A collage of the four candidates Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Obafemi Hamzat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who is the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and Adedeji Doherty of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Lagos State governorship candidates fielded questions on the economy, housing, transportation, infrastructure, health, flooding, and other areas where the state faces challenges.
The debate among the candidates of the leading political parties for the 6 February 2027 governorship election was held last Sunday. The debate, organised by the Nigeria Debate Consortium, featured Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Obafemi Hamzat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who is the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and Adedeji Doherty of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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The debate, broadcast live on Sunday, 8 November, was moderated by Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television and Nifemi Oguntoye of TVC News.
The candidates were asked how they would solve challenges affecting Nigeria’s economic capital and largest city by population, such as the economy, housing, transportation, infrastructure, health, and flooding. PREMIUM TIMES monitored the debate and here is our review of how each of the candidates fared at the debate.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour
Due to the alphabetical arrangement of the names of the candidates’ political parties on the podium, Mr Rhodes-Vivour of the ADC was asked most of the questions first. Dressed in a plain while kaftan with a hat to match, Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who was the runner-up in the 2023 governorship election when he ran on the platform of the Labour Party, started by saying that his desire for Lagos was one that is better, safer, cleaner and economically viable. He explained that his desires are the same as those of every Lagosian.
He stated that the misgovernance of the ruling APC is the reason the state is bedeviled with a lot of seemingly insurmountable problems. (The political hegemony that makes up the APC in Lagos has been in power in the state since 1999, when Nigeria’s incumbent president, Bola Tinubu, who is generally considered as the political godfather of the state was elected governor under the banner of the Alliance for Democracy. Since then, his political proteges have governed the state under two other political banners – Action Congress of Nigeria and currently APC.)
He claimed he has a track record of siding with the people unlike the APC, which he claimed is elite-centred. To buttress his claim that his government would be people-centred, he immediately promised to build 100,000 housing units within four years to reduce the creeping housing shortages in the state.
The Lagos State Government estimates a housing deficit of 3.3 million in the state. This acute shortage has contributed significantly to arbitrary increases in rent and other sharp practices in the real estate sector.
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During debates, politicians often struggle with the “how” of implementing their promises. Mr Rhodes-Vivour appeared to have thought through his implementation strategy. He said he would achieve his housing plan from funds to be derived from a luxury tax. He, however, did not give details of the nature of said luxury tax.
He said, if elected, his government would pass a law that would require landlords to give tenants at least a six-month notice before increasing rent. He said the law would also peg the percentage rent can be increased within a given time.
He said he would develop the Eastern Foreshore area of the state – around the Ibeju-Lekki axis while decentralising development in the state.
Mr Rhodes-Vivour plan of developing the Ibeju-Lekki area of the state leaves one wondering about his claim of decentralising development in the state.
The Ibeju-Lekki area is already one of the fastest growing areas of the state with a growing residential and industrial hub championed by facilities like the Dangote Refinery, the Lekki Free Trade Zone and the Lekki Sea Port.
With the pace at which developments in Ibeju-Lekki are moving, it is near impossible for other areas of the state such as Badagry, Ojo, and the densely populated Alimosho to keep up with that axis in the nearest future.
He promised to adopt a private sector driven approach to solving some of the persistent problems of the states such as transportation. Mr Rhodes-Vivour said he would ensure that the state is safer by removing street urchins and prioritising skill acquisition.
He said he would solve the perennial flood problem of the state by adopting a wetland policy. He said instead of just sand filling wetlands, which blocks the absorption of excess water he would introduce and encourage the adoption of technology that would not hinder the right of way of water.
When asked to respond why the state appears to be rich while its residents are poor, Mr Rhodes-Vivour admonished the government for being elite-focused rather than people-focused. He said during the campaign towards the 2023 election, Mr Hamzat promised the inhabitants of Makoko, a sprawling slum in Yaba, of developing their community only to turn around to demolish their homes and forcibly evict them.
He said while Lagos is wealthy on paper, most residents are not benefiting from that wealth.
On traffic management, Mr Rhodes-Vivour said urban planning should be decentralised. He said he would depart from the approach of building long and expensive bridges to connect parts of the state and would rather use short bridges of a few kilometres to connect communities within the state. He said he would revisit the proposal of using cable cars, improve water transportation, create cycle lanes and develop inner roads within towns and local governments.
On the metro rail, he chided the government for building the project on its balance sheet rather than welcoming private sector investment for the speedy completion of the project that has been on-going for more than 20 years. He alleged that corruption and avoidance of transparency were the reasons the project is being built on the state’s balance sheet rather than through private investment.
On health, he promised to create emergency rehabilitation centres across the state to reduce the travel time of patients in need to critical and urgent care.
He also said if elected, his government would depart from what he claimed is the current pick-and-drop waste disposal policy of the state, which he blamed for the foul smell in many parts of the state. He said he would encourage capable private sector participation in waste management that would prioritise recycling and creating wealth from waste.
VERDICT: Mr Rhodes-Vivour displayed a relatively deep understanding of the problem facing the state and his responses showed that he had thought through the solutions to the problems. In many cases he explained how these problems will be solved and how his approaches at tackling the problem differ from what the incumbent administration is doing. His ideas are fresh, innovative, and in many cases reasonable alternatives to the approaches of the incumbent administration.
However, his idea of decentralising Lagos appears to be contradictory and heavily focused on the provision of transportation infrastructure without considering other means of decentralisation such as expanding of commercial and industrial hubs to other parts of the state, provision of recreation centres and entertainment facilities, which will reduce the travel time and distances across the state.
Obafemi Hamzat
He started by saying he considered the debate a job interview and Lagosians as his employers. He said he would bring his experience as a seasoned administrator in the United States and in Nigeria (he was the state’s commissioner for science and technology under the administration of the then-Governor Bola Tinubu and was retained in the position by Mr Tinubu’s successor, Babatunde Fashola).
He listed the Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge, the first cable bridge in West Africa and the second in Africa as one of his achievements as the commissioner for science and technology. He said his plan for Lagos will be hoisted on seven pillars, which he said formed the acronym PROMISE. He said P stands for the people, R for renewal, O for opportunities, M for machinery of government, I for inclusion, S for system and E for economic development. When asked why many Lagosians are poor but the state is rich on paper, he did not answer the question directly but went ahead to reel out some of the achievements of the incumbent government and his plan if elected as the governor of the state.
Mr Hamzat said that his government would work toward completing the metro rail line therefore creating a better and hassle-free connection of parts of Lagos. He said his government would prioritise mass movement of people by providing 4,000 CNG-powered BRT buses. He said BRT lanes would be created to connect major towns in the state like Badagry. He also promised to introduce electric ferries to improve water transportation.
He listed the housing projects that are being built by the government in areas like Ajara in Badagry. He said the government already enacted a law – the Lagos Real Estate Registration Agency Law, to deal with sharp practices in the housing sector and encourage Lagosians to report erring landlords and realtors for better enforcement of the law.
He acknowledged that the housing shortage in the state is more severe in lowbrow areas of the state, saying he intends to solve that by encouraging developers to build in less desirable parts of the state as they build expensive houses in highbrow areas like Ikoyi and Lekki. He however did not explain how this will be done.
He blamed perennial flooding in the state to increase rainfall and climate change. He acknowledged that the state is demolishing structures built on wetland or obstructing the flow of water. When challenged about the flooding in communities along the coastal roads, which was blamed on the lack of environmental impact assessment before the road was constructed, he said that contrary to the claim, an environmental impact assessment was done during his tenure as commissioner for science and technology.
On healthcare, he said, the government intends to expand the Ilera Eko health insurance programme to capture more users. Mr Hamzat said the state government is building or expanding several general hospitals across the state and that it plans to establish a university of medicine.
VERDICT: As expected, Mr Hamzat put up a spirited defence of the policies of the incumbent administration, while trying to also project that he was his own man. Refreshingly, he did not use the word “continuation” as many potential successors of ruling parties in the country are wont to do. He tried earnestly to explain the policies of the current government and what has been achieved. His responses suggested that he was aware that the job is nowhere near being done and that some of the policies require fine tuning and expansion.
However, some of his responses are hard to understand and he did not bother to explain how they would be achieved. For instance, his suggestion that property developer would be made to build houses in cheaper areas of the state sounded strange as he did not explain how he would go about doing this, the incentives to make developers or private businesses whose aim is to maximise profit use resources to develop properties in poor areas where such properties would not bring the same profit as those built in highbrow areas.