A city in Transition: Vision, Reform, and Growth in Lagos, Nigeria. Michael O. Filani Cities Alliance United Cities and Local Governments Acknowledgements

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  Political will and leadership
  
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  Strategic visioning of development
  
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  Knowledge-based approach (KBA) to planning
  
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  Budget reform and its linkage with activities of government institutions
  
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  Popular participation partnership building
  
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  Policy, legislative, and institutional reforms
  
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  Resource mobilisation, transparency, and accountability
  
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  Application of information and communication technology (ICT) in governance
  
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  Programmatic interventions
  
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  Sustainability
  

As flag-bearers, we are not unmindful of the heavy burden and responsibility that we carry. We are not unmindful of the huge expectations of our people, young and old, man and woman, able and disabled. Nor are we unmindful of the misery and poverty that the generality of our people have had to endure almost forty years after Independence. Our goal, as the Prophet of old commands, is to lighten the burden of our people, alleviating poverty by providing jobs for our youths, houses, secure homes, water, good roads and creating efficient mass transportation system, industrial development and providing life more abundant for our people.

The above quote captures the main thrusts of the development agenda and its achievements.

In 2007 Babatunde Fashola (Senior Advocate of Nigeria), who was Tinubu’s chief of staff, succeeded him as the governor with the same vigour and commitment. In his maiden speech he acknowledged the achievements of his predecessor and promised continuation of Tinubu’s purposeful and exemplary leadership, with an emphasis on “education and the development of quality of human capital; job creation and support for private enterprise; infrastructural development; public transportation; crime fighting; justice delivery; healthcare and the environment.”

The governance style of both Tinubu and Fashola demonstrated strong political will and exemplary leadership, and nowhere has this vision and mission been more evident than in Lagos megacity.

Strategic Visioning of Development
To effectively manage the common affairs of the people being governed, those responsible for governance must have the “vision, goals, targets and broadly accepted performance measurements” (TUGI 2002). The UNDP (1997) identified strategic vision as one of the key elements of good governance, which could be achieved through the adoption of vision/mission statements, land-use plans, and poverty reduction strategies. Through strategic visioning of development, political leaders and the general public were able to envision and take both broad and long-term views of good governance and human development initiatives as well as the resources required for their accomplishment.

In 2003 Nigeria adopted a home-grown poverty reduction strategy called the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). This was later decentralised to the state level in 2004. Lagos state, following the example of the federal government, formulated and adopted the Lagos State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (LASEEDS), which was put in place in 2005.

The LASEEDS is “a Poverty Reduction Strategy aimed at achieving cohesive coordination of the development process through adoption of a bottom-up approach and inclusiveness of stakeholders” (Ehingbeti 2008: 19). It also has a reform and development agenda articulated using basic strategic planning techniques for stimulating sustainable development. Its main focus includes empowering the people (human development), developing the private sector (wealth creation), and reforming the government and its institutions (public sector reforms). Its main objectives are to create wealth, reduce poverty, generate employment, and reorient value systems.

Its 10-point agenda (TPA) comprises the following:

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  Environmental and physical planning
  
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  Roads and transportation
  
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  Power and water supply
  
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  Education
  
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  Employment
  
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  Health
  
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  Security
  
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  Food security
  
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  Shelter
  
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  Revenue enhancement.
  

One of the major goals of the LASEEDS is to make Lagos a model African megacity that is a hub of financial and economic growth, not only in Nigeria but in the West African sub-region.

The strategies adopted for achieving the goals of the LASEEDS and TPA include:

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  Continued communication and engagement with all relevant stakeholders
  
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  Conduct of research for planning
  
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  Application of geographic information systems (GIS)
  
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  Continuous institutional capacity building
  
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  Greater enforcement of town-planning regulations
  
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  Urban upgrading of blights (slums)
  
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  Developing Lagos into a model city-state
  
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  Pursuit of systematic physical planning for sustainable development
  
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  A reliable database for physical planning
  
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  Enhanced partnership for governance
  

Adoption of the KBA to management requires integrating and sharing of specialist knowledge among various components of an organisation. The Lagos state government adopts the KBA for knowledge sharing among the different ministries and parastatals to promote sustainable development. This principle also underlined the biennial organisation of the Ehingbeti Summit, which began in 2000 and continues till date. To promote the KBA, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget conceived the idea of an annual economic summit rooted in the Ehingbeti state’s heritage, as a participatory forum for integrating stakeholders into the economic planning and development matters of Lagos state.

The Lagos state government has implemented several institutional reforms through the creation of new agencies for effective service delivery in the areas of transport, sewage management, resource mobilisation, and environmental and solid waste management. These agencies include the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Lagos State Water Authority (LASWA), Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Lagos State Emergency Medical Services (LASEMS), Lagos State Ambulance Services (LASAMBUS), and Lagos State Microfinance Institution (LASMI).

In line with the democratic ideals and respect for human rights, the state government has adopted inclusive approaches to development planning, policy formulation, and implementation. The formulation of poverty reduction strategy papers and land-use plans were hinged on effective participation. Participatory approaches are well practiced also at the local government levels. For instance, in Ikeja (one of the 20 local governments) men, women, and youth are involved in management and decision making through holding of town hall meetings with local government officials on development initiatives. The local government also invites different stakeholder groups in different wards (including market women, landlords, representatives from community development areas [CDAs] and community development councils [CDC], pastors, imams, chiefs, and so on) to deliberate on draft bylaws or other issues brought up by the local government before they are approved. The traditional rulers serve as spokespersons for the community on such issues as granting permits for lock-up [stores, tenement rates, and so on.

The traditional rulers are also said to be involved in decision making and are usually consulted by the chairman of the local government and the councillors to obtain their buy-in on important issues that affect the people. The Ikeja local government involve the people in annual budget preparation. Each community is represented by its youth, men, women, and traditional leaders from each of the CDAs. Public expenditure by the local government is tracked by a statutory committee.

Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)

Lagos places great emphasis on the adoption of PPP projects as a mechanism for infrastructure delivery against the backdrop of the inability of the public sector to solely fund the infrastructure needs of a modern megacity. Perhaps the most far-reaching in this respect is the ongoing construction of the N44 billion Lekki-Epe Expressway and its accompanying coastal roads, which is the largest concessioning project of its size and complexity in Africa. Several other projects delivered through PPP arrangements by the administration include the rehabilitation of Bishop Kale Close on Victoria Island by Starcomms Limited; rehabilitation of Olakunle Bakare Street, Victoria Island, by Vee Networks Limited; rehabilitation of part of Molade Okoya Thomas Street, Victoria Island, by Zenith Bank; construction of access roads to Beach Resort Estate, Victoria Island, by Beach Resort Nigeria Limited; rehabilitation of Orofin Street/Old Ojo road junction, Mazamaza, Amuwo-Odofin, by Intercontinental Bank Plc; rehabilitation of Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, by a consortium of companies; powering and maintenance of street lights on WEMPCO road, Ikeja, by the WEMPCO group; rehabilitation of Adetokunbo Ademola Street as a partnership between the Lagos state government and Eko Hotels; rehabilitation of Danmole Street, Victoria Island, by Intercontinental Bank Plc; provisioning, energising, and maintenance of street lights on Ligali Ayorinde Street, Victoria Island, by Pan Ocean Oil Corporation; rehabilitation of Buraimoh Kenku Street, Victoria Island, by Liquefied Natural Gas Company (LNG) Ltd; redevelopment of Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, by Zenith Bank Plc; and rehabilitation of Jimoh Odutola Street, Surulere, by Flour Mills.

One of the Tinubu administration’s greatest legacies to posterity is the very sound financial pedestal on which it placed Lagos state. From a situation of near-total dependence on statutory allocation from the Federation Account in 1999, the administration reduced the state’s reliance on the Federation Account to not more than 25 percent by the time of its exit from office in May 2007. As a result of the sound management of the state’s finances, the administration was able to pay salaries/emoluments totalling N180 billion to approximately 50,000 civil servants between 1999 and 2007 and N70 billion as civil service operational running costs within the same period; meet its financial obligations to the state’s 15,000 civil service/teachers pensioners and 51,000 primary school teachers and local government workers; and also promptly pay subventions to the 50 parastatals including tertiary institutions in Lagos state. Not even the politically motivated seizure of over N24 billion of funds statutorily due to the local governments of Lagos state by the federal government for over 2 years could destabilise the state financially or incapacitate the local governments from functioning in the interest of the grassroots—another indication of how rock solid the state’s finances were.

Some of the major projects which the administration was able to undertake solely on the strength of internally generated revenues include the renewal, redevelopment, and reconstruction of the Lagos Island Central Business District (CBD) comprising 16 highways at a cost of N15 billion; reconstruction and modernisation of key roads (such as Awolowo road, Ikoyi; Akin Adesola road, Victoria Island; Adeola Odeku road, Victoria Island; Oba Sekumade road, Ikorodu; Yaba-Itire-Lawanson-Ojuelegba road; Agege Motor road; Ikotun-Igando road; and Kudirat Abiola road, Oregun) and commencement of the LASU-Iba road and Ajah-Badore road; upgrading of facilities and buildings at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to meet world-class standards (thus ensuring through the vision of Asiwaju Tinubu that the institution is today an acclaimed centre of excellence in health-care delivery); construction and modernisation of high courts; expansion/rehabilitation of general hospitals (in Lagos, Gbagada, Epe, Isolo, Ikorodu, and Badagry) and the Island Maternity Hospital; construction of new hospitals at Mushin, Shomolu, Ibeju Lekki, and Isheri-Iba; upgrading of existing health centers to full-fledged hospitals at Ijede, Ketu, Agbowa, and Agege; massive rehabilitation and construction of new public primary and secondary schools in all divisions of the state; provision of infrastructure in newly constructed housing estates (such as the Abraham Adesanya Housing Scheme, Ajah; Oba Adeyinka Oyekan Housing Scheme, Lekki; Ikeja GRA Housing Scheme, Lekki 1; Millenium Housing Scheme; Ayangburen Housing Scheme, Ikorodu; and Gbagada Housing Scheme), and massive rural electrification and micro-water projects. It is impossible to give a detailed enumeration, in this short piece, of the innumerable brick-and-mortar legacies of the Tinubu and Fashola administrations across diverse sectors of the state.

The state government undertook several policy and legislative reforms in the areas of physical planning, transport, finance, PPPs, security, resource mobilisation, creation of local governments, building control, solid waste management, and signage and advertisement boarding. These include the following:

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  Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law 2010.
  
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  Law on building construction and planning, February 2011.
  
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  Law to provide for physical planning, urban development, urban regeneration, and building control in Lagos state and for corrected purposes, 2010.
  
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  Lagos State Model City Plan Law 2009.
  
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  Lagos Public Private Partnership Law 2004.
  
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  Lagos Transport Law 2003.
  
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  Traffic Law 2010.
  
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  Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority Law 2007.
  
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  Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board Law 2006.
  

One of the hallmarks of the state’s success is aggressive resource mobilisation. Another revenue-enhancing measure the administration adopted was the rejuvenation and reorganisation of the state’s Board of Internal Revenue (BIR)—an outfit that used to be a centre of corruption was re-engineered and its revenue collection capacity enhanced through greater autonomy, professionalism, and motivation. The board was strengthened to collect optimum revenue at least cost while earning the trust and confidence of the public. Today, the BIR (now the Lagos Internal Revenue Service, LIRS), has become a matter of pride to the state.

A third revenue-enhancing step by the Tinubu administration was a thorough reform of the tax administration process through intensive computerisation of the state’s tax assessment records, culminating in the introduction of the electronic tax clearance cards (which is a fraud-free and convenient method of keeping taxpayers records). This was accompanied by the continuous renovation/upgrading of the state’s tax offices with modern facilities to aid electronic collection and reporting of taxes.

A fourth measure adopted to boost the finances of the state was intensive publicity through the mass media to sensitise the public on the imperative of paying their taxes willingly, voluntarily, and promptly as a pre-condition for the delivery of quality infrastructure and social services by the government. Indeed, the administration devised the strategy of having huge signboards with the inscription “Tax Payers’ Money At Work” at various project sites. The result was an increase in the number of those who willingly paid their taxes since they saw concrete evidence that the revenue was being expended for the public good.

The introduction of the land-use charge, which consolidated the hitherto fragmented collection of ground rents, development charges, and neighbourhood improvement charges by the state and local governments also helped tremendously to boost revenue collection to the advantage of the two tiers of the government. The new Land Use Charge Law promulgated in 2001 stipulated that once a land-use charge demand notice is levied on a property, ground rent, development charges, and neighbourhood improvement charges will cease to apply. This led to the collection of the sum of over N3.5 billion as land-use charges between 2001 and March 2007, and the value of this revenue source keeps increasing.

As a result of these and other measures, the internally generated revenue of Lagos state rose from N600 million per month in 1999 to a monthly average of N5.025 billion in 2006 and peaked at between N7 billion and N8.2 billion monthly as of March 2007. Determined to deliver on its promise to undertake the radical modernisation of infrastructure in Lagos state, the Tinubu administration was the first to approach the capital market to source long-term funds to prosecute long-term projects. Through this strategy, the first Lagos State Floating Rate Redeemable Bond 2005–06 was floated in September 2002 and the sum of N15 billion was raised in the capital market as a refinancing option with a 2-year moratorium. The floating of the bond enabled the administration to refinance locally sourced short-term funds while fast-tracking the construction of major projects in diverse sectors, thus beating incessant inflationary spirals that would have made the delivery of such major projects impossible without the bond. On redemption of the bond in 2007, the state had saved the sum of N22 billion in the sinking fund against the bond of N15 billion, thus demonstrating the state’s creditworthiness and significantly enhancing its financial rating. The bond was utilised to deliver key projects such as modern highways with ancillary amenities comparable to the best anywhere in the world, millennium housing schemes, global computerisation of the public service, millennium micro-water works, construction/rehabilitation of high courts, waste management projects, and millennium classrooms among others.

During this period, the Tinubu administration continued to strengthen the state’s investment portfolio through the Ibile Holdings Limited (IHL), Lagos Building and Investment Company (LBIC), and Lagos State Assurance Company (LASACO). Thus, as of March 2007, IHL’s equity portfolio had a market value of N11.46 billion. Through IHL, the state invested N3.84 billion in Celtel (formerly Vmobile/Econet) in 2003 and by the time it divested from the company in 2007, Lagos state had reaped a dividend of N19 billion in 4 years. Also, through IBH the administration invested N11 billion in the state’s LAGBUS mass Bus Transit Project with N6.5 billion going into the acquisition of brand new Marco Polo buses and N4.5 billion into the provision of infrastructure and maintenance facilities for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that is today a phenomenal success story. In the same vein, the administration increased the share capital of the LBIC from N100 million to N500 million to enhance its capacity to be an effective player in the modern mortgage business, while also supporting the LASACO with over N1 billion to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive on the recapitalisation of insurance companies.

Application of ICT in Governance

One radical measure taken in this regard, for instance, was the introduction of the Electronic Banking System/Revenue Collection Monitoring (EBS/RCM) Project, which enabled the utilisation of high-level technology to create a robust database of tax payers, eliminate ghost workers, plug loopholes of revenue leakage, and enhance revenue performance by partnering with the private sector to ensure more effective monitoring of collected revenue.

The state’s overriding policy thrust to combat rising urbanisation with its several challenges was hinged on “poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth,” which was given a greater fillip with the pursuit of the Lagos Metropolitan Development Project (LMDP). This was initiated in collaboration with Cities Alliance that funded the preparatory work, which led to the design of the project and approval of the World Bank. The project, a product of Ehingbeti 2002, is a World Bank–assisted comprehensive project directed at expanding trunk infrastructure, enhancing the delivery of basic services for the poor, and straightening the capacity of the state/local government to cope with future growth challenges. In this regard, preparatory work has commenced on the generation of a database for planning. The implementation of this project, which is still ongoing, has benefited physical infrastructural development, urban planning and slum upgrading, urban regeneration, opening up of lagoon channels for effective drainage, flood control, transport management, and solid waste management.

The Sustainable NEPAD Cities Programme is the initiative of UN-HABITAT to make key African cities functional, productive, safe, and environment friendly. Consequent upon the above, and the selection of the state as one of the seven cities in Africa to pilot this programme, the ministry, on behalf of the state government, hosted the first NEPAD Cities Forum at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, May 11–13, 2004. The Consultative Forum of seven NEPAD cities—namely Lagos, Rabat, Lusaka, Bamako, Durban, Nairobi, and Douala—organised by UN-HABITAT, the global focal agency for sustainable settlements, provided an avenue to sharing ideas and best practices for making African cities places of opportunity, innovation, security, integration, and prosperity. This has led to bilateral visits between Lagos and Durban.

UN-HABITAT also extended an invitation to the governor and the state for participation at the World Urban Forum held at Barcelona, Spain, in September 2004. Currently, the state is collaborating with UN-HABITAT in conducting profiling of Agege and Ifako, which will lead to the production of structure plans in collaboration with the Foundation for Development and Environmental Initiatives (FDI), a national non-governmental organisation (NGO) for promoting development.

Sustainability

One of the major features of the transformation in Lagos state has been its sustainability for 13 years. This is mainly due to governance by the same political party during this period and the common vision of successive governments. The hallmark of this test of continuity has been the passage of good practices into law, which will be binding on successive governments.

Innovations/Highlights

This chapter is devoted to capturing some of the critical innovations that are fallouts of the various reforms discussed in chapter 3. The presentation is grouped under three broad headings, namely; physical infrastructural development, urban planning and environment, and slum upgrading and social transformations.

Physical Infrastructural Development

Transportation

In response to the enormous transport challenges and the desire to reform the transport sector, the Lagos state government in collaboration with the World Bank has been implementing the Lagos Urban Transport Project (LUTP). This project was designed to create an efficient and effective integrated Intermodal Mass Transit System involving land, water, and rail transport and in the process contributing to poverty reduction. The state government’s policy thrust in transportation development is centred on:

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  Provision of a sustainable, efficient, and safe integrated mass transit system.
  
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  Improvement of transportation infrastructure and the traffic management system.
  
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  Introduction of rapid rail transportation.
  

The Government enacted Law No. 3, 2002, established the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) to facilitate the project. The LAMATA, established in 2003, has a mandate to ensure the provision of the highest level of service in public transportation in Lagos megacity, play a leading role in undertaking transport planning for the city area, and assist in transport policy formulation, coordination, and implementation of major operational and investment decisions. The agency has developed a strategic Transport Master Plan (TMP) for Lagos. The plan specifies the transport infrastructure details of the modal routes required by the megacity by 2020. It provides specific information infrastructure requirements for the state and ensures that transport developments are geared toward inter-modalism with the keyword being “integration.” The plan also provides detailed requirements including the mode of achieving them and other targets.

The government also introduced the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system on the Mile 12 CMS corridor (plate 4.2). The BRT system entails the operation of a fleet of high-capacity buses run on a segregated and dedicated roadway that are not affected by the traffic snarls that have characterized Lagos for a long time (plate 4.3). The Mile 12 CMS BRT runs on a segregated lane for about 65 percent of the entire corridor and mixes with other traffic for the rest of the route.