The vibrancy of an economy is measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP which is the market value of all the goods and services produced by labour in a state or nation is an indicator of an economy’s size and growth rate and is an astute tool for policymakers to regulate the economy. The GDP of Lagos State which is estimated at N91bn places Lagos as Africa’s 5th largest economy and the seventh fastest growing city in the world. Lagos plays host to 65 percent of Nigeria’s businesses having over 2,000 manufacturing companies, 200 financial institutions and the largest collection of SMEs in Africa. Lagos is also the fastest growing ICT hub in West Africa and has the potential to be the biggest ICT market on the continent. Internally generated revenue (IGR) for Lagos state was pegged at $1.3 billion in 2015—three times higher than the state with the second most IGR and 39 percent of the total IGR by Nigeria’s 36 states. With an N91 billion GDP now, the economy of Lagos stands bigger than that of Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya, two of the continent’s most vibrant economies. In 2017, the total revenue generated was around $920 million. This grew by 10.43% when compared to 2016. Also, Lagos recently became an oil-producing state joining the league of states entitled to the13 percent derivation from the federation account. Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos. The reality of these figures are staggering and gives us hope that Lagos can indeed be a leading world economy given the right management by its leadership. The next governor of Lagos faces a herculean task to build on the foundation of his predecessors by using the economy of Lagos to move Nigeria out of its shameful position as the poorest nation in the world. This irony of having the richest man in Africa come from the world’s poorest nation continues to defy rational thinking making Nigeria into a parody of odds. The man Babajide Olushola Sanwoolu comes to mind here. I take a keen interest in the APC candidate because he has worked with the progressive government of Lagos state (from the Tinubu era) and has years of solid experience behind him. Babajide Sanwoolu has a track record of performance in the public sector and has participated in major economic projects including the privatization and commercialization of several Federal Government-owned companies and parastatals. He also spearheaded the preparation and publication of the Lagos State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (LASEEDS). He is reckoned with as a natural leader with strong people skills and is well versed in the principles of inclusion and equal representation in the interest of all. Babajide Sanwoolu has held positions in Lagos state as the acting honorable commissioner for Economic Planning and Budgets, commissioner for commerce & industry, Honourable Commissioner for Establishment, Training, and Pensions, Pioneer and Board Member, Lagos state security Trust fund and MD of the Lagos State Property Development Corporation. In the private sector, Babajide Sanwoolu has held Senior Management roles at Lead Merchant Bank, United Bank for Africa and First Atlantic Bank (now FCMB) and has entrepreneurial experience in the real estate, power and aviation sectors of the economy. His manifesto for the economic development of Lagos state is hinged on the quadripartite pillars of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Security which are developmental benchmarks for megacities anywhere in the world. As it concerns Agriculture which has huge potential given our population, Babajide Sanwoolu intends to enhance the agricultural products supply chain to assure food security for the state. He also intends to restore our wet plains rice farming programmes along with associated mills to produce at least 30% of our requirements and reinvigorate the “AgricYES” (Agricultural Youth Empowerment Scheme) in Araga, Tshongai and Epe to continue training youths in poultry, fishery, piggery and other forms of entrepreneurial farming. While the move to enhance agriculture and ensure youth empowerment is laudable, my worry is that the limited land mass of Lagos might be a challenge to fully realize this potential. On the creation of alternative energy, Babajide Sanwoolu intends to solicit private sector partnership to create alternate energy sources to power captive areas like industrial parks, public centers such as universities, hospitals and markets, public service infrastructure like rails, waterworks and street lights as well as SME clusters. The is another forward-thinking plan which Lagos needs and is reminiscent of China which installed 378 gigawatts of renewables capacity in 2014 by tapping water, wind, and sun to generate power and is still exploring more ways to deploy alternative and cheaper sources of energy using wind turbines and fossil fuels. To combat the challenge of housing in Lagos, Babajide Sanwoolu will aggressively pursue the development of up to 10,000 accessible housing units per annum in conjunction with the private sector and establish an Annual Housing Challenge competition to create innovative solutions for housing, building materials, and fittings. He will also work with financial institutions to provide necessary support for first-time homeowners to obtain workable mortgages while simplifying and harmonizing the process of property titling and sub-titling for property owners. He will scale up the Lagos HOMs programme, ensure access to social and affordable housing and enforce stricter building controls and regulations to improve housing quality. On Security, Babajide Sanwoolu will improve surveillance and intelligence gathering and expand the Community Policing Initiative by recruiting, equipping and training an additional 5,000 officers into the Neighbourhood Watch in addition to the existing 5,700. He will partner with telecom sites to deploy additional 2,000 stand-alone and integrated CCTV Cameras to cover strategic areas of activity state-wide and also partner with the private sector to co-locate surveillance cameras and power street lights. He will improve engagement with CDAs and Community Leaders to promote security awareness and other crime preventive measures while also upgrading the current security command and control center with improved communication channels covering SMS, Calls, web and Social Media. Giving the population and enterprise of the people of Lagos, I believe Lagos is a fertile ground for most businesses to thrive but we need strong, resilient and determined leadership to push Lagos into its economic haven. Is Babajide Olushola Sanwoolu the man for the job? In my humble opinion, I believe he is fully qualified and capable.
