An Ownership Society


For the past 18 months, Fashola has dispatched teams of surveyors across Lagos to determine who owns what. Once they finish, millions of Lagos' citizens will have a stake — legal and enforceable — in their city's future. The transformation will not be immediate, cautions de Soto. "This is what Europe was doing from the 15th to the 19th centuries," he says. "Even at the end of that period, you had these Dickensian cities." But, he says, "once they got that rule of law in place, they became productive."

For Fashola, the law is key. The changes he is overseeing improve infrastructure, create jobs, make money, even build him a soaring political career. But ultimately, the aim is to end the anarchy, he says. A city that does not function "creates desperate conditions for people and reduces their ability to resist temptation." Lapses can be minor, like driving on sidewalks or into oncoming traffic, or major, like violent crime. Fashola sees both as symptoms of Lagos' dysfunction, and he is tackling them by, in one approach, setting up a series of driver-improvement schools as well as, in another tack, employing area boys as cleaners and gardeners to beautify their neighborhoods. It's working. Orderly lanes are becoming the norm on the roads. And crime is down. From 2007 to 2008, armed robberies in Lagos fell 89%. From 2008 to 2009, car theft fell 54%. And murder more than halved, from 221 cases in 2007 to 94 in 2010. This rising sense of citizenship is revealing itself in another surprising way. Astonished then delighted by the transformation their new governor was effecting, Lagosians were happy to pay for it. By 2010 the governor was raising 70% of the state's income locally from taxes. By diminishing the importance of oil money handed out by the federal government and raising the role of local tax, Fashola has reconnected the state to its people. He takes that as a stamp of approval for his efforts to reverse lawlessness in government as well as across the city. "The capacity of a government to attract taxes is a very strong measure of its legitimacy," he says.

And slowly, like a rousing giant, Lagos is emerging from its Dickensian squalor and rediscovering its soul. The city that produced Kuti and Afrobeat and a host of writers like Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka is witnessing the birth of a hip urban scene. New bars and cafés, boutique hotels and restaurants suddenly abound. Kuti, it turns out, was right. Something as simple as freeing up the roads can free the spirit. "We set out to demonstrate that we can transform ourselves ,  that there is nothing wrong with us as a people," says Fashola. "At the beginning, there was uncertainty about whether or not any of this was even possible. [But what we did] was suggest in very practical terms — in ways that are touchable and can be seen — that things can be changed, no matter how bad they are. We restored hope. We restored belief." Lagos, city of hope. How's that for vision?


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2026474_2026675_2074274,00.html #ixzz1Vi97XlGM

^^^^
The people have to give this man the support he needs to clear Lagos of squalor,dirty streets and roads, get rid of shanty towns and provides planned framework for the city to evolve into a modern city.

A lot need to be done to position the city to a better society. The infrastructure is till in a deplorable conditions and basic needs are not met. If this man is given the support he needs I personally think he can deliver to the people a better city in the years to come. Somebody has to lay down the plans for other successors to follow - I think that is what he is trying to do - which is a good thing.

I was quite impressed when I visited Lagos two weeks ago after about four years out of Nigeria, what blew me was the cleanliness of the streets and green everywhere. We need people like Fashola all over Nigeria, If one man can transform chaotic Lagos, then no other governor should have any excuse for non-performance.

Fasoala is doing a very very nice job

Or stated differently, "How Lagos got its groove back"

oh, good news! good news!

Wow!

Thats awesome.hope others would emulate him

Who in God's name is writing this useless article? andwhy are people beliving it, i live and work in llagos , and to be sincre hell is much better, no constant power supply, no proper drainage, no infrastructure or meaningful roads, its more like living is somalia the only difference is we dont hear guns and bombs exploding around us like xmas bangars, well maythe the writer was referring to the lagos in portugal

^ My guy comot from Ajegunle and move to where people are living. Can you say thesame if you are living in VGC? Every city has its pros and cons, but you have to give it to the man.

" Onno Ruhl, country head for the World Bank, goes even further, calling it the future Hong Kong of Africa. But plans for Lagos' renovation don't end offshore. Eko Atlantic is the centerpiece of a city redevelopment strategy whose ambition is simple and astonishing: take one of the world's worst cities and make it one of the best.

Although we don't need him to tell us, we have to admit he has a eye for good things.

"This is a real attempt to prove Lagos can be an economic powerhouse and a gateway to Africa," declares Frame. Ruhl says, "It's an amazing thing, not least because it actually looks like it will happen."

Very vital point.

Fashola is not your usual politician. Rather than barging his way across town with sirens blaring and lights flashing like other Nigerian leaders, he chooses to endure Lagos' traffic with his fellow citizens. Also, Fashola reads economic theory for fun. On his bedside table: books by development economists who see potential in poverty, people like the late C.K. Prahalad of the University of Michigan or Hernando de Soto of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima. They argue that the poor may lack money as individuals but together, in their tens of millions, they represent a massive untapped resource.

Did you see that?

When you elect thugs and boderline illiterate journey men with no sense, no ideology, no yearning for personal development beyond money, greed, bigmanism and Aristorism, you get the types of Foolish leadership we have across much of Nigeria.

But when you choose thinkers and determined strong leaders with a learners mind and a searchers spirit, You get visionaries like Fashola.

If not for fear of a lawsuit, I would have claimed I wrote that paragraph, they took the observation out of my mind.

Few days ago, we heard News of Ex-gov of Oyo State and PDP thug Alao Akala still blaring sirens through the streets of Ibadan, months after he was removed by the people. Need we say more?

Nigerians 2015 will soon be here, make una nor fuccckkk up again!

Builder:

Who in God's name is writing this useless article? andwhy are people beliving it, i live and work in llagos , and to be sincre hell is much better, no constant power supply, no proper drainage, no infrastructure or meaningful roads, its more like living is somalia the only difference is we dont hear guns and bombs exploding around us like xmas bangars, well maythe the writer was referring to the lagos in portugal

open ya blood-shot eyes. Is Fashola the Governor of Lagos in Portugal?

lag

mtchwwww

Is Lagos a city or a state?

both

lol both

lol why not Abuja?[img]http://2.s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=E6E6E5/txt=E6E6E5/border=E6E6E5/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]
[img]http://s07.flagcounter.com/count/DymW/bg=E6E6E5/txt=E6E6E5/border=E6E6E5/columns=1/maxflags=1/viewers=3/labels=0/[/img]

All these Fashola con artists sef. Is this another Lagos?

if both, whayt does that make Ikeja?

good article. it's important that an article like this was written because if Fashola reads this, and takes it the right way, it will serve to spur him on to do even more. Articles like this make him realize that what he is doing has caught the international community's attention and that he is being watched from around the world. That way, he wouldn't want to slow down the pace or stop completely because of the repercussions to his international image. We hail him not because he has done far beyond what is expected of a governor (because what he is doing is just what is expected of a governor) but because he is correcting years of innefficient governance and giving Lagosians hope in the future of the city.

Eko o ni baje o!

Some parts of Lagos are not seeing these things o. . .why generalizing na? Whatever has Ladipo, Ajegunle and Ijora done to the government?

Builder:

Who in God's name is writing this useless article? andwhy are people beliving it, i live and work in llagos , and to be sincre hell is much better, no constant power supply, no proper drainage, no infrastructure or meaningful roads, its more like living is somalia the only difference is we dont hear guns and bombs exploding around us like xmas bangars, well maythe the writer was referring to the lagos in portugal

Haba.
Lagos has improved.
Your comment only goes to show just how much of a short memory people have. Now you can drive all the way from Ikeja to Ojuelegba via Oshodi and Mushin, without experiencing any traffic jam. There's BRT, lots of roads being fixed, new projects all over the place. I recently drove from Cele all the way to Ojuelegba through the new bridge, and the whole or Lawanson was well-tarred and decongested. These are not exactly highbrow areas. He's done well jare.

i dont blv this shit

Fashola is really doing good thumbs Up

[size=13pt]No doubt Lagos will always remain the city of excellence. I'm a proud Lagosian.[/size]

Irrelevant news for irrelevant people.

Mobinga:

Irrelevant news for irrelevant people.

Do you mean all Lagosians are irrelevant?

Wow!! The statistics on crime reduction is just inspiring. Lagos- the only mega-city in Nigeria!! A State like no other. Other States have two or three local governments that can actually be called cities, while Lagos as a whole is one evolving mega-haven. Slowly but surely, we will get there. I love Fashola. _{oh. and the man who made it all happen - Tinubu.}

AjanleKoko:

Haba.
l, I recently drove from Cele all the way to Ojuelegba through the new bridge, and the whole or Lawanson was well-tarred and decongested,

lawanson is not decongested. in fact, the area is experiencing one of the highest traffic congestion in history since that cele bridge was commissioned. i am telling you this because i live at lawanson. driving during peak period is traumatic.

^^^^ Thanks My Dearest.