brought in bulldozers and task force agberos and chased everyone away and celebrated the clearing and cleaning of Oshodi. But he forgot that the dirt in Oshodi were created by a depraved and down trodden masses. So by clearing the dirt and not alleviating the plight of the depraved masses, he only rubbed body lotion over a bad sore. Now Oshodi is fast becoming like it was before. And several more Oshodis are springing up. Like Egbeda, Ketu, Ikorodu, Ojodu Berger and many more are becoming the new Oshodi because the problem was never solved. It just got replicated! Please if you want to talk about Fashola's achievements, talk specifics and we would take you serious. as for specifics, they are not impressive. They are all wash! Propaganda at its best. The strategy is simple. Do a project with 1 million naira and promote it with 100 million naira. Fashola will be a very good music artist manager in Nigeria!

thelastPope: Big question for these ACN trolls on NL

If Fashola is such a big success in Lagos like their media want us to believe, why did ACN loose several LGAs in the last LGA election to PDP and ACN had to rig it?

SMH at the level of propaganda from these peeps!

If you want to be sincere, then you have to talk in specifics, not this generalised successes you lot talk about.

What has he achieved in:

Education: Lagos schools are worse of today than they were 10 years ago. Dilapidated structures everywhere with not enough teachers and it isnt even free because the students still pay all sorts of fees. In Lagos, it is only the very poor who cant afford private schools that send their children to government schools. In Benin city, which is ironically another ACN state and in which the governor has done less time than Fashola, It is the other way around. People are widthdrawing their children from private schools and sending them to public schools because the public schools are great. Fashola is the only governor in Nigeria and in the history of Nigeria as far as I can recall, that has increased schools fees by over 1000%. He increased LASU school fees from 25k to 250k and as much as 300k for some courses. This is not even imaginable. It is as diabolical it gets. Then when the students protests, he sends in bruttal policemen to chase them away. Many have had to drop out from school because they cant afford it. This is the same guy who said the FG was too high handed by sending the army to Ojota

Health Care: This one is just humorous. Fashola and ACN in 13 years havent built one new hospital for Lagos. Still the old LUTH and general hospital. No change. Instead, they are praising him for renovating small 30 by 30 maternity centers. centers that where even renovated by MTN foundation, with their sign post conspiciously displayed. His only achievement here was to sack 788 doctors in one day. That is one of the worst administrative blunders in the history of Nigeria. I laughed when I read a previous post that he is a great administrator! Great administrator? Someone whose solution to doctors strike was to sack the whole doctors in the state? Ha! Is that how he will rule Nigeria? The presidential guard will pursue him back to Lagos! lol! If he cannot manage such crisis in one state of Nigeria, how will he manage Nigeria? Those who call GEJ clueless forget that he has continued to manage crisis after crisis and continues to pull everyone along. Love him or hate him, he has continued to hold everything together from North to south.

Roads: Its about six years now and Fashola cannot point to one major new road built in Lagos. I am still wondering where Lagos allocations go. It is funny that every time some credit is giving to Lagos in terms of facility and infrastructure, some of these ACN peeps quickly shout "Fashola is working" as if the facilities are built by Fashola. Lagos has become a business city powered fully by the private sector. All the infrastructures we enjoy in Lagos are built by the private sector, not Fashola. From the cinemas to shoprite to the various entertainment centers et al. I dont understand how that is Fashola working. Propaganda of course. After adding extra lanes to Lekki, he introduced toll gates to a residential area. I mean, that is a first again in Nigeria. Toll gates in a residential area? Some people go from Lekki area to main VI like 5 times daily and back and they have to pay toll fees each time they pass the road. And when the residents protest peacefully, the response, just like the LASU one, is a bruttal assault by his thugs in alliance with the police. He attacked hapless old men on a peaceful protest, yet some pumpkin heads here want us to believe he is a sane and civil guy. If it was GEJ that bruttalized people like that, these same political and tribal jingoist would not let us hear word on NL! Ridiculous to say the least!

Water ways: This is just a funny one. Promises and more promises right from Tinubu's time. Nothing has even left the ground. Total failure here. Nothing to talk about

Transportation: This to me should have been his biggest achievement, but the ban of Okada has rubbushed it. How? The ban of okada has shown that the BRT project is a failure. Totally inadequate. Doesnt even come close to solving half the problem of Lagos transportation. Now, people are trekking like real villagers that Fashola has turned them into and they are swearing for him while they trek. Lagos is now total chaos. The traffic has escalated like times 4. What Okada ban was supposed to achieve, has turn into a total disaster. 3 to 5 hours now to go from Ikeja to VI or back, gauranteed! The traffic is alraming now! No transport on the road. People wait at the busstop for 2,3 hours trying to get a bus or keke. That is the legacy of a failed administrator who knows nothing of how to manage a metropolitan city. He thinks you can just wave a magic wand and scare everyone into submission. And some propaganda crew here wants us to believe he can manage Nigeria. He tops it up with the enactment of the Lagos traffic law 2012. A draconian law that looks like it was written by arrogant baby lawyers. I have read and re-read the law and it makes for a fine comic relief. many of the laws there will not stand a challenge in court. They are as draconian as it gets and many parts of that law contradicts the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. The late Gani would have made a piece meal of it!

Public Amenities: Another big zero! Lagos, after 13 years of ACN rule, still doesnt have public water. I mean in 2012, you cannot open your tap and get clean portable water. You cannot even get unclean water, with all the water in Lagos. A city where you dig only 5 feet in some places and hit water, you cannot get pipe borne water in your house. Yet the state government collects all sorts of taxes like there is no tomorrow. I dont know how a government that cannot even provide something as basic as public water is considered fit to rule Nigeria. Only sychophants would endorse that!

After 13 years of ACN rule, Lagos still reminds me of the movie, slum dog millionaire! That movie should have been shot in Lagos. Would really fit! Fahosla is like a doctor who rubs skin lotion on a sore and closes his eye lid tightly, believing that when he opens his eyes, the sore would have been completely gone. That is what he did in places like Oshodi. He brought in bulldozers and task force agberos and chased everyone away and celebrated the clearing and cleaning of Oshodi. But he forgot that the dirt in Oshodi were created by a depraved and down trodden masses. So by clearing the dirt and not alleviating the plight of the depraved masses, he only rubbed body lotion over a bad sore. Now Oshodi is fast becoming like it was before. And several more Oshodis are springing up. Like Egbeda, Ketu, Ikorodu, Ojodu Berger and many more are becoming the new Oshodi because the problem was never solved. It just got replicated! Please if you want to talk about Fashola's achievements, talk specifics and we would take you serious. as for specifics, they are not impressive. They are all wash! Propaganda at its best. The strategy is simple. Do a project with 1 million naira and promote it with 100 million naira. Fashola will be a very good music artist manager in Nigeria!

Excellent review of the sham/scam that is the ACN government in Lagos. I couldn't have done a better review than this. In fact eh, you deserve a few bottles of Big Stout along with a plate of Isi-ewu for this.

A governor that prefers quick fixes, cosmetic measures, and high-handed, strong-arm tactics can never be regarded as a success. This clown is a big failure, and he can never be fit to rule Nigeria.