Letter from Lagos

Letter from Lagos 1

Elections came and went with hardly a ripple in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos. Nervous expatriates who left the country or barricaded themselves in their compounds in the affluent suburbs of Lekki, Ikoyi and Victoria Island, were left with expectations of unrest largely unfulfilled.

An anticipated landslide victory for the Action Congress (AC) party, which won 37 of the 40 seats in the State House of Assembly, swept the sole AC candidate for governor, Advocate Babatunde Fashola, into power. In contrast to other parts of the country, the party of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) knew to leave well enough alone amongst the teeming streets of one of the world’s most densely populated cities. The AC, previously the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and headed for the last 8 years by Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu, had long held out against the raging waters of the PDP which engulfed virtually every other Nigerian state, much as Lagos itself still stands despite increasing evidence that global warming might soon sink it below the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Governor’s well-oiled party machine, stretching formally through the 20 Local Government Areas and less formally but equally powerfully through the network of traditional rulers and ‘Area Fathers’ who control the notorious ‘area boys’ (vigilante groups), meant that many Lagosians believed that their voting would be taken care of, and chose to spend the day peacefully at home.

Nevertheless the murky channels of Nigerian politics occasionally beach some surprises. The Governor-elect may well prove to be an exception to the general political rule of corruption and self-aggrandisement. Unlike almost every Nigerian politician (the President-elect, Umaru Yar’Adua may be unknown to many outsiders but comes from a long line of military and political elite) Fashola, a successful lawyer respected for his competence and probity, was hand-picked from the private sector by Tinubu as his Chief of Staff, a powerful position in the State bureaucracy.

An unobtrusive Muslim from the Yoruba tribe which dominates Lagos’ polyglot population, Fashola ran the turbulent city-state with some success for the four years he worked with Tinubu. Affable, relaxed and efficient, Fashola is the antithesis of the typical Nigerian state official. Many were surprised when Tinubu named him successor over the party faithful; provoking a bitter dispute which ended in the break-up of the AD and the formation of the AC, Yet Tinubu typically had his way.

Those who live in the seeming chaos and dirt of Lagos may well have been cynical about Fashola’s campaign slogan: Eko o ini baje (Yoruba for Let Lagos not be spoilt) but to a population accustomed to receiving almost nothing from State or Federal resources, the avoidance of any major political turmoil meant that they could sooner turn back to the real business of Lagos – making money. At worst, Fashola is unlikely to spoil it for them. At best, the tentative reforms which can be seen here and there in the city may well be accelerated.