The BRF era

The writing of this book started serendipitously. I listened to candidate Babatunde Fashola at a breakfast meeting at the Lagos Business School in February 2007 and concluded he would make a good governor, if elected. I wrote about that encounter in my Businessday column, basically supporting his candidacy. I also argued in his support with friends and acquaintances during the rest of the campaigns and in the early days of his government. A close friend of mine who was inclined to support another candidate indeed requested me to promise that I would write a public apology if Fashola failed, in order to make her vote for him; I provided the promise and she voted for Fashola.

This event made me realise I had inadvertently put my credibility on the line and I became quite worried that BRF, as he later became known, performs in office. Happily, he probably surpassed our expectations and I sustained my commentary on him and his government, in the process writing Part 1 of this book.

And then came “The Policy Council”, my policy-focused TV talk show which enabled me to interview BRF and many of the top officials of his government, which provided the material in the second part. It is remarkable that neither BRF nor myself conceived of this translation of the elements in Parts 1 and 2 into a book at the time, yet he provided inspiration and support for the TV programme. It was only about one year to the end of his tenure that I realised that an almost complete book on the BRF era had been written without our planning it. The real challenge therefore was writing the policy appraisal and analysis in Part 3, collating the articles in Part 1 and transcribing the interviews in Part 2 from audio/video format into a written form. Fortunately the auspices of Goriite Publishing was available to translate all these into reality.

I believe that one of the problems of our society is the absence or limited availability of recorded documentation and analysis, especially in the area of policy and governance. Given Fashola’s acclaimed performance, it became a bounding duty on me to ensure the documentation of my perspectives on that government. I was particularly well-placed to carry out that duty because I had sufficient access and insight into the policies and governance of the state under Fashola as a consultant and advisor, media columnist and as a member of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund board, appointed by Fashola.

I hope this book will provide a useful record for citizens of Lagos State and students of history, public administration and policy studies, political science, economics and indeed anyone interested in the governance of Lagos State, Nigeria and Africa.

 

The above is extracted from my new book, “The BRF Era: Policy and Governance in Lagos State 2007-2015” which will be presented to the public in Lagos tomorrow May 5, 2016.

 

Opeyemi Agbaje