Anytime someone pours encomium on Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, I smile, mischievously. I’m usually amused because… Okay, I’ll come back to that shortly. A few days ago, I was, as usual, discussing Nigeria with a friend. He recently had a terrible experience with a government institution. “We can never get it right in this country,” he said in frustration. “Nigeria is doomed,” he proclaimed on top of his voice. I looked at him and said: “Fashola.” I could feel his anger melt down. Reluctantly, he replied: “You may have a point there.” What did I mean by “Fashola”? No, I was not saying Fashola was about to solve all our problems. But under two years, he has demonstrated a sense of urgency, commitment and focus. It is not just about the change he is bringing to Lagos, but also the promise he has shown. He is showing us clearly that we are not living in a hopeless society, that things can change and change for good. Fashola has renewed my hope that a new Nigeria is possible.
It is very easy to think Nigeria is doomed. I have agonised over this doom most of my adult life. It is very difficult to see hope. We hardly see the silver lining in a dark cloud; rather, we see a dark lining in a silver cloud, as someone said years ago. We are so frustrated and pessimistic that we don’t even see the opportunities and prospects that gawk at us. All we can see are problems and pains. You cannot blame the Nigerian. We appear to be helpless and hopeless. We are like a sheep without a shepherd. Therefore, whenever someone appreciates Fashola, I smile mischievously, as if saying: “Didn’t you say it is finished with Nigeria?” And believe it or not, there are a hundred Fasholas – educated, exposed, committed, focused and visionary – all over Nigeria who do not have the opportunity to shine because of our peculiar political structure.
The major difference, however, is that someone placed merit above political expediency and stuck out his neck for Fashola. I’m talking about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the immediate past governor of Lagos State. Having ruled Lagos for eight turbulent years, during which he kept battling with the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP troops who were hell-bent on capturing Lagos at any cost, Tinubu could easily have handed over to another politician. There were many of them around him, pressing him left, right and centre. He chose, instead, to throw his weight behind a certain Babatunde Raji Fashola who was unknown outside the Lagos corridors of power. Why did Tinubu settle for Fashola? Why did he choose to gamble on someone who had never been a councillor, much less a council chairman, in a society where we make jest of people like Pat Utomi because their political CV is not intimidating?
Tinubu opted for someone whose first exercise of executive power would be in the office of the governor of Lagos, the most chaotic and the most strategic state in Nigeria. Why? My guess is that Tinubu saw something in him which some of us did not see. My guess is that having laid out a beautiful plan for Lagos which he could not fully implement because of political expediency in the Obasanjo years, Tinubu was sincerely committed to getting a rightful successor who would carry out the assignment to a logical conclusion. He put merit above merriment, purpose above politics, reason above rhyme. I wish Obasanjo could honestly say the same regarding his own choice of successor.
Why is Fashola making progress? This should provide good PhD research topics for political scientists and maybe economists. Since I am a student of Governance and Development, I will look at the Lagos Model from my own bias. My write-up today should help us understand the Fashola Phenomenon and put things in proper perspective. We can then ask: what can the rest of Nigeria learn from this? The major obstacle to good governance in Nigeria, in my own opinion, is politics. You can replace that word with “politicking”. Many times, we have managed to produce good people in government but they end up as failures. Why? I suggest: the impediments caused by politicking. For you to succeed as a leader in Nigeria, you must get your politics and policy right. You may have good policies, but without the right politics you will fail. No matter how much we dislike politicians, we need them. You can never have politics without politicians. That is one. On the other hand, you may get all your politics right – pleasing some people, pummelling others, perfecting all the intrigues – but the society will never move forward if you do not have the right policies. You, therefore, cannot escape a happy marriage of politics and policy if you are to be an achiever.
Now here comes the Lagos Model. Fashola is the “technocrat” who handles governance, the finer details. Tinubu is the “godfather” who handles the politics, you know, the murky waters. They complement each other. Tinubu himself is a technocrat, to be sure, but the politician took the better part of him during his tenure as he had to fight off the PDP hawks. If Fashola begins to play politics today, governance will suffer. If he was interested in politicking, he could never have removed the traders from Oshodi. He could never have chased away those yellow buses from the highway. In Nigerian politics, the critical mass of voters will be found in markets and at motor parks. The real voters and foot soldiers are petty traders, bus drivers, conductors and touts. The conventional wisdom is that if you control the motor parks, you control the thugs; if you control the thugs, you control the polling booth; if you control the polling booth, you control the votes! That is why associations such as National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) are very strategic to politicians and there is always a fierce battle to control them.
By taking these tough decisions, Fashola would have been committing political suicide. But, no, there is Tinubu to clean up the “mess” politically. This frees Fashola to retain his focus without much distraction. It is like in football: you have a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder – the former, like Tinubu, handles the defensive part of the job while the latter, like Fashola, is freed and creates goals for his team. Politics and policy, like we said, must be happily married if we are to enjoy good governance in this country. Fashola has never made any attempt to discredit his predecessor. I hear a lot of PDP people say: “It’s Tinubu’s programme that Fashola is implementing.” Pure rubbish. One of the biggest obstacles to our development is this mentality that you must discredit your predecessor and discontinue his programmes so that people would not say you don’t have your own ideas. Pure rubbish. Government is a continuum. If anything, policy reversals have done a lot of damage to the country, as we can see at the federal level.
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua came to office in May 2007, and – based on the advice of people who probably had selfish motives – he suspended the power projects, cancelled the Lagos-Kano rail contract and reversed the privatisation of refineries. Nearly two years after, Yar’Adua is going back to the same power and rail projects – and he now wants to privatise the refineries again. Precious time wasted for nothing! Does he know the billions of dollars and invaluable productivity we have lost as a result of this? Why must he reverse policies for the fun of it? All the talk about 6,000 megawatts today is based on the projects Obasanjo initiated in 2006! So why waste our time? This is very common all over Nigeria – new governors abandoning critical projects for selfish reasons. Fashola has proved to be wiser than most.
But can we replicate the Lagos Model all over Nigeria? For instance, would Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani have performed better as Enugu governor if he had faced governance and allowed Jim Nwobodo to handle the politics? That is the problem with modelling. What works in Sokoto may not work in Akwa Ibom and what works in Oyo may fail in Kogi. However, the fundamental truth cannot be altered – that “politics and policy” must be delicately balanced, happily married, if we are to make progress. Whether one person should handle the two or there should be “separation of powers” between the “politician” and the “technocrat” is what we can debate more extensively. However, the Lagos Model can work for Nigeria as witnessed under Obasanjo administration. Obasanjo, though a terrible politician who was obviously power drunk, managed to handle the politics while “technocrats” such as Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mr. Bode Agusto, Dr. Mansur Muhtar and Mallam Nasir el-Rufai went about the business of governance. Obasanjo’s battle with his own contradictions might have discredited his government, but we certainly made some progress under his government.
Can we then toy with the idea of a “politician” President and a “technocratic” VP in 2011? Technocrats have their failings, just like politicians too, so we need a balance. Somehow, I think Nigeria’s redemption will benefit tremendously by learning from the Lagos Model. It’s a phenomenon we should give serious consideration to, as we battle to create a new Nigeria.

If I were your professor, I would give you an A++. The first time I heard someone mentioned this issue of Lagos kind of politics was a PDP man whom I met in a meeting concerning a company, not a political meeting though. He said though he belonged to an opposing party but that this arrangement was wonderful.

Truly speaking, Fashola is not a politician and he makes no pretences about it and as you said, this accounts for the bold and daring moves that he has made and the godfather, Tinubu - someone I love and respect so much for his foresight - is always available to smoothen the rough edges politically. The result is that Lagos and the people of Lagos have been the best for it. If someone had played the role of a political strategist for Tinubu, he would  have achieved more than he did in office.

Tinubu started by appointing young technocrats as members of his team and they were able to achieve more than almost all state governments at that time. It is also instructive to note that almost all commissioners that served under Tinubu wanted to be governors but Tinubu, when presenting Fashola, said he knew all of them but that Fashola was the one who could do the job. Some of them got angry and left for other parties including Femi Pedro, the then deputy governor but we are seeing and celebrating the result of Tinubu's sense of judgement today. 

Political strategists from all over the nation, irrespective of party loyalties should take up this model for a study, make adjustments where necessary and recommend it for the rest of Nigeria. If adopted, this country will be better for it and for once, we might stop complaining of bad leadership that lack focus.

Well said.
To govern one state might be a little easier than the whole nation, a nation that is so diversified will surely always meet objection that might not be solvable, cos if the religion card is not played, they will play the tribal card, and with all these kinda card, might be so hard to see development of this sort in Lagos state.
However, it is do-able, if the leader has a "i dont give a hoot" attitude towards what people say, and if the law is willing to back him up.

Fashola seems to be a man with vision and he is surely doing a good job, but we all need to know that, the good thing that is being done will affect some other people in bad ways, but the end will justify it all.

Good thinking, good product

Perfect and very insightful analysis! Best article I've read in a while!

NICE ARTICLE.



OP should post the link to the source of the article abeg.

here is the link:

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=138801

Tha article was plagiarized from sunday's edition of Thisday and was written by simon kolawole the OP should have stated this instead of giving the impression that the article is origianlly his. Here is the link to the original article : http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=138801

i knew that, thus the reason i requested he add the link to where he found it. cos he was already being given credit for it.

Selected Critical Review

http://www.thisdayonline.com/ncomments.php?id=138801#add


Uzoamaka Nwamaka

03.25.2009 18:01
Your article made me shake my head in despair. It shows how down in the dumps we are in Nigeria that a so-called seasoned journalist is not concerned at the methods in which a government has carried out its policies. As long as the perceived task is done, the praise singers come out and start singing. I was watching a programme on BEN TV in the UK on how Oshodi was transformed. The reporter was asking one of the people in charge how they manage to maintain calm at the overhead bridge that people are now required to use to cross the road, and he replied - we have police men with GUNS there to ensure that people obey the law, we obviously won’t use the gun it is just to scare them!!!! When are we going to start valuing our lives? When are we going to start doing things RIGHT and not cutting corners or taking quick fixes? So Fashola plants some flowers in Lagos yet I am sure half of the children of primary school age in Lagos go to school hungry. We need to get real.

How can you put up fountains when people who live by the fountains don’t have a steady supply of water? Do you expect them not to get water from that fountain? Painting over a rusty metal does not completely solve the problem, you need to treat the rust before you paint over it with a rust resistant paint for that matter!!


Aliyu Garba


03.25.2009 16:58
I do not see the darmacation between politician and technocrat.What is required of politicians and leaders is to make realistic and sincere promises and projections and pursue them with commitment and dedication.We didnt see the darmacations in the first republic politicians and they performed most creditably with the resources they had.


Yomi Babalola

03.25.2009 13:01
Femi Ade God bless you for properly setting out the real yardstick for measuring progress. Its so unfortunate how we suck to these public office holders and their spin machine? What is visionary about resurfacing roads and clearing up drainages and traffick. These things are no big deal if you were born /lived in Lagos in the 70\'s /80\'s one would appreciate the progress of Eko bridge,3rd mainland bridge and competition to win votes in housing b/w Jankande UPN /Whahab Dosunmu /Sultan Ladega Adele NPN through allocation of Jankande estates and Festac /satellite town etc which were reasonably affordable. These \"technocrats\" watched in 8yrs while rents spiralled out of sensibilities aiding it with all sorts of taxes and reward us with concrete roads and perpetually tenancies in the yr 2009 and we hail. Let the likes of Simon play the Fiddle like Nero did watching old Rome burn so he can fix his new Rome and become Landlord Numero Uno. Tell the truth Fashola is not yet the best thing to happen to Lagos yet.Tell me if your rents have not doubled in the past 3 yrs?


kehinde lawal

03.25.2009 07:31
i may be naive but i found this article distasteful for one reason. you spoke of tinubu handling over to fashola as though the electorates had absolutely no choice in the matter. even if that were true, glorifying electral fraud in this way is very, very distasteful. you could have said the same thing in a different manner!


Jack Bini

03.25.2009 02:15
Apparently you have left unmentioned what Fashola has done to improve Lagos. Readers from overseas like myself are wondering what his is? Is it sustainable development? Are jobs being created? Is poverty being alleviated? Is their infrastructural development? this is our hope for lagos and Nigeria.


Femi Ade

03.24.2009 21:50
I think it is wrong to blame Obasanjo for the lack of good performance by Tinubu. I also believe that politics is not an excuse for failure. Remember that Lagos State once had a man calle Lateef Jakande. he was a politicians\' politician and he had a lot of problems with Shehu Shagari\'s government, putting obstacles in his path. But guess what, by all standards, Jakande\'s government has been judged a performing government that achieved much. Remember that he even got Shagari to guarantee the loan for the metro line which was later canceled by the military. The success of Jakande was due to vision and focus and a determination to leave a legacy, the same virtue shared with Obafemi Awolowo.

You also failed to mention the role of the press in killing people with initiatives with negative press. How many Nigerian newspapers shout and scream at Y\'ardua when he started reversing Obasanjo\'s policies. I know THISDAY was the first paper to notice the trend of this government in reversing every policy of Obasanjo\'s administration and spoke out as diplomatically as it was possible.
Our journalists claim to be the defendrs of the common man but when they needed to call this goverment to account about the power probe that leads to nowhere, they failed.
When Obasanjo removed petrol subsidy, everyone called him names and cursed him. Now after spending over one trillion naira on subsidy, the government is now ready to remove the subsidy.
Enough, I could go on and on. My prayer is that both the president and other governors will come and see Lagos and be challenged to replicate Fashola\'s achievement in their various domains.


Yomi Babalola

03.23.2009 12:55
Its rather funny how in our country we invoke that machiavellian argument which sees end as means. Fashola is doing well thank God. Tinubu is super hero. We suffer selective amnesia because we see ends as means. The product of an undemocratic process of selection/individual whim.The party\'s idea of modern day democracy and has ruled Lagos for barzillion years now so why wont they get round to making roads after so long? For Gods sakes Jakande made over 20/30 thousand low income earners landlords in Jakande estates in less than five years and got lots more into schools in that time.Its not as if Fashola has turned Lagos to Tinapa yet. Stop this suck up what they are doing is no mean feat. Jakande thought of metroline over 30yrs ago. Stop this suck up Simon.


kamal

03.23.2009 12:09
when are we going to start asking about education, healthcare and their advancement with technology things that really make people proud to be citizens? I would imagine that has a higher ranking than the current achievements being celebrated.The current progress has perhaps leapfroged lagos into the 1990\'s from one of 1970\'s.Mind U, we are in 2009. I choose to be in a society that is at par with the best in the world - Thanks


S.C.Anthony Jnr, Valencia, Spain.

03.22.2009 10:46
Good write up by the writer but i beg to disagree on the point that Fashola is implimenting Tinubu?s programes. he even went futher to almost giving credit of the archievment of Fashola to Tinubu. I beg to diagree with this conclusion. Tinubu failed in governing lagos state. For this writer to attribute the failure of Tinubus administation to obasanjo is just anoither matter. Why is it that every failure in Nigeria is attributed to Obasanjo. Yes the Obsanjos administration withheld lagos state money which Tinubu and his associates claimed affected governance in lagos state. but the said money is yet to be paid back to Lagos state government but fashola is archieving success is Lagos state. His Excellency, Governor Fashola, deserve has perforemd very well in governing lagos state due to his intellect, good programmes, forsight, forthrightness and focus. His success has nothing to do with Tinubu who was a failure.

I am veeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrry for not posting the link (source of article)
its very unlike me
thanks so much for the observation MUST_A_FAR
and KUNLEOSHOB for posting the link
i will never take the credit for someone's write up

Long Live Nairalander

bayemibo:

I am veeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrry for not posting the link (source of article)
its very unlike me
thanks so much for the observation MUST_A_FAR
and KUNLEOSHOB for posting the link
i will never take the credit for someone's write up

Long Live Nairalander

Apologies accepted , Articles on Nairaland are well referenced , please take Note. It is forgivable since you are new on the forum

So now we need a team of goons to do one goon's job?

*fvck*, we're screwed!~

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