2027 Lagos State Governorship Debate: How the candidates fared

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).

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.

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.

SCORE CARD: 8/10.

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.

His claim about the flooding along the coastal road and how helpless the state government was with demanding that a proper impact assessment was done by the federal government sounded unconvincing. There are several areas where state governments have collaborated with the federal government for a proper development of infrastructure.

SCORE CARD: 7/10

Funsho Doherty

Mr Doherty said Lagos is operating below its potential and blamed this underperformance on bad governance. He said bad governance has made life increasingly difficult for many Lagosians. He said residents of the state are not getting the worth of the taxes they pay. He said it was time to change the political hegemony that has governed the state for the past 27 years because they have had all the time to fix the problem but have failed to do so.

He said he would prioritise affordable housing and plans to build 150,000 housing units in the first four years of his tenure, if elected. He promised to create an ombudsman to deal with sharp practices and arbitrary increases in the rent in the state, saying a situation where Lagosians use a large chunk of their salaries for rent is not sustainable.

He added that the government has to be the driver of social housing. He berated the state government for stepping back and allowing the sector to be almost fully run by the private sector, a situation, he said, is bad for many Lagosians.

The NDC governorship candidate promised to focus his attention on other areas including small businesses and the environment, while also vowing to run an honest and accountable government.

He also said his government will be people-centred as he drew a connection between the wealth of the place to the wealth of the people living therein.

He stated that, if he is elected, his government would be more involved in the provision of affordable social amenities such as transportation, healthcare and education.

He promised to make education truly free and that, if elected, his government would provide one affordable meal to children in schools. He said his idea is to enable people to prosper.

On the recurrent flooding in the state, he said, the problem is a symptom of a long failure in governance. While admitting that Lagos is a coastal state thus, exposed to flooding, he said, the government should raise the bar in tackling the problem as seen elsewhere. He advocated for the protection of wetlands. He said the practice where people are allowed to build on wetland for such properties to be demolished years later is not the solution that Lagos needs.

He claimed that no environmental impact assessment was done on the coastal road before it was constructed, hence, the unprecedented flooding experienced in the corridor this year. He said even if the road was a federal road, it was the responsibility of the state government to insist that things are done properly.

He also chastised the state government for deliberately refusing to modernise its transportation system. He said the state is stuck with the old transportation system, which is mainly run by rickety buses known as danfo, because persons in the government have vested interest. By this he was suggesting that the state government has no political will to remove street urchins and touts, popularly called agbero, representing road transport unions collecting tolls from commercial motorists. He said it is an eyesore for a city like Lagos to have its transportation system still in the hands of miscreants. He said, if elected, he would modernise transportation infrastructure in the state.

He said healthcare under his government would be made totally free for the poor. He argued that the government-run health insurance scheme, Ilera Eko, was either inadequate or not the way to go and said the government has to play a more participatory role in healthcare provision.

On waste management, he said it was too centralised, and that if elected, he would encourage local governments to play more role in the collection, recycling and disposal of waste.

VERDICT: Mr Doherty easily picked holes in the shortcomings of governance in the state. He was clear-headed about what needed to be done. However, maybe due to time or the way the questions were structured, he could not explain, for instance, how he intends to fund the one free-meal for school children and his idea of a totally -free primary healthcare provision.

One would have loved to hear how he intends to modernise the transportation infrastructure and system in the state and how he plans to rid the state of agberos.

Score Card: 7/10

Adedeji Doherty

Adedeji Doherty spent the time allotted to him to introduce himself and his plan for the state, talking about how he is a man of the people and a loyal member of the PDP.

Interestingly, he used almost a minute of his allotted three minutes to pay homage to Mr Hamzat, and Musiliu Obanikoro. a former governorship candidate of his party, who has since joined the ruling APC.

He said he has a 10-point agenda but could not list all in the time remaining.

On tackling the housing shortage in the state, he said unlike the other contestant, he has no plan to build 150,000 housing units in the state, saying that he does not control the price of building materials and cannot tell developers how to sell or rent their houses. “There is no government that can control landlords,” he said. He, however, mentioned that if elected he would form a research team to look into the housing problem in the state, but again could not fully explain the role of this research team before he ran out of time.

Strangely, he said to end sharp practices in the housing sector and end arbitrary rent increases, the state government will rent houses from landlords and sublet them to Lagosians. He did not explain how this idea would be achieved or how feasible it was.

When asked why Lagosians are not reaping the benefits of its seemingly wealthy government, he blamed it on the debt burden of the state government. He said the government uses N20 billion to service debt.

He, however, promised to run a small government to save up funds for other developmental projects adding that the state currently has over 160 ministries and agencies and maintaining them was not sustainable.

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He said there was nothing the state government could do about flooding and blamed the yearly flooding of the state to global climate change and that flooding is experienced all over the world. He said credit should be given to the state government for what it is doing to manage flooding in the state.

On traffic management, he said, if elected, he will build long bridges connecting far-flung parts of the state like from Berger (Kara) to Lagos Island, And another to Badagry. He wondered why the government had yet to build the 4th, the 5th and the 6th mainland bridges to deal with traffic congestion.

VERDICT: Most of Mr Adedeji Doherty’s responses were trained towards either excusing the inadequacies of the policies of the incumbent government or to suggest that there was little he would do to change the status quo. This leaves one wondering about his reasons for contesting for the position if all he wants to do was rehash the ways things are being done.

He also proposed some strange policies like how his government would rent houses from landlords and then sublet them to residents. His idea of solving the traffic problem of the state by building long bridges that traverse one end of the state and another appeared not to have been given a proper thought. Of all the contestants at the debate, he was clearly the least prepared.