{"id":12985,"date":"2026-11-09T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/lagos-decides-hamzat-rhodes-vivour-dohertys-clash-over-transport-health-housing-cost-of-living-others-businessday-ng-2\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T09:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T09:00:52","slug":"lagos-decides-hamzat-rhodes-vivour-dohertys-clash-over-transport-health-housing-cost-of-living-others-businessday-ng-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/lagos-decides-hamzat-rhodes-vivour-dohertys-clash-over-transport-health-housing-cost-of-living-others-businessday-ng-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagos decides: Hamzat, Rhodes-Vivour, Dohertys clash over transport, health, housing, cost of living, others – Businessday NG"},"content":{"rendered":"

The race for Lagos State Government House turned into a battle of blueprints on Sunday night as four governorship candidates faced off in the first debate of the 2027 election cycle, with transport, health, environment, housing, traffic and the rising cost of living dominating the night.\n<\/p>\n

The debate, organised by the Nigeria Debate Consortium \u2014 Channels Television, TVC News, The Punch, TheCable and Vanguard, held at The Hub by IALA, Marwa, Lekki. It featured Obafemi Hamzat of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and Deji Doherty of the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP).\n<\/p>\n

Hamzat, incumbent deputy governor, described the debate as a job interview and unveiled his 100-point manifesto, The Lagos Promise, built around seven pillars and 100 pledges.\n<\/p>\n

On transport, Hamzat promised an integrated system of road, rail and water. He said his administration would complete the Blue Line to Agbado\/Okokomaiko, link the Blue and Red Lines at National Theatre, advance the Green Line from Marina to Lekki Free Trade Zone, and deploy 34,000 new Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses for mass transit.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLagos is a water state, and therefore we must turn the lagoon into a waterway. The idea is to build rail, road and water transportation so that they are all connected and move people en masse,\u201d Hamzat said.<\/p>\n

He also promised to grow the public bus fleet from 1,000 to 4,000 to carry one million passengers daily, dredge 140 kilometres of waterways, optimise 15 ferry routes and procure 75 electric vessels.\n<\/p>\n

Rhodes-Vivour countered with a private-sector-driven rail plan, promising to connect all Lagos rail lines within two-and-a-half years through transparent and cost-effective procurement. He said his administration would adopt an integrated approach where waste, housing, transport, healthcare, education and urban planning were linked.\n<\/p>\n

When asked why Lagosians still suffer despite Lagos wealth, Hamzat admitted the hardship. \u201cLong-grain rice, for example, is N66,000, and petrol is N1,600. That\u2019s high, but the levers that the state government can control are housing, agriculture and transportation,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Rhodes-Vivour fired back, accusing successive governments of 20 years of elite policies. \u201cLagos government, in the last 20 years, has its focus on elite policies, eyebrow areas for housing. That\u2019s why on paper, Lagos celebrates a high IGR, but on ground, people are not feeling it,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

He cited Makoko as an example of development that pushes out residents, and promised a Lagos that works for everybody, not just the privileged few.<\/p>\n

Housing produced the sharpest divide. Hamzat said Lagos had built 24 estates with 18,000 units in eight years, and promised a new mortgage model: \u201cOur plan is to make sure that we don\u2019t buy houses the way we buy yam and rice. That is to make sure that we have mortgages with a 10 per cent down payment and a 25-year payment plan, so that people can pay over time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Rhodes-Vivour promised 100,000 housing units in four years through luxury taxation to fund social housing, development of the eastern foreshore, and decentralisation.\n<\/p>\n

The debate can be described as a tale of two Dohertys with contrasting visions for the state.\n<\/p>\n

Funso Doherty promised about 150,000 units in his first term, plus free public education including textbooks and exam fees within his first 100 days.\n<\/p>\n

On health, Hamzat promised to increase Maternal and Child Centres from 10 to 15, upgrade 100 primary healthcare centres, expand Ilera Eko insurance to one in three residents, and build new general hospitals in Ogombo and Ibeju-Lekki.<\/p>\n

Rhodes-Vivour promised technology-driven flood control and a cleaner, safer Lagos, with recycling, waste-to-energy and stronger wetland protection instead of just collecting and dumping refuse. Hamzat promised 95 per cent waste collection coverage, new transfer stations at Olusosun and Solous III, and a waste-to-energy plant at Agbowa.\n<\/p>\n

The Lagos governorship debate on Sunday produced a tale of two Dohertys with contrasting visions for the state.\n<\/p>\n

Funso Doherty of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) promised truly free education, saying pupils would no longer pay exam fees or taxes to write exams. He also pledged one daily meal for public school pupils, 150,000 affordable housing units, and a modern transport system free from agbero interests.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would modernise public transportation because we would be elected by the people and not by the agbero network,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Deji Doherty of the People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) took a different path, promising power rebates from Day One.<\/p>\n

\u201cPower is wealth, and Lagos State needs power,\u201d he said, lamenting that N220 per kilowatt makes industry unprofitable.\n<\/p>\n

He faulted Lagos\u2019 N19-20 billion debt servicing burden and rejected the 150,000 houses target as unrealistic, promising instead a research team to cut building costs.<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Businessday NG<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The race for Lagos State Government House turned into a battle of blueprints on Sunday night as four governorship candidates faced off in the first debate of the 2027 election… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}