Prepare for challenges, Sanwo-Olu tells incoming governors

Forum 11 months ago

Prepare for challenges, Sanwo-Olu tells incoming governors

The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has shared perspectives and practical ideas on governance at a three-day induction for new and returning governors, held at the Presidential Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja.

According to a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, the governor pointed out that the quality of transition determines the extent to which a new administrator could hit the ground running.

He noted that some incoming governors would be taking over from friendly predecessors and enjoy cordial transitions that would make governance to be easy, while others would have to contend with hostile transition teams of the outgoing administrations.

He said, “The most significant and troubling challenges you will face as a new governor will not be anticipated. A lot of events will happen without warning. The ability to be responsive always, and to be able to quickly deploy mechanisms to attend to unexpected challenges will make a huge amount of difference. Negative news about your government and your person will receive more attention than positive developments, especially in social media.

“It is, therefore, important to keep sharing and amplifying the positives, while also responding to the negatives with action. Lagos has a unique challenge, in that it enjoys the highest degree of media and social media visibility for obvious reasons. Lagos is the hub of the Nigerian traditional media. It also has the widest Internet coverage and the highest number of Internet users in the country.”

He advised the incoming governors to set a governing agenda just as he used the success of Lagos as an example of how agendas set by successive administrations could help governance.