The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has recalled how he turned the fortunes of Lagos State around from a jungle to a megacity during his tenure as the governor of the state.
Tinubu said he met Lagos as a jungle and turned it into a megacity during his administration as Governor.
Tinubu stated this in a mini-documentary that aired on the night of Friday, October 14, 2022.
Pulse reports that Tinubu governed Lagos from 1999-2007, a period that birthed some of the developments being witnessed in the state.
The former two-term Governor of Lagos claimed the credit for laying the development foundation of the state upon which his successors have continued to build to make the state what it is today.
The presidential hopeful makes bold to say that Lagos truly came alive under his stewardship.
Tinubu’s words: “When I came in as governor of Lagos State in 1999, Lagos was a jungle. It was a completely uncivilized environment. There were refuse dumps everywhere, schools without roofs, and hospitals without ambulances and oxygen tanks to save lives. It was in a very bad state.
“We started to put things in place gradually and the state began to take shape. What we did was take the liabilities in the state and convert them to assets.
“Civic Centre to Oriental Hotel areas of Victoria Island was back then refuse dumps, but look at what the areas have turned to today. It is only the older ones who would remember all these.”
The mini-documentary stated that Tinubu restructured the revenue of the state and made Lagos financially self-sustained at the time of his exit from the government in 2007.
It further stated that, under Tinubu’s watch, Lagos’s status changed from being solely dependent on federal allocations pre-1999 to an autonomous state.
The docu says: “When Tinubu took over in 1999, Lagos was bankrupt. The internally generated revenue at the time was N600m monthly and the state was completely dependent on the Federal Government for it.
“When Tinubu was leaving office in 2007, the IGR of Lagos was N7bn monthly. Babatunde Fashola built on that legacy to N15bn monthly. This was made possible by the short, medium, and long-term goals that Tinubu laid down for the state in terms of revenue and wealth generation.”
A short clip played in the mini-documentary also showed President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed that Tinubu’s political mastery drew him (Buhari) to the former Lagos state governor.
Buhari’s words: “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has set himself apart as a political strategist and a mountain of ideas which drew me to him. He is a true humanitarian and has contributed immensely to the success of Nigeria and Africa.”
Also featured in the documentary were the former governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, and the incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who also credited the APC presidential candidate for most of the projects that their administrations accomplished.
They described Tinubu as the architect of modern development in Lagos, adding that his strides pave way for most of the developments, long before they came on board.