I worked with Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu for roughly four years in the banking industry, he was our treasurer at a point, and then, later on, he became the general manager for investment banking. In all these years, he was assigned very sensitive responsibilities and in very sensitive positions, that could only be held by someone that they trust, someone that has character and integrity. He was in the treasury department, the life-wire of any bank, you could not just pick anybody from the street, you had to put somebody that you trust, somebody who is reliable and has competence, and Jide was a thoroughbred professional.
I was quite impressed with him because of the way he took his job, he took his job seriously in the course of the years we worked together at treasury, and if you speak to any bank MD, they would say that the closest relationship they have with any of their staff would be first his treasury manager, and second, the foreign exchange manager.
Jide and I had a close relationship, we worked together as a team, I respect his level of judgment, his decision-making capabilities, and his competence level, and that’s why I didn’t hesitate when I was appointed deputy governor to request him to come along with me, because I needed somebody at that level whom I could trust, going into a new job.
In the private sector, he creditably delivered himself, I didn’t have any problem with him whatsoever. In the public sector, we just practically continued where we left. He was first my adviser, and he advised very well, we worked together on several assignments given to us by the governor, and I didn’t have any reason to complain about him at all. At a point in time, I felt that he needed higher responsibility, so I personally approached the governor to humbly and kindly elevate him, to the level of a cabinet-ranked special adviser, and the governor obliged, and from there onward he worked directly with the governor, but throughout our tenure he was a very, good public officer, and I really didn’t have any reason to complain about his performance. I believe he discharged himself creditably well.
20 years of Lagos state has been years of progress and tremendous development, there’s no doubt about it, if you grew up in Lagos or you were born in Lagos, you would see the difference, there has been giant strides. This has happened basically because there has been continuity in the governance, the foundation has been laid by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he actually had a blueprint for the development of Lagos, which was the “Ehingbeti” program, which was held every year between 1999 and I think about 2009 or 2010 before it was stopped, so this really formed the bedrock of the developmental effort by Lagos state. What has changed between then and now is the tremendous influx of people into Lagos, the population has grown tremendously in fact geometrically beyond anybody’s imagination, so the state has been so burdensome under a weight of demands by her populace that it could not meet, revenue growth has not been able to match up with developmental needs of the state so this has created a lot of problems.
The second issue is the leapfrogging technology, the state has not been able to keep up with the technological advancement of the world and one of the reasons behind it is also because of the large influx of people coming into Lagos. It is extremely very difficult to cope with the challenges of environment, housing, and transportation, congestion, providing education and healthcare for
the populace.
These are the problems that incoming governor, Gov. Sanwo-Olu would meet.
However, if you followed his campaign very well, he has the campaign slogan called ‘’THEME’’, which spell out many of these areas that I have mentioned. He is very well prepared to meet these challenges because he has worked through the system. He knows that every year, if we don’t leapfrog, these problems would catch up with us and it would be more difficult to overcome. I have had several discussions with him, I have listened to him when he was campaigning, I have listened to him on TV, radio, and I know he’s ready to face this issue frontally, particularly the issue of transportation, the gridlock Lagosians face every day, the environmental challenges Lagos face, the problem of education, the large influx and the young population, particularly youth and creating jobs for them, I’m sure he is very much aware of all these and he is very much ready to cope.
I say this not in any way as a form of flattery, it is the sincere truth about the kind of person I have come to know Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to be.
I would like to advice Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to remain true to himself, not to allow the office to change him, he should stay focused, and he should stay in the place of prayers at all times.
