Nigeria From A Jungle To A Maga City – TINUBU

 I turned Lagos from jungle to megacity – Tinubu

All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Bola Tinubu, who served as governor from 1999 to 2007, claimed to have transformed Lagos from a jungle to a metropolis.

In a program aired Friday night on Channels Television, Tinubu said every governor in Lagos who followed him built and continues to build on the foundation he built.

“When I became governor of Lagos in 1999, Lagos was a jungle,” he said. It was a completely barbaric environment. There were piles of garbage, schools without roofs, hospitals without ambulances and life-saving oxygen tanks. He was in very bad shape.

"Gradually we started to regulate the situation, the state started to form and we turned the state's debt into an asset. “The Civic Center at the East Hotel on Victoria Island was a dump at the time, but look at how the area has changed today. Only old people remember everything. “We started and implemented the policies that made Lagos the city it is today. I must say I left Lagos better than I found it and so far no other state in the country can boast of what Lagos has achieved.

"As a visionary leader, you need to surround yourself with a team of visionaries so you don't lose your legacy." He added. In a mini-documentary on Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate claimed to have re-engineered the state's revenue and since leaving the governorship in 2007, Lagos has become fully autonomous from the federal government in generating revenue dependent on the federal budget . . Until 1999. “When Tinubu came to power in 1999, Lagos went bankrupt. At that time, the domestic revenue was N600 million per month and the state was entirely dependent on the federal government for that. “When Tinubu resigned in 2007, Lagos' IGR was N7 billion per month. Babatunde Fashola collected up to N15 billion every month from this inheritance. This was made possible by the short, medium and long term goals set by Tinubu for generating revenue and wealth in the country.

“Lagos survived under his leadership. He took Lagos from jungle to metropolis and no governor can follow his gubernatorial tendencies. Tinubu brought a plan that made Lagos stand out,” the documentary said. A short clip from the mini-documentary also shows President Muhammadu Buhari (Retd.) portraying Tinubu as a political strategist who will bring Tinubu to Tinubu.

Buhari said: “Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as a political strategist and he fascinated me. He is a true humanitarian and has contributed greatly to the success of Nigeria and Africa.”

Former governor Babatunde Fashola and current governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu commended the APC presidential aspirants for most of the projects the government implemented under the programme. They described Tinubu as the mastermind of events in the state, adding that his activities were the beginning of many events before their arrival.