A pricey video recently released by the Lagos State government
touting the state capital, Lagos, as a megacity has been described by
various critics as “a myth,” “sheer fantasy,” and “a series of false
representations.”
The video, which is available on youtube,
offers a spruced up, non-existent image of Lagos as a safe city that –
in the words of Governor Babatunde Fashola – anybody “would like to call
home.”
The video ostensibly made by the Lagos Internal Revenue
Service also feautured the former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu, whose
Alpha Beta tax collection company reportedly makes billions of unearned
income
from the state coffers on a monthly basis.
The video
presents a glitzy and glamorous portrait of the city of Lagos that is at
odds with the experience of the vast majority of the millions of
residents. A Lagos-based businessman told SaharaReporters that
“most
Lagosians can’t recognize the Lagos in this video.” He added that, while
Mr. Fashola has done a commendable job in cleaning up parts of the city
and building some roads, “It is farfetched to claim that Lagos works as
a modern city should work.”
A Lagos-based lawyer pointed
out that the video gives a rosy picture of the sharp rise in internally
generated revenues in Lagos State, “but ignores the fact that there’s
no transparency and little accountability in the process.” He added that
it was common knowledge that former Governor Bola Tinubu “is fattening
his pocket daily by keeping a big chunk of these revenues.”
Another
critic wondered why the video failed to focus on the neglected slums of
the city as well as the plight of millions of Lagosians who reside in
shanty sections that lack the most basic sanitary facilities. “Where are
the real residents of Lagos who live next to open and overflowing
gutters, whose children go to schools that are not fit for cockroaches,
and who have to travel in overcrowded molue buses?” she asked. “Let us
hear the voices of the teeming millions of Lagosians stating that their
city is Eldorado on earth. Then I will take the video seriously,” she
added.
“I am not saying that Governor Fashola is not trying,
but this video of a clean Lagos filled with music, smooth traffic, and
recreational amenities is pure fiction,” a Lagos-based writer told
SaharaReporters.
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