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For the records! Why Buhari must make fashola FCT minister

For the records! Why Buhari must make fashola FCT minister

Fashola: It Will Be Transformation All The Way

By Benedict Audu

 

On March 2, 2013, The Economist of London, arguably the world’s most

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influential magazine, published a special issue on Africa, a follow-up

to its “Africa Rising” series run in 2011. In an article entitled

“Governance in much of Africa is visibly improving, though progress is

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uneven”, the magazine cited two Nigerian state governors as

outstanding. One was Kayode John Fayemi of Ekiti State, regarded as

sophisticated and IT savvy. The other was, of course, Babatunde

Fashola for his stunning work in Lagos State.

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Said the conservative weekly which often holds critical views on Third

World leaders: “Lagos, (Nigeria’s)commercial capital, long a byword

for chaos and skullduggery….Already home to 20m people, the city is

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expected to double in size within a generation. When most of the

infrastructure was built in the 1970s, the population was perhaps 2m.

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But help is on the way. The governor of Lagos State, Babatunde

Fashola, has begun an impressive campaign to clean up the city….Now,

there is an orderly queue for taxis. The Chinese are building a vast

modern rail network. Public buses have been assigned separate lanes.

When the governor heard that they were being used by unauthorized

vehicles, he strode one morning and made a citizen arrest of a

colonel. …the transformation of Lagos is worth trumpeting. Its economy

is now bigger than the whole of Kenya’s. Tax revenue has increased

from $4m to $97m a month in less than a decade. Tax rates have

remained the same, but the amounts being collected have risen

dramatically”.

 

Interestingly, both Fayemi and Fashola have been nominated to become

ministers in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. It shows

that the forthcoming cabinet is most likely to work in a way which

will impress not just Nigerians but also the international community.

There is a general belief that Fashola will be the next Minister of

the Federal Capital territory. In other words, Buhari is set to make

history by becoming what literary scholars call a mythmaker. No

southerner has ever headed the FCT Ministry. Therefore, Buhari will be

setting a precedent by appointing Fashola the FCT Minister. He will

break a major political taboo in Nigeria, thus casting the new

president in the image of a true nationalist, a pan Nigerian leader of

the finest hue. Yet, it would seem that Buhari’s reason for wanting to

send Fashola to the FCT is not so much to break any political taboo as

to make Abuja a truly international territory. Fashola is a perfect

fit.

 

If Fashola is deployed to this ministry, he will go fully prepared, as

Professor Chinua Achebe said of Nigeria’s current literary star,

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  I told a correspondent of the Voice of

America (VOA) in a recent interview that anyone who could turn Oshodi

from a bedlam and eyesore which caused traffic gridlock of epic

proportions into an orderly, beautiful spectacle, complete with a

garden and recreational facilities, could easily make Abuja an

international tourist destination where people go for business, as is

the case with Dubai and now Abu Dhabi. No one should be surprised at

the transformation Lagos underwent under Fashola’s leadership. Right

from the day he took to law practice, Fashola, who had all his life

been too playful, decided to turn a new leaf by putting all his mind,

heart and soul into everything he set out to do. He thus became a

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) at almost the callow age of about 40

years. Everyone who ever met or worked with him when he was the Chief

of Staff in Lagos State testifies to his clarity of vision, solidity

of character, integrity and organizational skills.

 

Fashola approached his work as Lagos State governor with unusual

fervor; he felt challenged and inspired by the examples of global

transformational leaders. He devoured various books on leadership,

including Leadership by Rudy Giuliani, New York mayor from 1994 to

2001 who restored competitiveness to the city and displayed greater

leadership than even President George Bush W. Bush during the 9/11

terrorist attacks in New York. Fashola also studied From Third World

To First: The Story of Singapore from 1965 by Lee Kuan Yew. He went on

a study tour of these phenomenal cities. He actually took time out

during the International Bar Association conference in Singapore in

2008 to have a private meeting with Singapore’s founding prime

minister, the legendary Lee kuan Yew, on leadership. So, when Fashola

began the project to turn Lagos into a megacity, he meant business.

The result today is out for all to see. His impressive record has

attracted the attention of international media like the CNN

International, BBC,  Financial Times of London and many others. Daily

Telegraph of the United Kingdom described him on October 24, 2014, as

the “the man who tamed Nigeria’s most lawless city”. In April, 2015,

as he was preparing to leave office, the International Crisis Group,

one of the world’s most respected research organizations, honoured him

as one of the seven outstanding personalities around the world for

tackling security, economic and social challenges in a very

imaginative way. Earlier onJanuary 1, 2014, another globally

influential think tank, Lo Spacio della Political (LSDP), based in

Italy and Belgium and composed of natural and social scientists as

well as writers, had named him, alongside the economically creative

Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, a Global Thought Leader for 2013.

In Nigeria, practically every newspaper and magazine has honoured him

with the Man of the Year award. The same goes for other organizations.

 

Fashola came into office with concrete ideas about high public office.

He never used siren, most unusual of a Nigerian state governor. He

never moved in long motorcades, with security detail relating

menacingly to the public. He never accepted any chieftaincy title, as

he preferred to be known as simply Mr Fashola. He rejected the award

of honorary doctorates from different universities and also politely

turned down a high national honour from Dr Goodluck Jonathan when the

latter was the president. He is convinced that it is not right for

public office holders to accept all manner of awards while in office.

After all, we have seen high public officers fall from grace for

scandalous conduct.

 

As has been pointed out several times, Fashola’s stellar performance

helped to revive the dying progressive politics of the South-West. He

was from 2007 the only Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor in

the whole country until stolen mandates were recovered in Osun, Ekiti

and Oyo states. People in the Southwest voted ACN in 2011 because the

electorate was promised governance resembling that of Fashola’s Lagos

State. Consequently, the considerable number of states under its

control made it possible for the ACN to play a decisive role in the

emerge of the APC, which made history last March by defeating, for the

first time in Nigeria’s history, a ruling national party.

 

Mallam el-Rufai, the current governor of Kaduna State, displayed

courage and vision while serving as the FCT minister from 2003 to 2007

during the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency. If Fashola assumes leadership

of this ministry, Abuja will in not too distant future begin to

compete with world cities like Dubai. It will be ceaseless

transformation all the way. Mark my word.

 

Audu is chief executive of an indigenous engineering consulting firm

in Victoria, Lagos.Babatunde-Fashola

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