If you’re one of those, who believe Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, did nothing when he was Governor of Lagos State, you obviously need to see this podcast on Tinubu’s unrivaled leadership skill.
In the third episode of the podcast series that so many Nigerians have tagged: “As E Dey Hot”, Director, Public Affairs and Spokesperson of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, took time to illustrate how Asiwaju met an unruly and chaotic urban transport system in Lagos in 1999.
In the BAT Moment with Keyamo, Nigerians, especially Tinubu’s haters and detractors, were reminded how the State’s transport system was characterized by erratic mini buses, popularly known as “Danfo” and the big rickety ones, known as “Molue”.
Keyamo also refreshed the people’s memory on how the State’s roads were unpaved with potholes and the street corners and major highways were covered with heaps of waste.
The Director of Public Affairs noted that at that time Lagos was doing 212 vehicles per kilometer against the global required standard of 17 vehicles per kilometer on the road.
He further reminded Nigerians how Asiwaju put on his thinking cap and immediately established the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, and bring into fruition a World Bank class Urban Transport System Reform and Master Plan that covered funding and technical assistance for Lagos.
Keyamo further explained that the Master Plan consists of 10 BRT Routes, seven Rail Lines, 10 Water Transport Routes, New Highways as well as a Ring Road, which have all been built over years, even after Asiwaju had left office, due to his blue print, leadership structure and continuity.
He added that in Asiwaju’s medium term plan, he begun to phase out the Molue buses and replace them with the BRT buses and “to instill discipline on our roads, Asiwaju established the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, which has over the years become a very critical and successful agency in Lagos. Today, the Lagos transport system has improved significantly from what we had in 1999”.
He noted that the number of jobs and the multiple effects of the openings created as a result of the establishment of the agencies – LAMATA and LASTMA are unquantifiable today.
The Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council Spokesperson however assured that as President of Nigeria, Asiwaju will not be novice to working and collaborating with global agencies, institutions and stakeholders, to continue to transform the traffic and transport network across Nigeria to bring succour to Nigerians.
