Lagos governorship candidates clashed over public healthcare capacity, fiscal efficiency and job creation during a policy conversation in the commercial capital.
Opposition contenders argued that 27 years of continuous governance under the same political establishment had left Africa’s largest city operating below its potential. Meanwhile, Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat defended the administration’s record on hospital expansion and equipment leasing.
Private enterprise key to job creation
Adedeji Doherty, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, said the state government must stop trying to create jobs directly and focus instead on enabling private enterprise. He identified electricity supply as the single biggest constraint on economic growth for the state’s more than 22-million residents.
”Power is wealth,” Doherty said. “If there is no power, there cannot be jobs.” He noted that young people make up the majority of the population and require reliable electricity to run small businesses such as barbershops, hairdressing salons and tailoring enterprises.
Doherty argued that high land costs make large-scale farming unviable in Lagos, noting that most of the state’s food comes from outside its borders. Instead, he proposed partnering directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers to boost local drug production and expand the health sector, alongside targeted reforms in education.
Governance challenge drives healthcare debate
Funsho Doherty, the African Democratic Congress candidate, arrived late due to a schedule change before addressing hospital overcrowding and his motivation for seeking office. He said Lagos had operated below its potential during 27 years under a single political lineage, arguing that a generation was enough time to deliver measurable human development results.
Funsho Doherty maintained that the state’s core challenge was governance rather than funding. He pointed to Lagos’s N4.4-trillion budget—up from N3.23-trillion the previous year—noting that its revenue exceeds the combined budgets of 31 Nigerian states, with nearly 90% derived from taxes.
Under a Funsho Doherty administration, healthcare spending would shift away from constructing new buildings towards equipping existing facilities and improving pay and working conditions for medical staff. He also proposed free drugs, diagnostic tests and surgeries for maternal and child healthcare to reverse the trend of residents abandoning public hospitals for traditional healers.
Incumbent defends infrastructure expansion
Obafemi Hamzat defended the incumbent administration’s healthcare investments and pushed back against calls to adopt arbitrary global spending benchmarks. He argued that a developing economy must balance health funding against competing demands in education, roads and farming.
Hamzat said the state was expanding hospital capacity, including adding 500 beds in Ikeja and building staff quarters for 68 doctors and nurses so medical personnel can live near general hospitals. Responding to pressure regarding 20-million annual public hospital visits compared with 30-million in private facilities, he highlighted a five-year equipment leasing model that includes maintenance agreements and six-month upgrade cycles.
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Athekame Kenneth is a politics, economy, and finance reporter whose work is anchored in sharp investigative storytelling. He brings analytical depth to every piece, drawing on a strong academic foundation that includes a degree in Economics, an MBA in International Trade, and a minor in Petroleum Economics from Lagos State University, Ojo. His reporting blends rigorous research with a keen eye for hidden truths, delivering stories that illuminate power, policy, and the forces shaping everyday lives.
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