Alarm bells are ringing all over Lagos.
The resurgence of criminal activities residents of the state thought former Governor Babatunde Fashola had eliminated are making them sit up.
This may be due to the inability of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to get a grip on the job, meddlesome distractions from leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It may be due to his inability to coordinate the diverse agencies which provide a safe environment to live, work, and play.
The earlier the state Assembly expedites the screening and confirmation of Ambode’s commissioner nominees the faster and more accurate the skyline will clear about where the governmental deficiency is.
Lagosians are saying bluntly – judging by early performance indicators – that Ambode does not appear to possess Fashola’s capacity for good governance.
We hope we are wrong. And that the rapid deterioration in the quality of governance architecture from near-excellent under Fashola to zero or bad in only 100 days is only an optical illusion which will be reversed as soon as Ambode assembles his full cabinet.
But governance is a continuum. We expected Ambode to kick start his administration from where Fashola stopped, with or without commissioners, advisers and other aides. That is the essence of handover notes.
However, the exact opposite appears to be the case. For leaders in the same party to prefer intra-party squabbles for selfish interest rather than good, collaborative governance for which the electorate voted for change is a shame.
Lagosians did not vote for change in the wrong direction but for the betterment, in fact, for a quantum leap on the achievements of the predecessor administration.
Gradually, residents are regressing to the bad old days when they could not sleep with their two eyes closed for fear of criminal gangs. Which is no surprise in the Ember months when crime and criminality multiply with regularity in the city.
The raison d’etre of government is to protect life and property of all residents, citizens and foreigners alike.
In one week, 40 robbers armed to the teeth with AK 47 assault weapons took their time to rob two banks in Festac Town. From about 8.25am till they fled after 10.00am, they had a field day.
It is unclear why they abandoned their loot and ammunition when they eventually fled. Perhaps the luggage was heavy and might capsize their getaway speedboat.
Festac Police Area Commander, Frank Mba, said the firepower of the police turned the heat on the robbers to abandon N27 million and 240 rounds of ammunition for their AK47 assault rifles, among others.
We hear police authorities have taken their anger out on Mba by redeploying him to Osogbo in Osun State.
But very painfully sad and unacceptable, during the robbery which lasted nearly two hours, Jane Ndirika, a nurse, and her two-year-old child, Mmesoma, were killed in their home by stray bullets from the robbers’ rifles constantly fired to scare away intruders and law-enforcers.
That is a preventable tragedy.
Last Thursday, 17 suspects were arraigned in court for killing Tajudeen Disu, Managing Director of Lagos Free Trade Zone, Lekki.
Disu was shot dead during an uproar between the indigenes of Okunraye village, one of the communities that host the Free Trade Zone.
The incident was allegedly triggered by careless weapons handling by the policeman protecting Disu and the chief security officer (CSO) of Dangote Group who went on a peace mission.
The CSO was injured because the warning shot in the air drew hostile fire from the protesters.
Before then, robbers added kidnapping to their stealing and abducted Toyin Nwosu, wife of the deputy managing director of Sun newspapers for four days before she was rescued.
Days later, Eric Osagie, Managing Director of the same paper, was robbed in a traffic snarl.
These are the prominent cases brought to limelight by the media. Several others might have gone unreported.
Beyond the threats to life and limb are the chaotic traffic jams returning to the streets, deteriorating street quality, and the traffic snarls during the rainy season. Lagosians say they never had it this bad under Fashola.
Ambode’s idea of not arresting drivers and fining them on the spot for traffic offences is commendable because time is no more wasted and corruption is minimised if violation tickets are slammed on errant drivers to pay at their leisure.
But the policy encourages traffic truancy by Danfo commercial bus drivers who do not have fixed residential addresses and could fix fake vehicle number plates at the snap of a finger in the nearest mechanic’s garage.
We urge Ambode to move fast to catch up with his predecessor in the re-establishment of the security platform Fashola set up which kept Lagos secure.
All the investments he plans to attract to create jobs, wealth and prosperity in Lagos, lofty as they are on paper and in conception, will come to naught if he dismantles Fashola’s security template because he prefers to fight him instead of building on the architecture.
