Fellas, our creative neighbours have discovered new ways of laying ambush for unsuspecting lagosians. The latest trick now works like this.

1. You park your car at the mall, an eatery, a cinema or church.
2. Someone removes your number plate, the one closest to the wall or another car.
3. You get in the car and drive off
4. Someone in okada or taxi or any car flags you down brandishing your number plate in your face (you recognize it cos its yours and you are not like me – I don’t know mine!)
5. You slow down and park hoping to tip the good samaritan and continue your mugu journey but the “well-meaning” lagosian shows you his red eye and robs you pants down, if possible, steal your car.
6. You are now officially on your own. If you are mature enough to follow protocol (your best bet), you call the police, go home take a bathe, thank God for preserving your life and sleep your sorrows away. Joy cometh in the morning brother. Next time. Next freaking time, obey your instincts.

What do we do?
You now need to check both number plates before leaving the parking lot, either way, do NOT stop even if someone on bike (okada) or another car shows you your mother’s head, in fact, exercise your rights on the wheels, NO SPEED LIMIT!

ps: It could be your scarf, notebook, mobile phone, but whatever it is, just let it go.

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Sean Alsilski Gala Boy

Buy your Gala here!

You may or may not have heard or seen ‘Oyibo man’  hawking UAC food’s most popular brand, Gala beef roll. It’s a popular snack on major roads in Lagos and demand is highest during the rush-hour and heavy traffic. Gala has been around for many years and has enjoyed monopoly (many others have come and gone) even in the face of adulteration (or better still, piracy). Gala now sells for 50 naira per roll. You can see why Sean has combat pants to keep his plenty denominations of the Naira so that he can equally provide “change” to buyers who are in no time to hit the next car bumper to bumper, if you don’t have change, you don’t sell. If you don’t have the energy, others outsell you. You must be able to navigate in between different types of cars and ‘learners’ and also evade your worst enemy – the okada. Watch out for KAI or Task Force men, you know where to keep your phone if you have one. Lastly, you need all your sense organs – ears (to sense people beckoning), eyes (to read gestures) and even nose (to smell danger) – and your skin, as tough as the alligators as you need to be strong in times of rain, cold and scorching sun. Not to mention, you must learn to flash the “fresh and soft” gala in the face of pupils in the back seat. If you are thinking of starting a gala-hawking business, please think twice, it’s not that easy! And of course, you must know where, where not and when not to hawk: (http://lagosmet.com/blog/category/laws-of-lagos-state)

Gala beef roll

Here’s the story from PM News:

American Hawks Gala In Lagos An American, Mr. Sean Alsilski, was seen hawking gala sausage rolls yesterday, at the Ojota area of Lagos state. He easily drew a large crowd as Lagosians laughed and wondered what could have made him to hawk gala in Lagos, and on a sunny day too. But Alsilski, unperturbed by the people watching and giggling at him, continued to sell his stuff to motorists and passersby who were eager to buy from him, some just for the fun of it. He rebuffed people trying to ask him why he was out in the streets selling gala, saying he was too busy to talk to anyone. After much prompting by this reporter, he opened up on why he was out selling gala on Lagos streets. Alsilski said he came to Lagos to carry out a six-month research project on hawking and street trading in Lagos, and the best way to get the answers that he wants was to get involved in the real business rather than be an observer. He said he had already spent five months in Lagos, hawking gala at different parts of the state. “I am here to do a research on hawking and street trading. I was billed to be in Nigeria for six months as part of the Fullbright exchange programme. “I have been here for five months now, hawking. I have one month to go. I am going to give a presentation to the United States Embassy about my research,” said Alsilski. Born in the city of New York, the United States, Alsilski lamented that from what he has observed, government was harsh on hawkers and street traders. “Hawkers here are under stress right now from the government and I am studying what the government is doing right now. We can make some recommendations. “Government is harsh on them. Some of them have had their goods taken away. I am not sure that is the best way to go about it. “In some cities, hawkers and traders are given licenses and allowed to go to certain areas to hawk. But hawkers should not be allowed to hawk in places like Oshodi,” he stated. Alsilski’s hawking business has taken him to Yaba, Ojuelegba, Mushin, Ojota, Mile 2, Apapa, Lagos Island and Agege.

Source: PMNEWS (http://thepmnews.com/2009/06/16/american-hawks-gala-in-lagos)

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C&I Leasing's RedCab Corporate Taxi concept now concrete

Having successfully pushed the same in Enugu and effectively kicked okadas out of the business area in the eastern city, C & I Leasing has finally deployed the much awaited 200 RedCab Corporate Taxis. The Red taxis however pose a serious threat to the typical Yellow with black striped taxis (oko asewo) and on the long run, okadas. The red taxis would also compete with the Corporate Cabs. Taking a close look at the drivers (male or female), they are suited up (meaning 247 A/C’s) with red ties. The cabs are labelled and I presume some tight communication network here or there.

C & I Leasing paints Lagos Red with Suzuki Hatchback Corporate Taxis (RedCab)

LagosMet Verdict: A very welcome development indeed. How they will cope with the crazy Lagos traffic and resistance (unforseen) from the old cabs remain to be seen.

Close up Shot RedCab Corporate Taxis - LagosMet.com

Beautiful RedCabs for the Red Light Districts

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We no go gree - fuel scarcity, bembele salary, Ekiti fraud...

Lagos: Nigeria Labour Congress on Wednesday, 13th of May, 2009 organised a peaceful rally and walked 20 kilometres from Ikorodu Road through Mobolaji Bank Anthony to the State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja. About 3,000 protesters showed up with policemen forming a ring around them. There was no riot or violence of any kind and placards conveyed the yearnings of the masses. The Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) as well as the Trade Union Congress (TUC) were actively involved in the rally. According to this Yahoo! report, Abdulwaheed Omar, head of the NLC openly condemned the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua claiming it has no future for Nigerians. Two issues were raised.

1. Encourage the government to implement the electoral reforms (without permitting any amendment to it) and also raise the current minimum wage (which has been the same 7,500 naira for 10 years) to N52,200 (fifty-two thousand two hundred naira only).

“Esele said: Our problem in Nigeria is that we are not allowed to choose who should lead us. Today, because of electoral flaws in the reforms Act, whoever is “picked” to rule is loyal to his godfather and not the masses”

2. Discourage deregulation of petroleum products; contrary to the government’s belief that it is the only solution to the fuel crisis.

I remember the government has always supported deregulation to the anger of the NLC for as long as I can remember. They are saying deregulation will free us from the “Cartel” but the NLC think this is not true. It’s a tough war and a battle of interests. Deregulation will give the marketers the freedom to alter fuel pump prices as the government withdraws subsidies (to which the FG is owing over $1 billion to these “importers”). You and I know that majority of the oil marketers are greedy people, and given a blank cheque with which they can milk the masses dry, you will expect to buy fuel for N200 per litre before the end of the year, and don’t ask me if there will be competition, they also have a body and are out to make as much profit as politicians. I go with the NLC on that.

3,000 people combine voices, will it just end there?

Instead of giving them a blank cheque to deal with the masses, they should rather focus on building or reviving our refineries. We do not need to import fuel for any reason, being one of the giants in OPEC. Why should a major oil producing country ship crude oil out and then buy the same again at a much much higher rate? It’s a plain old business reality. It is much better to own your infrastructure than to rent from a competitor. You can’t keep renting chairs for your school on a daily basis when you can actually buy chairs for life. If buying a chair costs 2,000 naira and renting one costs 100 naira, in just 20 days you would have paid the competitor 2,000 naira! It is plain to see that the competitor would never pray for you to think out of the box, unless of course there is a “Cartel” – and in our case, there is. Someone out there is benefiting in a big way from every litre of fuel that leaves or gets into the country.

Whatever the case, they need to rebrand our refineries before rebranding Nigeria because you cannot fool us with rebrand Nigeria when you have failed to provide our basic needs including power and fuel. You can’t keep cutting the branches when you can uproot the damn tree. Don’t ever send me such text messages until there’s a lil bit of sanity up there. I don’t need to be rebranded until you make efforts to rebrand the foundation. Its good they claim that Kaduna refinery is on the verge of complete turnaround, Warri Petrochemical company is back and better with 200 trucks of PMS loaded daily (remember only 18 were loading in Lagos as at last week) and that Port Harcourt refinery is doing well again. We need to see the impact at filling stations, the interface between the lengthy hierarchy and the masses.

Fuel Scarcity & Dollar exchange rate Update:

‘Nuff said. Fuel scarcity depends on areas. Some filling stations have a constant supply of fuel and are honest, some are not. It is no news that it is an offence to buy fuel in jerry cans (it is an offence to sell fuel to people in kegs), its equally an offence to buy fuel from black marketers, but in the last 4 weeks this has been the case. As the dollar now sells for 181 naira (official black market rate), 20 naira short of the highest all-time high, it is the black market guys who are having fun. Please read:

What happens in our filling stations nowadays.

http://lagosmet.com/blog/2009/05/nnpc-to-neutralize-fuel-scarcity-tomorrow-wed-6th-may-lagos/

Now inflation has every justifiable reason to exist. Markets are being scrapped in order to make Lagos beautiful, dollar don cost, fuel no dey. Tiny oranges now sell for 20 naira each, the bigger ones, 40 naira straight; imported apples, between 70 and 100 naira; Plantain, ah, please don’t go there; Yam, are you kidding me, Hello, are you in Lagos or Kwara? If you are a farmer living outside Lagos, my best advice for you is to load a truck and find your way here, the market is hungry, believe me, call me and i’ll buy. he he he (419’s beware).

Rain rain rain & Comedy

It’s raining again, BRT buses from Ojota to CMS, 150 Naira, LagBus with A/C, 200 naira only. Park your car at home and hit the BRT with your umbrella, I don’t know if you need A/C when it’s pouring heavily but the queues are shorter. Whether you drive or not, please read My tips for surviving the rainy season. The best selling non-white collar job in Lagos right now is comedy. Stand-up comedians and OAP’s (on air personalities) are swimming in millions – making more money than artistes, ‘high-class’ society sluts, gigolos and nollywood actors. It is commonplace for comedians to charge 500,000 naira per show (not so common though) and the good thing is that they get so many shows, an average of 5 per week. Do the math. As Nigerian football reaches an all-time pitiable condition, parents are now sending their wards to school of comedy, buying all the comedy series and begging other people to laugh when their wards crack jokes. Man gast to chop, dollar don cost.

And to think that Mohit Records (Dbanj’s) Suddenly and Close to you videos have been banned along with Tuface’s Enter the place and Kelly Handsome’s Maga don pay on radio. The last time Kerewa of Zule Zoo and Bang bang bang by Femi Kuti were banned, they sold like fire and won awards. Let’s see how they catapult these tracks already in high-demand into further glory. Rebranding Hypocrisy.

Bank Robberies on the rise.

Ah terrible news, I’ll post the pictures in my next topic, but brothers and sisters, bank robbers are now as plentiful as pick-pockets. It’s recession time and robbers are no longer wasting time having to force people to part with mobile phones and cars which they still have to resell, leaving that for the newing generation. They now go straight to the source. They can’t go to Nigerian Printing and Minting or the CBN, their best bet, the Retail banks.

LagosMet verdict: as the fuel scarcity situation fluctuates, some good days and more bad ones, we are still surviving. As the INEC plays into the hands of the government (who pays the piper, who dictates the tunes?) we are still surviving oh, my bros. As minimum wage remains N7,500 and an average House of Rep member goes home with an ‘official’ N172m (in case you thought it was a slip of keyboard, Over One hundred and seventy MILLION naira – not kobo) annually, my sister we still dey manage. Dollar cost, fuel cost, no job, market dry, food cost, dem thief my phone, dem rob me for bank, we still dey.

16 million people and counting, Lasgidi babe, we celebrate life – suffering and smiling.

Good day. The week ends tomorrow, remember Wednesday, May 27th – Children’s day, and Friday May 29th is Democracy day (public holiday). June 12 is another public holiday close by.

For the parents, I leave you with this video, a 2-year old girl with a big IQ (don’t blame those kids cos you gave them excess of Garri, Fufu and Pap).

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I’ve been kinda rusty these days, looking for news on the fuel scarcity situation, and hoping today would be a brighter day. Hopefully there shouldn’t be traffic till 4:00pm when millions would be headed to the Redemption camp (first friday of the month). Being a public holiday, you can be sure as death that many who have missed all of this year’s editions will try to make up for it today. It’s a funny situation, a funny day, sorry a great day.

1. It’s a Friday – (club boys, spend the whole day queuing for fuel, otherwise, your ass is grounded, no parole, lasgidi babe!)

2. It’s a public holiday (May 1st 2009 is worker’s day – day for the gallerias, start early, join the BRT)

3. Fuel scarcity day 4 (Black marketers, keep on cleaning out, rebrand, No! re-elect, No! refuel Nigeria)

4. Monthly RCCG (Redeemed Christian Church of God) vigil @ the Redemption Camp (if your parish got a bus then join the queue)

Whooooh! I guess you are on your own, I have a little below half tank and I’m burning all today… of course, no A/C, no overspeeding, no traffic (i hope,sorry, I pray!) .

For those who work, happy worker’s day, for students, wish you success in your exams, for the unemployed, it’s just another day getting you closer to your breakthrough, never give up trying your hands on tough things.

Happy Holidays.

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Interswitch website warning!

Don’t fall for the Interswitch ATM/Debit Card Scam!

This scam (perpetrated by our Yahoo Yahoo! boys who are fast running out of options – www.419eater.com) has been around for a while now especially since the inception of webpay which made e-commerce possible in Nigeria. The ATM/Debit Card is the only equivalent of the Western Credit Card only that it is prepaid. Naturally, you’d expect the ATM card to be very secure since you need a PIN and a physical provider (Interswitch, E-tranzact) card with preference for Interswitch (being more popular), but websites such as Buyright.biz, rechargenigeria.com, reloadng.com and deoluakinyemi all allow you to pay for goods and services from the comfort of your internet-connected device, just by punching your card number and PIN. In some cases, you get an SMS confirming the transaction, and in some other cases (especially if you are yet to subscribe to SMS alerts) you don’t get any alert. On interswitch’s official website (http://interswitchng.com), you could even transfer from one interswitch card account to another (not sure if this is still possible). Our fraudsters promptly rose to the occasion to explore the holes in the loops, GTB was one of the worst hit, and they reacted instantly by blocking the use of their ATM cards on websites.

It’s quite unfortunate that till today, many still fall for this trap. Look at the mail below: a scammer sends a mail asking you to click on a link to interswitch’s website. Do not click on links (especially masked links) but instead copy and paste into the browser, if it’s not Interswitch’s official website, then it’s pure scam, delete the mail. (http://allafrica.com/stories/200704190048.html)

Interswitch Logo

Also, do not be deceived by the sender’s address, anyone can mask the sender address. If you wish to reply at all, always click on the reply button. Most scam mails usually ask you to reply to a different email address other than the one that was used to send the mail (e.g. sender: expiry@interswitchng.com please reply to: scammer@gmail.com). When they do provide websites, their fake websites mirror the original one (as seen in fake MTN and Zenith Bank job scam sites), sometimes, some cheap-ass scammers use free sites and folders within folders of sub-domains such as http://money.myfreewebsites.com/bank/scammers/fraud/?@www.interswitchng.com/register – you should easily “nab” these ones (I repeat, do not click on links in emails directly, always do copy and paste into google search with the word scam before it and see for yourself, trust your instinct).

LagosMet: My take on this is this, always suspect anything that comes to you by mail or SMS (better to be a pessimist on the internet). Take a line of the content or title of the message, google it with the word scam and see if you get similar results. Remember, if it’s too good to be true then it’s scam.

The mail:

Dear Interswitch Card Holder,

We are carrying out a fraud prevention on our system,
and you’ve been required to register all your ATM card(s) Online Immediately
for security reasons, and to prevent your ATM card(s)
from fraudulent activities.

Be notified, that all ATM card(s) must be registered, such as your
(DEBIT CARDS, X-CHANGE CARDS, and CASH CARDS)

Please Register your ATM cards now by CLICKING HERE and then do as required.

(Failure to verify your ATM Card(s) details correctly will lead to account suspension)

This Update is compulsory
If you do not register your ATM card(s) immediately,
you will no longer be able to use your card(s) on our ATM machines
or for ATM transactions and your card(s) will be cancelled or terminated.

Thank you.

=======================================================

Breakdown:

1. Prevent your card from fraudulent activities (and he’s planning to defraud you already)

2. All cards must be registered (are cards not already registered? A wise man will give the bank a call, not even interswitch)

3. Failure to verify will lead to account suspension (all ATM cards have their expiry dates, you can’t even do any online transaction without entering your debit card’s expiry date, why the rush?)

4. Glorious threats (this is the first scam mail without the magic word called “guarantee”, are you scared to lose your card? As long as your money is safe). Never ever reveal your PIN to anyone.

Finally, Interswitch should please release a list of approved websites so that users can verify which websites are registered and which ones are phishing/scam websites. If there was a list like http://interswitchng.com/list_of_approved_websites/ then the world would be a much better place for scammers and potential, unsuspecting victims like you and I. This modus operandi applies to other sites such as ebay, paypal and many bank websites worldwide. You don’t want to lose your hard earned money in this period of recession, its credit crunch period for scammers as well. Be watchful, be careful, be prepared, be informed.

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Hawking not allowed not even in the "garage"

In an initiative to re-enforce Law and Order around the Lagos Central Business District, the Lagos State Government hereby draws the attention of the general public to the following PUBLIC DISORDER OFFENCES, contained in the STREET TRADING AND ILLEGAL MARKETS (PROHIBITION) Law 2003 Laws of Lagos State and the sanction that maybe imposed on conviction:

1.    No person shall sell or hark or expose for sale any goods, wares, articles or things or offer services whether or not from a stationary position along the walkway or on any of the following Streets within the Lagos Central Business District:

1    Outer and Inner Marina
2    Broad Street
3    Balogun Street
4    Martins Street
5    Nnamdi Azikiwe Street
6    Eko Bridge
7    Carter Bridge
8    Apongbon Street
9    Idumagbo Avenue
10    Campbell Street
11    Breadfruit Street
12    Tinubu Street
13    Abibu Oki Street
14    Oke Olowogbowo Street
15    Davis Street
16    Adeniji Adele Street
17    Church Street
18    Docemo Street
19    Odunlami Street
20    Iga Idunganran Street
21    Ereko Street
22    Kakawa Street
23    Campos Street
24    Bamgbose Street
25    Alli Balogun Street
26    Ehingbeti (Marina Foreshore)
27    Ebute Ero
28    Force Road
29    King George Road
30    All Flyovers in Lagos Island

2    Sleeping in the Market place or on all flyovers within the Lagos Central Business District is prohibited.

Any Person who contravenes to this Law shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N 5,000.00 and N 15,000.00 or/and a term of imprisonment of between six months and one year.

Persons convicted of any of these offences maybe ordered to render community service under the provisions of the Law.

I kept my promise. The last of the series to hit you tomorrow.

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Would you rather have the Cedes

LAGOS, Corporate Corruption: Wonder why the naira has struggled to make an impact against the dollar? In the news today, the EFCC has moved to arrest all the Diamond Bank Managers involved in the International Passport – visa dollar fraud. Since banks are supplied hard dollars from CBN to be sold to people with Valid Visas and tickets, some Bank Managers used this opportunity to their advantage. These managers make photocopies of these documents to back up such transactions (they were reportedly apprehended with a couple of fake and original passports in their possession) and then sell the dollars at killer rate to the Black Marketers. The dollar which sold at 202 naira sometime in March had risen against the naira due to high demand resulting from artificial scarcity of the dollar in banks.

EFCC arrests Diamond Bank Managers over dollar fraud

It is worth noting that this could mark the end of the careers of these managers, at least in the Banking Industry. Hopefully, this development should strike fear into the minds of defaulters and we can start to dream of 120 naira to a dollar again. Maybe I can comfortably return to school, and prices of inflated items can fall (na dream?)

What determines the naira-dollar exchange rate?

Why’s the naira so weak against the dollar?

Ps: The second part of the Lagos Traffic Laws will be out unfailingly today.

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Is this wheel barrow worth 150k?

Lagos Island traffic fines (Min: 50,000 naira – Max: 150,000 naira – plus imprisonment) I tried so hard not to post this on All Fool’s Day, I guess the day’s almost over now, but post I must, and I have. Here’s Part I. Part 2 should be out tomorrow, and on Friday, Part 3. I’m too lazy to type, sorry, I have to seek the help of friends. They aren’t really “new” anyway, I guess the publication was only to sanitize the public who find themselves in Lagos Island, but of course, as you and I know, someone must “chop” and someone must “drop suntin”. Take am!

PUBLIC ATTENTION: LAGOS LAW AND ORDER

In the initiative to re-enforce Law and Order around the Lagos Central Business District, the Lagos State Government hereby draws the attention of the general public to the following PUBLIC DISORDER OFFENCES, contained in the CONTROL OF TRAFFIC (SPECIAL PROVISIONS) EDICT 1978 which by virtue of Section 315 of the 1999 constitution is now a Law of the Lagos State House of Assembly and the ROAD TRAFFIC LAW 2003 LAWS OF LAGOS STATE and the sanctions that maybe imposed upon conviction:

1 PROHIBITION OF PARKING ALONG LAGOS CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

No vehicle is allowed to park or pick passengers along the following highways within the Lagos Central Business District:

1 Outer and Inner Marina

2 Broad Street

3 Balogun Street

4 Martins Street

5 Nnamdi Azikiwe Street

6 Eko Bridge

7 Carter Bridge

8 Apongbon Street

9 Idumagbo Avenue

10 Campbell Street

11 Breadfruit Street

12 Tinubu Street

13 Abibu Oki Street

14 Oke Olowogbowo Street

15 Davis Street

16 Adeniji Adele Street

17 Church Street

18 Docemo Street

19 Odunlami Street

20 Iga Idunganran Street

21 Ereko Street

22 Kakawa Street

23 Campos Street

24 Bamgbose Street

25 Alli Balogun Street

26 Ehingbeti (Marina Foreshore)

27 Ebute Ero

28 Force Road

29 King George Road

30 All Flyovers in Lagos Island

www.LagosMet.Com

Any Person who fails to comply with the provisions of this Law would have his vehicle impounded by the authorized persons and shall be liable upon conviction to a fine and or term of imprisonment.

2 Abandoned vehicles

If you are the owner of a vehicle left on the highway within the Lagos central Business District for an unreasonable long period of time, you are to pay the following as cost of towing

Type of Vehicle                               Amount Payable

1 Articulated vehicles                  N 150,000.00

2 Empty trailers and Tanker          N 100,000.00

3 Lorries and Tippers                   N 50,000.00

4 High Capacity Buses                 N 50,000.00

5 Mini Buses, Jeeps and Cars        N 50,000.00

In addition, for abandoning the vehicle, the owner will be liable to fine of N 50,000.00 or (70,000.00 for commercial vehicle) or 3months imprisonment.

Persons convicted of any of the offences maybe ordered to render community service under the provisions of the Law.

Joke (reality) of the day: This toon right here (got this off facebook)

The world's worst job?

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Governor Fashola

In Simon’s article, Understanding the Fashola Phenomenon, the relationship between Fashola and Tinubu clearly explains why Lagos is moving forward. He also compared the governor with other peers who have embarked on white elephant projects and like their predecessors have failed to make an impact. Please read on…

“Anytime someone pours encomium on Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, I smile, mischievously. I’m usually amused because… Okay, I’ll come back to that shortly. A few days ago, I was, as usual, discussing Nigeria with a friend. He recently had a terrible experience with a government institution. “We can never get it right in this country,” he said in frustration. “Nigeria is doomed,” he proclaimed on top of his voice. I looked at him and said: “Fashola.” I could feel his anger melt down. Reluctantly, he replied: “You may have a point there.” What did I mean by “Fashola”? No, I was not saying Fashola was about to solve all our problems. But under two years, he has demonstrated a sense of urgency, commitment and focus. It is not just about the change he is bringing to Lagos, but also the promise he has shown. He is showing us clearly that we are not living in a hopeless society, that things can change and change for good. Fashola has renewed my hope that a new Nigeria is possible.
It is very easy to think Nigeria is doomed. I have agonised over this doom most of my adult life. It is very difficult to see hope. We hardly see the silver lining in a dark cloud; rather, we see a dark lining in a silver cloud, as someone said years ago. We are so frustrated and pessimistic that we don’t even see the opportunities and prospects that gawk at us. All we can see are problems and pains. You cannot blame the Nigerian. We appear to be helpless and hopeless. We are like a sheep without a shepherd. Therefore, whenever someone appreciates Fashola, I smile mischievously, as if saying: “Didn’t you say it is finished with Nigeria?” And believe it or not, there are a hundred Fasholas – educated, exposed, committed, focused and visionary – all over Nigeria who do not have the opportunity to shine because of our peculiar political structure.
The major difference, however, is that someone placed merit above political expediency and stuck out his neck for Fashola. I’m talking about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the immediate past governor of Lagos State. Having ruled Lagos for eight turbulent years, during which he kept battling with the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP troops who were hell-bent on capturing Lagos at any cost, Tinubu could easily have handed over to another politician. There were many of them around him, pressing him left, right and centre. He chose, instead, to throw his weight behind a certain Babatunde Raji Fashola who was unknown outside the Lagos corridors of power. Why did Tinubu settle for Fashola? Why did he choose to gamble on someone who had never been a councillor, much less a council chairman, in a society where we make jest of people like Pat Utomi because their political CV is not intimidating?
Tinubu opted for someone whose first exercise of executive power would be in the office of the governor of Lagos, the most chaotic and the most strategic state in Nigeria. Why? My guess is that Tinubu saw something in him which some of us did not see. My guess is that having laid out a beautiful plan for Lagos which he could not fully implement because of political expediency in the Obasanjo years, Tinubu was sincerely committed to getting a rightful successor who would carry out the assignment to a logical conclusion. He put merit above merriment, purpose above politics, reason above rhyme. I wish Obasanjo could honestly say the same regarding his own choice of successor.
Why is Fashola making progress? This should provide good PhD research topics for political scientists and maybe economists. Since I am a student of Governance and Development, I will look at the Lagos Model from my own bias. My write-up today should help us understand the Fashola Phenomenon and put things in proper perspective. We can then ask: what can the rest of Nigeria learn from this? The major obstacle to good governance in Nigeria, in my own opinion, is politics. You can replace that word with “politicking”. Many times, we have managed to produce good people in government but they end up as failures. Why? I suggest: the impediments caused by politicking. For you to succeed as a leader in Nigeria, you must get your politics and policy right. You may have good policies, but without the right politics you will fail. No matter how much we dislike politicians, we need them. You can never have politics without politicians. That is one. On the other hand, you may get all your politics right – pleasing some people, pummelling others, perfecting all the intrigues – but the society will never move forward if you do not have the right policies. You, therefore, cannot escape a happy marriage of politics and policy if you are to be an achiever.
Now here comes the Lagos Model. Fashola is the “technocrat” who handles governance, the finer details. Tinubu is the “godfather” who handles the politics, you know, the murky waters. They complement each other. Tinubu himself is a technocrat, to be sure, but the politician took the better part of him during his tenure as he had to fight off the PDP hawks. If Fashola begins to play politics today, governance will suffer. If he was interested in politicking, he could never have removed the traders from Oshodi. He could never have chased away those yellow buses from the highway. In Nigerian politics, the critical mass of voters will be found in markets and at motor parks. The real voters and foot soldiers are petty traders, bus drivers, conductors and touts. The conventional wisdom is that if you control the motor parks, you control the thugs; if you control the thugs, you control the polling booth; if you control the polling booth, you control the votes! That is why associations such as National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) are very strategic to politicians and there is always a fierce battle to control them.
By taking these tough decisions, Fashola would have been committing political suicide. But, no, there is Tinubu to clean up the “mess” politically. This frees Fashola to retain his focus without much distraction. It is like in football: you have a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder – the former, like Tinubu, handles the defensive part of the job while the latter, like Fashola, is freed and creates goals for his team. Politics and policy, like we said, must be happily married if we are to enjoy good governance in this country. Fashola has never made any attempt to discredit his predecessor. I hear a lot of PDP people say: “It’s Tinubu’s programme that Fashola is implementing.” Pure rubbish. One of the biggest obstacles to our development is this mentality that you must discredit your predecessor and discontinue his programmes so that people would not say you don’t have your own ideas. Pure rubbish. Government is a continuum. If anything, policy reversals have done a lot of damage to the country, as we can see at the federal level.

Fashola and S.A.Ferguson

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua came to office in May 2007, and – based on the advice of people who probably had selfish motives – he suspended the power projects, cancelled the Lagos-Kano rail contract and reversed the privatisation of refineries. Nearly two years after, Yar’Adua is going back to the same power and rail projects – and he now wants to privatise the refineries again. Precious time wasted for nothing! Does he know the billions of dollars and invaluable productivity we have lost as a result of this? Why must he reverse policies for the fun of it? All the talk about 6,000 megawatts today is based on the projects Obasanjo initiated in 2006! So why waste our time? This is very common all over Nigeria – new governors abandoning critical projects for selfish reasons. Fashola has proved to be wiser than most.
But can we replicate the Lagos Model all over Nigeria? For instance, would Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani have performed better as Enugu governor if he had faced governance and allowed Jim Nwobodo to handle the politics? That is the problem with modelling. What works in Sokoto may not work in Akwa Ibom and what works in Oyo may fail in Kogi. However, the fundamental truth cannot be altered – that “politics and policy” must be delicately balanced, happily married, if we are to make progress. Whether one person should handle the two or there should be “separation of powers” between the “politician” and the “technocrat” is what we can debate more extensively. However, the Lagos Model can work for Nigeria as witnessed under Obasanjo administration. Obasanjo, though a terrible politician who was obviously power drunk, managed to handle the politics while “technocrats” such as Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mr. Bode Agusto, Dr. Mansur Muhtar and Mallam Nasir el-Rufai went about the business of governance. Obasanjo’s battle with his own contradictions might have discredited his government, but we certainly made some progress under his government.
Can we then toy with the idea of a “politician” President and a “technocratic” VP in 2011? Technocrats have their failings, just like politicians too, so we need a balance. Somehow, I think Nigeria’s redemption will benefit tremendously by learning from the Lagos Model. It’s a phenomenon we should give serious consideration to, as we battle to create a new Nigeria.”

Joke of the day: African Remix Video (Beyonce put a ring on it) All the single ladies spoof

and Don’t put that ring on it (Spoof Video)

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