As a rule, I hardly poke nose into things that do not concern me.
But when you tag me or come to comment section of my post, then you have my attention. At times, what they tag me on, is in honesty not worth my time but since I have resolved not to allow any fool get away with his or her foolishness and foolery or he/she will think himself wise.
Someone tagged me on the raging controversy; WHO DEVELOPED LAGOS. I guess he did so because I qualify to pass as Lagos Boy and was in Lagos during the governorship of Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu. But I asked the one tagging me, who developed your state? What was the condition of your state in 1999-2007 when Tinubu was Governor of Lagos? In fact, who was your Governor and what legacies did he meet on ground and how did he leave?
In my State, Imo, we had Achike Udenwa and it is on record that he boasted that his greatest achievement was bringing Mr. Fans(a private eatery) to Owerri. Achike Udenwa, did not surpass or improve the legacies of De Sam Onunaka Mbakwe (1979-83)
Back to Lagos. While Mbakwe of NPP was laying foundations of a newly created Imo state from a region that was devastated by civil war,
Alahaji Lateef Jakande of UPN was in Lagos doing the same in collaborations with Federal Government (Lagos was Nigeria’s Capital then)
In between Jakande and Tinubu, the military held sway the same way they did in your state. Nigerian states woke up in 1999 to see the ruins done by successive military juntas and rebuilding started. How did your Governor rebuild? How are the ones after 2007 rebuilding?
I started coming to Lagos in the late 80s but consciousness of my environment, never took hold until the early 90s. I witnessed the chaos called Lagos, the Even and Odd plate number system, the Molue days, days of corpse dumped on the street and when only LUTH was the teaching hospital in Lagos.
All these changed before my eyes. I was a student of Lagos State University Ojo 1996-2001. I saw the transformation in LASU. I was among NANS Cadres that went after Tinubu over the Chicago saga and also the GCE Admission Crisis in LASU among other struggles that got me in direct contact with Lagos politics beyond the four walls of LASU.
The creation of Development Centres, to bring development to the grassroots are well documented that I need not retail it here.
Tinubu stood on the shoulders of giants before him and stamped his feet on the sands of time, leaving indelible marks in the development of Lagos. It will be unfair to deny him his rightful position among the likes of Jakande and Mbakwe whenever development of a State is mentioned.
You will appreciate Tinubu’s touch in Lagos, when you compare his achievements and that of your State’s Governor within same period; compare your state state and Lagos.
Your honest mirror assessment, will tell you, if Tinubu should not be honored as the architect of modern Lagos.
