Fashola: Time to walk the talk

For various reasons, Nigerians, especially those in Lagos, reacted differently to the appointment of Babatunde Fashola as Nigeria’s new minister of power, works and housing.

To some people, Fashola’s emergence as a preferred bride in President Buhari’s cabinet is a triumph of the forces of light over those of darkness who, through overt and covert means, tried to stop him. To others, who described him as the true face of the Buhari change mantra, Minister Fashola is a Daniel-come-to-judgment, coming from the hindsight of his exploits as the governor of Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous, most complex and most challenging state, where he did real surgical operation on its infrastructure and environment.

In many areas including power, works/infrastructure and housing which Fashola is now superintending, Nigeria is in the negative superlative and this is not difficult to understand given its less than 5,000 megawatts of electricity generation for a population of 170 million people; 17 million housing deficit with a little above 10 percent homeownership level, and the worst infrastructure base that requires trillions of naira to develop.

For this and more, we believe that Fashola has his work already cut out for him and our commendation of his appointment comes with high expectation that he will walk his talk on these critical areas which, it is believed, are the engines of growth in any economy, especially in a fledgling one like ours.

It is as interesting as it is thought-provoking to recall that while he served as governor of Lagos, at any given opportunity Fashola took the Federal Government to task on fixing the nation’s decaying power and roads infrastructure, saying it was no rocket science to provide power or build infrastructure.

We recall also that Fashola consistently blamed the deterioration of Apapa and its environs, and the collapsed infrastructure especially in Lagos, on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government which, he said, lacked the vision and capacity to transform Nigeria.

The former governor who was quite vociferous and forceful in his party’s ‘change campaign’ seized every opportunity also to address the business community, residents and other stakeholders and assured them that “a vote for Muhammadu Buhari is a vote to change Apapa”.

It is sad to note that Apapa, Nigeria’s port city once described as an aquatic splendour, is today a wasteland with suffocating and degraded environment reeking of putrid odour from unwholesome activities of trailers, tankers and human elements urinating and defecating on every available space. And this, regrettably, is a place from where the Federal Government rakes in over N1 trillion annually!

When Fashola said it was no rocket science to do some of the things the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan failed to do, we believed him because there was an Oshodi in Lagos, a central part of the city that was notorious not only for its legendary squalor, but also for its brazen insecurity. It took a Fashola to create what is there today as a New Oshodi with streetlights, paved walkways, criss-crossing pedestrian bridges and a Heritage Park that today adds to the state’s revenue as fun-seekers troop to the place and pay for recreation and relaxation.

Now that Fashola has all it takes as ‘the Federal Government’, it is safe to say that time has come for him to walk the talk on Apapa. He understands the problem and also knows the terrain so well, but to serve as a reminder, we make bold to tell the minister that his work in this revenue-spinning area begins with completing the almost 1,000-capacity trailer park which the past administration started but abandoned.

It is also time for Fashola to walk the talk on the country’s roads infrastructure and, for some strategic reasons, he should immediately initiative moves towards Federal Government’s takeover of the reconstruction and expansion of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway which he started as governor of Lagos.

The strategic importance of the expressway as an opener for inter-regional trade between Nigeria and other countries of the West Coast cannot be over-emphasised and we believe that its early completion and delivery will not only boost investment in that corridor, but also grow the economy and improve the country’s bilateral relations with its neighbours.