The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, has said that the success story of governance in Lagos State has positioned it as the leading state in the country, adding that Nigeria needs the state more than the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Speaking last week while delivering a paper entitled: “Nigeria In Search of New Growth model” at the 15th meeting of the Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning in Kano State, the monarch said although every part of the country is important, people should not, however, be obsessed by a resource.


While highlighting that Lagos can do without the rest of the country based on its resources and pragmatic style of governance, he urged that Nigeria must not let Lagos go off the federation.His words: “This country is better off with Lagos than with the Niger Delta. Let’s not make that mistake.

We should be together as a country. Every part of the country is important. But, let us not be so obsessed by a resource, because we have had the commodity driven model, and we are blind to the potential of an alternative model. “Lagos doesn’t need oil. What is oil anyway? It is a raw material.

You don’t drink it. You need it to move your vehicles. Now, you have electricity. You need it to fill your generator. Now you have solar power and biomass. The future of oil is not there. So, those few people who are trying to break up this country over oil, after sometime, that oil will be worthless.

You are better off being in a country that is based on this model. This is a country of the future, that is the past.” The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor explained in his paper that the model of governance in Lagos State should be adopted by the Federal Government and other states in the federation, stressing that infusion of such model would ensure transparency, consistency and regulation. According to the emir, “Lagos has done very well.

If I have money to invest, I will invest it in Lagos, because it is attracting investment. Lagos has realised a long time ago that government cannot fund all its needs. And I just love what Lagos has done. The Lagos story is a story of what Nigeria can do with itself – transparency, consistency, regulations – and people can be rich.

“There is no problem if people can be rich while growing an economy. Nobody minds. But, in Nigeria, people become rich when people are dying. Let’s take the Lagos story and that’s why today, Lagos State is 30 per cent Nigerian non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Lagos can do without oil.”

The monarch also stressed the need for the availability of power supply as one of the panaceas for growth in the country, faulting, however, the process of privatisation of the power sector by the immediate past administration. “Look at power generation.

That is where we need to focus on. Let’s get the power reports back on track. Fantastic policy. Power was privatised. What happened? People bought DISCOs (distribution companies), because they had connections,” he said.

This comment is not 'politically correct" and will not go down well with many people but the truth must be told... eko oni baje oooo!!!

Its a 50-50 thing sha, Lagos belongs to all Nigerians, we all developed Lagos, so nobody should storm here n start brewing nonsense like d poster above me

That's y I said that 12000mw from dangote should be given to lagos alone and take it off the grid this is to maximise it's production potentials..

Same with aba nnewi and Kano

saintkel:
Its a 50-50 thing sha, Lagos belongs to all Nigerians, we all developed Lagos, so nobody should storm here n start brewing nonsense like d poster above me

where in this country that doesn't belongs to all Nigerians?

if ur native town belong to ur people then lagos belongs to d native people too

One Nigeria

kettykin:
We should be together as a country. Every part of the country is important. But, let us not be so obsessed by a resource, because we have had the commodity driven model, and we are blind to the potential of an alternative model. “Lagos doesn’t need oil. What is oil anyway? It is a raw material.

You don’t drink it. You need it to move your vehicles. Now, you have electricity. You need it to fill your generator. Now you have solar power and biomass. The future of oil is not there. So, those few people who are trying to break up this country over oil, after sometime, that oil will be worthless.

.... You're are wrong oil will always be Important... How many vehicles av u manufactured using electricity?? Or solar power..... Smh .... What is the future... The future is here and now....

chowlade:
where in this country that doesn't belongs to all Nigerians?
if ur native town belong to ur people then lagos belongs to d native people too
One Nigeria

One nigeria sweery, morning dear, u had a good nyt?

Who is this entity called Nigeria (north?) to decide what part they need more ok why not let Niger delta go

I once said this to some folks. The Lagos story isn't a magic that happened overnight. A lot of sacrifices went into it, patience and unreserved support cum ethnic unity. There's no ''omo ibo'' or ''omo yoruba'' in Lagos. We are one.
More so, Lagos has a dream, birthed by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and shared with all without discrimination. Now, how will Nigeria move forward when there's no dream, no vision, no mission. Yet, the visionaire of the Lagos dream is being sidelined in National Polity.

Lolz

Lmao... These people can say anything ; anything at all to continue with the parasitic system of government.
Why is Lagos GDP so high? Well reasons are not far fetched.

When the Oil companies that should have their headquarters in the ND have them in Lagos, doesn't that translate to more tax money to the LSG?

When Lagos state is home to the only functional seaports in Nigeria (because the ones down south are for oil shipments only), won't that mean more money from taxation to the LSG?

When a country of over 180m people depend solely on one Int'l Airport (cuz many Int'l airlines dont plough the Abuja route) doesn't that mean more tax to that state to the detriment of others?

Bottom Line: Lagos is not more important than the ND which has sustained Nigeria since independence. If Lagos is more important, then let all crude exploration and drilling in the ND be halted and let the proceeds from the "Almighty" Lagos feed the entire country.

That said, we need to advocate for True Federalism rather than this balderdash.

He is right on many points... and wrong on some

Lagos as a state is widely self sufficient because it provides the best ambience in Nigeria for investment.

It has best transport infrastructure both for export and imports, which supports its mainly middle man business systems comprising mainly financial systems and buying/selling

It has population diversity with all classes. .. high class earners, middle class and low earners so there is a huge market for anybody and everything

It has political stability; the ruling powers have not changed hands for long there so investors do not experience policy reversals that much

I think Ogun state has a better model than lagos and shoukd be adopted nationwide. Ogun state is the manufacturing hub in south west and allows very fast access to market

Nigeria needs a manufacturing based diversification and not a middle man based system which is very volatile. As soon as policy changes , middle men shut down operations and move on

trapQ:
Lmao...

When the Oil companies that should have their headquarters in the ND have them in Lagos, doesn't that translate to more tax money to the LSG?

When a country of over 180m people depend solely on one Int'l Airport (cuz many Int'l airlines dont plough the Abuja route) doesn't that mean more tax to that state to the detriment of others?

Bottom Line: Lagos is not more important than the ND which has sustained Nigeria since independence. If Lagos is more important, then let all crude exploration and drilling in the ND be halted and let the proceeds from the "Almighty" Lagos feed the entire country.

That said, we need to advocate for True Federalism rather than this balderdash.

1 To be fair, from the onset, intl oil companies chose Lagos due to its proximity to other intl businesses as well as intl travel and intl finance. They have also been encouraged to continue this lagos based hq system due to insecurity. We can only blame ND youths for that

2. The seaport and international airport wahala is a failure of the political class in ND. If they had fought for this concertively we might have had another seaport down south to rival Lagos. They simply get to office and lick asses while lining their own pockets. They fought for derivation and got it. A seaport would have been an easier fight

3. I totally agree with your last point that ND is more important than Lagos. We all know for a fact that government revenues plunged drastically when our oil production dropped slightly. As for now, Nigerians cannot survive without ND oil money. If all oil operations are shutdown, majority of the businesses in Lagos will shutdown totally and there will be basically little money left for government to tax and share around

Why sanusi is right to ask other states to emulate lagos as a way of ensuring future diverisifcation he himself knows it is unrealistic to compare ND and Lagos right now as ND is way more important than the rest of the country combined