BABAJIDE SANWO-OLU: Africa’s Most Underrated Governor

By

Olabode Opeseitan

IN THE BEGINNING
He emerged on Nigeria’s political scene like a quiet storm: unexpected, undeniable, and transformative. From the fringes, he became the Number One citizen of the largest and most prosperous state in the country. He was not even a front-runner in the election that birthed him, if he was in the running at all. His story echoes Romans 8, where Apostle Paul reminds us that before we were formed, God predestined us.

God had already written Babajide Sanwo-Olu into the script of Lagos. But he did not know. Or, if he did, he kept it close to his chest. No one saw it coming.

FATE BECKONED
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Lagos political elite cast their lot with Sanwo-Olu. The rest, as they say, is history.

His rise is one of the classiest examples where preparation met opportunity.

THE MAKING OF A GOVERNOR
Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s intellectual cadence is rare, the kind that is subdued from afar but glitters in close proximity. His grasp of Lagos’s sprawling challenges and its untapped potential is nonpareil. Since joining the Lagos State executive council during President Tinubu’s second term as Governor, Sanwo-Olu has been a quiet student of power, policy, and people.

His résumé reads like a masterclass in public service preparation: Special Adviser on Corporate Matters to the Deputy Governor, Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, and Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions. Before politics, he held senior roles in banking, including at UBA Group and First Inland Bank. He holds an MBA and trained at the London Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School.

But his secret weapon, what ultimately distinguished him, was not just competence. It was humility. Loyalty. And a track record of quiet delivery.

From left to right and right to left, “level” reads the same. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been a top-level performing Governor.

Yet somehow, perceptually, “level” in his case has not read the same. Not many have been completely wowed by the impact he has made, from infrastructure renewal to education, transportation, healthcare and cultural grounding.

Sanwo-Olu’s attainments need no sugar-coated gallons of whitewashing.

Verifiably, he has steadily elevated Lagos into global reckoning. The disconnection between his performance and perception is not for lack of effort by Lagos State’s robust information machinery to amplify his ‘meritronics’, a term that captures his ability to engineer merit into extraordinary outcomes.

The glue that should make it all stick is still finding its way around heartfelt stickiness.

Blame not those who cannot see Sanwo-Olu’s unique leadership ethos. Sometimes in life, if we don’t take a step back to recall significant milestones, we can easily forget the immeasurable contributions of leaders to societal growth.

THE LAGOS CONTINUUM
Since 1999, Lagos has cultivated a rare culture of continuity. Each administration has extended the scaffolding built by its predecessor, following the foundational blueprint crafted by Tinubu’s genius.

Babatunde Raji Fashola dazzled with Infrastructure. Akinwunmi Ambode stormed with innovation. Their legacies are etched in the minds of Lagosians.

But as Sanwo-Olu enters the twilight of his second term, he is not always spoken of with the same reverence. And yet, by numerous metrics of governance, he has raised the bar.

THE LEGACY PROJECTS
There could only be space in this short piece to list just a few of Sanwo-Olu’s legacy projects. Many others are spread across the state.

Infrastructure & Urban Renewal
• Roads & Bridges: Pen Cinema Flyover, Lekki-Oniru corridor, Aradagun–Mosafejo–Ilado–Imeke Road (Badagry), Epe-Poka-Mojoda Road, 29.7 km Eleko Junction–Abraham Adesanya six-lane carriageway, Aboru–Abesan Link Road (Alimosho), multiple roads in Ikorodu with full drainage and solar lighting.
• Bridges & Interchanges: Opebi-Ojota Link Bridge (completed), Marina and Mile 2 Interchanges (under construction to be completed by 2026).
• Water Management: Ilubirin Stormwater Management System: 3 million liters/hour capacity, flood mitigation for Lagos Island.

Transportation & Mobility
•Rail:
• Blue Line Rail: 13 km completed and operational; over 1 million passengers in 219 days. Remaining 14 km to Okokomaiko due in 2026.
• Red Line Rail: 27 km delivered; final 10 km to Marina under construction.
• Green Line Rail: 68 km electric corridor from Marina to Lekki Free Trade Zone under construction.
• Road-Terminal Integration: Four new bus terminals: Yaba, Oyingbo, Ajah, Mafoluku.
• Water Transport: Lagos Ferry Services expanded with new boats and mobile app; Omi-Eko Waterways Project (€410 million): 70 hybrid ferries, 25 terminals, 140 km dredged routes.

Housing & Urban Development
• Over 3,000 housing units delivered by 2023.
• Additional 233 units commissioned in Eti-Osa in 2025.

Water & Sanitation
• Adiyan Water Project: 140-million-gallon-per-day facility under construction, set to transform potable water access by 2026.

Healthcare
• Hospitals: Massey Street Children’s Hospital, 500-bed Psychiatric Hospital (Ketu-Ejinrin), General Hospital (Ojo), all scheduled for commissioning in 2026.

Education
• Distributed 450,000 e-learning devices to students as part of the Eko Excel initiative, deepening digital access and learning outcomes.
• Infrastructure: 4,000 classrooms built or renovated across all six education districts.

Security
• Massive LSSTF investments: 440+ patrol vehicles/motorbikes, APCs, drones, thousands of CCTVs.
• Outcomes: Zero bank robberies in four years; 172 of 189 home invasions foiled in a recent reporting period.

Youth & Sports
• Eight mini stadia built, including the Sanwo-Olu Mini Stadium at Sura, Lagos Island.

Industry & Economy
• Oluremi Tinubu Industrial Leather Hub: West Africa’s largest; ?387.5 billion projected annual revenue; 10,000 jobs.
• Imota Rice Mill: Africa’s largest; operational, processing 32 metric tons/hour.
• Epe Food Hub: 220-hectare logistics park; expected to slash food prices by 50%. It’s scheduled for commissioning in 2026.

Trade & Ports
• Lekki Deep Sea Port: Completed and commissioned.

A LEGACY IN HUMANE LEADERSHIP
During the #EndSARS protests, Governor Sanwo-Olu showed an uncommon depth of compassion. Twice, he walked into the eye of the storm at the Lekki Toll Gate to engage with aggrieved youths. On both occasions, he was booed and stoned. Yet, he did not retaliate. He did not unleash state power. Instead, he humanized leadership, choosing empathy over ego, dialogue over force. He appealed for calm, embodying the kind of moral courage that people may forget but history remembers.

THE CULTURAL REBIRTH
Today, Lagos is on the lips of millions across the globe. “Detty December” has transformed from a local slang into a cultural phenomenon. In December, Lagos becomes a pilgrimage site: Afrobeat concerts, fashion weeks, art fairs, cultural festivals and culinary festivals converge into a month-long celebration of African excellence.

There were reports that in 2024 alone, Lagos welcomed over 1.2 million tourists during Detty December, generating over $70 million in revenue. From the Flytime Music Festival to the lights of Ajose Adeogun, from the rhythms of Victoria Island to the spiritual pulse of Epe and Badagry, Lagos has become Africa’s December capital.

This is not accidental. It is the fruit of vision, planning, and investment.

NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY
Yet, Sanwo-Olu must finish strong. There is no room for complacency.

Preparation for Detty December 2026 must begin now. With Zenith Bank Plc’s investment, Ajose Adeogun has become the epicenter of Lagos’s festive glow. The lights are no longer just decorations, they are declarations. Tourists from the diaspora and across Africa now make their way to Lagos to witness the spectacle.

Top on the mind of the Sanwo-Olu team should be how to elevate the Ajose Adeogun and Adetokunbo Ademola corridors into world-class boulevards. The walkways must rival the Dubai Walkway in finesse and touch of class. Ordinary must give way to the excellence Lagos is associated with. The road network must be upgraded. Returning visitors in November/December 2026 should gasp and say, “We’ve never seen this kind of transformation before.” The same must be done for Alfred Rewane Road and other key arteries that define the Lagos experience.

Lagos once held the crown as Nigeria’s football capital. The National Stadium in Surulere was the hallowed ground where the Nigeria Super Eagles soared and national pride found expression. That era has faded. Under Governor Ambode, Lagos sought to reclaim this heritage by requesting the stadium’s transfer from the Federal Government, a request the Buhari administration declined. But the Tinubu presidency has signaled a new openness, recently handing over the Ahmadu Bello Stadium to Kaduna State. Lagos must seize this moment. Sanwo-Olu should revive the push to acquire and transform the National Stadium into a world-class sports city, restoring its place as the beating heart of Nigerian football.

HISTORY WILL REMEMBER
If Lagos is now a global stage, then Sanwo-Olu has been its quiet stage manager, pulling levers, cueing lights, ensuring the show dazzles, even if his name is not always on the marquee.

The numbers speak, even when the applause is muted. The impact is visible, even when the spotlight is not.

Perhaps it is the Lagos paradox: a city too vast, too noisy, too distracted to pause and notice the steady hands steering its ship. Or perhaps it is the humility of the helmsman himself, uninterested in theatrics, uninterested in self-promotion, focused instead on delivery.

But history has a way of catching up with quiet excellence.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu may not have been the loudest voice in the room. But he has been one of the most consistent. One of the most prepared. One of the most quietly effective.

And when the final chapter is written, Lagosians may yet look back and say: we had a Governor who did not shout, but built. Who did not boast, but delivered. Who did not seek the spotlight, but lit the stage.

Africa’s most underrated Governor? Perhaps. But not for long.

#Lagos
#sanwoolu
#Africa
#Nigeria
#leadership