If you have ever found yourself returning from Abeokuta to Lagos on the first or last Friday of any month, you have two options to travel. One option is to face Lagos live and direct from the Sagamu interchange and probably “die” in the traffic snarl usually caused by the Business Centres, nay Churches, on that stretch. I never take this option. The second option is to take Abeokuta-Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode-Ikenne-Epe-Lagos. I have always preferred this option, even if it resembles the Biblical log-winding, bumpy road to heaven. There’s a third option: spending the night in Abeokuta! A fairly sleepy town where a bottle of Hennessy VSOP is N18k compared to N15k in Lagos is not an option at all.
So, during my last trip back from Abeokuta, I took my usual preferred route and as soon as we hit Lagos State, I was pleasantly confronted with a world class macadamized thoroughfare! Wow, I screamed, and Prince, my Pilot, was like “Boss, didn’t you know that Ambode has transformed this area?” Listen, man, I had to stop and take photos. I actually caught myself saying a prayer for Akinwunmi Ambode, for God to continue to give him the wisdom, vision and good health to continue to take Lagos closer and closer to its aspiration of becoming a MEGACITY.
So, you can imagine my excitement upon receiving a message from Uchenna Achunine, the COO of Prof. Pat Utomi’s Centre for Values and Leadership (CVL) that I would read His Excellency’s citation at today’s 14th Annual CVL Lecture. The Lecture is usually part of Prof. Utomi’s birthday activities. He turned 61 today.
Anyway, one can safely say Good, Better, Best for Tinubu, Fashola and Ambode in that order-just as they came. His excellent performance, a surprise to many, in just two years, makes him truly His Excellency, as the Deputy Governor of Edo State quite remarkably said today. Ambode embodies the leadership attributes Nigeria truly needs in her quest to overcome the challenges of underdevelopment and poor leadership. I was absolutely enthralled when he said one of the things he used to say he would do if he became Governor of Lagos State was that he would solve the Oworonshoki traffic wahala at the end of Third Mainland Bridge. And it is to his credit that he solved it almost immediately he assumed duties.
It is obvious Lagos is working based on a plan, and Ambode is most definitely going to be the Poster Boy of that well-thought out strategy to make Lagos more than just one of the most RESILIENT cities in the world, according to the Rockefeller Foundation, but indeed a MEGA-CITY and a truly great place to live.
With leaders like Ambode, and with examples like Lagos, Nigeria will not fail, but rise like a Phoenix to become a great country. I’m excited. I’m hopeful.

Oparah is Director of Corporate Communications, Airtel