This is the story of the Lagos State
Executive Council, EXCO! More
importantly, however, it is the story of a
state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola,
and how the state EXCO takes decisions
that affect the millions of people living
in the state. It is a story that is at once
compelling and revealing.
From the very serious to the very
mundane and sometimes ridiculous,
spending about 11hours observing the
EXCO members and their chairman
invokes a feeling of appreciation
regarding what it takes to govern the
complex state called Lagos. This is a
first part in what can be described as a
fairly formal environment. Another
session, open-ended, would be
presented.
“E mi-o ni gba o” (I no go gree-o, I won’t
allow it)
Abraham Lincoln once said that “if you
would win a man to your cause, first
convince him that you are his sincere
friend”. That, perhaps, is what has kept
Lagos State together under the
governorship of Babatunde Raji
Fashola. At first, it was like a very
difficult pill to swallow for Lagosians –
his style, the need to change Lagos
State and make it a mega city, the
demolitions, the new rules he created
on how to operate and govern; the
apolitical posturing, sometimes
bordering on the stiff-necked – because
the old style, the affable, politically
induced aura of inclusiveness and
tolerance that his successor, Bola
Ahmed Tinubu, had created, was seen
by many as a template for success in
governance.
But here was a man, a gangling lawyer,
thrust upon a polity of clashing socio-
economic-religious and political
interests, in a manner most shocking;
and pushing an agenda that was
considered alien and finicky! It was so
bad that even between Fashola and
Tinubu, there was a disagreement on
matters of style.
However, today, because Fashola took
Lincoln’s admonition to heart, that
there was need to first convince Tinubu
and Lagosians that he is indeed a
sincere friend, he has been able to win
many, very many, to his cause.
Decisions thought to have been rash
and anti-people appear to be yielding
results. The catch-phrase in Lagos is,
Eko o ni baje (conditions in Lagos will
not be allowed to degenerate)
*Exco in session
Therefore, when Fashola told members
of the EXCO, last Monday, that “E mi-o
ni gba o”, he was insisting that he
needed to make his position clear about
the need to “keep faith with the
promise and commitment made to the
original shop owners of the burnt
Tejuosho market”, by allowing them the
right of first refusal – that is, allow them
to come forward, make a bid to buy the
shops and then be disqualified by their
own incapacitation to comply.
This was at the 106th Lagos State
Executive Council meeting.
A Council of Equals
The observation of the EXCO meeting
was up close.
The meeting started at exactly 9:20am:
2011-2015, 106th LSEC MEETING.
The EXCO chambers, on the first floor of
the Governor’s Office, is well laid out.
With 71 chairs, arranged on two simple
terrace floors, it was a packed chambers
and any form of lateness is not
tolerated. The EXCO members are 43 in
number (see box)
Indeed, there are fines for infractions on
the established rules of the EXCO
meeting. As is always the case when
Fashola has a private, close-knit public
function, telephones are either kept at
bay or totally switched off. So, at the
security entrance in the buildings, all
phones – including commissioners’ –
had to be deposited.
Anxiously, you expected the governor
to come in through a designated back
door that links his office to the
chambers but he was not forthcoming.
While you expected him, it was Adejoke
Orelope-Adefulire, the female deputy
governor, who called the meeting to
order.
And contrary to some views about her
lack luster persona, she acquitted
herself with enviable dignity and
decorum. She took charge.
“This meeting is called to order”, she
bellowed into the microphone.
While a few of the commissioners were
still bantering, she called them by their
designation – “Works, please sit down;
Agric, please the meeting is called to
order”.
Within seconds, there was pin drop
silence in the EXCO chambers.
From where she sat at the head of the
arrangement, to her immediate right
was a vacant red leather chair; to her
left is another woman, the Secretary to
the State Government, SSG, Dr. (Mrs)
Idiat Oluranti Adebule. At the other end
of the five-seat arrangement sat the
Attorney General and Commissioner for
Justice, Ade Ipaye, and to his own left
sat the Chief of Staff, Lanre Babalola.
Before the commencement of the
meeting, the deputy governor
announced the presence of the duo of
Sam Omatseye (Chairman, Editorial
Board of The Nation) and I! We were
warmly welcomed.
Businesslike, Adefulire started the
meeting, she moderates while Fashola
chairs.
“Let’s have a look at the minutes of the
last EXCO meeting”, Orelope Adefulire
announced – after an opening prayer.
Because you are not a member but a
first time observer, the next thing you
heard from the presiding deputy
governor was a bit confusing: “Page 1,
2, 3, 4…….10, 11, 12, 13”.
At that point, one of the commissioners
noted an observation in the minutes on
page 13.
That was when it dawned on you that
fast as she was reading out the
numbers, the deputy was not merely
engaging in numeral recitation. The
commissioner noted a correction on
page 13. After the formalities of making
the correction, she continued counting.
There were other observations on pages
20 and 27.
It was a 34-page minute, printed on
yellow papers.

Enter Raji Fashola
At exactly 9:34, Governor Fashola
cames in, dressed in a black bow tie,
grey suit and a sky-blue shirt.
Devoid of any formality, he simply took
his seat at the middle of the five seats
at the head of the siting arrangement
and the meeting continued as if nothing
had happened. His only interjection was
to say that Omatseye and I were in the
gathering to observe and “you can
behave and conduct yourself as if they
are not here”. The governor added:
They have earned their stripes and
should know what to publish and what
not to publish”.
That statement, coming from the
governor, transferred the responsibility
of censorship to us.
As he warmed his way into the meeting,
he threw banters with the Economic
Planning Commissioner, Ben Akabueze,
the only non-Lagosian in the EXCO – he
was inherited from the Bola Tinubu
administration.
His entry did not in any way alter the
course of engagement.
Perhaps, dwelling on the fable that the
Executive Council of the Federation,
EXCOF, meetings, when Olusegun
Obasanjo was President, played out no
more than a very powerful king holding
court with subordinates, the EXCO
meeting of Lagos State can be
engaging.
Of importance is the quality of the
discussion as would be discovered later.
There was an update on the issue of a
pedestrian bridge that was reported to
experience an “imminent collapse”. To
this, the Works Commissioner insisted
that there was no “imminent collapse”
but that the bridge was distressed..
“When you say imminent collapse”, the
Works Commissioner charged, “it
means the bridge would collapse today
or tomorrow but when we inspected it,
it showed that the bridge was
distressed and we are already on it”.
Fashola and a few seconders made the
commissioner understand that the
observation that the mail he got read
“imminent collapse” and that it was for
the commissioner to explain and
address the house on the correct status
of the bridge. The commissioner’s
contention was that the use of the
phrase imminent collapse was
inappropriate. This engagement lasted
for some four minutes.
Putting the people first
The health commissioner made a
presentation on the virus presently
giving concern to the Saudi and French
authorities; the Saudis, moreso,
because of the up-coming Hajj. For an
EXCO that is religion-blind, every
contribution during the discussion was
how best to protect the pilgrims from
Lagos.
Therefore, the advisory from the Saudi
authorities about not sending
terminally ill, elderly, pregnant women,
children (12 and under defined as
children) on pilgrimage this year, was
extensively discussed. Conclusion:
High-level consultations with the clerics
and some stakeholders would be held
with immediate effect.
But the EXCO members were also
concerned about other sources that
would supply pilgrims, if they would
take the advisory as seriously as the
Lagos government was doing. In terms
of ratio, the World Health Organisation,
WHO, and the Centre for Disease
Control, CDC, are hopeful that with a
globally recorded case history of 77
with 40 fatalities, the virus, contracted
from bats, with a common symptom of
cold, “is not as deadly as the SARS
global pandemic which struck in 2003.
Indeed, the EXCO made a resolution to
possibly buy the machines for detection
at the state’s major entry point – the
airport.
Incidentally, last Monday was Tunji
Bello’s birthday. A special cake was
brought in and, at about 10:06, the
meeting was broken for Bello’s birthday
cake-cutting ceremony.
That done, business resumed.
The virtual governor
After the meeting resumed, the pace
changed.
Fashola disclosed that he needed to
make some points which he “had
picked up in the course of the previous
week”.
Mind you, these points he “had picked
up” are products of the e-mails, the
letters, the telephone texts, postings on
Facebook and twits from you and I, as
well as personal on-the-spot informal
assessment of some assignments.
The governor pointed out that in the
Abraham Adesanya Estate, Lekki, some
of the roads therein were going bad. He
ordered immediate remedy. He also
said he noticed some abandoned
ambulances at the entrance of the
Lagos University Teaching Hospital,
LASUTH. He wanted to know why the
situation existed. He had one issue or
the other to discuss and seek remedy
for.
Next was the exchange over the Central
Business District, CBD.
Fashola said while he was driving
through Nnamdi Azikiwe last Sunday,
he discovered that the refuse points
were overflowing. He charged the
Adviser in charge of CDB to be more
functional. She, in turn, made it clear
that the solution was already in a memo
she’d recently sent to the governor.
The exchange was both revealing and
instructive. The Adviser would not
succumb to the suggestion that she
was taking a back foot; just as the
governor stuck to his gun that whatever
needed to be done should be done to
clear the mess.
At a point, the Adviser requested for
privacy to which the governor retorted
that there could be no other private
forum that the one they both already
were in. She then told Fashola point-
blank what needed to be done. At that
point, a pall of silence fell on the
chambers. But because here was a
governor who had set tasks and
deliverables, he did not push to argue
against the Adviser’s suggestion which
is going to be very drastic. This
exchange lasted for almost 10minutes.

A stickler for details, Fashola took on
the Commissioner for Physical Planning.
He said a building appeared to have
suddenly sprouted in-between two
others somewhere on the same street.
He found it curious that people could
build on the space.
He said he could vouch that his
dependable commissioner could not
have approved such; worse still, he said
he “noticed that the building contractor
was just stacking blocks on the road,
thereby obstructing traffic”. He needed
the ministry officials to go there and
check; and he believed the building
would have to give way.
Still on things he picked up, he said
he’d observed that Molue and other
commercial buses were already filing on
the Carter Bridge again and causing
congestion.
He touched on almost all sectors from
health to social welfare, the aged and
underprivileged, et al. In the health
sector, Fashola said, “Rwanda is
stealing medical tourism from Nigeria”.
Though he admitted that “war throws
up opportunities for fresh
breakthroughs” and “I also think our
own challenge with terrorism can also
help build our own doctors without
borders”.
Demonstrating that if “you do not
constantly evolve for the better, other
people would catch up with you, he
stated, “Just look at Spain yesterday
against Brazil. The world has caught up
with Spain and there ticki-tacki style
and that was why the two teams from
Spain were roundly defeated during the
Champions League competition; the
same happened yesterday”.
“My people”, he continued, “the lesson
for all of us is that we cannot rest. We
need to keep striving to break new
grounds. That people are saying we are
doing well is not enough. Other states
are also striving”.
Akabueze, buckets of cold water and a
gov to the rescue
But if you think that the earlier
exchanges were heated, what
transpired when Akabueze and his
team presented the Lagos State
Development Plan, SDP, was something
else.
The LASG EXCO is not an easy place to
be. The EXCO meeting is not a place to
try to flaunt your intellect. If you think
you are intellectually grounded, try
bamboozling your way through the
presentation of a memo. It is also not a
place where you pull wool because
there are people waiting with buckets of
cold water – they would pour the water
on you and your wool.
After what appeared to be an admirable
presentation by Akabueze on
projections and prospects for a Lagos in
2025, his colleagues took him to task.
He took their observations in good
stride.
The plan, for the overall development of
the state, would be driven by public and
private sectors as well as civil society. It
is for all and organized in three parts –
Lagos today, Lagos tomorrow and then
the implementation. It has a 15-year
life-span programme with development
pillars.
The vision to strategy is hinged on the
following:
1. Economic development
2. Infrastructure development
3. Social development and security
4. Sustainable Environment
For each of these, there are objectives/
outcomes; policies and strategies; and
MDA sector policies.
By the time his colleagues punched
holes in some of the projections you
could not but feel sorry for Akabueze.
For instance, the projection that today’s
unemployment rate of 8%, which is
expected to become 5% by 2025, was
thought to be unrealistic.
There is expected to be a 40% access to
homes for the population.
In some cases, the plan was short on
details.
Fashola, who excused himself and later
came back to rejoin the meeting after
about 90mins, would occasionally
interject or amplify a question or
response regarding the plan.
Akabueze was, however, up to the task.
He took his colleagues’ reservations one
after the other. Firstly, he pointed out
that “Nigerians delude themselves that
‘in Nigeria there are good plans but it is
a problem of implementation”. That
can’t be true, he said because every
good plan must be implementable
because implementation is part of a
plan.
In any case, if a plan is simply about
little vision, then you can as well
continue to do the routine.
Waterfront Commissioner’s intervention
about the enormity of the problem of
coastal erosion in terms of its financing
was cut by the deputy governor
because it was becoming a seminar on
its own. Even as he attempted to
continue, Orelope-Adefulire said he
should present a paper on that to which
the Waterfront Commissioner said
“Ben, I will come to you so we discuss
this later”.
Some of the commissioners also
believed that with the challenge of
power and finance, actualizing the plan
would be very difficult.
To this, Fashola admonished all to think
locally and be more creative in raising
funds.
He maintained that a vision needs to be
very ambitious.
In 1999/2002, there were 34committee
reports; by 2004, they were
compressed to the 10-point agenda. All
these were diagnostics and from
2007/2008, “we began to solve the
problems”.
Now, the governor said, we have three,
four, five year plans. “Physical and
economic planning is the back bone of
what we’re doing and both will
determine our success or failure”.
Then came a strange but ingenious
suggestion. From Fashola and
Akabueze came the idea that
commissioners should look inwardly for
funds that may not be of priority
utilization that can be consolidated in a
pool for the purpose of taking care of
the housing needs of the people of
Lagos.
Come and make your case
This is not about pork-barrel. You must
earn that allocation.
Though it was not the operating rule,
you could discern that the aggression to
have more resources for your ministry
so that you can perform played a role in
the arguments and debates. In any
case, there was also the seemingly
unwritten brief that your points of view
had to be grounded in intellect and
logic. That way, pouring cold water on
you would not be an easy thing.
Then you had the chairman of EXCO,
Fashola himself, who kept engaging his
commissioners like a lecturer dealing
with a bunch of precocious students.
Not that he always had his way –
because there were a few times when
presentations were being made and you
could see Fashola nodding or taking
notes.
Left handed though, part of the
governor’s luck is that his parents did
not force him to change and become
right-handed – it is thought in this part
of the world that being left handed is
not good for children and, therefore, in
their formative years, they should be
forced to become right-handed.
A medical report, decades ago in the
United States, found that students, who
were naturally left-handed possessed
some very unique qualities. Forcing
them to become right-handed, alters
the natural thought process and
patterns. So, all thanks belong to the
senior Fasholas.
In terms of style, briskness was it. You
may miss the sequence if you are not
attentive:
“Motion moved for adoption, seconded;
counter? If none, by consensus?
Okay moved”. Then the governor
reaches for the gavel and hits it on its
receptor. That is how motions are
moved after exhausting the debate.
When he intervenes, he does so to save
both arguing parties from one another.
He does not allow time to be wasted. As
the meeting was going on, he was
attending to files.He called the man in
charge of PPP and admonished him to
cut the needless bureaucracy in signing
agreements in the power sector
“Be hung for taking initiative; let me be
the one to complain that you are too
fast”, Fashola charged.
At about 3pm, there was lunch break.
By 3:30, the EXCO chamber was filled
with members to continue.
Is the EXCO just a rubber stamp for
Fashola’s agenda? Not at all.
From what the eyes could see – apart
from the deputy governor and the chief
of staff, the EXCO members did not
know of our participation – the
members, too, have earned their stripes
a la Fashola. The governor had insisted
that the meeting would come to a close
by 6pm. It didn’t. The meeting ended
by 7pm. And to think you arrived
Fashola’s office from 8am.
But there was a Whitepaper on
government views and decisions on the
report of the committee to examine
sources and management of IGR of
state owned tertiary institutions. The
examination of the Whitepaper took so
much time.It was Bill Cosby who said: “I
don’t know the key to success, but the
key to failure is trying to please
everybody”.
Throughout the meeting and, as issues
were being debated, you could decipher
that these were people who were not
interested in pleasing one another.
Some who had been cracking jokes
before the meeting started began to
tear one another’s points of view to
shreds.
And Fashola, who does not appear to
suffer fools at all, cannot be described
as infallible.
He cannot also be described as a saint
because once he doesn’t agree with a
point of view, he remains adamant – he
only evens it out by ensuring that a
superior argument is presented. But
just as John Craig had said, that “no
matter how much work you can do, no
matter how engaging your personality
may be, you will not advance far if you
cannot work through others”, the
governor, working through his EXCO
members, cannot but be appreciated.
And that is why he appears to be very
popular in Nigeria.

Everyday I pray siliently to see dis man BRF become our president .Overcoming our ethnic,religious,tribal,north,south,igbo,hausa,yoruba....etc,either miraculously,incidentally,electing,selecting,appointment anytin dat will see him as d C-in-C..Amen!