Despite the catalogue of challenges he inherited, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has, in 600 days, introduced a swath of policies and programmes that has reinforced Lagosians’ faith in government again, and in his competence and commitment to getting the state working optimally.
The civil service is the bedrock of good governance. This is an existential truism that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State abides by. Thus, as part of efforts to revive the culture of performance in the civil service, he launched a new knowledge-sharing platform that would ensure that the appointment of permanent secretaries will now be based on rigorous examination and interviews.
Governor Sanwo-Olu introduced the new rules at the launch of the knowledge-sharing platform tagged ‘A Disruptive S.H.i.F.T’ about eight months into his administration.
The event, organised by the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, was created to harness the creativity and innovativeness of civil servants to transform the state’s public service into a 21st Century workforce.
According to the governor, S.H.i.F.T, an acronym for Simple, High-Impact, interactive, Focused, Transformational, which entails that the reward system in the Lagos public service must be performance-based, was introduced to bring back the culture of commitment to work and provide an opportunity for those in the employment of the state to learn, unlearn and relearn for improved service delivery.
He urged civil servants to demonstrate a high-level commitment in their various areas of duty and be mentors to their colleagues in the lower cadre of service.
Similarly, the governor had, on the resumption of office, re-fleeted the Central Bus System (CBS), the body handling transport for civil servants, as almost all the buses being used to transport them were dilapidated. He donated 35 brand new Marco Polo buses on his first day at work. Weeks after, he approved the implementation of N35, 000 minimum wage for the state workers. Sanwo-Olu said that his government understood the day-to-day challenges being faced by workers in the state to do their tasks and that the agreement to pay the new minimum wage was predicated on the need to motivate and encourage them to cope with challenges that may hinder their productivity.
He said: “As a government, we take the issue of minimum wage very seriously. We know how important and germane it is to the wellbeing of our people. We are technically ready to implement the new minimum wage. However little it is, we will certainly pay more than the N30, 000 minimum wage. We understand the position Lagos occupies and we understand the challenges workers are facing in Lagos. If other states can rise to that amount, I believe Lagos needs to show a bit more to appreciate workers’ contribution to the growth of our state.”
These were deeply thoughtful quick-fixes and interventions that boosted the morale of the civil service particularly and laid the foundation for a seamless running of government under Sanwo-Olu. Also, one of the first things he did on his first day in office was to sign an Executive Order declaring an emergency on traffic management and transportation.
The state’s traffic management agency was authorised and empowered to operate two daily shifts to control traffic up to 11 pm. In keeping with his campaign promise to ease traffic gridlock along the Apapa-Oshodi corridor caused by illegal parking of trucks, the state government collaborated with the Federal Government by setting up a Taskforce to remove illegally parked trucks and restore discipline along the Apapa-Oshodi corridor.
Governor Sanwo-Olu followed this up by declaring a state of emergency on various dilapidated highways and carriages within the state and after the conclusion of deliberations with eight multi-national engineering firms, he declared the commencement of major construction works on the identified highways considered critical to the reduction of traffic congestion.
It was an announcement that threw Lagosians from Marina to Mowe, Banana Island to Badagry and everywhere in between into understandable elation. To complement the major construction work on the highway, the Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) promptly effected the repairs of 116 inner roads, which were in addition to over 200 roads already rehabilitated by the corporation.
As of January 2021, the LSPWC said that it was targeting the rehabilitation of 250 kilometres of roads across the state this year in addition to the 297 it repaired between 2019 and 2020. Ganiu Lawal, Assistant Director, Public Affairs of the LSPWC said that the pieces and patches of cumulative work done across the state in 2020 was a total of 90 kilometres and that the massive rehabilitation drive was to meet up with the state government’s vision of zero potholes and gridlock.
“We were able to finish about 297 roads since we started, and for last year, we covered a total of about 90kms of roads that is the cumulation of what we have done. And this year, the governor has given us a directive that we must up our game and finish about 250kms. That is our target for this year, to do 250kms of road maintenance and rehabilitation,” Lawal said.
The need to restore the aesthetics of the environment and improve the health of residents led to the immediate upgrade of the waste management infrastructure to achieve efficient services in waste disposal and also to achieve a cleaner environment.
The capacity of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) was urgently improved upon to remove the heaps of waste that littered streets and highways, thereby, saving the state from an outbreak of an epidemic that could have resulted from the indiscriminate dumping of refuse by residents.
This effort was followed by the launch of the Blue Box Initiative, which would enable the state to create jobs and wealth from recyclable waste materials.
But it was in the area of managing the corona virus pandemic that the governor won the hearts of millions of Lagosians and Nigerians at large. As the Incident Commander of Lagos State, he was proactive and pragmatic and ubiquitous, daily communicating with Lagosians on what was being done and what had been done.
The number of cases rose within the month but Governor Sanwo-Olu kept the information channels open; when he was not addressing the populace personally, statements were being issued daily by his office. To break the cycle of transmission of the corona virus among residents, the governor directed civil servants from Grade Level 1 to 12 to stay off office for 14 days. The directive came two days after the state government shut down schools and suspended public gatherings of more than fifty persons following the confirmation of additional corona virus cases across the nation.
As the cases rose in Lagos, Governor Sanwo-Olu, in May, commissioned a 118-bed isolation and treatment centre at the Gbagada General Hospital. Coming at a time that the Nigerian Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) had complained of the inadequacy of spaces due to the spike in the number of confirmed cases in Lagos, the new centre was expected to absorb more Covid-19 patients and be manned by highly skilled volunteer health workers trained in infection prevention and control as well as COVID-19 case management.
On its part, the Guaranty Trust Bank Plc scored a major positive for Corporate Nigeria with the opening, late March, of a new 100-bed isolation centre in Onikan specifically built for the management of the growing cases of corona virus disease. The governor promised that the facility would go a long way in ensuring that those who contract the disease are given the best care possible whilst being isolated from the rest of the society to prevent further infections.
To cushion the effect of the 14-day stay-at-home directive of President Muhammadu Buhari, the governor unveiled an economic stimulus package for the indigent and the most vulnerable in the society using no fewer than 4,000 registered Community Development Associations (CDAs), nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and religious leaders to distribute the packages. The stimulus, which came in food packs, was distributed to every local government area in the state.
He said that the food packs, which were put together by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, reached the most vulnerable communities and households across Lagos; touched, at least, 200,000 households in the first phase; while the indigents who rely on daily wages were given priority in the arrangement.
The food packs, produced for a six-person household, was expected to last for at least 14 days. The Ministry of Agriculture also flagged-off the emergency neighbourhood food markets to address the problem associated with the restriction and prevent panic-buying following the closure of all markets and stores trading in non-essential commodities.
When the cessation of movement in Lagos, Ogun State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was extended, the state government introduced a bumper scheme to further cushion the effect of the lockdown. The new scheme came on the heels of the commencement of the second part of the Food Stimulus Packages distributed to 250,000 vulnerable residents.
Food kitchens were also opened in all the local government councils to provide one meal per day to 100,000 youths, as well as unconditional cash transfer to 250,000 vulnerable residents and economically challenged persons who registered with the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA).
Additionally, the governor granted three months moratorium to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Entrepreneurs who need to repay loans obtained from the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF). He also directed the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) and Task Force to release all private and commercial vehicles impounded from March 1, 2020, to April 14, 2020, for minor traffic offences.
The hands-on and omnipresent way Governor Sanwo-Olu tackled the COVID-19 outbreak in Lagos earned him plaudits from far and wide, notably, from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and chairman of the Presidential Taskforce for the Control of the Coronavirus, Mr. Boss Mustapha.
He hailed Governor Sanwo-Olu for his resoluteness in driving the efforts to flatten the curve of COVID-19 outbreak in the nation and the roles being played by Lagos to curtail the spread of the virus, which he said had raised the hopes of other states in winning the fight against the pandemic.
Mustapha spoke when he led members of the Task Force on working visits to major isolation facilities in Lagos recently. The 12-member team was personally received by Governor Sanwo-Olu at its first port of call, the 110-bed Isolation Facility in Onikan before they moved to other isolation centres across Lagos for inspection.
It did not come as any surprise, therefore, that many media organisations fell over themselves to honour the governor for how he has, so far, managed the corona virus pandemic. Noteworthy is the Nation newspaper, which honoured him with the Person of the Year Award “for the bravery, courage, and persistence of the smart and energetic Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who shouldered the City’s difficulties throughout the year like a giant.”