Man of the Year: This award’ll set fire to my heels –Fashola
From JAMES OJO, Abuja

Thursday, February 18, 2010
The reward for hard work is more work, says Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State, who receives The Sun Man of the Year award at a colourful ceremony on Saturday.

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/feb/18/524.html
At an interview session with senior editors of the newspaper publishing house on Tuesday in his office at Alausa, Lagos, Fashola had been asked how he sees the award, which he won alongside Guaranty Trust Bank Managing Director, Mr ’Tayo Aderinokun. He responded:

“All my life, I’ve been a very private person. This is a new ball game for me, I must be honest. But because of the office I hold, as a goldfish, you have no hiding place.

“But like I tell my colleagues, the responsibility we need to show our people is how we have made their lives better. Whenever something like this award happens, what we say is; ‘the reward for hard work is more work.’ So, it raises the bar of expectation on us, but we see that bar of expectation not as a burden, rather, it is a vote of confidence in our ability to do it.”

A battery of accomplished politicians, technocrats, bankers, captains of industry, governors, ministers, and other illustrious Nigerians, will file out on Saturday to support Fashola and Aderinokun as they receive the award. Fashola had won for outstanding performance in the public sector, while the GTBank boss is being garlanded for leading a bank where integrity is the watchword, and where corporate governance is scrupulously adhered to.

Governor Fashola equally reacted to the recent report of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which rated Lagos as the 5th worst city to live in the world. His words: “We’ve stopped seeing problems in this government, we’re looking for solutions. Every criticism that we get invites us to a realisation that there’s an urgent need to do more.

We don’t expect that the decadence, the deficit of infrastructure for about three decades can be turned around in just two years, or even eight years. But what is important is that there has been some stability, an effort which started since 1999. After we have gone, the problems will still remain. The intensity and the scope will be what will differ. The world over, there are health issues.

Even in the most prosperous economy, there are education issues, security issues, even of more complex nature than we have to deal with. These problems, as long as the human race remains, will task the minds, the skills, the intellect of leaders across the world. It’s a problem of humanity. But the upside to the report is that 140 cities were ranked across the world. In Nigeria, Lagos was the only city mentioned. So we see that as an upside.”

On the Lagos of his dream, Fashola declared:

“I wish to leave behind a Lagos that will be able to actualise its huge potentials, a safe home for all those who choose to make it home, a city-state that will retain its pre-eminent position in the country, in the sub-region, in the continent, and even globally. A city that will also be able to provide for all those who served her, when we’re no longer able to fend for ourselves.”

Keynote speaker at the Man of the Year award is former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, while the event will be chaired by former Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Maitama Sule.

Billed for the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel & Suites by 5.00pm, the ceremony will be graced, among others, by three governors, who were past award winners. They are Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, who won in 2008, and Governors Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi of Anambra and Rivers states, respectively, who were joint winners in 2007.

Watch out for full text of the Fashola interview on Saturday.

"Even in the most prosperous economy, there are education issues, security issues, even of more complex nature than we have to deal with. These problems, as long as the human race remains, will task the minds, the skills, the intellect of leaders across the world. It’s a problem of humanity. But the upside to the report is that 140 cities were ranked across the world. In Nigeria, Lagos was the only city mentioned. So we see that as an upside.”

Lol. Fashola is turning into an African Obama. Saying a bunch of meaningless rhetoric. I think he's ok as a governor though.

I quite agree with you my friend that Fashola is the man of the year. He is in fact the saviour of Oshodi land. I think this man deserves to be our next president in this country, to turn the economic situation of this country for better.

He deserves it because he has done well in Lagos State