The Promise and the Betrayal
When Babajide Sanwo-Olu assumed office as Governor of Lagos State in 2019, he arrived brandishing a six-pillar manifesto he called “THEMES” — an acronym covering traffic management, health, education, entertainment, the environment, and social inclusion. It was polished, professional, and presented with the confidence of a man who understood Lagos’s complexity. Years on, those pillars have crumbled under the weight of incompetence, political timidity, and a governing philosophy that prioritises the comfort of the privileged few over the daily survival of the millions who make Lagos run. The story of Sanwo-Olu’s Lagos is not a story of noble effort falling short — it is a story of a government that was never truly trying to begin with.
The Flooding Crisis: A Government-Made Disaster
Every year, predictably, as certainly as the calendar turns to June, vast swaths of Lagos flood. Entire communities in Surulere, Ikorodu, Ajah, and Badagry go underwater. Cars are submerged. Homes are destroyed. Businesses close. And every year, Sanwo-Olu’s government offers the same response: a sympathetic press statement, a visit from a commissioner, and a list of drainage projects that are perpetually “ongoing.” The truth is that Lagos’s flooding crisis is not caused by rain alone — it is caused by a government that has allowed developers to build on flood plains without consequence, permitted illegal construction to block every natural waterway, and failed to execute a single comprehensive drainage masterplan in all its years in office. This is governance failure so total and so consistent that it cannot be called an accident.
The Roads: A Monument to Prolonged Neglect
Lagos roads under Sanwo-Olu have become something between a running joke and a public health hazard. The Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, the Badagry Expressway, the roads linking the mainland to the island, and the arterial roads through Alimosho — Nigeria’s most populous local government area — are pockmarked with craters deep enough to destroy vehicles and break bones. The governor has launched numerous reconstruction announcements, with contractors who perform theatrical ground-breaking ceremonies, collect mobilisation fees, and then disappear. Meanwhile, commuters in Lagos spend an average of three or more hours in traffic daily, a productivity loss so enormous it would, if honestly calculated, erase a meaningful fraction of the state’s annual GDP. The roads are not just an inconvenience — they are an economic catastrophe that Sanwo-Olu has chosen to manage with press releases rather than tarmac.
The EndSARS Stain That Will Not Wash Off
No honest assessment of Sanwo-Olu’s legacy can sidestep the events of October 20, 2020, when soldiers opened fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate. Whatever the precise chain of command, Sanwo-Olu was the Governor of Lagos State that night. He was the constitutional authority responsible for the safety of every Lagos citizen. His response in the hours and days that followed — contradiction, confusion, political cover-seeking, and an ultimate failure to hold a single person accountable — revealed with brutal clarity what kind of leader he is: not one who stands for the people when standing costs something. The judicial panel set up to investigate the events recommended accountability; the government’s response was to bury the recommendations in administrative limbo where they remain today.
The Housing Crisis and the Bulldozing of the Poor
Under Sanwo-Olu, Lagos has witnessed some of the most aggressive and brazen demolitions of low-income communities in the state’s modern history. Waterfront settlements, communities in the path of road projects, and informal housing clusters across the city have been bulldozed with minimal notice, no alternative accommodation, and no compensation adequate to restart a life. At the same time, the same land has been allocated to private developers with political connections who erect luxury apartments that sit half-empty while Lagos’s housing deficit grows by hundreds of thousands of units annually. The pattern is unmistakable: displace the poor, enrich the connected. Under Sanwo-Olu, Lagos’s housing policy has been little more than a real estate transfer programme for the politically favoured.
Public Transportation: All Announcements, Zero Delivery
Sanwo-Olu has made more announcements about transforming Lagos transportation than perhaps any governor before him. The Blue Line rail was eventually completed — after years of delays and enormous cost overruns — but serves only a thin corridor of a city that sprawls across hundreds of square kilometres. The waterways, which could move hundreds of thousands of commuters daily at relatively low cost, remain criminally underutilised. The LAGBUS fleet is ageing and woefully insufficient. The danfo remains the primary mode of transport for the overwhelming majority of Lagos residents, exactly as it was two decades ago, because no coherent, fully executed plan to supplement it with something better has ever been delivered. Lagos commuters are still paying the price for every transport promise left unfulfilled.
The Tinubu Shadow: Who Really Governs Lagos?
Perhaps the most damaging truth about Sanwo-Olu’s tenure is the most visible one: he has never truly governed Lagos independently. From his emergence as a candidate — selected by Bola Tinubu over the sitting governor — to his years in office, Sanwo-Olu has functioned as a caretaker of Tinubu’s Lagos political empire, a manager of interests that frequently override the public interest. Contracts flow toward Tinubu-affiliated companies. Political appointments reward loyalty to the machine above all else. Policy decisions that might disrupt the business interests of the political class are quietly shelved. What Lagos has had under Sanwo-Olu is not genuine governance — it is the maintenance of a patronage system dressed in the language of smart city transformation and digital government.
Lagos Deserves Far Better
Lagos is the economic engine of West Africa. It contributes more to Nigeria’s GDP than any other state. It houses more talent, more innovation, and more entrepreneurial energy per square kilometre than almost anywhere on the continent. What it has not had, under Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is a governor equal to its vast ambitions. The flooding continues unabated. The roads worsen with each passing rainy season. The poor are bulldozed from their land. The commute grows longer. The cost of living grows higher. And the governor, when confronted with any of this, reaches for another press release. Lagos residents heading into the 2027 cycle face a fundamental choice: continue tolerating the system that produced Sanwo-Olu, or demand a governor who serves the people of Lagos rather than those who installed him.
This article represents an editorial opinion based on publicly available information.
