How BRT took Fashola to World Bank

Kunle Awosiyan, Lagos updated: Monday 13-04-2009

The new BRT bus introduced by
Fashola. Inset is the Lagos State
governor.Like the popular verse in the Holy Bible that a diligent man will stand confidently before kings so is the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), whose works have continually distinguished him among his equals.

One is not an advocate of praise singing but a critical looker of the workings of the governor in his two years of governance. Simply put, the present regime is a sharp shift from the cunning system of governance in Lagos State .

No doubt, Lagos is gradually taking the shape of a mega city. The changes are visible, even though it has come with pains and a lot of dissonances. To get to this level, the present administration had to recreate under bridges; demolish illegal structures; light up some dark spots, improve transportation system through the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit and LAGBUS.

As a matter of fact, the aggression of the private sector to participate in the development of the state is an indication that people have developed trust in the present administration. A good example is the continuous cash and material donations by the private sector to the State Security Trust Fund.

Indeed, the peoples’ eagerness to pay tax is another signal of trust that the residents now have in the new administration. Though the government does not play with the enforcement of any of its policies, the people are neither forced to agree with it. It has been a kind of mutual agreement. So it did not come as a surprise when the World Bank invited Governor Fashola to meet delegations of transport managers across the world to share his experience of BRT with them in the last one year.

It must be noted that BRT is an assisted project of the World Bank but as Fashola quickly put it, “The bank wants us to share our experience of BRT with other cities of the world, which include Mexico and Curiciba in Brazil .”

His works also took him to Chicago , United States and Cairo , Egypt , where he discussed extensively with experts in the field of medicine on the need to fortify the state’s cardiac and renal centres and the possibility of establishing a transformer factory in Lagos State.

Addressing the state house correspondents shortly after his arrival from the 12-day journey, Fashola concluded that he was proud to say that Lagos was doing well in the area of city traffic management when compared with some mega cities in the world.

He said, “I spent two hours to travel within Washington DC because of traffic despite the underground rail, water and road transportation systems in the area.”

According to him, some of these mega cities have almost the same population like Lagos , adding, “This means that we have been doing miracle in Lagos to control our traffic, despite our lack of rail and underground transportation system.”

He recalled that some 15 years ago, public transportation in Cairo was a nightmare such that people sat on the roof of public buses to move around but that Lagos ’ experience had not got to that level.

He said, “City managers and leaders are continuously looking at all options of mass transit. I want to say here that Lagos is on the right track with successes recorded by BRT, LAGBUS as well as the clearing of Oshodi. We are committed to taking leadership as a model mega city.”

On health, the governor stopped by in Chicago to discuss with medical experts on how to improve facilities and to discuss about the cardiac, kidney and renal specialists hospital being put in place by the state government at Gbagada.

According to him, there are some Nigerians in Chicago who are experienced in this medical field and who have been part of several medical missions to Lagos in the past, adding, “We have to visit them towards making the exercise a success.”

He said he was in Cairo at the instance of the state joint venture in the area of power supply through local manufacturing of meters and transformers.

To him, this is a proactive measure being taken by Lagos government to alleviate the problem of electricity in the country. According to him, the establishment of the factory would take effect before the end of the year as the technical partner, El-Swedy group had agreed with the terms of creating the company in Lagos .

Apart from providing jobs for Nigerians, Fashola noted that the factory would enable the country to depend on its local inventory transformers and meters, which were very crucial in electricity supply.

He posited, “The visit has opened new vista on why the country should start to look at the development of vast potential of the petrol chemical industry instead of outright exporting of crude oil. This is because the factory will not only be producing meter, it will also produce casing of the meters, using plastic, which is a bye-product of petroleum.”

Fashola who is very optimistic that the factory would be floated soon, said that he had visited the headquarters in Cairo and was impressed with the calibers of young people who dominated the work force.

“This will help us a lot. We saw young men and women working to assemble meters, both the electro mechanical and digital, which are readily convertible through software to the main meters. This is what Lagos state intends to have soon,” he said.