The Lagos Promise
Ileri Eko
A Promise Is a Load
Manifesto launch speech, as prepared for delivery
Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat
All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate, Lagos State Lagos, Friday 30 October 2026
WHERE I COME FROM
Your Excellencies. Leaders of our great party. Royal fathers. Distinguished guests. Members of the press. And my fellow Lagosians. Good afternoon. My name is Kadri Obafemi Hamzat. I have been privileged to serve alongside my brother, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as your Deputy Governor for seven years, five months and one day.
Now I am seeking your mandate to serve as Governor of our dear state, under the banner of our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the coming election. I take this moment very seriously, because I believe this election is consequential for Lagos and for our country. I therefore stand before you today not simply to ask for your vote, but to earn your trust: to share my vision for Lagos, to explain what I believe we must do differently, and to show why I am prepared to serve you. My understanding of public service began long before I ever held public office.
I was just fourteen years old when I first began to understand what public service asks of a person. Papa Obafemi Awolowo’s campaign came down the road in front of my school, Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo. I was standing there as he passed. He stopped close enough for me to touch him. I remember the crowd. I remember his hand raised in the V for victory sign.
And I remember the words he left with me, when I was given the opportunity to sit face to face with him. He said: ‘A nation rises when people of honour and ability choose to serve.’ Those words have lingered in my mind for decades. I grew up in a house that believed in the same philosophy. My father, Alhaji Mufutau Olatunji Hamzat, worked as a banker and gave the rest of his life to the progressive tradition. In 1979, he was elected to the Lagos State House of Assembly.
The then Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, nominated him as Commissioner for Transportation, and he served in that office until 1983. My mother, Alhaja Kehinde Hamzat, was from Iga Egbe, in the old heart of Lagos Island. So, I grew up with politics on one side of the family and Lagos tradition itself on the other. Both influences have shaped my values, my understanding of Lagos and my approach to public service.
I was raised in Mushin, and I learned to read at Odu Abore Memorial Primary School. Mushin taught me so many things. I learned what a clear drain means to a street during the rainy season. I learned what steady light means to a trader at four in the afternoon. I have carried those lessons into every job I have done since. In my father’s time, Lagos planned a rail line. A whole generation waited to see it finished, but it was not, because the work was interrupted. Those who knew him will remember the model train he kept in his living room, right up until his passing. Today, trains run in Lagos, and I have served in the government that carried that work to completion. That part of our history taught me two things. The time for the work is now. And what you finish is what you leave behind.
WHAT I HAVE SEEN
I have spent a significant part of my working life in Lagos, helping to improve our state alongside great leaders. I helped build the digital map of this state and the register of the people who live here, because a government serves best the people it can see. I have worked on roads, bridges and the systems behind government. Since 2019, I have had the privilege of serving as your Deputy Governor.
Those years have reinforced something I have believed throughout my life. A society is measured by the person at its very edge. The child. The widow. The trader furthest from the centre. So let me share one of the experiences that has stayed with me. One night, at two o’clock in the morning, I was part of a team that found a ten-yearold boy under the bridge at Oshodi.
He was alone. He had run away from home, from another state, because home had stopped being safe for him. At just ten years old, he had decided that sleeping under a bridge was safer than his own bed. I think about that boy often. We rescued him, and he is doing well today.
There are many others like him. His story shows how many hands a child needs. A school. A clinic. A social welfare office. A police post. A community that knows his name. As a trained systems engineer, I know a system works only when every one of those hands reaches the child in time. My promise is that I will build a Lagos that does. So, I want every Lagosian to hear this clearly. If you are a child, and you live in Lagos, then you are a child of Lagos.
Wherever your parents were born, whatever language you speak and whatever faith your family practises, Lagos will know your name. Lagos will work for you. Lagos will protect you. Our elders say: Agba kii wa loja, ki ori omo tuntun wo. It means that when the elders are in the market, the newborn’s head is not held crooked.
It reminds us that where elders are present, children should never be left without guidance and protection. There are many elders in the market today. In Lagos, we have the elders of our Governance Advisory Council, like Papa Olusi who is here today. That is why children sit at the centre of my plan. Page 5
WHAT A PROMISE IS Today, I put that plan in your hands. We call it The Lagos Promise. Ileri Eko. I chose those words with care. A promise is a debt. In Yoruba, we say: Gbese ni Ileri. A promise has weight. The scriptures support this.
The Holy Bible says, in Psalm 15:4, that the person who walks uprightly before God keeps their promise even when it hurts, and does not go back on their word. Similarly, the Holy Quran says in Surah Al-Ma’idah, Chapter 5, verse 1: ‘O ye who believe, fulfil your undertakings.’
That is why this document is detailed. Every page of it is checkable. A serious promise answers three questions. Who is it for? Will it be fulfilled? And how can I trust it? My parents answered all three for me, with three words they lived by. Iteriba. Respect. The state owes it to every person it serves. Ise. Work. The work comes before the announcement. Otito. Truth.
A government that publishes the truth about itself earns its people’s trust. Respect. Work. Truth. That is what will guide how I govern Lagos. That is why my manifesto is a promise to Lagosians. The Promise has seven letters, seven pillars and 100 pledges. P for People First. R for Renewal. O for Opportunity. M for the Machinery of Government. I for Inclusion. S for Security and Resilience. E for Everyday Dignity. Seven letters. Seven pillars. One word you can hold me to. Permit me at this point to make some acknowledgements.
The Promise opens with a Foreword written by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He did not have to write it, but he did, and I thank him for that. He built the modern architecture of this state. When he writes that Lagos did not become great by accident, that it was built deliberately, he is describing the work he himself began in 1999.
LAMATA. LASTMA. The BRT.
The creation of the Local Council Page 6 Development Areas, which are carrying development to our grassroots. These are institutions our government has built over the years. I am grateful for his confidence. This Promise builds on that foundation, on the current administration’s THEMES Plus agenda and on the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda. Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, showed us that visible delivery earns trust. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode carried major infrastructure forward. Governor Babajide SanwoOlu has led through a demanding period with calm, and I have served beside him every day.
I do not take this as an inheritance. I take it as a standard I must uphold and exceed. I thank the leadership and members of our party, the All Progressives Congress. I must thank my darling wife, my partner and my best friend, Oluremi, who carries more of this work than people see. I also acknowledge my running mate, Princess Damilola Sonayon-James, and thank her for her commitment to the vision we share for Lagos.
Now let me tell you who this Promise is for.
WHO THIS PROMISE IS FOR Health:
For The Mother Somewhere in Lagos tonight, a child has a fever, and a mother is doing quick arithmetic in the dark. How far is the clinic? Is it open? Will there be a doctor there? Can we afford the medicine? Should we wait until morning? I want her to have one clear answer. The clinic down the road will be open, staffed and ready for her child. This matters to me because a mother is the first government a child will ever know. The mothers of Lagos are the makers of Lagos. So my health promise is simple: care you can reach, staffed and dependable. That work has already started. I will take the Maternal and Child Centres into the communities that have waited longest for them. We currently have 10. I will increase that to 15.
Today, nearly two million Lagosians carry the Ilera Eko card. I will take it to one in three Lagosians, reaching the poorest households first, so every family is protected when illness comes. We are already building. We will deliver the new Massey Children’s Hospital, with 150 beds. Ojo General Hospital is almost complete, and it will add 280 beds. Construction is under way at Somolu General Hospital, another 150-bed facility. That is 580 new hospital beds for Lagos. Our promise is that we will deliver two new General Hospitals, at Ogombo and IbejuLekki, expand the capacity of our existing General Hospitals and upgrade 100 primary health-care centres to flagship status.
We will strengthen the health workforce. We will hire more doctors, more nurses and more midwives. We will relieve the pressure where it is greatest. To our doctors, our nurses, our midwives and the entire Lagos State health family: Lagos needs you here. We will continue to improve the conditions you serve under, strengthen our facilities and give you the support you need to serve our people. Stay and build with me. Education: For The Child At School For the children of Lagos, the Promise begins before the first day of school.
Every child will arrive at Primary One ready to learn. Many of you will have heard the word Page 8 EKOEXCEL. It stands for Excellence in Child Education and Learning. It is the tool we use to manage teaching and learning in our public primary schools. EKOEXCEL is already in 1,028 public primary schools. We will deepen what works, strengthen teaching and carry measurable learning across the system. Every child will learn to read, reason and believe in themselves.
Through the Eko Learners programme, we have 320 lessons online and on television, so children can keep learning at home after school. In 2022, our administration established the Lagos State University of Science and Technology in Ikorodu and the Lagos State University of Education in Ijanikin.
Together with Lagos State University, this brought the number of state-owned universities to three. From early childhood through university, we are committed to expanding access and improving the quality of education at every stage. We are also pursuing plans for a University of Medicine and Health Sciences, to train more healthcare professionals, strengthen our health system and create more opportunities for them to build their careers here in Lagos.
Every child in Lagos belongs in school. I will bring every one of them in, and keep them there. For children with sporting talent, school will also be the pathway to opportunity: learning first, then the pitch, then the podium. To our teachers, my commitment is to keep training and retraining you for the work you do, today and tomorrow.
Over the last seven years, we have trained more than 33,000 of you. We will continue that investment, strengthen teacher development and make sure that better teaching becomes better learning for our children. We will review your compensation package, so your pay matches the work we demand from you and the contribution you make to the future of Lagos.
We will demand peak performance from you, and we ask that you demand the same from our students. To the parents of Lagos, I ask something of you too. Send your children to school. Keep them there. Expect quality. I will make school worth the journey.
Enterprise And Jobs: For The Woman At Idumota Now I want to speak to the woman in Idumota who opens before dawn and closes after dark. To the artisan unlocking his workshop in Lawanson. To the young man repairing phones in a shop, with an apprentice learning beside him. To the manufacturer in Ikeja. The farmer in Badagry. The fashion business in Surulere. The food processor in Ilupeju. The businessman in Alaba. The creative in Lekki. The logistics company in Ojota, and the founder in Yaba. Page 9 Most of the jobs Lagos needs will be created by you. Every shop that takes on an apprentice. Every workshop that hires another pair of hands.
Every founder in Yaba who hires a first team. My job is to make it easier for you to grow and hire. Since the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund began, we have put more than ₦15 billion into the hands of over 21,000 businesses. We have reached more than 116,000 businesses with training, advisory support and mentorship.
We have trained 30,000 young Lagosians and placed nearly 15,000 of them in jobs. The businesses we backed have created more than 300,000 jobs. And one in every four of them doubled its turnover within a year. Just three months ago, we sent 100 of these business owners to China to gain market access and build their supply-chain experience. Some of those businesses are here today. This is only the beginning.
We still have a lot more to do. So I will give you commitments you can track. You have told me what you need. One clear schedule of charges. One permit, from one office. Credit that matches the way you trade. Skills the market can see and pay for. One trader put it plainly: ‘Tell me what I have to pay. Once I pay it, leave me alone.’
That is a fair request, and I will honour it. So here is what you should track. We will publish one schedule of lawful charges, so everyone knows exactly what is due. A defined share of state procurement will go to Lagos small businesses that meet the standard. We will match talent with opportunity. Many of our young people are searching for jobs, yet employers tell us they struggle to find people with the right skills. That is a mismatch, and we must close that gap.
And we will. Students in our vocational and technical schools will spend six to twelve months with a real employer, with the state paying 40 per cent of their stipend, so a small business can afford to say yes. If you already have the skill, we will certify it. Free of charge. At your workshop. In the language you use every day.
The artisan with fifteen years in the workshop will carry a certificate that shows it, and his customers will pay what his work is worth. Every state contract will show who it employed, and we will check that evidence before we make payment. Repeat support from the Employment Trust Fund will be tied to your capacity and to evidence of jobs created. On our part, we will equip our young people with the skills of today and tomorrow: cyber security, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, robotics and the Internet of Things, so they can take part in the global economy.
Through Feeding Lagos, we will bring down the cost between the farm and the table. Through the blue economy, we will deepen aquaculture and the commercial use of our waterways. Page 10 Through our culture and creative economy, we will turn more of Lagos’s artistic strength into jobs, exports and pride. And through our technology agenda, we will keep backing the ecosystem Lagosians built. Here is what I ask of businesses in return. When I remove a barrier, hire one more person if you can. When we support an apprentice, teach them well. When you receive public support, show the jobs it helped to create.
I will clear the barriers so you can keep building Lagos. Young People: For The Generation Already Building Our statistics say three in every four Lagosians are under thirty-five. You are already building our businesses, shaping our culture and driving our technology. I want more of you in the rooms where decisions about your lives are made. We will open routes into public service through volunteering, internships and shadowing, each one leading to real responsibility. Young professionals will lead agencies in my government, on merit. We will widen access to the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy. We have already launched 91 digital access hubs, with digital training courses and public Wi-Fi, across the five divisions. We will grow that network. We will strengthen Yaba’s technology ecosystem and carry its opportunity across the whole state.
To founders, builders and digital businesses: government owes you three things. Cheaper broadband. Better security. Room to build. I will deliver all three. You are the Lagos of today. The door is open. Come and take your seat. Transport: For The Woman On The Bus Somewhere in Lagos tomorrow morning, before the sun comes up, a young woman will board a bus. She will travel for more than an hour to reach work, or wherever she plies her trade. She will spend just as long getting back home. She did it yesterday.
She will do it again tomorrow. She is at work right now, keeping this city running. She was on my mind as I wrote this plan. Page 11 Every day, Lagosians already trust this system to carry them. Since the BRT began, our buses have made more than 700 million journeys. And since our trains began to run, the Blue and Red Lines have carried nearly 11 million Lagosians.
Now we will take that system much further. I will move Lagos by road, by rail and by water, as one connected system. On Our Roads. For most Lagosians, the road that matters most is the one outside their front door. Working with our local governments, our LCDAs and the Lagos State Public Works Corporation, we will focus hard on the inner roads in every community. When the inner roads open, the pressure comes off the main roads, and Lagos moves. We will also reconstruct strategic traffic-bearing roads to keep Lagos in motion.
I will mention a few. • Tedi-Mowo Road, and the dualisation of Olojo Drive-Alaba International Market-Igbede Road, in Ojo • Bola Ahmed Tinubu Road in Bogije • Igbe to Ginti Road and Ijede Road Phase Two in Ikorodu • Mowo-Ikoga Road and Ajara-Agelasho-Erekiti Road in Badagry • Isheri-Osun Road in Igando-Ikotun LCDA • Akanni Doherty Street in Ikeja • Mushin-Itire Road in Mushin And many more across the state. We will activate the Fourth Mainland Bridge through partnerships, accelerate the Regional Road along the Lekki-Epe axis, and begin Phase Two of the Opebi-Mende Link Bridge to connect with the Third Axial Road. On Our Buses.
I will grow the public bus fleet from 1,000 buses to 4,000, so our buses can carry one million passengers every day. On Rail. We will extend the Blue Line to Okokomaiko, and connect the Red and Blue Lines through an interchange at the National Theatre Station, just outside this iconic venue where we are gathered today. When the Blue Line reaches Trade Fair Station early next year, we project it will carry up to 250,000 passengers a day. Working with our federal partners, we will advance the Green Line from Marina to the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Page 12 On Water.
Through Omi Eko, we will dredge an additional 140 kilometres of water corridor, optimise 15 ferry routes, refurbish 25 of the 47 terminals and jetties, and procure 75 more electric vessels. Lagos is a water state. The lagoon must be our third highway. One ticket. One timetable. One integrated service across rail, road and water. The standard I care about most is time. The time I return to your days. Time with your children. Time to rest. Time to build. Wherever you live, you will be able to measure your journey to work. And I guarantee it will be shorter than today. Housing: For The Family Under The Roof And for the woman on the bus: when she gets home, the roof over her head should be one she can afford with dignity.
On housing, we will finish what has already started, and I will name the projects so you can check our progress. • Egan-Igando, Clusters Two and Three • Lagos HOMS Sangotedo, Phase Two • Lagos HOMS Ibeshe, Phases Two and Three • Brains and Hammers, Iganmu-Ijora • The Workers’ Village at Ipaja • The Epe scheme at Ita-Marun • Beacon Apartments, Command Road, Ipaja • Vangully Housing Estate, Ajah • Lagos HOMS Ajara, Badagry, Phase Two • The housing estate in Okota We will finish all of these.
We will make the homes available, and we will build more. We will work more creatively with private developers to deliver homes at lower prices for our citizens. I will make mortgages reachable. Ten per cent down. Single-digit interest. Longer repayment periods. We will deepen Lagos HOMS and open a clear path to home ownership. Safety: For Everyone On The Way Home Every Lagosian deserves to reach home safely, every night.
We will strengthen the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Agency and extend its presence to every ward across our 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas. We will take street lighting and CCTV to where people live: residential streets, riverine communities and peri-urban areas.
We will build a State Intelligence Fusion Centre to meet cyber, financial and organised crime with better intelligence and coordination. Page 13 As the state police framework develops, we will use the Neighbourhood Safety Agency as its foundation. We will recruit and train properly, review welfare against the cost of living, provide better accommodation and extend Ilera Eko to officers and their dependants.
A well-paid, well-equipped and well-supported officer keeps us all safe. Someone independent of that agency will review every complaint about how an officer or agency treated you. Safety and accountability must travel together. Water, Waste And Resilience: For The Ordinary Day Adiyan Phase Two is a 70-million-gallon-a-day facility, built to supply clean water to six million more Lagosians.
It is under construction. It is being funded. I will finish it. We will rehabilitate 24 micro and mini waterworks, repair the mains and extend the public network. On waste, we will strengthen community collection, reach 95 per cent coverage by improving delivery through our Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators, and make Lagos cleaner. We will complete the transfer loading stations at Olusosun and at Solous III in Alimosho. We will deliver a recovery facility and complete the waste-toenergy facility at Agbowa. Thirty thousand Lagosians already collect and sort this state’s waste.
I will bring them into the system. I will train them, equip them and pay them properly. Essential work deserves dignity. On environmental resilience, we will safeguard our air quality and urban climate by planting millions of trees across our state and turning our open spaces into vibrant public parks. Inclusion: For Everyone Who Came Here To Build Lagos has always been a city people come to. From Kano and Aba. From Enugu and Sokoto. From Calabar and Port Harcourt. From Ghana, the Republic of Benin and across this continent. And, I dare say, from further still. From Lebanon. From India. They come to work.
They come to build. They come to belong. They come believing that if they work hard enough, Lagos will meet them halfway. In most cases, Lagos did. Page 14 Everyone who lives here belongs here, and Lagos will serve you as you are. Whatever your ability. However old or young you are. Obirin Eko, for the women of Lagos. Omo Eko, for the young. Iyi Eko, for dignity and access for every ability. One Lagos, for everyone who calls this place home.
HOW YOU WILL HOLD ME ACCOUNTABLE Now I come to the part that matters most. A serious plan tells you what will be delivered, where, when, and who is accountable. Mallam Aminu Kano taught us that ‘the main purpose of government is to guarantee the welfare of the people, not the comfort of the leaders’. Welfare is not guaranteed by speeches. It is guaranteed by promises you can check.
That is why the Hamzat Compact contains 100 pledges, and every one of them is marked honestly. Eighty-seven are firm commitments. They are within the Lagos State Government’s power, and each will be measured against a published scorecard. If one of them is not delivered, it will be noted, and I must own it. Thirteen are aspirations. They are directions I want to pursue, but their timing depends on wider consultation, the Federal Government or the courts. For those, I will not claim a deadline outside my control. You will see exactly where a Governor’s power begins, where it ends and where partnership is required. Accountability will not wait for the end of my term. It begins in my first hundred days. First, I will protect our children.
The first bill I send to the House of Assembly will establish a Child Protection and Nutrition Agency, so that every child under eighteen is in school or learning a trade, and fed well enough to learn. Every promise I make about the future starts with them. Second, I will make delivery someone’s job. By Executive Order, I will set up the Lagos State Service Delivery Office, chaired by me. It will publish the starting figure for every commitment, so you can measure every step from day one. Third, I will secure the next generation’s wealth. I will take the State Wealth Fund forward, with an independent board and published accounts, so that what Lagos earns today will serve its children in fifty years.
Beyond those first hundred days, every government office will display a Service Charter on its wall: the service, the standard and the officer responsible. Every complaint will be acknowledged within 48 hours, answered within seven days and resolved within 30. I will hold town hall meetings in the five IBILE divisions, on a published calendar. An independent Performance Council will review delivery and report directly to you. And every year, one document will set every promise against the result. Where we miss a target, that report will name it, give the reason and set the new date. Chinua Achebe often repeated an old proverb: until the lions have their own historians, the story of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
The Hamzat Compact makes every Lagosian a historian of my government. It puts the pen in your hand. Page 16 Check it. Track it. Measure it.
THE ARENA AND THE ASK More than a hundred years ago, the American President Theodore Roosevelt said that the credit belongs to the one who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Whenever I read these words, I think of the market woman at Idumota at five in the morning. The danfo driver on Ikorodu Road. The nurse finishing a night shift in Igando.
The fisherman in Epe. The coconut farmer in Badagry. The teacher in Orile-Iganmu. The artisan in Lawanson. They are the ones in the arena. Lagos is their arena. My work is to make that arena worthy of them. I guarantee that, and that is my promise. They are the people I am running to serve: their lives, their burdens and their hopes. That is what this Promise is all about. The next chapter of Lagos will not be written in Alausa alone. It will be written in our offices, our workplaces and our markets. When Lagos keeps its promises, it carries more than itself. When Lagos works, Nigerians see what a working state looks like. When Lagos publishes its own report card, citizens everywhere learn to ask for one. This is the standard I will set for our state. So here is what I ask of you.
Take the Promise. Read it. Question it. Find the commitment that matters most to your family, your street and your community. Write it down. On Saturday, 16 January, vote APC for President and vote APC for the National Assembly. And on Saturday, 6 February, vote APC for Governor and vote APC for the State House of Assembly. One ballot, all the way down. Then, in four years, bring it back to me. Show me what I delivered. Show me what is left to do.
Hold me accountable for both. I spoke earlier about the young woman on the bus. Tomorrow, before the sun is up, she will board that bus again. She is at work while I make this speech. I hope these words reach her today. She is asking three quiet questions. Will the bus come on time? Will the fare leave her something to take back home? And will the city she helps build every single day build something back for her in return? Page 18 Everything in this document is my answer to those three questions. My father taught me that public service is a duty.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said to me: ‘Your worth can only be appreciated if you serve your people.’ Papa Awolowo gave a fourteen-year-old boy a reason. Lagos has given me a lifetime of work. Today, I give Lagos my promise. A promise is a load. I have lifted it onto my head before you. I am asking you to watch me carry it. Watch me carry it when the applause is gone. Watch me carry it when the choices are difficult. Watch me carry it when the numbers are inconvenient.
And watch me carry it all the way, until the work is done. This is the mandate I ask of you: the opportunity to serve as your Governor, the responsibility to deliver and the duty to answer to you. Together, we have built one of Africa’s greatest states. Together, we will make it safer, fairer, cleaner and easier to live in. Together, we will write its finest chapter.
Together, we will move Lagos forward. This is our work. This is our future. This is our Lagos. Eko o ni baje. God bless Lagos State. God bless our armed forces. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Thank you, and God bless you.
