What We Must Do To End Building Collapse In Lagos

 By Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour

It is a common refrain on social media that Lagos State is easy to pick on, especially when there is negative news trending. So, let’s be clear: this is not another attempt to “pile on” the state. Yet, the truth must be said. Building collapses in Lagos have now been elevated to man-made disaster status, instead of the acts of God. 

*Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour

We can reference three specific large-scale tragedies to buttress this point. The recent collapse, just seven days ago, of a 7-storey building under development in Banana Island, the 21-storey building collapse on Gerard Road in Ikoyi on November 1, 2021, and the March 13, 2019 building collapse at Itafaji, Lagos Island. These tragedies make the news for obvious reasons. Yet, these are just a few of the numerous building collapse incidents that have occurred in Lagos State over the years.

Lagos, Our Lagos!

 By Alade Rotimi-John

There is on-going, an uneasy fearful sensation regarding a noticeable change in the demographics and in the property ownership profile of Lagos. Many reasoned and unscientific or irrational excuses are being conversely bandied as reasons for the happening of what ordinarily should be explained as an unstoppable sociological dynamics of a rapidly-growing sub-national entity.

Many commentaries about the place of the indigenous population of Lagos are mischievously choreographed in sneers and jeers as if to suggest that claimants to Lagos indigenship are interlopers or, at best, pretenders to the crown of Pontifex.

The contest for the governorship seat of Lagos this season has unfortunately rejuvenated the contrived animosity in the subject matter of the status of Lagos and of the natural or ordained claim to its ownership. Truly, there are people whose heritage is Lagos; whose entitlement is geo-social and steeped in the demographic history of Lagos.

Hypocrisy Of The Self-Styed Nigerian Progressives

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

A friend of mine sent me a text message the other day: “Ikechukwu, please stop this fight. This election has been won and lost and it is high time we moved forward. Lamenting over spilt milk is an exercise in futility and if you are close to Peter Obi, please tell him to give peace a chance and allow the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to get on with the job. His insistence on challenging the outcome of the election in court is a disservice to the nation. He should withdraw it and seek accommodation in the incoming administration.”

*Obi shakes hands Tinubu 

Really? I shook my head in disbelief because this is someone I thought I knew well enough, including his political views. He was an advocate of social justice and a rule of law enthusiast, who had always encouraged those short-changed at the polls by electoral bandits to seek redress in court.

Igbo And The Battle For Lagos

 By Bisi Olawunmi

With governorship elections slated for Saturday, 18 March, 2023 there is tension in many states where the elections have become too close to call. Lagos State is the economic jewel of the nation and one where Saturday’s election will be an epic battle, given the emergent Youth Revolt which catapulted Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to a landmark victory over Lagos Landlord, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Obi garnered 582,454 votes to Tinubu’s 572,606 votes with perennial presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, of the People’s Democratic Party trailing by a paltry 75,750. For the PDP candidate, it was literally a wipe -out. Atiku, the Turaki of Adamawa simply ‘ tukasile ‘ (fell apart) in his Lagos outing. The Obidients even claim that they had a wallop of votes close to one million.

To The Nigerian Youths Of Lagos

 By Sola Ebiseni  

To start with, I belong to the OBIDATTI Movement with undying conviction that a new Nigeria is possible and that the combination of Peter Gregory Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is the best for its realisation. My conviction is also anchored on the fact that it is the turn of Southern Nigeria and specifically the South-East to produce the next President of Nigeria after the eight years of President Buhari from the North as a guarantee for equity and the imperative peace of the federation.

Nigerian youths, in spite of the INEC shenanigans, remain the heroes of the on-going electioneering processes. From the outset, they were unpretentious about their interests. They resolved to break away from the evil that has befallen Nigerians, particularly in the last eight years in all aspects of life and more worrisome, the issue of insecurity which places our country in the category of failed states.

Lagos Guber Polls: Attacks On Ndigbo And What Sanwo-Olu Must Do!

 By Steve Osuji

The Saturday guber election in Lagos is a diadem. For Lagosians, it’s probably as big as last Saturday’s presidential tournament, if not more significant. Campaigns have been raging in Lagos , especially in the social media. So have calumny and ethnic brickbats been flying between traditional rivals: Igbo and Yoruba. 

Let it be presented upfront that one of the most underrated and unspoken problems of Nigeria is the ruinous rivalry between Igbo and Yoruba of Nigeria.  

As I have noted in the past, Igbo and Yoruba in Nigeria may be compared to the German and English of Western Europe. Imagine Germany and Britain existing as a country. These are two great peoples (nations) not to be lumped under one umbrella or forcibly forge into a nation. 

Lagos Is Far From Excellence, Not Yet Working!

 By Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour

Lagos is not working. Once promising, the state now wallows in a sickening state of mediocrity, captured by a fraudulent and mercantilist political class that has held sway for 21 years. Indeed, Roosevelt helps us understand the danger of the mercantile class when he opined thus:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism ownership of government by an individual, or a group.” Roosevelt’s wisdom sums up most appropriately the present tragedy that is the lot of Lagosians.

To start with, the wealth of Lagos is directly tied to the productivity and sweat equity of its citizens. More than 80% of Lagos’s revenue comes from income tax, consumption tax and several other forms of taxation. Hence, while successive administrations brag about increasing internally generated revenue, they have spectacularly failed to hold up their part of the social contract. Close to N10 trillion has been spent during the period but Lagos still ranks as one of the most unliveable cities in the world. Of what use are the trillions generated in tax revenue if it doesn’t improve the life or livelihood of the average citizen?