₦airaland Forum

The Chains Must Break: Why June 12 Should Inspire Lagos to Finally Fire the APC


A Day of Freedom That Lagos Has Yet to Claim for Itself

Every year on June 12, Nigerians pause to honour the memory of MKO Abiola, a Lagos son and the democratic will that was stolen from the people in 1993. Flags are raised, speeches are delivered, and tributes flow from the lips of politicians who have perfected the art of invoking freedom while engineering bondage. The bitter irony is impossible to miss: Lagos, the very heartland of that democratic struggle, remains shackled, not by a military junta this time, but by the iron grip of a single political party that has governed the state for over two and a half decades without interruption, without accountability, and increasingly, without shame.

If June 12 means anything at all, it must mean this, that no government deserves permanent power. That democracy is not a coronation. And that a people who fought so hard for the right to choose must, at some point, choose differently.

That time, for Lagos, is now.

The Illusion of the “Centre of Excellence”

Lagos calls itself the Centre of Excellence. But excellence, like respect, must be earned and re-earned, it is not a certificate issued once and valid forever.

Cast your mind back to the Lagos of the 1990s and early 2000s. Despite the chaos and underfunding of that era, Lagos was ahead of every other Nigerian state in virtually every measurable category: infrastructure, commerce, healthcare innovation, education, civic organisation, and cultural output. That lead was not a gift from the APC, the party did not even exist yet. It was the product of decades of colonial-era investment, private enterprise, and the relentless hustle of Lagosians themselves.

What did the party in power do with that inheritance? They leveraged it for electoral glory, monetised it for a privileged few, and returned very little to the millions who make this city run.

A Government That Governs for a Clique, Not a City

The structure of power in Lagos today is not complicated, though it is carefully disguised. A small, tightly knit political class, centred around a few powerful godfathers and their loyalists, controls the machinery of government, the allocation of contracts, and the selection of candidates. Elections are conducted, yes. But the outcomes are largely pre-determined through a combination of voter apathy, ballot manipulation, the suppression of opposition, and the weaponisation of state resources.

The result is a government that answers not to the 22 million residents of Lagos, but to a boardroom of power brokers.

State contracts are routinely awarded to companies with opaque ownership structures, many of which have traceable links to the political elite. Infrastructure projects are perpetually “ongoing”, budgeted year after year, with fresh allocations but stagnant progress. Meanwhile, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos, the highest of any state in Nigeria, often exceeding ₦200 billion annually, flows into accounts whose expenditure the public is never truly allowed to scrutinize.

This is not governance. It is a well-dressed extraction machine.


How Lagos Has Fallen Behind — Sector by Sector

Transportation: From Leading to Lagging

In the early 2000s, Lagos pioneered the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. It was a genuine achievement, widely celebrated. But that was twenty years ago. The BRT has not been meaningfully expanded. The Blue and Red Rail Lines, trumpeted for over a decade, arrived after unconscionable delays and currently serve a fraction of the city’s population. Meanwhile, cities like Abuja, Kigali, Nairobi, Accra, and even Ibadan have moved aggressively on urban mass transit.

Lagos traffic today is not an inconvenience, it is an economic catastrophe. Studies estimate that Lagos loses hundreds of billions of naira annually in productivity due to gridlock. A government serious about this city would have treated it as a five-alarm emergency years ago.

Education: The Decay of Public Schools

Lagos State once boasted some of the most functional public schools in Nigeria. Today, many of those schools are in a state of embarrassing disrepair, leaking roofs, broken furniture, overcrowded classrooms, and underpaid teachers who sometimes go months without full salaries. Private education has exploded, but only because the government has effectively abandoned its responsibility to provide quality public education, pushing the burden onto families who can barely afford it.

The Lagos State University (LASU), once a pride of the state, has lurched from crisis to crisis, prolonged strikes, governance dysfunction, and a chronic underfunding that has seen its academic reputation slide relative to peers.

Healthcare: A System That Fails the Poor

The public health infrastructure in Lagos is, for the majority of its residents, a last resort, visited only when private care is unaffordable. General hospitals are understaffed, under-equipped, and overwhelmed. The COVID-19 pandemic brutally exposed the fragility of the state’s health system, despite Lagos being Nigeria’s most commercially productive state and, on paper, its richest.

The state government announces healthcare initiatives regularly. But announcements are not ambulances. Announcements are not dialysis machines. Announcements do not save the mother who bleeds out in a dilapidated maternity ward in Badagry or Ikorodu.

Housing: The Bulldozer State

Lagos has one of the most acute housing crises of any megacity in the world. Millions live in informal settlements, not because they prefer to, but because formal, affordable housing is simply not available. Rather than developing inclusive housing policies, the state government has repeatedly responded with demolitions: Badia East, Otodo Gbame, Ilubirin, Makoko, communities razed, families displaced, people made homeless by the very government meant to shelter them.

The demolitions disproportionately target the poor while prime waterfront land is quietly transferred to well-connected developers. This is not urban planning. It is class warfare dressed in official paperwork.

Environment: A City Drowning in Its Own Waste

Lagos floods every rainy season with a predictability that would be comedic if it were not so devastating. Homes are submerged. Businesses are destroyed. Lives are lost. The drainage infrastructure in many parts of the state is either non-existent or in a state of complete neglect. Yet the government’s response year after year is to issue warnings to residents, as though the people are responsible for the government’s failure to build adequate drainage.

Waste management, too, has deteriorated. The Olusosun landfill is a monument to institutional failure. Environmental agencies are underfunded and frequently captured by the interests they are supposed to regulate.

The “Emi Lokan” Mentality — And What It Costs Lagos

The Lagos political machine’s greatest innovation has been to turn ethnic and political identity into a substitute for performance. “We are in power, and it is our turn to eat” is the unspoken anthem of a ruling class that has confused access to government with entitlement to public resources.

The “Emi Lokan” (“It is my turn”) philosophy that emerged explicitly in recent national politics is not a new idea, it has been the quiet operating principle of Lagos governance for decades. Positions are rotated among loyalists. Contracts flow to the faithful. Dissent is punished. Compliance is rewarded.

This system does not just waste money. It destroys talent. It drives capable, honest people out of public service. It creates a government populated by beneficiaries rather than builders.

What a New Direction Would Look Like

The argument here is not that any other party is automatically better. Nigeria’s political history offers no shortage of cautionary tales about opposition parties that, upon gaining power, became mirror images of those they replaced. The argument is more fundamental: competition is the only known cure for complacency. A party that knows it can lose will govern differently from one that considers its hold on power a birthright.

A government that comes to power in Lagos knowing it must earn re-election, knowing it faces a real, credible, well-organised opposition, will be more careful with public funds, more responsive to citizens, and more accountable for results. It will think twice before approving a no-bid contract. It will pause before demolishing a community. It will know that failure has consequences.

This is not idealism. This is the basic logic of democratic governance.

The opposition forces in Lagos, if they are serious, must put forward a coalition that goes beyond personality and grievance. They must offer Lagosians a detailed, costed, realistic vision: for transportation, for housing, for schools, for hospitals, for flood mitigation, for small business support, for youth employment. They must be willing to be held to that vision if elected.

And the people of Lagos must be willing to show up, not just in outrage on social media, but at the polling booths, in large enough numbers that the results cannot be manipulated away.

June 12 and the Unfinished Business of Lagos

MKO Abiola won the most free and fair election in Nigerian history in 1993. He won Lagos overwhelmingly. The people of this state knew then, as they must know now, that their votes carry weight — if they choose to use them.

June 12 is not merely a day to commemorate the past. It is a challenge thrown forward into the future: *Will you fight for your right to choose? And when you choose, will you choose wisely?

Lagos is not a poor state. It is not an unlucky state. It is a state with extraordinary human capital, a dynamic private sector, a resilient population, and more than enough resources to fund world-class public services. What it lacks is a government genuinely accountable to its people- a government that can be fired.

Until that changes, the ceremony of June 12 is, for Lagos, a celebration of a freedom still deferred.

The chains are not made of iron. They are made of habit, fear, and manufactured loyalty. And they can be broken at the ballot box.

Lagos doesn't have any problem with his present political structure that has enable continuity. Without such continuity no state will progress like Lagos.

Remember when Abba Yusuf became Governor of Kanu he went on destructive mode, same with Emeka Ihedioha. And many others.

alanto:
Lagos doesn't have any problem with his present political structure that has enable continuity. Without such continuity no state will progress like Lagos.

Remember when Abba Yusuf became Governor of Kanu he went on destructive mode, same with Emeka Ihedioha. And many others.

Tell me more about the progress that is being achieved?

You can’t even boast with basI’ve- water, security or housing.

Please! Don’t go there!

You already retrogressing in education. Check the statistics and get back!

Where exactly is Lagos progressing? Enslaving the indigenes?

Do you want me to go to development? I am sure you have been to Alimosho, Ojo, Ikorodu and the likes!

The state is a cash cow that has been milked to near death!

Tell Anambra to free itself from APGA first...

Okoroawusa:
Tell Anambra to free itself from APGA first...

Hello!

You not more Lagos than me! Standing up for my state does not make me an outcast!

I am a thorough breed! Both parents from Lagos!

So that your point won’t sell!

Up your game!

Moreover, you must be a newbie on this forum to think I am from Anambra.

This dude is a comedian
You want your demigod of politics to lose Lagos but retain Nigeria
Whatever you're smoking is not good for you

HacheNoire:
Hello!

You not more Lagos than me! Standing up for my state does not make me an outcast!

I am a thorough breed! Both parents from Lagos!

So that your point won’t sell!

Up your game!

Moreover, you must be a newbie on this forum to think I am from Anambra.

The same tribal game is played on you the same way you play it on others.. So bros go Abia first to free it from LP or IMO to free it from bleacher

Kukutente23:
This dude is a comedian
You want your demigod of politics to lose Lagos but retain Nigeria
Whatever you're smoking is not good for you

Don't mind the joker. He wants to free Lagos from tinubu but want the same tinubu to continue milking nigeria from Abuja.. U begin to wonder what they all smoke

HacheNoire:
Hello!

You not more Lagos than me! Standing up for my state does not make me an outcast!

I am a thorough breed! Both parents from Lagos!

So that your point won’t sell!

Up your game!

Moreover, you must be a newbie on this forum to think I am from Anambra.

Clash of the Zone.Bs

HacheNoire:
Hello!

You not more Lagos than me! Standing up for my state does not make me an outcast!

I am a thorough breed! Both parents from Lagos!

So that your point won’t sell!

Up your game!

Moreover, you must be a newbie on this forum to think I am from Anambra.

Oga shut it 🙄

Your are from Agulu in Anambra state 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Tenses:
Oga shut it 🙄

Your are from Agulu in Anambra state 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Lol,you are attacking a chief data boy

HIGHESTPOPORI:
Lol,you are attacking a chief data boy

I know

I just want him to have a taste of his own medicine 💊