‘Lagos too sophisticated for inexperienced hands’

Lagos residents have been urged not to be swayed by bigoted statements ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

Gboyega Akosile, Chief Press Secretary to Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who disclosed this in an interview, stressed that as the commercial hub of Africa’s biggest economy, Lagos is too sophisticated to be handed to those without experience.

“Lagos is too cosmopolitan for us to be talking about ethnicity, bigotry. That is why you wouldn’t see us identify with anyone towing that path. Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu is a free-minded person who loves, cares and respects all Lagosians. He believes in humanity first and foremost. He believes he is the father of all. Igbo, Hausas, Yorubas we are one and we should go into this election and think about competency and capacity. We should think about who we can trust our lives with. Is it the man who ensured we were safe during COVID-19 pandemic or someone who has never been tested,” he said.

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He noted that as the 15th Lagos Governor, and having worked closely with three previous governors – Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Raji Fashola, and Akinwunmi Ambode in different capacities, Sanwo-Olu understands the State and the various challenges facing the mega city.

He said this knowledge helped Sanwo-Olu to come up with the THEMES agenda, the acronym of the six pillars of the his strategic development agenda for the state, namely: Traffic Management and Transportation, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy, Entertainment and Tourism, as well as Security and Governance.

Akosile said the governor will be re-elected on Saturday by Lagosians because he has delivered on his campaign promises.

“I believe very strongly that governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu will be re-elected as the governor of the state because performance is what you use to reward anyone that is going into a contest, especially a political contest. You have to look at the promises he made when he was coming on board and if he has delivered on them.

“The answer for most Lagosians is that Governor Babajide had indeed performed and delivered on the promises he made,” he said.

He recalled that a little above seven months when the Sanwo-Olu administration had barely settled down, COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the entire world and Lagos became an epicentre of the airborne disease. He said the Governor showed leadership in rising up to the occasion and responding to the pandemic.

“As Incident Commander, he protected the citizens of the state by ensuring that the ravaging infection was well managed. Sanwo-Olu, with the assistance of his Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, and other stakeholders controlled the spread and ensured that those who contracted the virus were well attended to. He was the first governor to come up with a clearly defined containment strategy and response, which was later adopted by the presidency for the national response plan,” he added

Sanwo-Olu, whose main challengers are Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party and Abdul-Azeez Adediran of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was recently endorsed for a second term in office by nine other political parties in the state.