Press Releases

Fashola Advocates Consensus On Best Practices As Recipe For Development
…Urges ownership, protection for drainages, other public assets by the people

May 29, 2011 - As he begins his second term in office, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Sunday night canvassed a resolve by the people to become champions of a consensus of best practices as a means to achieve prosperity, economic growth and global competitiveness in the State.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the Eko Hotels and Suites venue of his Inaugural Dinner and Ball, said the only viable means through which the State could prosper and develop its economy as well as continue to compete on the global stage was by reaching a consensus to become champions of best practices.

The Governor told the capacity audience of crème de la crème of the Lagos Society and the international community that good governance and best practices seen in the countries that the nation seeks to emulate were not achieved by accident but by an agreement between the leaders and the led.

"If we are, therefore, to prosper, develop our economy, compete on a global stage and be reckoned amongst the world's best instead of amongst the world's worst, we must reach a consensus tonight amongst ourselves to leave here tonight ourselves to become champions of a consensus of best practices in Lagos", the Governor said.

Citing the example of the 2011 General Elections, Governor Fashola noted that the free and fair as well as credible nature of the exercise in Lagos were not achieved by accident but by the consensus of the people, especially the elite, to ensure that the votes counted.

According to the Governor, "the swearing in ceremony earlier in the day completed the full cycle of the electoral process for the office of Governor of Lagos; because to my knowledge, no petition was filed to challenge the results of this election. Let us, therefore, remind ourselves that we did not get here by accident. We got here by a consensus which was forged after the flawed election of 2007".

"That consensus was not led by the majority of the members of our society, which includes a lot of under privileged members of our society; on the contrary, leadership for it and the process that delivered it were initiated by the Nigerian elite, financed by them and nurtured for four years with the singular objective of ensuring that every vote counted and that every eligible voter had one vote", the Governor said.

Governor Fashola maintained that even if Nigeria has not achieved the perfect election, if such a thing exists, it was certainly not debatable that the country has moved away progressively from where it was in 2007; in terms of electoral process adding, "we can only get better if we maintain that consensus in subsequent elections".

On how to apply consensus to achieve good governance in Lagos, Governor Fashola declared, "That consensus will manifest itself in so many parts of our daily lives that we have hitherto not addressed our minds to sufficiently. For example, we must change our attitude to time and realize that it is a resource that must be judiciously and efficiently utilized because soon it is gone, it is irrecoverable".

"As a Government, we intend to take the lead by organizing ourselves better, scheduling appointments, and doing our best to keep to time in order to give you the most optimum service that is possible during the mandate of four years which approximates to just 35,000 hours", the Governor said.

To Lagosians, he said, "We expect that you will give us your co-operation at all times and be graceful enough to understand and appreciate the need for us to do what we do. The consensus will come by all of us taking ownership of all public assets like roads, drainages, street lights, traffic lights, traffic signs".

"We will all benefit if we reach a consensus not to overload our roads by operating warehouses in residential areas that require us to bring heavy duty trucks to roads in estates built for personal cars. This will make the roads last longer".

Zeroing in on flooding, Governor Fashola, who reminded all that the predicted heavy rainfall in Lagos has begun, advised, "We will benefit and be spared the adverse effects of heavy rainfall if we protect drainages and resist the temptation to dump refuse into them".

"I believe we will be better for it if we resolve that it is our duty to ensure that no refuse is dumped in our drainage instead of expecting Government to spend our taxes to collect what we should never have dumped there in the first place".

According to the Governor, "At the inception of our tenure, part of the complaints we received were the requests for more drainage networks. We responded by embarking on the provision of drainages and dredging of canals".

"Today, we have built 84 kilometres of drainage network, dredged 118 kilometres of existing canals and desilted over 440 kilometres of drainages across the State. But instead of allowing these facilities to serve their optimal purposes, we have chosen to dump refuse in them and expect Government to come back to remove them", the Governor lamented.

Continuing, he added that in other instances, some people have obstructed the flow of water through them by building houses on drainage paths, "only to turn round to complain about flooding when it happens, or accuse Government of being insensitive when we exercise the right option of removing buildings that block drainages".

Expressing gratitude to the Nigerian elite for championing the consensus that resulted in the free and fair elections in the country, Governor Fashola declared, "That consensus was not led by the majority of the members of our society, which includes a lot of under privileged members of our society; on the contrary, leadership for it and the process that delivered it were initiated by the Nigerian elite, financed by them and nurtured for four years with the singular objective of ensuring that every vote counted and that every eligible voter had one vote".

According to the Governor, "I speak tonight of consensus, especially of the Nigerian elite, and particularly of the Lagos elite first, because many of the people in the class of our elite population who are the faces and voices who championed the consensus for electoral reform are in this gathering tonight and I could not think of a better opportunity to share my thoughts".

"Secondly, history has shown that you do not need a multitude of people to make change and the odd 2,500 of us in this room therefore represent a very small fraction; but I dare say critical mass that can lead change in our State of 18 million people if we reach a consensus tonight to do so.

"Thirdly, practical experience has shown that in the determination of choices and change in a community, it is often the resolution and consensus of the elite few that galvanizes the majority to peaceful change; and where the elite few fail to do so, the majority of the underprivileged may seek to effect it often in a manner that is difficult to organize or control.

"Finally and perhaps most importantly, is the fact that our small State has come under an avalanche of international media scrutiny in the last few weeks. The Economist Magazine, the Financial Times, and Time Magazine have all commended the progress and transformation that is taking place in our State. These interests and comments are significant because they are coming from the stables of some of the international media that was previously critical of us in the recent past.

"They are also significant because they did not come as a result of branding in the way that we had previously attempted to do it; but rather, as a result of all of us doing some things in the proper way and the international community took notice and rightly in my view, gave us credit for it".

Assuring Lagosians of his administration's "unflinching commitment to continue to give you spartan service and make things better", Governor Fashola urged civil society groups such as Residents' Association to be "the platforms for community involvement to build that consensus of ownership and participation".

"In the same way that our electoral consensus brought us a better electoral process, I am certain that in four years, a consensus of best practices in Lagos, will certainly deliver a brighter rewarding future that will permanently institutionalize all what we have achieved together", the Governor said.

The ceremony was attended by the First Lady, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola, Governor of Osun State, Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, his wife, Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola, former Governor and national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (A.CN) , Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his wife, Senator -elect Oluremi Tinubu, immediate past Deputy Governor of Lagos, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, National Chairman of the A.C.N, Chief Bisi Akande and other leaders of the party from across the country.

Others are the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, RT Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji, former Governors, Brigadier Mobolaji Johnson, Commodore Ndubuisi Kanu, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, former members of the State Executive Council, Chairmen of Local Government Council and Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), former Gubernatorial aspirant , Mr Jimmy Agbaje, Akwa Ibom StateA.C.N Governorship candidate, Senator Akpan Udoedehen, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Justices of the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, State and Federal High Courts, party leaders, family friends, relatives and guests from various parts of the world.