Like Londoners, Lagosians deserve respect: Lagos Govt replies Economist
Lagos state government has released a statement replying
international magazine, The Economist, who published an article some days ago
criticizing Lagos governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, saying he was full of excuses and
had few solutions to the persistent traffic gridlock being experienced in Lagos
in recent times.
The state government queried The Economist for criticizing
Ambode over his approach in managing traffic in Lagos while forgetting to
criticize the approach of LASTMA officials during Fashola's administration.
They asked the UK magazine to stick to strict journalism rather than the form
of journalism where they try to force their opinion on others. The full
statement after the cut
The Lagos State Government has taken note of an article in
the latest edition of The Economist magazine entitled “Paralysed: Why Nigeria’s
largest city is even less navigable than usual” and has considered a rebuttal
necessary, in view of the bile and bias contained in it.
The said article has since gained frenetic, orchestrated
spread in both social and traditional media in Nigeria, helped in part,
ostensibly, by a push from a recalcitrant legion of traducers still struggling
with the reality of a new helmsman whose idea of progress in Lagos State
factors in electoral promises and respect for human dignity.
If we excuse the fact that the offensive article in The
Economist came out last weekend just about the time that Lagos State Government
has added some bite to its security and traffic management efforts, what shall
we call the curious ‘culling’ of the said article by some local media? For only
last Friday, the media had widely reported Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s
comprehensive enforcement effort on traffic management, which in a matter of
days has already started yielding positive results and wooing converts to the
Ambode cause.
Is it not painfully obvious that fifth columnists have
hijacked this one-sided reportage in The Economist that failed to take into
account the bigger picture of an emerging reform policy, designed to address
the larger concerns in the management of security, traffic and the environment?
If we were to conclude hastily, like the article did, we would have described
the magazine’s effort in the same words it once famously used as “an unpleasant
nose-to-stranger’s-armpit experience.”
But we won’t necessarily query the original motive by asking
“what is it about foreign correspondents that makes them believe they are the
ultimate authority” on a city they have only covered for a few years, as
India’s Swarajya magazine did last year in taking The Economist to the cleaners
when it ran a harsh report on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appearance
at Madison Square Garden in the United States.
However, because the magazine got its report on Lagos wrong
on every score, what is important is to deconstruct the fallacies therein:
Firstly, The Economist claimed Governor Ambode cut the
powers of “traffic controllers by banning them from impounding cars” and
“officers have refused to enforce the rules.” This is inaccurate and
preposterous.
In July, what the Governor did was to task the officers of
the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to release to the owners
hoards of impounded vehicles that had clogged LASTMA offices for several months
or years without claims or retrievals. What’s the use of turning a government
agency into a junkyard thereby blocking space for other offending vehicles that
could be taken in?
The Governor also enjoined them to choose booking offenders
through a ticketing system backed by the same type of technology used in
licensing and tracking vehicles instead of impounding the vehicles as first
option. If technology could work for vehicle licencing and tracking, why should
we be timid of exploring a similarly convenient option that saves time and
money and shows a more people-friendly approach to law enforcement?
Both considerations, of course, arose out of the campaign
promises that the governor made to voters. But to The Economist, this is
inadequate and anything that falls short of a show of force and dehumanizing
traffic offenders is unacceptable to this international magazine that used to
stoutly stand for human rights and civic engagements.
That The Economist sees nothing wrong in recalcitrant
officers refusing to carry out a directive by their employer is as surprising
as it is shameful. Shockingly still, the veil finally came off this curious
article when it states that by choosing a compassionate approach to
enforcement, Governor Ambode is less competent and has deviated from his
predecessor’s template. But what legacy has The Economist bequeathed to former
Governor Babatunde Fashola? “Cars were terrified into order by a state traffic
agency, LASTMA, whose bribe-hungry officers flagged down offending drivers.”
This is clearly an uncharitable summation of traffic
management under the last administration. It is disrespectful, even more
condescending to the officers of LASTMA and to Lagosians in general for whom
the magazine purports to be fighting. In
any case, if indeed some officers were corrupt in LASTMA, by The Economist’s
damning verdict, should Governor Ambode continue to maintain such a tainted
template? Is this the magazine’s idea of the end justifies the means or it is
negligible because this is Africa?
Secondly, the magazine dismissed as mere excuses Governor
Ambode’s explanations that the rains and the unprecedented influx of ‘internal
economic migrants’ and escaped insurgents from the North-East were major
causative agents of worsened gridlock and a slight rise in crime in traffic
within the metropolis. It is curious how
a magazine of this stature would ignore weighty intelligence reports from both the
Assistant Inspector General of Police of the Zone 2 Command and the Lagos State
Police Commissioner.
While the latter said at a press conference last month that
as military intervention intensifies in the beleaguered North-East of Nigeria,
insurgents are escaping and finding their ways into Lagos and a few other
states, the latter said Lagos has witnessed an unprecedented influx of
‘migrants’ from other states in the last six months as harsh economic realities
in the country bite harder, leaving 27 states struggling with payments of
workers’ salaries.
In a May 3, 2014 article, The Economist in ‘The Tube Strike’
publication had no qualms linking incessant tube strikes with disruptions in
traffic situation in London, it even examined it along the larger
socio-economic reality of the city. The magazine agreed that “in the past
decade, passenger journeys have risen by 29%. As jobs became concentrated in
central London, more people are traveling from outer suburbia…and that between
2003 and 2012 the average number of people entering the underground system in
zone one – the most central – on a weekday morning rose by 23%, while the
number entering in zone six rose by 41%.”
But it refuses to accept that as the economies in many
Nigerian states face sustainability challenge, the first point of call for
internal migrants is Lagos where civil servants’ salaries are not owed; the
Internally Generated Revenue is larger than those of 31 states in Nigeria
combined and the Gross Domestic Product is larger than those of 42 African
countries combined.
Changes in demography could necessitate incessant strikes in
London without The Economist recommending a “terrified into order” treatment
that the magazine celebrates as the only language of enforcement in Lagos.
Is the magazine advocating different standards for treating
people in London and Lagos? If it is called traffic management in London, why
is The Economist advocating a show-of-force treatment for Lagosians?
Also, it alleges that “the biggest concern is that the
gridlock is a sign of a breakdown in relations between security forces,
government agencies and the new governor.” Not only is this assertion
unprofessional, it is equally reckless and slanderous.
The bile in this is unmistakable.
But it came a tad late as the Governor has since rolled out
an effective, comprehensive security and traffic management solutions with the
active participation of every security stakeholder like the Police, the
Directorate of State Services (DSS), Army, Navy and Air Force.
On this solution that has since rolled out against every
form of impunity on the roads, critical stakeholders like tank farm owners, and
association of trailer, commercial motorcycles, tricycles, taxi and commercial
bus owners have all pledged compliance to this method that favoured
consultation and advocacy over force. Lagosians have since seen the difference
and are full of commendation that the Governor they elected will get the job
done without being a brute or playing to the gallery.
For the avoidance of doubt, the monthly Security Council
Meeting, which has the leadership of every security agencies in attendance, has
never failed to hold since Governor Ambode became governor five months ago. The
Security Trust Fund under him is well embraced by the corporate partners. The
Governor certainly has a most cordial relationship with all the security forces
in the state and is in firm control of all of its enforcement agencies.
President Muhammadu Buhari won the April Presidential
election in Nigeria in spite of The Economist’s reluctant, tongue-in-cheek
endorsement of his candidacy. We are also aware of how Boris Johnson, the
Conservative London Mayor, won his reelection in 2012 in spite of The
Economist’s campaign that ‘London deserved better’ and the virulent accusation
of the Mayor for dealing a blow on what the magazine called “London heritage
and individual liberty” after Johnson decided to do away with some of his
predecesor’s mass transit and traffic policies.
Perhaps, it is high time that this vaunted magazine learnt
to restrict itself to strict journalism rather than seeking to impose jaded
views in a volatile political climate where, we dare say, the gluttonous lot
can choke on their own bile, almost hoping that the elections leading to the
emergence of the governor could be held over again.
Governor Ambode won a hard contest, at the polls and at the
tribunal…up to the Supreme Court. He enjoys the full backing of his party, the
All Progressives Congress (APC) and majority of Lagosians who see in him a
compassionate leader and competent manager of resources.
He has demonstrated his mettle by first getting the finances
of the state back in shape, restructuring a choking debt exposure from 18%
interest rate to 12.5%, thereby freeing N3bn every month for the state to put
into other pressing use. He has paid out N11bn in pensions to those neglected
since 2010; signed 2.500 C of Os; constituted a forward-looking cabinet that
has hit the ground running; fixed more than 200 roads across the state in what
he calls Operation Zero Tolerance for Pot Holes and has flagged off a
remarkable initiative with Local Governments that will have 114 roads (two per
each of the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas)
constructed with standard drainages, walk-ways and street lights.
This Thursday November 12, he is declaring open the BRT
corridor that links Mile 12 to Ikorodu, which in itself is preparatory to the
launch later this month of an ambitious roll-out of 450 new set of mass transit
buses and a dedicated special BRT service that will be direct from Ikorodu to
Victoria Island. He is lighting up the entire metropolis in a matter of weeks
and is finalizing on a major waterways expansion project. All these and more at
a time that he is fortifying the security apparatus with a set of brand new
patrol vehicles and power bikes as well as three helicopters to assist in
surveillance.
Governor Ambode’s great plans for Lagosians are not in doubt
and are already being unfolded. He will get on with it while insisting that
like Londoners, Lagosians too deserve good things of life…with some respect!
STEVE AYORINDE
COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMATION AND STRATEGY
LAGOS STATE
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
