The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) standard-bearer in the forthcoming 2027 governorship election in Lagos State, Naheem Balogun has promised to uplift the living standards of Lagosians through the implementation of socio-economic programmes if voted as the next governor of the state by the electorate.
The United States Of America based security expert who disclosed this in an exclusive chat with LEADERSHIP in Lagos, said he left his comfort zone in the US to politics to be able to bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people still living in or at the edge of poverty in the state amid enormous resources.
Balogun, a renowned philanthropist said he will be unveiling his manifestoes and development blueprint that would make the state the first or second undisputed largest economy in Africa to the electorate in the state very soon.
Balogun who lamented that the rate of development in the state is not commensurate with the resources of the state said, ‘’ Well, when I was growing up, because I spent most of my adult life in Nigeria, I know how Lagos used to be. But it’s kind of different from the way, when I was growing up, the way it is right now.
’If you call out, if you call maybe 10 people and you interview them. I would say probably eight out of that ten will tell you that Lagos is not the way it used to be.Especially the poverty level, the unemployment, the traffic, the trash, all the potholes. I look at this, though I’ve been contesting elections since 2015, under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party.
”Though every time I always come close to winning the election. But that’s not the issue. The issue right now is that, the way Lagos is right now is not per se. I mean, Lagos used to be, I would say probably Nigeria, used to be for three tiers, you have the middle class, you have the poor, you have the elite. Now, we don’t have that in Nigeria anymore. You’re either poor or you’re rich. We don’t have the middle class anymore. And I look at all of this, and I’m saying that, I mean, with the kind of resources that’s coming to the state, the state should have moved past all these issues and problems.
‘’Because Lagos, we are, the government is taxing the people in the state, but they are not getting anything back in terms of social amenities from the state. And I look at it, the amount of resources coming to the state, the IGR and the budgets, say for instance this year, Lagos budgeted, I believe it was around N4.4 trillion. Out of those N4.4 trillion, they budgeted less than 5 per cent of that for education and say this couldn’t be.
‘’And those are some of the things, there’s no infrastructure in place, medical, the roads are bad, trash, they were not picked up. Sometimes, I would travel from Surulere to Mushin, it’s not that I don’t have cars, I have three cars, but I would travel from Surulere to Mushin, just to see how the people are suffering. For me, I think the best way to gauge what the government is doing is when you go to the markets, you want to know how the government is doing, you go to the markets, go on the public transport, talk to the people in the market, and you see how it is.
‘’So, I would take Okada from Surulere to Mushin, just to see how it is. From Surulere to get to Mushin is a hell of a trip, because of the potholes, you can’t even think about how many pot holes you will see. And from Moshalashi to Mushin itself, that to me is a hell and that’s supposed to be a major street.
‘’I am looking at all of this, no infrastructure, they are taxing hell out of the citizens of the state, and they are not getting any social services or amenities. The hospital is not even something to talk about, and I said, look, I know I can do better, because I’ve contested twice as an Assembly, I’ve contested twice for House of Representative, and also for Senate. So, I know I cannot forget what we have right now, and these people have been in power for over 26 years, and instead of the state moving up, we’re going south.
”So, I think I have a better plan of moving Lagos forward. This APC government has been telling us that Lagos is doing good, Lagos is doing… But the actual fact, if you look around and ask people, most people don’t believe that, because the poverty rate in the state is seen in the mass unemployment, the kids go to school, there’s no employment.
‘’I would say probably the unemployment among the youth now is about 20-25 per cent, because they get out, they wait, they can’t get a job, but for me, I think I can do better.”
Aware of the importance of security in Africa’s modern mega city , Balogun said, ‘’For you to effectively deal with organised crime or criminal activities, you have to do community policing. Community policing is the best way to actually eradicate. You might not completely eradicate crimes, at least you slow it down to minimum, maybe 5 per cent, 10 per cent. Because if you have the community police, you have police. Also, I would like to say, I was a police officer in the US for 15 years. Yes, Michigan State Police for 15 years and I know community policing works.
‘’If You have police on the beat that knows his or her area. It’s difficult for somebody from outside to come into any neighbourhood without any help from that neighbourhood to come and steal something from it. So if you are using community policing, somebody from that neighbourhood will know everybody within that area.”
