On June 25, 1965, a bundle of joy arrived Lagos Island. Clocking 58 years on mother earth today, the gentle, soft-spoken, easy going but intelligently brilliant ebony black guy is to say the least, a humility personified. Having serving his father land across several phases of human endeavours, God has capped his remarkable impact on humanity with the enviable gubernatorial crown in Lagos where he has continued to move forward unrelenting with more meritorious services to humanity.
It is however gratifying to realise that all his efforts as a private citizen and public servant have never gone unnoticed. Hence the local, national and global accolades being showered on him. In addition, the uncountable number of Awards for landmark achievements and outstanding performance in office being honoured with by private and public sectors has been further testimony that, he is being watched and monitored across the globe. The media community is not left out in the genuine scramble to add Sanwo-Olu to the list of their awardees. Genuine scramble in the sense that, our secrete agents discovered that, unlike other pretenders, Sanwo-Olu, either directly or through proxy never lobby for any of the Awards. This means he earned the respect of those award givers through his dogged determination to make a great difference in the lives of the Nigerian and global citizenry.
It is worth recalling that, before Sanwo-Olu’s advent in 2019, it is on record that, some doubting Thomasses were apprehensive the All Progressives Congress (APC), under their National Leader and the current President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has foisted a green horn of the good people of Lagos State! But, just as he did in the case of Babajide Raji Fashola (SAN), in 2007, Asiwaju Tinubu proved again that he knows the quality his disciples possess. Fashola came and proved his mettles beyond a reasonable doubt that, his boss, Tinubu made the right choice. And till today, BRF has become a reference point of governance.
In the same vein, the stage Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (BOS), has reached and still moving and progressing in rapidmomentum, another reference point in good governance is already in the making.
At this juncture, it would suffice to mention one or two areas where, if not Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State, albeit, the whole country of Nigeria, the entire Continent of Africa as well as the world entirely would have suffered global epidemic disaster of an unimaginable and unprecedented proportion. And thankfully, God has blessed humanity with someone He in His infinite mercy has divinely prepared to be our saviour. When the COVID-19 descended on the world unannounced, not a few countries, even from the highly advanced nations were found wanting as they suffered heavy casualities. And in that situasion, who would not think that, a country like Nigeria would not have been wiped out?!
But the situation brought the best out of today’s birthday celebrant, His Excellency, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, the Executive Governor of Lagos State who tackled the monster with uncommon war strategies since the pandemic was also an unconventional war. No wonder then that the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) commended Sanwo-Olu on that singular act of bravery and uncommon feat.
We saw Sanwo-Olu’s feat on COVID-19 coming when we members of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance under my leadership commended him for the swift way he handled the first case of the murderous pandemic.
Let us recall the whole country was in panic mood when the news of an Italian suspected to have been infected by the dreaded disease went viral thereby causing confusion among the populace which was doused by the swift intervention of the Lagos State government under the able leadership of today’s birthday celebrant. We praised Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration for its foresight and preparedness for the global menace because only a responsible and responsive administrator can put on ground, such medical equipment to safeguard his people in the state and the whole of Nigerians. He achieved the feat through free flow of information that gave the residents more confidence in his administration. In short, his performance during the global confusion gave him the title of ‘Incident Commander’ and happily, he lived to his bidding as the man in charge.
In the Awards angle, mention could be made of his nomination alongside top Africa leaders by Health, Environment and Safety (HSE), Professionals/Practitioners for the Africa Safety Award for Excellence (AfriSAFE) 2020 ICON of the year.
The awardees, according to the Chairman, AfriSAFE Board of Governors, Rear Admiral S. A. Olukoya, were nominated for being proactive in Africa’s quest for survival in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged the whole of the world.
Additionally, the Chief Coordinator of AfriSAFE, Femi Da-Silva also disclosed that the nominees were people identified to have exhibited a high degree of leadership who were able to implement strategies that helped to reduce the negative impact of the deadly virus.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu is also a recipient of the Political Brand Icon of the Year Award at the 18th Anniversary of the Marketing Edge Brands and Advertising Awards of Excellence held at D’podium International Event Centre, Ikeja, where he was conferred with the award by the Board of “Marketing Edge,”, Nigeria’s leading brand and marketing publication, in recognition of his sterling performance in the management of COVID-19, infrastructure renewal, health sector reforms as well as his laudable strides in empowerment, education and security among others.
In the media world, the governor was also honoured with the Vanguard Personality of the year Award which we described as a befitting and deserving honour to the right person.
In fact, in other spheres of performance, we have lost count. To say the least, Sanwo-Olu to us can be likened to the case of Japan. Japan has suffered Atomic crisis twice. It was a very sad s experience because the danger for any country to experience atomic crisis twice . But Japan survived and took a short cut to development. And here they are today. For you to mention 10 biggest economies in the world today, Japan would be one of such countries. When you want to gauge the quality of life in the world, Japan is number one. So, many things like that.
The same thing applies to Sanwo-Olu. He has genuine excuses to offer if he has not been a born performer. It is tenable for him to say, my non-performance is borne out of what my administration has passed through. It is amazing that he came out of COVID-19 pandemic neatly. He also came out of the inglorious #EndSARS imbroglio unscratched. The universal and global economic recession that wrecked some other countries across the world, one would not know how Sanwo-Olu got the knowledge he deployed into moving the state forward.
The last count, when we tabulated his achievement, the performance is so huge it is sufficient for two governors that served eight years each in office to grandstand that they have done well in office. When he came into office in 2019, within two weeks, he increased the number of the staff buses at Alausa seat of power. He brought the rail lines that had been the dream of all Lagosians in the last 25 years on board. And the BRT buses, the types being used in European countries were bought for the comfort of the good people of the state. The list is endless. Remember we have not mentioned several boats that ply our waterways.
And if we look at the economy of Lagos, you would wonder where Sanwo-Olu got the magic from. It is so buoyant that, Lagos as just a state in Nigeria ranks with other countries in Africa in terms of tabulation and Lagos became fifth economy in Africa under Sanwo-Olu’s leadership.
The role played by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (1999-2007) and Babatunde Raji Fasshola (SAN), 2007 -2015, to get the state where it is today, we have to commend Sanwo-Olu for being a good manager who has managed the successes of the two aforementioned previous Governors in such a manner. He also improved on their success so much that the economy of the state has tremendously increased and improved.
And if you start tabulating Sanwo-Olu’s achievements from, I, 2, 3, 4, 5 …, you will get to a point where you would be tired of counting again. In fact, we have lost count of Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s achievements in the state. And that is why I said we have begun to lose count of his achievement in office since 2019 that he came in as the governor of the state.
And having studied the activities of Governor Sanwo-Olu since the beginning of his second term last month one can arrive at a conclusion that, he has been acting well his new status as the landlord of the new President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Since the removal of the oil subsidy, Sanwo-Olu’s conduct and the style of his administration have all along been at per with that of President Tinubu.
The mind of people of the state must have been put at rest now after realising that the special burden expected from the occasion of Tinubu, his boss becoming his tenant is being handled with expertise and finesse he is known for. Sanwo-Olu has been handling matters like President Tinubu who has convinced even the doubting Thomases that he was prepared for the job he aspired to do. Palliative measures being put in place by President Tinubu and the soothing balm being applied by Sanwo-Olu to cushion the hard effect the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy could have on the citizenry are identical. Tinubu promised review of workers’ salary and in the same vein, Sanwo-Olu is also pushing the idea of salary increase in Lagos Stae.
So, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu is trail blazer because his latest activities that compliment President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s efforts at alleviating the effect of the subsidy removal has confirmed that he is maintaining his trail blazer status.
The upward reviewing of workers’ take home pay like the Federal Government of Tinubu was never Sanwo-Olu’s first. The same thing he did when the Federal Government announced N30,000 as minimum wage for workers and Sanwo-Olu upped minimum wage of Lagos workers to N35, 000.”
Additionally, he also flooded the workers routes with staff busses for ease of their movement from home to their offices and back home. With that step, Sanwo-Olu has further proved to the Lagos people especially the work force that he is a responsible and responsive administrator who understands the yearnings of the populace and appreciates the sacrifices of the citizenry.
Sanwo-Olu’s performance was perfectly in line with what Mr President is doing at the Federal level calling the public attention to Tinubu’s promise to review workers’ salary to keep them afloat of the difficulty the removal of the oil subsidy might have caused in addition to the promise of other palliatives he made to cushion the economic effect the removal would have on the citizenry.
Though, other states that reduced the number of working days in a week also did well, however their efforts are trailing behind Sanwo-Olu of Lagos whose every step puts into consideration the fact that Lagos houses greater percentage of Nigerians and so deserves special treatment.
Sanwo-Olu has vindicated us on our stand that We have said it times without number that he would be equal to the task of handling special and additional burdens of being the Landlord to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the person of his boss, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Right now, he has successfully passed the first challenge the President threw at him in the name of fuel subsidy withdrawal.
Sanwo-Olu’s performance must have let the people especially from the opposition side see what we saw in him before we insisted in supporting him for a second term in office. They must have been convinced beyond reasonable doubt that, Lagos people voted rightly for the right candidate of the right party in March during the governorship poll.
We thank God that, Sanwo-Olu’s past and present performances have vindicated us that we were for the people and not after pecuniary gains. What would have been our lot now if green horns, political up starters, street comedians and palace jesters were allowed to have access to the Alausa Government House?!
Against the above backdrop, we of the Civil Society Organizations (CSO), and members of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance in particular hereby congratulate the Incident Commander, Award Winner and the Trail Blazer of our time, Happy 58th Birth Day, wish him many happy returns of the day in good health, long life in the service of fatherland and humanity.
Comrade Razaq Olokoba, a Chartered Public Administrator (CPA), member, Nigeria Institute of Management (MNIM), Security Consultant and the Convener/National President of the Campaign for Dignity in Governance (CDG),writes in from Ikoyi, Lagos State.
