How I Turned Lagos From A Jungle To A Mega City – Tinubu

LAGOS – The Presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that he met Lagos as a jungle and turned it into a Mega City as the Governor of the state.

Tinubu made this claims in a recorded programme that was aired on Channels Television on the night of Friday, October 14, 2022.
Recall, Asiwaju Tinubu was the Lagos Governor from 1999 to 2007 and have ensured that the Governors that led the state till date are from his political party.

Jagaban as he’s fondly called added that he laid the foundation on which all other Lagos State Governors that followed after him built on.

He claimed that he brought life into the former Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria.

His words, “When I came in as governor of Lagos State in 1999, Lagos was a jungle. It was a completely uncivilised environment.

“There were refuse dumps everywhere, schools without roofs, hospitals without ambulances and oxygen tanks to save lives. It was in a very bad state.

“We started to put things in place gradually and the state began to take shape. What we did was to take the liabilities in the state and convert them to assets.

“Civic Centre to Oriental Hotel areas of Victoria Island were back then refuse dumps, but look at what the areas have turned to today. It is only the older ones who would remember all these.”

The mini-documentary on Tinubu stated that the former Senator reengineered the revenue of the state and after he left the office of the governor in 2007, Lagos became completely autonomous from the Federal Government in terms of revenue generation having solely been dependent on federal allocations prior to 1999.

“When Tinubu took over in 1999, Lagos was bankrupt.

“The internally generated revenue at the time was N600m monthly and the state was completely dependent on the Federal Government for it.

“When Tinubu was leaving office in 2007, the IGR of Lagos was N7bn monthly. Babatunde Fashola built on that legacy to N15bn monthly.

“This was made possible by the short, medium and long-term goals that Tinubu laid down for the state in terms of revenue and wealth generation,” the documentary revealed.

A short clip in the mini-documentary also showed where the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), described Tinubu as a political strategist which drew him (Buhari) to Tinubu.

Buhari said, “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has set himself apart as a political strategist and a mountain of ideas which drew me to him.

“He is a true humanitarian and has contributed immensely to the success of Nigeria and Africa.”