Forget the presidency. Whoever controls Lagos controls Africa’s most important city, making it Nigeria’s ultimate political prize.
Welcome to Lagos, to the urban jungle. Historically, the city-state served as a major route for carting away slaves in the transatlantic slave trade. Now, it is the economic gateway into West Africa — and, on Saturday, the site of a bitterly-contested gubernatorial election.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party’s Jimi Agbaje is working hard too, pressing flesh and holding rallies all over the state.with their faces on it, like bags of rice, in poorer areas.Lagos — or Eko as it is known in Yoruba — is worth the fight. Although Lagos state is Nigeria’s smallest by land area, Lagos city is Africa’s largest, a densely-packed megalopolis that is home to an estimated 21 million people.
At times, Lagos was lawless. “People were being murdered. Armed robbery was rampant. Dead bodies were picked on the street on average 10-15 times every week. There was no control of any kind,” former governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu toldThings have changed since then — and, for better or worse, Tinubu has played a key role.
It was Fashola who replaced molues — the rickety buses that commuters would chase after and hang from — with the Bus Rapid Transit Systems that came with dedicated bus lanes and ticketing stations. Bus stops now have screens displaying schedules, and major streets boast a traffic system that uses sensors and cameras to collect and display real time information to commuters. A light railway line connecting the Okokomaiko town to the Marina area is almost complete.
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