2027 not my focus, too busy serving Lagos right now — Deputy Gov. Hamzat

In this interview on Arise TV, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat addressed key legacy projects of the Sanwo-Olu Administration and the recent issues regarding the protests in Lagos. Excerpts

How has the Lagos State Government managed this protest so far that there has not been any explosion or escalation of violence as we have seen in Kano, Kaduna, and other parts of the North?

The second question is, the big elephant in the room, we find out that some people inside this Lagos, Lagospedia, as they call themselves, have given the Igbos a month to leave Lagos. The Lagos State Government has denounced it, but is the Lagos State Government taking other steps to make sure that this State, which is supposed to really be the melting pot of Nigeria, does not become a boiling point for ethnic bigotry?

The first thing for us is engagement. As a people, we must learn from our experiences. We were all alive when EndSARS happened, and we saw the aftermath. Various infrastructures were destroyed, and we said never again. With that in mind, we went to our people, explaining the various initiatives we are embarking on and how they can be destroyed. I recall meeting some students, and I said to them, ‘You are all engineering students.’ One of the buildings that was destroyed was the Public Works building. At the time, we brought in the biggest machine in this part of the world that can lay about a thousand interlocking blocks in an hour. But that multimillion-dollar machine was destroyed. This is where we train pupil-engineers, because when you graduate from engineering classes, you are all taught about mixtures of concrete, ratios, and other things. However, that does not mean anything until you are able to actually do the measurement in real life.

So we went around the State, explaining to our youths, elders, CDCs, and CDAs that it is okay to protest, but it is not fine to destroy the assets that we know and proclaim are not even enough. Thankfully, I think our people apparently listened. On the issue of the Igbos, one of the hazards of social media is that some people can just come up and say Igbos must leave; that is totally unacceptable. That is why you saw that the Governor immediately denounced it. As a people, that is not just who we are. Growing up in Lagos as children, we have all lived together in this State, and there is no need for people to become ethnic bigots. But again, some people will do whatever they can to divide us, but we will never allow that. Over the weekend, the Governor, myself, and other members of the State Executive Council visited the family of Chief Emmanuel Inwanyanwu, who had just passed on. We went to see the family of Madam Onyeka Onwenu to commiserate with them. These are Nigerians of Igbo extraction whose families live and work in Lagos. What is going on in terms of fishing out the people is not what I can discuss because the security operatives will have to do their job. I can assure you that in the next few days we will see what happens. 

I am glad you have been able to talk about the issue that the Government will not condone this rhetoric in any way, but a number of people are saying arrests should have been made because this did not just start. During the 2023 elections, some people came out and made some very dividing statements along ethnic lines, but nothing was done; some did not even try to hide their faces. There are quick wins. What is stopping the government from picking up those people while we fish out those who come under anonymity on social media, like the picture of the man wielding the axe? There are some that are easy.

You said they were easy; it is really not that easy because the issues concerned both sides. If you notice, somebody said we killed someone around Okota because they wanted to steal the ballot boxes. That cannot be right. We cannot take the law into our own hands. What should happen is that security operatives should do their investigations, and when people are found culpable, they should be prosecuted. The challenge and the bottom line for me in a broader sense is that public commentary can be problematic in this country. We might not all agree, and I will tell you why. How is it that we don’t talk about one of the most important economic factors for us as a people, which is land? You go to Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, and everywhere in Western, Eastern, and Central Africa, and you see the way we plan our cities. We all studied elementary economics, and we say land is one of the factors in production. But in trying to manage that critical asset, we politicise it. We all know that whatever structure you want to build in terms of infrastructure must take place on land, buildings, airports, etc. So why is it that we don’t manage our land? When you want to manage land, we all become emotional. It is therefore easy to say that physical planning and management of land assets are key to our development, and if we don’t get it right, building prosperity for our people will be a mirage. But when you want to plan, you hear It is because you are Hausa, a Yoruba man, or Igbo. The bottom line is, let us focus on the real issues. Like I said, I was not in government in 1983; I was a student at the University of Ibadan. Please check various weekly editions of Newswatch magazine, seasoned journalists. Since the 1970s, they have been talking about the same issues that are rearing their heads again today. So what is the problem? If you count the number of government officials—the Chairman of Local Government, Councilors, Governors, and Deputy Governors—we are all less than 1,600. So, are we saying that in a nation of over 200 million we can’t find 1,600 individuals that can build this country? It is because we have not all agreed to discuss and confront the fundamental issues confronting us as a people. You hear eminent Nigerians encouraging protests that they absolutely cannot control. I felt sad when people like Alhaji Atiku Abubakar did just that. He knows my father, so I can say he is my father’s younger friend. That cannot be right. Compare his attitude to that of Rishi Sunak, the opposition leader in the UK, who came out to quickly condemn the riot and supposed protest in that country. That is statesmanship. Elections are over. Let us all build our county.

You raised a couple of things. I can tell you why, what happened in Newswatch in’ 83, hunger and poverty are still there. It’s because of the dubious political class that continues to destroy Nigeria since 83 have not left Nigeria and continues to rule till date. Even if you take a newspaper, 100 years from now, if this class continues, things will never change. Let’s not deceive ourselves. Secondly, your excellency, Lagospedia has been running this Twitter handle since 2015. He’s been inciting violence; he was very active during the elections, yet nothing was done. Why now? In fact, a week before the protest, he was the one talking about “Oro.”  He tweeted some other inciting things; why has he not been fished out? It’s so easy to see the other side, and I don’t support both sides causing chaos. Igbo man and Yoruba man are brothers. Our real enemies are the political class, which makes our lives miserable every day. The truth has to be said. Why are we not clamping down on these people? You talked about development, land appropriation, and everything. The issue is that political hegemony keeps taking the majority of the land. That’s another problem with Africa; you can go from Kenya to Nigeria. I am sure you remember Adaramoye; it is a problem of the political class. I am sure you even remember our case in Nigeria, so it is a problem of the political class. Let us talk about the issues. What are you guys doing? People are suffering. There are millions of people in Lagos; their lives are miserable. They don’t even have potable running water from the government. There is sewage everywhere. What is your administration doing?

Let’s look at projects as they relate to Lagos State. If you want to look at projects, there is no local government in Lagos today, from Kosofe to Alimosho, Ojo, and so on, that we are not doing one project or the other on a continuous basis. Let me now tell you how we plan our budget in Lagos. Just two Fridays ago, when we were in Epe, for example, what did we do? We actually go to the communities, and they give us a list of projects based on their priorities. Went round the State, Badagry, Ikorodu, Kosofe and others. After finishing the estimates based on communal needs, requests come to about seven trillion, and we don’t have the needed funds to execute a budget of seven trillion. Our budget last year was 2.3 trillion Naira, which means when you request five things, we can give you two. On the issue of providing water for our people, our State is building Adiyan 2 water works, which is 70 million gallons of daily water. Our need is in the neighbourhood is 450 million gallons per day. We have Adiyan 1 with 45 million gallons, and Adiyan 2, which is 70 million, is still being built. The raw water source is from the Ogun River because the best way to process water for communal use is not from boreholes because we will be destroying the aquiver. The challenge is that in order for us to take the intake pipes from there, do you know the amount of money we need to pay for compensation for all these things? Again relating to land use and how we manage our land. The most important issue, therefore, is that we need to grow our economy and increase the pie so that we can better service the needs of our people than we are doing today.

I concede to you, there isn’t enough money but even the little that you have, people will challenge you that you don’t use it effectively; it is not the best; what is the impact to cash ratio of the money, is it the best way possible that you guys do?

Corruption is an English word and I cannot say that it does not exist. However, we will never condone it. We are embarking on massive projects all over the State. For example, the Mende – Ojota link Bridge is about a 58 Billion naira project! Please let me explain the problem and give you specific examples. When I was Commissioner for Works, people say, ‘when you are doing road in Lagos it is more expensive than Ghana and other places.’ It will be because Lagos is on average 2 meters below Sea level. When we were constructing the LagosBadagry expressway. We implemented it in phases from Mazamaza to Okokomaiko, we required 1.8 Million cubic metres of sand, given that a tipper when fully loaded is 5m3; it means you require 360,000 tippers full of sharp sand just to get to level for concrete base and asphalting. You know the logistics of getting that together since the sandmining Unions in Ogun State will not even encourage Lagos sand tippers to come to Ogun State without understanding. So, there are structural challenges that need to be talked about.  I am a politician but I did that by choice, I had a PHD at the age of 27. I worked with Morgan Stanley as the head of IT, managing trading trade, the trading floor was doing 1,7 trillion dollars a day. That is in volume. We manage the IT asset that allows the traders to conduct their trade. I know a lot of Nigerians are doing great things outside of the country. So why are we struggling in our land? We must resolve relevant structural issues without being unnecessarily toxic in our relationship.

Why haven’t you used that technology to battle corruption? Do you admit there is corruption in Lagos?

I can’t say that. Every day we battle this, and everyday people lose their jobs. We have closed a lot of loopholes due to automation. It is a moving target, and we can never be satisfied until we rid the system of all corrupt practices.

I would like you to talk to us about the visit to the Ajumogobia family, which is an indication of the failure of security. I used to sit on the board of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund. We had a vigilante group at that time. Neighbourhood Watch came later. I’ll like you to talk us through. And then the visit to Onyenka Owenu to assure Igbos in Lagos that they are safe in the State that they also helped to build. Instead of people telling them to either jump into the Atlantic or leave Lagos because Lagos belongs to all of us.

The state Government is saying we still have free maternity, you will get free rice, free Indomie or  Ounje Eko  as the Governor said, but in spite of Ounje Eko, people still gather at Ojota. Is there something else that the state government needs to do to reassure the people?

The visit to the Ajumogobia family is not something I really need to talk about on the TV; people are mourning, but the fact is that these are house helps, people working with her in the house; fortunately, the three of them have been apprehended, and I am sure the law will take its cause. This is a very unfortunate incident. A young, beautiful doctor was just murdered just like that.

On the issue of the Igbos, when we visited the Onyeka family, people don’t know that the husband is a Yoruba man and the children are Ogunlendes. Like we said, people just hide under whatever and just put something on social media. Like you also commented, the Governor has condemned it; even in the speech of the President he condemned ethnic bigotry. The reality is that some people are just social media tigers. Also, DSS is working on it; hopefully they will fish them out very soon and they will have their day in court, and the court will decide what needs to happen.

On the issue of Ounje Eko, it is successful, but from our survey and feedback, what people said is that they prefer the 25 percent discount food, based on what we have done. I know we were giving out free food; the challenge is distribution. We have gone through religious bodies, CDAs, and CDCs, and some people feel that we are still missing out on getting to all that is needed in terms of people getting food. We have used different channels, and we keep changing them. People say they prefer the 25 percent discount market. We worked with aggregators and others in the ecosystem so that producers can bring all sorts of food to the market. To prevent any corruption, we don’t exchange cash; payment is made through the POS and other mobile channels, and the and the government pays 25 percent to the seller behind the scenes. Based on the survey, people prefer this approach, and we will start again in the 57 markets very soon. However, we have to wait and let this protest fizzle out. Then we start and make sure that people get that discount.

In terms of dialogue which is one of the things that the young people who came out to protest had talked about, in fact it’s often said that protest is the voice of the voiceless. And just recently, the Lagos State Government released more channels for engagement. I would like for you to tell us how you hope to further engage with young people in the state  to ensure that there are open channels of communication and to get feedback from the people to address. Second, in terms of arrests made, in the UK we see what’s happening there, how underlying ethnic tensions can balloon just by one trigger, and some people are concerned with Lagos State. So far, so good, Lagos State has been a melting pot of different cultures around Nigeria, living peacefully. All of a sudden, it seems like they are now dividing along ethnic lines. We saw someone threatening Iya Chukwudi sometime last year, and we have seen theatrics like that with faces being shown beyond speaking and condemning it. What are the extra steps and measures to ensure that Lagos continues to ensure ethnic peace?

Iya Chukwudi also came out and said he is my friend; “we were just joking” when she was engaged.  So, what do you do if somebody says, ‘he is my friend?’ However, the bottom line is: let us all have cool public commentary; the way we talk, we all need to be calm. When every action that you take is weaponized, it becomes a problem, and we are indirectly encouraging people to do the wrong things. That is where I am starting from. Let’s all calm things down, and it starts with the way we do our elections, how we talk about it, and how we compare ourselves with other nations around the world. It just does not make sense because we are all different nations and our methodologies are different.

We are one of the nations conducting monolithic elections; the ballot paper in Lagos is the same as that used in Kaura Namoda, in Aba, and others; that’s not what happens in the USA or India. In the UK, which is parliamentary, ballots are therefore counted and tallied at various constituencies. You know how everyone was busy abusing and cursing out the INEC chairman, and we did not say this was wrong. A lot of people are now scared to take up assignments when they know that if I give my best, they will not be appreciated. In fact, they will be maligned and abused unjustly.

We have invited various people with records of accomplishment. During cabinet formation, we called some people and they said, ‘No, I am ok.’ I love to, but we have all created an unbelievably toxic environment. So if we devalue the system, such that men of honour avoid these assignments, we will allow charlatans to take over our space. This is what we see, and you must notice what is happening around the world. The whole world is now an angry space, and you can see the right wing is defining the political space. Look at the narrative in England. It is because the right wing twisted the whole thing, leading to misinformation. More importantly, for us as people, let’s all calm down our rhetoric. The environment is toxic.

Recall that after ENDSARS, everyone says, Let bygone be bygone; let us not arrest people; let us call people and dialogue. It was agreed that we should set up a panel of inquiry, which we did. About the hatred on our Igbo brothers and sisters, like I said, investigation is ongoing, hopefully, this protest will not be long lasting, the police are all focused on the protests now. Hopefully, the DSS and other security institutions will do what they need to do and get those responsible. Sometimes, some of these people are not even Nigerians because the social media space is not necessarily locality-based or confined.

I applaud the governor for the media parley. I don’t know when the next one will be happening to open lines of communication because we want to prevent protests. We don’t want people to come out because they are feeling aggrieved, so one of the key things they have asked for is dialogue, that their voices ought to be heard.

We do that in our various communities. Every 100 days we go around the State, it’s just probably not on television, but we go around. For example, I just told you we were in Epe two Fridays ago. Our royal fathers, market women, artisans, and everybody else were there talking about complaints and needs. We were able to explain why we are able to only accomplish two out of five requests. We have to explain to them how we set priorities. The reasons why we cannot do roads A and B at the same time.

And then we also engage the youth. As a matter of fact, about 10 youth leaders were sponsored to Finland to go and see how things are done. Let me give you another example. When we wanted to modernise our abattoirs, some of our workers who are Muslims disagreed with us and said that they could not slaughter cows this way. I was there, and I explained that I am a Muslim; there is nothing unislamic about it. We took them to Kenya, where they saw that Muslims are doing exactly that. We go round different sectors to talk to people and say we want to do this. You might think it’s not okay. When we were to build the BRT and bring in the Blue buses, some of our unionists were against it. We took them to Bogota in Columbia, and they were able to learn from that system. In essence, we were able to show that this can be turned into a sustainable business that generations can benefit from and that commuters will also benefit from using safer and cleaner transportation. The important point I am stressing is that we continuously engage with our people at different levels.

Health care means a lot to me; health insurance in Lagos. Can you tell us the millions of Lagosians you have on the Health Insurance. How much allocation is put into it? The state of some of the hospitals you have and what can we do to bolster the health care sector in Lagos State?

As regards the healthcare sector, the challenge is that we must have a pool of money in order to run health insurance. We have 27 general hospitals,  377 PHCs, and 57 are flagship, which means they run 24/7. They are in the best shape, have adequate doctors, and have adequate facilities. However, there are some that open only for 8 hours. Then we have LASUTH, which is an APEX health facility. Part of the problem is that we are not using a referral system. What happens is that when I have malaria, instead of going to my PHC or general hospital, everybody goes to LASUTH. We need to change the structure and get to a referral system. Also, if you go to Orile Agege General Hospital, as I am speaking today, about 28 percent of the people there will come from Ogun State, which is okay, but it also means they don’t know the number of people they will deal with. Even when we have LASSRA identification numbers, it is not helpful because you must treat everyone that is sick. It is a challenge for us. We have five burns centres, but we go to other states to bring people. What are we supposed to do? We will not let people die. We are all Nigerians. The challenge is the number of people that come to Lagos, which makes it difficult for us to manage; it just keeps increasing. As I said earlier, what you can’t measure is difficult to manage. But what we are doing is, we are expanding our various health facilities, like the Massey Children’s Hospital. Part of what we found out is that the number of people coming to those hospitals is bursting through the seams even though we have decentralised. That was why years back we started building the MCC maternal child centres. We have about 11 of them now, including in Ikorodu, Amuwo Odofin, Ogombo, Badagry, etc., so that we can free Massey Hospital and Ayinke House. It helps save our pregnant women and reduce traffic on the road. 

These pools of funds you said we need for health insurance for 2 million people, how much is it and how much is the Government putting in now? Talk to your people because your constituents are looking at you now. Is there a chance for people to do counterpart funding?

I don’t know the amount; it started about four or five years ago when we started the pilot in Ketu. To say, let’s even see the number, as the last count was about 800,000 people, but the target is about 6 million. Hopefully, with the new law and the executive order signed by the Governor, everybody, both private and public sector, will aggressively pursue insurance, and we can now use it to expand. Another issue is that we want to stop wholesomely buying equipment for our hospitals; it might be better to lease them so that it is better managed by the OEMS when there are breakdowns and easily replaced when there are newer models.

Let me ask you personal questions. You said you grew up in Kano; do you speak the language?

Well, I used to go there on vacation to see my parents, but I lived and schooled in Lagos. I speak elementary Hausa.

 Governor Sanwo-Olu has spent one year in the 2nd term; he has achieved this dream. In Lagos, as elsewhere, we are looking at the 2027 general elections. What is your plan? Are you also going to show interest, having served more than enough as deputy governor? Because what I hear is that MC Oluomo is also interested; in fact,  Sego may also become Governor of Lagos State if other people don’t show interest. Are you going to yield fields to MC Oluomo and Sego, or will you be interested? What is your future plan?

I have seen political calculations with some people going around. I grew up in a political family; my father was the secretary of Action Group in 1962. I was not even born then, in what is now Mushin and Odi Olowo. So I understand a bit of politics, but I think it is too early in my view. People voted for us, and I was on the ballot with the Governor for a 4-year term. We have done one year, but there are issues. I think it will be very wrong and disrespectful in my view to the citizens to say that in 3 years time, I’ll be running. I don’t know. May God preserve our lives. At the right time, consultations will take place, and we shall see. As a State Government, what we are doing now is carrying out surveys; where are the areas where we are lacking? Mr. Rufai just mentioned the lack of potable water. He is absolutely right. The survey clearly shows that, so what do we need to do? Reticulation from Adiyan a! runs into hundreds of billions. How do we finance it? So we are working to see how we can get the private sector into the equation and build a sustainable way of providing water for our people. We are looking at issues that bother our State to finish the Blue Line from Orile to Okokomaiko, the last phase is cost to the tune of N380 billion or so. To connect the Red-line, that is what we are looking at. How do we solve these issues and make lives more livable for our people? When it is time for politics, we will see what our Party and people say to us as acceptable to the citizens of Lagos.

Lagos is collaborating with Ogun State, how about the 4th Mainland Bridge?

We have done all the paperwork; it was designed to be executed through the PPP model. Eighteen (18) companies showed interest; we have CCECC the  preferred bidder, a Portuguese company, as the reserved bidder. The challenge is that the costing is very high, and as a start, we have to contribute a huge amount. We have to decide, as a government, whether we want to do that now. Is it better for us to finish the Blue Line and Red Line or borrow to start the 4th Mainland Bridge? We must be mindful of the borrowing threshold. As stated, we have been given all the data. In the next 2–3 months, we need to sit down and look at all the data and decide what we want to do because it involves us actually taking some loans. With the value of the Naira now vis-à-vis the dollar, we have some hard decisions to make, and then we will decide and explain to Lagosians what we think is the appropriate thing for us to do.

We have looked at water, health, and infrastructure, things that are key to Lagosians. Roads are also prevalent, especially during the rainy season. We see potholes that should not be found in a cosmopolitan city like Lagos State. What is your Government doing in terms of fixing roads to avoid accidents on our roads? The second aspect is also the street. I don’t know if you have noticed, but in Lagos State, we have more people sleeping on the street. Perhaps it is an indication of the poverty level that people are facing right now., the street beggars; how are we hoping to fix the situation. Finally, businesses, especially small businesses, are a big factor in the economy of Lagos State. What are the plans? I know we talk about interventions from the Federal Government for small businesses, but what is the State doing?

For roads,  I stated earlier, we have a Public Works that was destroyed. For Public Works activities, we have about 42 gangs; we have about 17 in each gang, and they work all over the State. Lagos has three asphalt plants in Ikeja (Ojudu), Badagry, and Ikorodu. The essence is to prevent carrying asphalt all over the state so that the asphalt doesn’t cake. We have those plants that we have invested in; the gangs go around just to patch roads; the destruction happened and set us back. Thankfully, we have fixed the facilities. We were at an 80–90% level before the ENDSARS destruction, which brought us down to about 40% performance. So actions do have consequences. In terms of what we are doing concerning roads, take any Local Government from Alimosho; we are doing ljagemo Road, and these are areas considered to be inter-lands (a bit rural). You probably don’t know the place. Abaranje in Igando; we are all over the State, from Demuren Street in Ketu to Hospital Road in Badagry. Buba Marwa in Ojo, Oba Fadaini in Apapa—we are active all over the State. We are doing a whole lot. Please recall that in doing roads, we are also moving water, that is the challenge, for Fadaini in Apapa, for example, the drain is about 3 meters that is because it has connection with one of our channels; so we must make sure we also move the needed volume of water, so such project will take longer than a typical road because we must be able to make sure it is able to move the volume of water coming from Kirikiri, it is like a monster, we must make sure we do the right roads at the right time, meaning if road A discharges into road B, you must do A before B else A will discharge  into B and flush it away, we try to do this managing water flow, vehicular density on the road before selection based on funds. I recall vividly as Commissioner for Works, the Ministry of Works presented a budget, then during BRFs 2nd term, to the tune of 650 billion. That was what we took to the Ministry of Budget and Planning, but we realized that we must prioritise because, at the time, the whole State budget was less than that amount. So, our resources might not be able to cover everything, but we are moving things upward. Another challenge for Lagos roads is that we have 112 per square kilometer in terms of vehicular density; the national average is 11, which means we will have congestion ab initio. Please recall that roads are designed with a wearing course, so it wears off from Day 1. That’s the way roads are designed. So because of the axle load in Lagos, it is a miracle that a lot of our roads actually last this long.

As per people sleeping on the street, it is a function of migration; people are just coming to Lagos, and it can be explained because of insurgencies in some parts of the country. Tell me, what do we do? Will you put them in prison? What we do is we have areas where we can take them to, but interestingly, two nights ago, we took some people off the street to court and then to shelter because you can’t just detain people. There is a limit to how long you can keep people by law. You will recall that some of those people taking off the street were trained and given stipends, and based on their requests, they were taken back to Osun. You saw the reactions from some politicians who have no knowledge of what we have done to assist these individuals. It was weaponized. But we will keep doing what we believe is right.

Land titles in Lagos, people bought properties that were revoked because they were built on drainage; they said they did not know initially; the land title gamut in Lagos how do we settle it out so we don’t have a crisis of people crying and all of that because their land is revoked? Also, concerning drainage, someone just sent me a message about Kusenla Street and others. I know the Commissioner had come to talk extensively about drainage, but when there is an outpouring of rain, it becomes something else. What can we do about the drainage system?

An effective drainage system actually starts from our kitchens; the majority of our drainage is actually okay. The problem is clogging, which is why we are looking at bringing back monthly environmental sanitation. You really need to know the amount expended every month just cleaning out our drain. It is, therefore, important that we take care of our waste from the kitchen. We have effective systems to drain our State effectively. We must also, as a people, be mindful of the need to have a cleaner environment. Climate change is real, and as such, we are not immune from the flooding that is rampaging in the Philippines, China, Houston, and Texas.

But people complain that the PSP guys that come to clear up the waste are not as regular as before.

The PSP is a private arrangement, but we subsidise it; a lot of areas also do not pay them, so they withdraw. The challenge also is where to take the garbage. We are recycling and, importantly, we must also sort. If you don’t sort, recycling is expensive; if you sort degradables, plastics, and the rest, it makes it easier. All of us must get involved. That is why we give people nylon if you sort from your kitchen. We have six systems, which is a collection of channels. A system runs, say, all the way from Agege through Acme, and it discharges at Odo Ashimowu, which is about 18 kilometres. Therefore,  the problem is that nothing must clog it; the moment an area is clogged, we will be in trouble.

Land Titles: Land is extremely important for us as a people, like I said earlier, not just in Lagos. On a general basis, this is important for us as Africans. For example, in Ethiopia, 89 percent of land are not titled; we have the same problem in Nigeria. Our challenge is that when you and I want to buy land, we don’t do the right thing. We must first get information about the land and what this land is meant for. In terms of usage it is free to get these details from the Lands Bureau. We have relevant details on our website, which is www.lagosstate.gov.ng You will find enormous amounts of information on our website.

The Sanwo-Olu Government seems to be doing everything, from transportation to roads to Ounje Eko. What would you say are the three major priorities that this administration will like to be remembered for? What are the legacy issues that the administration is focusing on? Because people will not remember Ounje Eko, but they will remember certain concrete legacy issues. What will these legacies be?

Number one is transportation infrastructure; we are the only city with this size of population that did not have rail infrastructure before now. Also, we are the only city or state, the only sub – sovereign that built such infrastructure on our balance sheet. In other parts of the world, it is the federal, state, and local governments that build these rails in metro cities. That’s why it took some time for us to build it. People have compared us to other climes. As I explained, we are doing this on our balance sheet. These are expensive infrastructure. While  constructing the Marina section to Orile, we had to pile hundreds of miles down. These are thousands of piles. That is pouring concrete down in a structured way. So it was expensive. Finishing the Blue and Red line is our target. Let’s be able to move our people. So imagine moving from Marina to Agege in 27 minutes; that is a winner. The other is also water transportation; we just built 15 (40-seater) ferries in Lagos. It was delayed because we wanted to build these ferries in Lagos to also make sure that our people and the private sector participate, to create employment and wealth for our people locally. Now, instead of moving 70,000 per month, we are moving about 280,000 per month on water. So, we are improving, we are building jetties, and so on. Our hope is to continue to facilitate inter-model transportation whereby people will travel by rail, water, and road. We have optimised the payment process. We have four million Lagosians carrying the Cowry card today. So, if you are able to enter a bus, get down, and enter a ferry or rail, that will be something for us that will change the dynamics of our state. That is a game changer in terms of business and people moving across the State.

The other one is Agriculture. Because we don’t have land, we stand on four pillars for agriculture, and that is to improve the local development of agriculture. In Badagry today, we are producing enough tomatoes to supply 25% of what we consume in Lagos. Our challenge is how do we make sure that we get the logistics right? So what we found out is that people actually go to Badagry, buy at say N7,000, and then sell out there at 27,000. So we are producing a sizable amount in Lagos through the assistance we are giving to our people. We just have to get the movement right so that our people get the price benefit. At Araga, we are actually cultivating 2 hectares of land for rice to make sure they plant rice. We are encouraging local production, but we don’t have the land. The other is partnerships with other states. Lagos now has 3,000 hectares of land in Ogun State; after all,  people come here to build their houses, and we can go there to do our farming. We have 500 hectares in Abuja now, and we are going there to do all sorts of farming.

The fourth one is the logistics hub for us in Lagos, because we consume a lot of food in Lagos. We are building the biggest logistics hub in Imota, and what that means is that we can store dry and wet food, and we can store heads of cattle. Lagos slaughters about 3,000 heads of cows on a daily basis. Where are these cows coming from? Our veterinary doctors are there at our abattoirs, and they do check for diseases and take out any affected animals, but we want to go further. We want to be able to trace any diseases to know this came from this state. Therefore, stop getting it from that State until the issues are rectified. That way, we are sure of what comes in from where and what time.

What that does for us is that it allows us to remove the middlemen. The biggest challenge for us, in terms of price escalation, is the middlemen; because there will be a trading room, which allows consumers to get the benefits of price reduction directly.

We are also building small shops, like the one in Mushin; we are building five now in Ajah, Amuwo Odofin,Agege, Ikorodu and some other places. Hopefully, before the end of the year, 3–4 of them will be finished. So when we build those stores across our states, people like you and I can go and buy your food, and you know that it’s better and what that does for even the trader. In Mushin, for example, it used to be a plantain store, where people sold plantains. Today, the price of transportation has reduced by 40% because they come together, so logistics costs are reduced, so you can get it cheaper to make sure that consumers can buy easily, that is, in terms of food.

Then we want to be the human capital of the world, which is why it is strategic for us to increase our University from one to three. Now we have the University of Science and Technology and the University of Education. Additionally, we are building the University of Medicine and Basic Sciences. As you know, people will Japa, that is fine, but we must improve our training pipeline. I have no problem with that; people can move around. Today, LASUCOM, which is our medical school, produces about 150 doctors yearly. We want to turn that to a thousand.

Dr. Abati asked for three, but you have given us like 10. The taste of the pudding is in the eating; many promises; we are really hopeful that we will see it. 

I would like to invite you on a visit. These are not just promises or futuristic ideas. We are already building a mental health hospital, a huge one in Ketu Ejirin, as another example of new infrastructure.

You are having challenges with paddy in Imota rice mill, how are you solving that?

As you know, farmers are having challenges up North and, as such, we are not getting enough paddy, based on the agreement that was signed with prospective farmers. That today has limited our production capacity down to, I think, about 38 percent or so. However, that is a temporary challenge as we are working on getting alternatives that will take the plant back to its usual 99 percent capacity.