Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said that “Lagos is not a circus” nor a “tea party” but one that requires competent hands to direct its affairs.
Mr Sanwo-Olu stated this on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics in reaction to viability of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Olajide Adediran aka Jandor, and his running mate, Funke Akindele, an actress.
He said, “If you have an emergency at 3 am, who would you call, what are your chances? Will you call a man that has the experience that has gone through the trenches before, that lives with it, that understands what the issues are and that appreciates what challenge you have even at that 3am? Or will you leave your chance to a man who does not know where the dial is and does not know what the issue of governance is?
“This is Lagos, this is an informed audience. This is not a tea party. We are talking of real governance and the lives of over 20 million Nigerians bigger than the economy of Ghana or Kenya which is in itself a country. It is not a circus, it is a real thing and I don’t want to spite anyone because I have respect for all of the candidates that have emerged and the candidate of the particular party you are talking about.
“But how do you begin to start, what about his pedigree? You can’t run a business of 100 people but you want to run an economy. The governance of Lagos is not a trial and error, you need to hit the ground running. Lagosians have seen the experience and they will vote for a man that will roll up his sleeves to keep the city safe, the biggest and safest city, that provides opportunities for people, and that is Babajide Sanwo-Olu.”
Sanwo-Olu also explained that the state has psychologically recovered from the effects of the #EndSARS protests, but the infrastructural recovery would take a much longer time.
He added, “I can say that we have recovered psychologically, but we are still working out the infrastructural recovery because infrastructure is not something that you can finish in one day, so the infrastructural renewal is still an ongoing budgetary allocation. For example, regarding the major court in Lagos, the Igbosere High Court, we are planning a 15-storey edifice that will take about 60 courts at once. It will be an imposing structure we are bringing back and this will take time.”
Sanwo-Olu noted that he is not taking anybody or anything for granted and conversations are ongoing as to what the government is doing to improve lives.
