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By Hakeem Bello
Today Babatunde Raji Fashola , SAN turns fifty –two . It is his first birthday outside office as the Governor of Lagos State. Having really never been a loud person when it comes to celebrations , a thanksgiving prayer and his sustained private engagement with the less privileged would predictably be all to expect. However, being freshly out of office the occasion offers an opportunity to conduct a rapid overview of the momentous Fashola years in the service of the good people of Lagos.
Receiving the endorsement and backing of the symbol of the struggle to sustain the ethos of true federalism and then out going Governor of Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu whom he had served loyally as Chief of Staff, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN ran a most stimulating campaign. He was an underdog as an Action Congress governorship candidate in Lagos State in 2007, but Fashola started proving skeptics wrong almost as soon as he had been sworn in on May 29, 2007 as he started building on the foundation laid by Asiwaju Tinubu.
His inaugural speech that day laid out his areas of priority as the governor of the most populous state in Nigeria. He emphasized development of the human capital, free public education up to secondary school level and the refurbishment of the schools where the education was being provided, creation of jobs for the teeming mass of unemployed people, development of critical infrastructure such as road, rail and water transportation systems, the waging of a relentless war against crime, the deepening of the project of environmental rehabilitation, and commitment to the cause of justice and the rule of law, among others.
Of all the programmes he enumerated then, Babatunde Fashola ,SAN stressed his determination to change the attitude and orientation of the people of Lagos State towards rules and regulations and the enforcement of law and order. Fashola made it clear in his inauguration speech that for him to record any achievement during his tenure of office, it would be necessary to establish an administration that would be unmistakably committed to law and order. The areas in which Lagosians need re-orientation as he laid it down then would include sanitation habit, driving, property development, attitude to tax payment, and also to trading. He also made it clear that it would be impossible to realise a commitment to law and order without an effective agency for law enforcement and a highly motivated system of justice delivery.
In the absence of state police, Fashola knew that he would have to continue to work with the federal government-controlled Police Command. He therefore rallied the private sector and other critical stakeholders through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund to galvanize much needed resources that facilitated the re-invigoration of the Rapid Response Squad with sorely needed modern equipment for crime fighting from guns and ammunition to Armoured Personnel Carrier , Patrol vehicles, boats and even helicopters . The Emergency Toll Free lines 767 and 112 as well as the Command and Control Centre were also established.
He also caused the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) to recruit and train additional staff , procured more equipment for them and went ahead to facilitate the establishment of the Lagos State Special Traffic Mayors through which he consciously encouraged a policy of community involvement in traffic control and management. As I have earlier stated, Fashola was aware as well of the importance of a transparent system of justice dispensation. To ensure that the process of disposing cases brought before it is fast and fair, the administration approved a new welfare package for the judicial personnel, built and commissioned new court rooms and equipped them with modern facilities, and put in place a panel to review the procedural rules.
Now, it’s important not to create the impression that all that Babatunde Fashola and his team did in his determination to alter Lagosians’ attitude toward law and order as well as rules and regulations was to put in place an elaborate system of deterrence. An effective system of deterrence is important, to be sure, as the governor himself would state again and again. However, and in his thinking, it was more important to work on people’s minds and get them to accept on their own the importance of playing by the rules and obeying laid down regulations. In this regard, Fashola did a lot in different sectors and, I dare say, his achievements were monumental.
One major factor responsible for the high level of success was the power of the former governor’s personal example. Fashola repeatedly stressed it to all his officials, commissioners and aides that he who makes the law ought not to be seen breaking . Fashola was the first governor of Lagos State to reject the use of siren. As he argued, only ambulances, Fire Brigade vehicles and men and women of the Police Force who were on emergency mission need them. He also often insisted that at no time should any of the drivers in his convoy conduct himself in any way that could engender panic or fright in other road users. Fashola made punctuality at State Executive Council meetings mandatory for himself and other members. He wanted the people of Lagos State to imbibe the habit of voluntary compliance with the law and he made himself the epitome of what he preached.
But I should perhaps, at this point, direct attention to the issue of the considerable time and attention that Fashola and his administration devoted to getting Lagos drivers to begin to take traffic regulations seriously. Lagos traffic has always been challenging. As Governor Fashola himself puts it in his second inauguration speech, the conduct of drivers on the highway represents a barometer for gauging the collective mental health of a people. Because of the non-compliant attitude of drivers, traffic hiccups were common and avoidable accidents, regular.. Because of all this, and also because, to use his own words, “it nourishes street trading, hinders security personnel from effectively fighting crime and makes efficient and timely response of fire and medical services difficult when emergencies occur,” Governor Fashola considered it important to work on the attitude and orientation of drivers. It was to this end that a Drivers’ Education Institute was established in each of the five divisions of the state. The institute was charged with the purpose of training and re-training drivers on traffic signs, traffic rules and regulations and basic vehicle maintenance, among others. The Governor took a firm decision to check the habit of converting bridges and highways to bus stops and markets in addition to the enforcement of the reviewed State traffic law as passed by the House of Assembly .
Almost from his very first day in office, Fashola working with his team strove to change people’s attitude towards the payment of tax. In a speech delivered at a stakeholders forum on taxation in December 2007, he made clear his belief that the purpose of any government, “indeed its most legitimate reason for being there, is to secure the greatest good for the greatest number,” and he noted the readiness of his administration to take on the challenge and indeed “make a difference.” Having admitted this however, Fashola was quick to add that an administration can only fulfil this obligation only if it has the means. Public goods and services, as he went on to say, can only be procured with money or such other valuable means. Because such means are often scarce, governments all over the ages have always relied on money generated through tax to fund its activities and also carry out its duties towards the citizens. “Were it not for taxes,” Governor Fashola says, “there would be no governments, no law and order, no security and no public facilities.” He quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt, the former President of America who once contended that “taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”
But while regarding tax evasion as a crime, Fashola’s oft underscored position was that it should be possible to make people and corporate organizations take tax payment as an obligation and a duty; and in such a way that they will voluntarily comply with the regulations governing taxation. To this end, he regularly hosted what was termed the Stakeholders’ Forum on Taxation. In his addresses at these annual meetings, Fashola always travelled back to elaborate on the history of taxation, and also often gives examples of what obtains in other parts of the world. Additionally, through Quarterly Budget report meetings, Town Hall meetings on Security , Stakeholder consultations and every 100 Days through an account of stewardship rendering event which at different times targeted public servants, artisans , diplomats , the business community, political leaders and the general public among others he would lay bare before them the situation with their own government . Indeed, certain that the citizens would play their role in the social contract, the administration was able to conceive and initiate major infrastructural projects making use of long term facilities which the flow of taxes would not have made possible.
Another major area in which the Governor exerted himself and his team to effect a re-orientation in Lagosians’ attitude was the environment. Clearly, the greening and beautification project of the government has been much discussed, and I will only return later to briefly point out its benefits. For now, what I want to concentrate on is how the governor worked to influence the people’s sanitary habits. By way of practical measures, the Fashola administration caused Dino bins which people could use for waste disposal to be placed at thousands of locations in the state. Additional waste collection trucks were also bought and handed over to the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) by way of enhancing its capacity to respond to waste disposal needs of the state while PSP operators also received support towards obtaining loans from Banks to buy new trucks. In order to inculcate healthy sanitary habit in young minds, Environmental Advocacy Programmes were launched in secondary schools. Beyond educating pupils on how to dispose waste, as well as where, and where not, to urinate or defecate, several of these schools were provided with toilet facilities and waste disposal bins. Hand washing in schools which proved critical to containing the Ebola infection started way back in 2008 in Lagos State schools.
Babatunde Raji Fashola was also concerned about the reality of incessant flooding in the state. While conceding that this reality has to do largely with the fact that Lagos naturally is a low land, the former governor would be quick to add that the situation has been “compounded by widespread acts of citizens’ non- compliance, including dumping of refuse in canals or construction of illegal structures across drainage channels.” As usual, Fashola’s initial reaction was practical. He approved along with his team that drainage channels be constructed in areas of the state that are prone to incessant flooding. Old ones were also to be dredged and cleared regularly. While his government remained dedicated to the job of constructing and clearing drainages as a measure of checking flooding, Babatunde Fashola was still of the conviction that influencing the minds of the people remains equally important. Because of this, sustained campaign against dumping of refuse, wastes, water sachets, food remnants, and disused spare parts in drains and canals continued on radio, television and other media. Communities were being challenged to monitor the flow of water in drainages closely and report anyone who dumped anything that could block any of them to law enforcement agents.
Again, as Fashola declared in his second inaugural speech, Lagosians must, “in the same manner that Europeans prepare for winter by heating and changing to warm clothing,… (we need to) begin to deliberately and methodically prepare for the rainy season. We must utilize the dry season, when there is no flooding, to launch a massive campaign for active community involvement across the state in the clearance of all water flow channels so that the onset of rains no longer takes us by surprise.”
I stated earlier that I would return to the greening and beautification programme of Governor Fashola. During his tenure, several relaxation/recreational parks were constructed, trees and flowers planted and open spaces, verges and medians beautified. Governor Fashola was very vocal in articulating the objectives of the programme, not least of which being the way it improves the aesthetic appeal of the environment and helps mitigate the effect of green gas emission. Babatunde Fashola also listed as part of the benefits of the project the fact that it stimulates the market for seedlings, fertilizers, as well as simple agricultural tools and implements.
But perhaps the greatest benefit of the beautification project inheres in the way it helped to keep a great percentage of the hitherto mass of unemployed young men and women productively engaged. Fashola noted this in one of his speeches, pointing out how those who, formerly, had been “derided and written off as miscreants” are today “usefully engaged in beautifying our environment and, thereby, extricating their lives from the ugliness of idleness.”
During his tenure as governor , Fashola recorded legions of achievements in several areas including provision of affordable housing for the people through the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme ( Lagos HOMS) , construction of roads, the daring commencement of the Lagos Light Rail Project , development of public transportation system and the waterways, the waging of war against crime, etc.
In concluding this piece, I need to make it clear that my intention is not to suggest that Fashola’s government has been perfect. Actually, the administration had its fair share of challenges either due to a misunderstanding or outright misrepresentation of some of its policies and programmes but it never ceased communicating with the people whose confidence the administration earned and never took for granted. It also earned its fair share of accolades both locally and internationally on several fronts as a model from Waste Management to Taxation , Security , Transportation , Public Health (remember Ebola) and general good governance. Has the administration solved all the problem ? No, it’s not possible as no government can solve all the problem.
This, in my view is normal; and Governor Fashola himself realizes very well that he is not infallible and he would be the first to acknowledge that having to take decisions for 18 hours daily for eight years was not a tea party.
At this point, I think what is left for me is to congratulate my boss , Babatunde Fashola, SAN on his birthday. Many happy returns of the day.
–– Hakeem Bello, FNGE , is Special Adviser on Media to Mr Babatunde Fashola , SAN former Governor of Lagos State.
