Building our human infrastructure

Lagos is a city that elicits a strong emotional response from both those who know it and
those who dont. Experiences are varied but everyone can generally agree on one thing
it is without a doubt the home of ambition, of dreams and endless possibilities. The
western medias definition of Lagos as an overpopulated city with crumbling
infrastructure is a reductionist western view of a city which over 21 million people
from all across the country as well as many parts of the world - proudly call home.

The only true identity anyone can claim for Lagos comes from its people and their
heritage. Lagos is the collective hope and ambition of those twenty-one plus million
people. Without them Lagos would be inconsequential. They are the reason why our
great city is the single largest market in Africa. They are the reason why Lagos is the only
other financial services hub in Sub-Saharan Africa after Johannesburg. It is a place where
every single person, regardless of ethnicity, financial status, gender or religion, wakes up
every day believing that life changing opportunity can and indeed will be found just
around the corner. It is this human infrastructure that makes this great city the most
independent state in Nigeria today. Despite encumbered natural resources, (encumbered
because of our warped federalism), Lagos is and has always been a city of endless
possibilities and a shining example to the country, and other cities in West Africa.

Lagos like any other megacity has more than its fair share of challenges to contend with.
To help us reach our destination we need good men and women ordinary citizens, civil
servants, politicians and entrepreneurs, to accept the challenge that our ambitions and
aspirations demand of us. To roll up our sleeves with tenacity and great resolve to work
together to realise our dreams and aspirations for the city of Lagos.

The physical and social infrastructures that we are building are designed to enable our
people achieve their goals. Without these infrastructures Lagos cannot function
properly, serve its increasing number of inhabitants or compete on a global scale. The
roads and bridges that we build will connect businesses to their markets, people to jobs,
the sick to the hospitals and tighten the fabrics of the family unit. The water works we
provide must deliver a reliable, usable water supply that supports our health and well
being and that of our families. The power solutions we put in place must provide the
electricity we need to grow our businesses, do our jobs, educate our children and live our
lives.

Infrastructure is without a doubt the most visible and impactful development deficit we
have today. The amount of money required to meet the needs of an increasing
population is more than $50 billion over the next 10 years. Raising this vast sum of
money will not be easy and requires us to collaborate with the private sector, through
Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to accelerate the delivery and maintenance of this
much needed infrastructure. When we consider the value of these PPPs we must assess
them against our own benchmark, which takes into the account the needs of the people
that will drive our development.


While addressing our hard infrastructure needs, we must, in tandem, address our soft
infrastructure needs. And by soft infrastructure I mean human infrastructure, our most
distinguishing feature and the true asset of Lagos State. There can be no sustainable
infrastructure development without sustained human capital development. It is the
combination of the simultaneous investment in these two areas that will impact positively
on Lagos States development trajectory. Creating an enabling environment for this
approach to development requires an integrated and pragmatic approach to policy
formulation and implementation. It requires us to build on the giant leap embarked upon
by the current administration to place the state in an enviable position among cities
around the globe. We must focus on more than just feeding the stomach infrastructure
of our people or just concentrating on physical infrastructure. We must in essence
address how physical infrastructure affects stomach infrastructure. We must focus on the
full breadth of our human infrastructure requirements.

Increasingly, it is clear to me and others that we must as a people focus on some key
issues which relates to sustaining the socio-economic development of Lagos State.
These issues are very close to my heart and in my view hold the key to continuing on
current path of turning Lagos into Africa's model mega city, and the economic heart of
the continent. This is important for me as someone who has over eighteen years private
sector experience and also as a public servant in Lagos State for the past 10 years in
different capacities. It is therefore easy to view Lagos from different prisms.

To my mind, there are four themes that we must work on over the next decade. They are
service delivery, ensuring that we continue to build the infrastructure to meet our needs
today, and for the future while focusing on efficient revenue generation and the best use
of public funds; Job creation, providing the opportunities our people need to fulfil their
ambitions; Knowledge and skills, enhancing the ability of our people to improve
themselves and build an economy and workforce that meets our future needs in order to
our youths to employ their God given talent, and lastly health and well-being, ensuring
that our people have access to health services and can live in an environment that
enables all of us to be and do the best that we can, for ourselves and our families, and of
course the great State of Lagos. The target is clear, we must build a state that our
children will be proud to inherit. Eko oni baje!!! Eko Atesiwaju!!!.