With yearly tributes over the past decade focusing on various attributes of Babatunde Raji Fashola, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Commander of the Order of the Niger, it is almost tempting to ask: what is left to be said?

But, for a devoted public servant who, in over two decades, has left his imprimatur of dedication and single-minded pursuit of excellence as Chief of Staff and Commissioner in the administration of the current President as Governor of Lagos sufficiently to earn his support as an aspirant, candidate and two-term Governor of the State and then capturing national attention as a Minister of the Federal Republic for two terms, the ink can never go dry on his essence.

But BRF, as he is commonly known, at the outset, did not find public service attractive. Indeed, before being literally conscripted to serve as Chief of Staff to now-President Bola Tinubu, he had put in 14 years of private legal practice with his career starting out in the law firm of Sofunde, Osakwe, Ogundipe and Belgore, where he engaged productively in general litigation in various areas such as company law, land, labour and commercial disputes, criminal law, matrimonial causes, chieftaincy matters, administrative law, and intellectual property.

He also had a stint as Managing Partner with his friend, Wale Tinubu, in a new law chamber set up by both but retaining the name of the latter father’s chambers – K. O Tinubu – to meet the rising obligations of a young man who was then about to start raising a family with all the anxieties and sacrifices of running a private outfit.

If BRF left indelible marks in his eight-year tenure as Governor of Lagos State and offered leadership, in the truest sense of the word, for which he got recognition locally and internationally with the International Crisis Group (ICG) in October 2015 presenting him the Stephen J. Solarz Award for his “commitment to resolving social, economic and security challenges in one of the world’s most challenging urban environments,” in his two-term tenure as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he was no less a “torrent of activity.”

Taken from a tribute by Douglas Martin to the person after whom the ICG Award was named, Stephen J. Solarz, a former nine-term New York congressman, whose “torrent of activity” was then appropriately listed, Fashola’s activities and accomplishments as Federal Minister would fill pages.

Unpacked in numbers, it would include the completion of the construction and rehabilitation of 13,117km out of the over 19,000km of Roads and Bridge infrastructure as well as other Housing Sector activities being worked on in 1,712 contracts and 1,649 projects being supervised as at May 2023; presenting and receiving approval for 336 Federal Executive Council Memos; touring the country fully by road to conduct inspection on 206 projects; visiting the National Assembly for legislative accountability over 90 times; and the activation of the economy of quantities supplied by sub-contractors in bitumen, laterite,sand, diesel and other inputs for road construction and other building materials at an unprecedented level.

The outputs include cracking the most difficult road projects in our nation’s history and the initiation of a season of completion, commissioning and impact across the country. This was climaxed by the virtual commissioning by his former principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, of seven projects on Tuesday, 7 May 2023, a historic day when according to Fashola, “the Federal Government in collaboration with all Nigerians, have come together to open the Second Niger Bridge in Delta and Anambra States, the Ikom Bridge in Cross River State and the Loko-Oweto Bridge in Nasarawa/Benue States and completed section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway as well as the Federal Secretariats in Awka, Anambra State, Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State and Gusau, Zamfara State.”

The occasion provided an opportunity for BRF to explain why another major project which should have been delivered on the same day – the expanded and reconstructed Lagos–Ibadan Expressway – was not ready for commissioning.

“…We have delivered 114km of the 127km Lagos-Ibadan highway. Mr President, please permit me to pause here by those who may wonder why the Lagos-Ibadan highway is not being commissioned also today. There is a critical section in the 4km last mile to Lagos; and though it’s technical, what has really delayed is that we found black cotton soil under the pavement and we have decided that we would remove it and we would replace it, so that we would do a proper job instead of a hurried commissioning. So that would be deferred till the next Administration and the expected completion date would be 30th June.”

Overall, the economic impact of the exertions of BRF and other ministers responsible for infrastructure under the former administration is that the stock of our nation’s infrastructure to GDP has doubled from 20 per cent in 2015 to 40 per cent in 2023.

However, while this is commendable, Fashola believes that infrastructure is a means to a bigger end in terms of its multiplier effect and impact in creating prosperity among the citizenry. “… During the period, the people I interacted with, the workers, the artisans, the people asphalting our roads, the food vendors, the suppliers, painters, people who roof houses those are the people for whom those things are initiated.

But people don’t see them, I saw them. I have data on many of them in terms of the numbers we impacted, how many small businesses got to supply sands, roofing sheets, paints, cables, asphalt, and all of that, because that is really what infrastructure is all about; driving the economy, creating jobs, creating livelihoods for families. So, for me that was the big thrill.”

As one who never let fear gets in the way of pushing the frontiers in the art of making things better, BRF is one who would also not shy away from issues of the day, which require elevated discourse. Hence, from issues around national security, restructuring and its variegated connotations, rights and duties across generations, the import of voting at elections, but most important questions of law and order and the place of the nation’s constitution, BRF’s clarity of thoughts are well documented.

To be continued tomorrow
Hakeem Bello, FNGE, is Special Adviser, Communications to the immediate past Minister of Works and Housing.