Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Monday said he will be glad to have a new Lagos which represents more adequately a mega city and also made it clear that he will be glad to see the yellow buses popularly known as ‘danfo’ gone.
He made this known at the 14th Annual Lecture of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) held at Muson Centre in Onikan with the theme: “Living Well Together, Tomorrow: The Challenge Of Africa’s Future Cities.”
In a clear-cut argument, the Lagos State governor calls for a more efficient, well-structured and world class mass transportation system that would facilitate ease of movement within the city, apparently being in agreement with what Director of Centre for African Economies, Oxford University, Professor Paul Collier, said earlier in his own speech about building mega cities for the future.
The governor, who said that the traffic jam at Oworonshoki had always been a concern to him even before he became a governor, also emphasized that he will be happy to wake up in the morning and see all Lagos yellow buses gone; adding “and then we claim we are a mega city, that is not true but we must first acknowledge that that is a faulty connectivity that we are running.”
He also added that Lagos must address the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease. For example, people going from Ikorodu to CMS have started leaving their cars at home because the buses are very convenient. He also said Lagosians can go to the capital market and then improve on the technology of collection of fares and that will encourage investors and then the city will change.
In his heartfelt remarks, he said that he looks to transform the face of Lagos by July 2017. This overhaul will also include massive reform in waste management system.
The number one person in Lagos State said that the way the city is not very encouraging but he said he cannot tax people to death.
“I don’t want to tax people and so we need this partnership with the private sector so that they can invest in the sanitation management of the city and in no time maybe by July, the city will change forever.”
The Governor, who recalled the massive infrastructures being put in place in critical sectors of the Lagos economy such as transport sector, road construction and rehabilitation, construction flyovers said the main objective of his administration remained the growth of the Lagos economy from 5th to 3rd largest economy in Africa.
According to the governor, the major issue with power had always been with transmission and advocated an embedded power initiative that would allow clusters of Independent Power Projects (IPP) to run the cities.
He concluded that Nigeria must be totally dedicate herself to infrastructure, security, job creation, power, adoption of technology as an enabler and driving investment through ease of doing business.
Other speakers at the event include CVL founder and renowned development expert, Professor Pat Utomi who doubles as the organizer of the event, Chairman of the occasion and former Governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, Director of Centre for African Economies, Oxford University, Professor Paul Collier, and representatives of Enugu, Anambra, and Edo States.
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