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Ehingbeti 2008: Summit Has Achieved Its Objectives – Fashola

Apr 24, 2008 - The 4th Lagos Economic Summit has largely achieved its objectives Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), declared on Thursday night.

Fashola, who spoke at a State Dinner in honour of participants, noted that the experiences of the first two days of the Summit reinforced the belief of the State Government that the right methods were being applied in its quest to realize the dream of a new Mega-City, adding that the experiences had also highlighted the areas where the government could do much better.

“We have reached out to those who have been faced with the challenges that we now have to deal with, especially where those experiences did not lie in some archives or museums but did lie in relevant and very recent practices that we have shared”, the Governor said.

Fashola said when his administration took office, the dream of his team was to replicate in Lagos all the best practices in civilized jurisdictions that have made people talk about their visits or stay in those jurisdictions with pride.

“When we took office, we dreamt a great dream, a dream to replicate in Lagos all the best practices in civilized jurisdictions that we only talk about, “When I was in London and when I was in Spain ”. Our resolve was that cities better than London and Spain can be built here in Nigeria, especially in Lagos, and there is so much human capital to do it”, the Governor said, adding, “We have the intellect to do it, What we needed is our hands and our plough and we are not looking back”.

Appealing to Lagosians to cooperate with his administration in the task of realizing the Mega-City dream, Fashola, who commended them for their support so far, however, pleaded, “But we need more of your support. There might be discomforts, there may be some pains, but we assure you that we mean well”.

The Governor said the intention of the government was to deliver to Lagosians a city that everyone would be proud of, adding, “We want to deliver to you a city that will showcase to the world what a Blackman can do here”.

Giving an insight into the kind of discomfort and pains that residents may experience in the course of building the new Lagos, the Governor gave example of the construction of the Lagos-Epe Expressway where some buildings and private properties had to be demolished to make way for the Expressway, but declared, “It is the way we have to go but it will be worth it”.

He thanked the participants for giving their time and experiences toward the realization of the Lagos Mega-City dream.

In his brief remarks, former Governor of the State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu commended his successor for the efficient way he was continuing the mandate to rebuild Lagos pointing out that though the Governor has not reinvented the wheel, he has shown vision.

Thanking Lagosians for choosing the right man for the job, Tinubu declared, “The challenges of governance is monumental on the Governor, but we have the confidence that it can be done”.

Earlier in his presentation, the Mayor of Bogota, Mr. Enrique Penelosa had given the lucid experiences of several countries of the world which at one time or the other in their history, rebuilt their cities. In the presentation, accompanied with pictures taken of such cities before and after rebuilding them, the Mayor declared, “The type of city the people want to build is determined by the standard of life of the people. We cannot know the kind of city we want unless we decide how we want to live”.

Giving examples of places like Korea , Columbia and the United States which have undergone such experiences, the Mayor said it took $9 billion to change a highway in Korea and about $21 billion to demolish a highway in Massachussets. He said transportation could not be solved by building more highways, pointing out that despite its giant highways; Atlanta suffers the highest traffic jam.

According to him cities must be built with respect to human dignity in mind, with the provision of broad pedestrian pathways, adding that in some cities, some days are observed as car-free days. He also said buses have advantages over rail in terms of speed adding that there was need to build high quality buses.

The Summit State Dinner was attended by eminent citizens of Lagos , the cream of corporate Nigeria and the diplomatic community.