Beyond the Blue Line: 10 Lagos problems Sanwo-Olu has failed to solve

By Paul Dada

By the time Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State leaves office on May 29, 2027, having spent eight years as the helmsman of Nigeria’s commercial centre, he will surely reel out his achievements during the period.

With gusto and a sense of accomplishment, Sanwo-Olu will talk about the strides his administration has taken in completing or rehabilitating hundreds of roads and bridges, notable ones being the Pen Cinema Flyover, Opebi-Mende/Ojota Link Bridge, sections of the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway and Lagos-Badagry Expressway upgrades.

He will talk about his administration’s achievements in revitalising and expanding intra-city rail systems, the Blue Line and Red Line, expanding BRT and bus terminals, and ensuring improvements to LagRide and ferry/jetty services.

He may not fail to talk about the growth of the state budget from roughly ₦700 billion in 2019 to between ₦4.3 trillion and ₦4.4 trillion in 2026, while boasting that Lagos contributes about one-third of Nigeria’s GDP and ranks as Africa’s second-largest metropolitan economy.

Expect Sanwo-Olu to mention landmark projects supported or commissioned, including the Lekki Deep Sea Port, Imota Rice Mill, Lekki Free Zone and related industrial and logistics hubs. He might also point to progress in providing housing for civil servants, large-scale construction and renovation of schools and classrooms, such as the Tolu Schools Complex in Ajegunle; upgrades and new buildings at Lagos State University (LASU), including hostels and library complexes.

The construction and upgrades of health facilities, including maternal and child centres, Ojo General Hospital, a large psychiatric hospital and rehabilitation centre in Ketu-Ejinrin, and other primary and secondary healthcare investments, will count among his achievements.

True, the Blue Line glides through Lagos. The Red Line is taking shape. New bridges have appeared. Roads have been reconstructed. Hospitals and housing projects have been commissioned. Yet there is another Lagos that cannot be captured in official project lists.

It is the Lagos of the commuter trapped in traffic for hours. It is the Lagos family watching floodwater enter its home. It is the Lagos resident buying water from a tanker because the public supply is unreliable.

It is the Lagos tenant paying increasingly unaffordable rent. It is the Lagosian stepping over heaps of rubbish on the way to work. It is the Lagos resident living in a building that may have been declared distressed but remains occupied.

It is the Lagosian who watches one government enforcement exercise follow another, while the same problem returns weeks later.

To be fair, these problems did not begin with Sanwo-Olu. Some are decades old. Some require cooperation with the Federal Government. Others are driven by population growth, climate change, poverty and the sheer complexity of governing one of Africa’s largest cities. But Sanwo-Olu has been governor since May 2019. And seven years is long enough for voters to ask not simply what has been built, but what has actually been fixed.

Here are 10 problems that continue to haunt Lagos under Sanwo-Olu.

1. Traffic: Lagosians are still prisoners of the road

Nothing else quite defines the Lagos experience more than traffic. For generations, successive governments have promised to reduce congestion. Not enough roads have been expanded. Not enough bridges have been built.

The Blue Line is a major achievement. The Red Line has expanded the state’s rail ambitions. Sanwo-Olu can legitimately claim credit for pushing mass transit higher up the state’s agenda.

But the daily reality for millions remains the same. A journey of a few kilometres can still consume hours.

The problem becomes particularly severe when roads are under construction, when accidents occur or when rain falls.

The state’s transport challenge is also complicated by federal infrastructure. The ports, federal roads and operations of agencies such as the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigeria Customs Service all affect movement in Lagos. But the state controls a significant portion of the roads, traffic management, public transport regulation and urban planning that determine how efficiently Lagos moves.

The unanswered question is therefore not whether Sanwo-Olu has built transport infrastructure.

He has.

The question is whether the average Lagos commuter is spending significantly less time travelling today than before he became governor.

For millions, the answer remains no.

2. Flooding: every rainy season still brings fear

Let us admit the truth. Lagos cannot stop the rain.

The state is coastal. Climate change is producing more extreme weather. Rapid urbanisation has also placed enormous pressure on drainage channels and waterways.

The Sanwo-Olu administration has responded with drainage projects, dredging and flood-control measures.

In July 2026, the governor ordered a review of master plans in flood-prone areas, particularly along the Lekki corridor, following flooding in several communities. He also acknowledged the role of blocked waterways and drainage channels.

The Federal Government and Lagos State were still discussing flood resilience and water management in August 2026.

That tells its own story.

But after seven years of government intervention, flooding remains a major annual emergency. When heavy rainfall comes, roads disappear under water, businesses close, vehicles become stranded and families fear losing their possessions.

The state may point to kilometres of drainage cleared. But residents judge government by what happens when the rain comes. And every rainy season, Lagos continues to struggle.

3. Waste: The dirty life of the megacity

Lagos appears to generate more than 13,000 metric tonnes of waste every day, according to the state government. Managing that volume is an enormous task.

But the size of the problem does not excuse the persistence of refuse heaps in communities across the metropolis. The government can say it has invested in trucks, bins, recycling and enforcement. The Lagos State Waste Management Authority says the administration commissioned 102 waste collection trucks and 100 double bins in 2020.

In 2026, the state reported that 931 people had been apprehended for waste offences, 2,251 sites inspected and 239 facilities sealed during an environmental crackdown.

But the fact that enforcement remains such a constant feature of waste management suggests that the system is still struggling to become self-sustaining.

Periodic crackdowns are surely not helping the megacity to remain clean.

Residents should know when their waste will be collected. Collection should be predictable. Disposal should be properly regulated. Recycling should become economically viable.

Lagos has been trying to solve its waste problem for decades. But seven years into Sanwo-Olu’s administration, it remains unfinished business.

4. Housing: Building houses is not the same as solving the housing crisis

The Sanwo-Olu administration claims it has delivered more than 10,000 housing units and is targeting over 14,000 by the end of 2026.

Those numbers may be significant, but Lagos needs to be judged against the size of its housing crisis, not simply the number of units commissioned.

For millions of workers, especially those on modest incomes, decent housing remains increasingly unaffordable.

The problem is not merely a shortage of physical structures. It is a shortage of affordable housing in locations where people can actually live without spending another fortune commuting to work.

A government can build thousands of houses and still leave the majority of residents unable to buy or rent them.

5. Water: The irony of a coastal state having a tap-water problem

Perhaps no contradiction is more striking than this: Lagos is surrounded by water, yet millions of residents cannot depend on public water supply.

The government affirms it has invested in water infrastructure and says major projects are progressing. It reported in 2026 that the Adiyan Phase II Water Treatment Plant had reached advanced stages of completion, while other waterworks were being rehabilitated. But infrastructure under construction does not immediately translate into water in household taps.

Across many communities, residents continue to depend on boreholes, water vendors and tankers.

For poor households, buying water adds another expense to an already expensive life.

This is one area where the definition of success should be brutally simple.

6. Building collapse: Why are dangerous buildings still standing?

Building collapse is one of Lagos’ most disturbing but recurring tragedies.

The state has an agency responsible for building control. It carries out inspections, seals buildings and issues warnings. Yet buildings still collapse.

The tragedy is not merely that some developers violate regulations. It is that authorities sometimes know that structures are dangerous before disaster strikes.

The question desperately begging for an answer is what happens between the moment government identifies a distressed building and the moment it is actually made safe.

A warning is not enough. A seal cannot be enough if people can simply return.

An investigation after lives have been lost can never be enough.

Lagos really needs a system in which dangerous structures are identified early, occupants are protected, developers are held accountable and enforcement happens before tragedy.

Sanwo-Olu’s government has repeatedly spoken about safety and enforcement. Its emergency agencies have also recorded substantial interventions and rescues.

But emergency response is not the same thing as prevention. And a truly successful building-control system should make major collapses increasingly rare.

7. Slums and informal settlements: Lagos is still growing without enough planning

The Lagos megacity is expanding rapidly. But infrastructure is not always expanding at the same speed.

Informal settlements continue to grow in places where roads, drainage, sanitation, electricity, water and other public services are inadequate. Although the government has pursued urban renewal and slum upgrading, the problem remains enormous.

There is an uncomfortable contradiction here.

Lagos wants to become a world-class city, but millions of its residents live in conditions far removed from the glossy image presented in official advertisements.

And there is another difficult issue: demolition.

Removing an illegal structure may solve a planning problem on paper. It does not automatically solve the human problem.

If a family is evicted without an affordable alternative, the family does not disappear.

It simply moves somewhere else, often creating another informal settlement.

The long-term solution requires planning, affordable housing, infrastructure and enforcement before settlements become entrenched.

8. Street extortion and touting: the ‘Oga, give me something’ economy

Motorists and small-scale business owners know this: Lagos has a persistent irritation of informal taxation by touts and street groups.

At bus stops, markets, motor parks and busy roads, residents often encounter individuals demanding payments that have no clear legal basis.

The state may say it has repeatedly conducted crackdowns. But the problem keeps returning.

That suggests something deeper than a shortage of arrests.

Street touting has become part of an informal economy sustained by unemployment, weak regulation, political patronage in some areas and the enormous size of Lagos’ informal sector.

A raid can remove people from a particular location. But it does not necessarily remove the economic system that produces them.

The solution requires sustained enforcement, prosecution, regulation of motor parks and markets, and credible alternatives for young people who survive through these informal networks.

Until then, the tout simply disappears today and returns tomorrow.

9. Too many bad roads

While one cannot deny that many roads have been constructed, Lagos under Sanwo-Olu remains marked by bad roads.

Many inner roads, arterial routes and even some rehabilitated ones develop deep potholes quickly. Maintenance lags behind the scale of the network, turning routine travel into an ordeal and compounding traffic and flooding problems.

10. The widening gap between Lagos’ image and Lagosians’ daily reality

This may be the biggest problem of all. Lagos has become exceptionally good at branding itself.

It presents itself as a centre of business, entertainment, technology, tourism, innovation and infrastructure.

And much of that is deserved.

But there is a danger in confusing the image of a state with the experience of its residents. A state can have a new rail line and still have terrible traffic. It can build luxury apartments while ordinary workers struggle to pay rent. It can commission water projects while residents buy water from vendors.

It can clear drainage channels while communities continue to flood. It can arrest environmental offenders while refuse still accumulates.

It can seal unsafe buildings while collapses still occur.

That remains the central contradiction of Lagos under Sanwo-Olu. The government has built. But it has not always solved. This distinction matters.

The verdict

Sanwo-Olu’s legacy will surely not be decided solely by the number of bridges, rail stations, hospitals or housing estates opened during his tenure.

It will also be decided by the problems he inherited that remain when he leaves. Seven years is long enough for a government to be judged by outcomes.