The ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure in Lagos State is wearing a new look, the Commissioner in charge of the ministry, Hon Dayo Bush-Alebiosu speaks on strategy involves to have due process in place and drive home revenue for the State government as well as the politics of Kosofe federal constituency where he comes from, in this interview. Champion Newspapers’ Deputy News Editor, IBRAHIM QUADRI gives the insights. Excerpts:
A lot is going on in Kosofe federal constituency, politically and otherwise, there has also been rumblings generating political crisis, and the recent demolitions in Oworonshoki, why is that incident constituting a big problem?
Thank you for the question. I’d start by saying that what has happened in Oworonshoki has been a case of urban regeneration. If we go back in time and you know the story of Oworonshoki, at a particular time, you couldn’t even move freely after 7:30pm, it was a phase we went through. I have a couple of aides from there and I remember sometimes once it’s a few minutes past 7pm, the wife would put a call through asking him where he was, because some level of violence would have erupted, but thank God that the community was on top of it, the government was on top of it and through collaboration they were able to turn it into a thing if the past. Now, there’s been the case of urban regeneration and it has nothing to do with my ministry (Waterfront Infratstructure Development) but according LABSCA and Physical Planning, they’ve served them a few times, I think over two tears before then, it’s rather unfortunate that it also has to be my local government. My case is very peculiar, I was born in Anthony village, I grew up there, so the local government I know is Kosofe local government, my 80 year old mother grew up here. Our father’s house is in Kosofe, so it is more like a hometown for me. It’s all that I know, and I feel the pain on one side of the people because they have always been supportive of me. Everytime I contested elections, I ended up having high turnout of votes across board and that’s always for a reason, but it’s rather unfortunate. However, on the other side, we have water running through Oworonshoki and Kosofe at large, in fact, we have water running through the three local governments and my local government, my federal constituency. We also have Agboyi Island, the beautiful Island that has the potentials of being a metamorphosing into the Iashes of this world and of course that’s an area we are looking at. When you also come towards Odo Ogun, we have waterfront from there, we’re setting up waterfront scheme there too. As a matter of fact, Odo-Ogun Waterfront scheme will accomodate more than 4,000 housing units, that basically another city coming up there. You can imagine the direct and indirect investment that would be happening there. It is also something that our constituents would benefit from in terms of direct and indirect jobs. You dont want to imagine the magnitude of economy that will be going on there that will also change the face of Lagos entirely. When you also come towards Ojota to Oworonshoki, we have set up another housing scheme there and it’s important to know that Oworonshoki is specially located and there’s no reason why we can’t pull up the development happening on the Island backward towards Oworonshoki, because the Island actually starts from Oworonshoki.
When you talk about poverty alleviation, I have never been a supporter of that idea, I’ve never believed in it and I think I only have my right as a human being to have my beliefs and my thoughts. From the day I was born to date, I most times find it difficult to find anyone whose life has changed through those poverty alleviation schemes. So for me, I’m thinking, is there something we’re doing right or wrong. When my dad, for example, was in the state Assembly, I stand bold to say three-quarters of Kosofe was under government acquisition. He fought then as a member of the Assembly, during the Lateef Jakande administration, and the landlords whose properties were to be demolised ended up paying that 1,000 naira for regularisation that we know. They eventually became landowners. Now, that land they paid 1,000naira for then, is what they are selling at a 100 million today. What kind of poverty alleviation is better than that? It has to be deep; it has to be economic. But when you look at what’s going on now, we are handing out blending or grinding machines to people. Why do I want to alleviate some level of poverty by handing over clippers to engineers and handing over blending machines to people who don’t need them. As a matter of fact, these people eventually sold those alleviation tools given, and nothing happens with it. But in this case, I see a great potential in Oworonshoki. Oworo Waterfront scheme is an amazing place, by the time we’re done with that, you can only imagine how we’ll impact on not just Oworonshoki’s real estate value but of course it will affect Ogudu further into Magodo, it will also affect the Bariga axis and what does it becomeof them? It becomes a win-win situation but however that’s my own opinion that is backed up by facts and figures, but you’d always have people with contrary opinions, I don’t blame them and I’m not sure what they have based their facts upon but I can only tell what I’ve worked with in my own case. We’re also coming there with a jetty, we have approval for a jetty, I think it’s about a 7 billion naira investment coming there. We have been in discussion with Mr Governor, he has asked for a few things just to make sure that the decision is absolutely right and we’re looking at converting that thing to the proper first fish market in Lagos. So, I still can’t understand how we can be surrounded by water and we have to pay 1 million to 2 million naira for fish that’s caught out from water.
Would you say that the fact that your name is being called so much has to do with your ambition, because the stories across the local government is that you have an ambition to go to the House of Reps and that’s why your name is being dropped in this Oworonshoki demolition?
You’d always have people who will always play games. Ambition? Have I even finished with the duties I’ve been saddled with. For you to know how technical Waterfront Ministry is? Do you know what we had to do to turn it around? 95-97% of the people working there already said they weren’t staying in the ministry anymore, by the time I got there, we were able to solve problems and turn things around. I didn’t have hours in a day to tackle this talk, let alone ambition. I’m going to share this with you, when I started my political journey, I was looking at becoming a commissione. Eight people approached me, Alhaji Tasiru from Ojota, there’s a man called Oyinbo, he was the man called Muda, the ward chairman for Mende, some of them are dead, sadly, but we still have a few who are living and standing. It took nine months to convince me. But they say, sometimes, man proposes, God disposes. I was elected into the House of Reps when I thought I was becoming a commissioner, I wanted somewhere where I could exhibit, where I could put to use the gift that I know God has blessed me with. Eventually that didn’t happen, now that I have ended up being a commissioner, so it means that I just have to show up first and let God take me to the place He wants for me. I know what works for me and what has worked, but you’d always have rascals who would try to throw things here and there. All I continue to do is to ask God to direct me so of course you’d always have those kind of things going on. I don’t want such kind of thing to distract me. As a matter of fact, same people have even said I was responsible for the demolition of Oworonshoki when actually, I am a commissioner for waterfront infrastructure development, and Urban regeneration is under Physical Planning and e-GIS. Yes, in Oworo I have a scheme there. It does not even make sense, why do I want to demolish and then want to bring a jetty there, a scheme that can house up to 4,000 people. So, to put things in proper perspective, our scheme is a land that has been reclaimed by the state through my ministry, it has nothing to do with the place in question, that has to do with other ministries but to be honest with you, I took an oath of office, we all took an oath of office, it hurts and pains very much that the people that have helped me become who I am or whatever I am today are the ones facing the brunt. On the other hand, I also swore oath of office. So I’d be a hypocrite to sit here and then condemn what is being done by the state despite knowing that it’s about urban re-generation.
Since Kosofe is under your constituency, one expects you would have provided some interventions while the demolition was being done going by the level of poverty there. Why was it difficult for you to intervene.
I was referring to the projects that we’re bringing there. I have 16.9 hectares of land in Oworonshoki that is reclaimed already. They wanted to use it as a motor park, but you see, everywhere a motor park comes up, what comes with it is insecurity and all of those things, so why would I want insecurity there with what they’re already dealing with? Do you know how many people have lost their lives in Oworonshoki? The people came to the Assembly, we met there and I was there with them, we have two representatives at the House of Assembly who also intervened. We have also brought some people together, then, through a foundation we have come up with people, I have some friends who have donated so far a total of N9 million, they’re my friends that I called to say how can we help? I know the number of people I have paid their rents to re-locate, but is this something I can do by myself? Absolutely not, and I have brought some friends, I have a target of where we’re going, we’re trying to raise about 50million naira, do you think I can just easily bring out of my own 50million naira. I don’t want to speak up about it until when it’s ready. There’s a company that we are interfacing with that promised to assist, when they are all ready, we all go there and let them know this is what we’ve been able to raise for you. I know what I’ve done, I know the number of people I have given hundreds of thousands that I can afford. I have also spoken with Hon Okanlawon Sanni, I’ve spoken with Hon Femi Saheed too on how we can come together to help. However, how would you stand in the way to say you cannot do the urban re-generetion but on the other way, you’re also feeling the pain and that’s why we apply a lot of wisdom and that’s what we’re doing but if you know me well, everything I’m today, I’m probably not suppose to be alive today but God chose to keep me alive for a purpose, why do you think I still live here? This is the hometown that I know. The people who are playing their games, who feel threatened, and who I haven’t even said I want to do this, even I don’t know right now, I’m just waiting for God to direct me, but let’s keep that out of the way and let’s keep focus on the task at hand like you said, how do we deliver on the dividends? I’ve mentioned a few things, at Agboyi ketu, by the first quarter we’re going to launch the jetty there, we just completed the channelization there. We looked at the bridge coming from Opebi, how will it benefit us for this bridge to just run through here, how will it impact economically on our people? When you look at that Odo Alaro axis, we had to clear to say how would people come through? I’d give you an example, if you’re going to pass through Kosofe, how will it benefit the people of Kosofe? So we had the channelization done, if possibly to put a mini jetty there, what do you think those things will do, or how do you think they’d be affected? So whatever we do, we plan it, we don’t shoot and hope, you aim before you fire, that’s the only way you can hit the target. There is also the Odo-Ogun housing scheme, we have activated it. Re-generation is a thing of the future.
Let me take you away from the shores of politics, congratulations on successful waterfront summit 2025. Dredging involves a lot of heavy machines that a common man doesn’t have the capability to operate. Has there been any arrest or fine paid by individuals or company caught of illegal dredging so far?
You started with, what’s dredging, it’s basically taking sand and putting it to use, we cannot survive without dredging, we cannot survive without sand, the underwear we wear, the elastic bands, made from sand, we can’t be in this place without sand. However shouldn’t we protect this state? Shouldn’t we have an idea of the volume of sand that has been pumped in Lagos? Illegal dredging in Lagos is the same as illegal bunkering on the Niger Delta. I served on the commitee of illegal bunkering, I chaired the House committee on EFCC in the National Assembly, when I was there, and of course I understand what the impact and issues are. Now you’d see people with canoes, sometimes you’d see about 20/30 of them moving together but the reason why a lot of attention isn’t paid to it is because of the quantity of sand that has been dredged in comparison to what has been when you use heavy equipment or machinery. It’s like the wild wealth out there especially when you want water and it’s a fight we cannot afford to back down on, I think it’s a case of who blinks first but definitely it’d not be government because we understand it’s internal. What do they use them for? illegal inclination, block drainage and they do all sorts of and we continue to make arrest, you don’t sit in the office and tell them to tell me what’s going on, I actually lead the battle on a regular basis just to make sure that we’re able to get the right thing, we are not where we used to be now, there’s hardly a week we don’t hear about waterfront now, why do you think that happens? Is it because we’ve been sleeping, is it because we’ve been doing that we need to do? And I’m very grateful to Mr Governor for all the support because we couldn’t have recorded this amount of success without him, and also the chairman of my committee, Hon Yishau Gbolahan, has been fantastic, Hon Olumoh too, they’ve all been fantastic because sometimes we come together to disagree only to agree and know that I can’t say I love Lagos more than they do, or they love Lagos more than I do, so we all have to put our hands together just to make sure we achieve what we want to do. You just congratulated us on the summit that we did, that’s the very first summit and we have great takeaways that we’ve been working with. Do we do demolition, yes, but only on the waterfront in conjunction with the required relevant authorities and that’s how we’ve been doing it. However, I’m always demolition is not the first choice for me, I look at others, there’s no problem that does not have a solution except for death, but if at the end of the day the solution is to remove this obstacles, only then, do we have to do that. So far, you’ve seen what we’re able to record, we’re grateful to God for that. People are now beginning to realise that we better go and meet them for the necessary permit and the necessary things otherwise they’re not joking, that’s been the secret behind what we’ve been able to achieve so far.
What is the latest on the industrial pollution?
About that, we’ve been able to work and we’d continue to work with the ministry of the Environment and Water Resources and of course most of the agencies responsible for that are with them, and pollution is also caused by illegal dredging and that’s why we insist that we expect the EIA, we’d work wth the ministry of transport as well. The ministry of Environment, just to make sure that the place isn’t thrown out of the equilibrium, to make sure that we are actually doing that which we need to do, so there’s no way that we’d approve certain things without the express clearance from transport and environment.
Talking about permit and approvals, how transparent is the process because just like the issue of demolition of buildings in Lagos, some of the concerns of the developpers is that getting approval for some of these things in Lagos can be cumbersome.
I’d give you an example, somebody applies to reclaim this board here and I know that when they reclaim this board, it’s going to have an effect, everytime you reclaim, it has an effect further, so what do we ask for, we ask for your EIA, we ask for Environmental Impact Assessment, we ask for your TIA, Transport Impact Assessment, we ask for drainage clearance, we ask for all those things, if we do not ask for those things, it could be serious issue of danger, so we require those things. However I see that quite a number of people look at the financial aspect of it rather than the Environmental implications. So some of them would rather just want to go ahead, knowing that they ought not to do what they are doing, that’s just one of those cases, they already know that they’d never get it, it’s like somebody who wants to build on a setback who knows he’d never get building approval but still goes ahead anyway to put it there hoping that one day government would say that it’s okay to do that. We try to break things down, we try to make things as easy as possible. Remember that government also needs revenue, the revenue is not there for us to spend but to give back to the community on certain things and it’s through things like this, the revenue can be made, so it’s better to make life easier for them but not when it comes at a cost or detrimental cost to the community. Most of them would say no, we’ve cleared about 90% of the issues we met on ground, some had lingered for long since 2015, 2017, we have videos and we have all of those things, when you look at places like Okun Ajah, Mayegun, sincerely we have to do what we ought to do, we’ve been very open, we’ve been easily approachable and that’s why we’ve been able to sort the things out so it’s usually expected that Government will make things work but that’s not correct, how have we been able to record those successes that we have, if we had been difficult? The only thing is that I won’t be able to compromise where I know that it’d affect the people. Under no circumstances will I compromise or look the other way.
Kindly give a rundown of your activities and successes of 2025 and projections for 2026
We’d start up with 2025, what’s the purpose of the summit? The purpose of the summit was to bring all stakeholders across Lagos State to say let’s discuss your issues, let’s discuss your problems, we’d put them out there and be able to address them. The first one is the issue of illegal dredging. We introduced for the very first time the use of floating pontoons, what necessitated that decision was because of the guarantee of longlife, the long life guarantee that they gave, and that’s why we’ve introduced it to Agboyi ketu and six other jetties, we want to see how they work first, we already know how they work but how they interact with our waters. We’re currently at the Assembly back and forth on our budget. The budget on how to do, after the budget we’d be able to confirm all of those things, after our plans but not wanting to mislead. I don’t want to drop something here and it flies through and does not fly through and we’re held responsible to say you promised this. And I understand the implications of promising and fulfilling what you promised. We intend on expanding those quantums, we have rehabilitation of some jetties. How comfortable can they be, some were built some years ago but there are new challenges that need to be added to change all those things amongst other things. Basically, our focus has been on infrastructure. All of those schemes like Graceville, Orange Island, and all the others, we’re looking at wanting to have them completed before the end of this tenure because this administration has promised housing amongst other things. On those Islands, what happens now is we are going into a sharing formula rather than the outright payment we operated before, I’d give you example, a company reclaims 100 hectares and pays the government N5billion, and we’re happy thinking Government has made money, only to discover later that the arrangement does not pay Governmet. When I was coming in as commissioner, a particular location, private location sold for a billion naira, for 1000 square metres, two years after, it was selling for N4.5billion, it blew my mind, I now thought if they had actually paid government N10billion, we’d have thought government made 10billion, but that would have been cost of just two plots of land. So I thought, no, I think we should not overburden them with those heavy cost but rather have them pay administrative cost and then we go into a sharing ratio so if it was even 10 plots that came to Lagos, compared to the 4.5 or the N9billion that they would have earned and the more money we were able to pull on, the more infrastructure we are able to do.
You talked about the housing scheme, I just want to know what is the state of any development, have you delivered any, what the state now?
I just mentioned Orange Island, it’s one of our best Islands, I mentioned graceville. Graceville is fantastic and still has a lot of potentials. I mentioned Odo-Ogun Waterfront, here in my local government that comes with 4,000 housing units, we’ve engaged, we’ve activated everything we need to activate, we’re just waiting for the contract. I’m excited about it because when they move to site, I mean, I’m an architect, I’ve practiced for about 34 years now and every time you move to construction site, you’ll see how burbly it gets, people do all sort of things, you now have 4,000 going on at that place. We just got approval for Oworonshoki. I’m excited about this year 2026. They are several others moribounds that have been activated, we had an issue with one Kingsmart City that has also been activated. This Oworonshoki that we’re talking about was reclaimed under Ambode, there were people who were going there to steal sand and were going to sell them, the sand that was reclaimed, we had to move in and move in fast before sand filled land was turned back into water. These are things that happens right before our eyes.
There has been a rivalry between your ministry and the ministry of Energy about who has the authority to give approval.
Before Waterfront came about, there was the ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and from my vast experience in the legislature, they had to repeal a law before you can enact it, so in wanting to create ministry of waterfront, they had to repeal the law that was with energy and mineral resources and that was what was used in forming the law behind waterfront infrastructure. It’s healthy rivalry, the commissioner and I are brothers. For me it’s about leaving a legacy behind. We’re grateful for where we are, and we’re looking forward to what God will help us achieve again in 2026.
Can you give us a rough estimate of the illegal activities of the waterfront that you’ve stopped or sanctioned last year?
Can you give an idea of how many robbery cases that have been in Lagos? We’re talking about illegalities, they don’t joke, it’s a lot of money, we know what we see on water and what we deal with. So sometimes you have to de-escalate and escalate. On a regular basis, I mean you guys have been very supportive, everytime we make arrest we put them out there. I know we made some arrest at a time at the Amuwo Odofin local government and we’ve been there few times and we saw this extensive reclamation and we did it and we took it over. We have invited them, some would run until we have to act because of my background in the legislature, I make sure that I do not infringe on any other provisions so we go strictly by the rules. Why do you think suddenly our revenue started to rise? It is not because we just want to generate the revenue, but because we want the right thing done and people on their own started to approach us at the ministry to do their obligations. A lot of people that I know that go Dubai will end up still visiting the Palm Jumeirah. Where do you think they can see those tour, they are located specifically. So you have to look into the future. We don’t have a boardwalk here in Lagos, we are working on getting the approval to having a boardwalk on Wole Olateju axis.
What are the requirements for dredging permit?
It starts with when you reclaim sand, you reclaim for a purpose. It is either you stockpile or to reclaim land. To get dredging permit, all you just need to do is to apply, nothing is hidden, if it’s your land you want to stockpile on, if it’s to reclaim a particular portion of the water you want to turn to land, you’d have to show me the permit or approval of government to say yes you can reclaim. The idea is to know the volume of sand being pumped. There is natural replenishment for sand, so if you pump a million tons of sand here and you know you have 100 left, we should be able to say, leave it the way it is and then move else where. If you look at things now, from Victoria Island and Ikoyi, they are going to pump sand from Ikorodu, that’s why I say we are also going to protect Ikorodu. So it doesn’t end up like that, some have it in mind that the role of government is to create problems but no, the role of government is to solve problems.
How soon can Oworonshoki residents expect the starting of the construction of the jetty?
Oh, this year, it’s something that has to go through this year, because the sooner we start the better, I want to see that happens before the end of this administration. If you remember we’ve gotten approval for the jetty, we’re just going back for revalidation.
What are the intervention plans to tackle the poor jetties?
We are going to be embarking on some renovation because of the length of time that they’ve been and I think we already have approval for those rehabilitation of some jetties. We are also moving away from some old materials and that’s why we’re using floating pontoons, they have lifespan between 30 and 50 years and that’s why we’re going to that direction. We’ve started a pilot for about six jetties, Agboyi Ketu, is one of them, from there we move to Ikorodu.
When you look at the Ilaje Bariga jetty, it seems no activities are going on there?
When you look at the location of that Bariga jetty, very fantastic from water, but I think they had been sucker-punched while taking that decision on access to the jetty. So, because of the longer route in getting to the jetty, we’ve decided that it was better to have it work as a fish market. We are converting it to a proper modern day fish market. It would work better for that purpose than for the purpose it works for at the moment.
What are your areas of priorities?
When you face a place like Lagos and you’re talking about waterfront infrastructure, every area is priority, they have to take into consideration of safety, the different things that affect us, and there are times you look at available funds, there are times that to be an effective administrator, you have to look at the important things. Important things are different from urgent things. So those are the skills we have to put our priorities in context in other to achieve that which we’re going for but all those things are what we have approvals for and maybe a couple of them revalidation and then it becomes a smooth sailing. I realise that culture has a huge role to play. You’ve seen jetty built on request by communities, and then they ended up not using them. When you look at the amount of money committed to building them, you’d realise that they have to be used. So, we must also educate our people to use these infrastructures, because they cost a lot. I’d rather say it’d be our best year ever in God’s name.
There has been a lot of grumbling in the federal constituency especially the one that has to do with the chairman of the local government. What is the situation between him and you presently?
Well, for me we can only continue to support like every other person, if you know me I love success stories. When it comes to governance you will always see people who feel it is best to do it this way when you also have your opinion but at the end of the day what will be recorded will not be differences but successes. So, I will ask Nigerians to please just learn to focus on successes. Nature has a way of setting itself, where there is politics, we are social animals, we have our differences, but I will be more comfortable to say let’s just keep going, Kosofe is one big happy family.
You can not say you have experienced life until you have lived it, it’s a motto I used to say that we all learn how to do things. My focus is to deal with the task at hand. You know I’m not the council chairman, I’m the commissioner for waterfront. I focus on the result at hand and you can testify to that as well I’m usually very focused. But when it comes to election times like this we all see all sort of things but eventually things calm down the party becomes one as always. I’m aware that we worked for him and he became chairman few months ago on a four-year term and by the time we go for elections, his administration will be a year or a year and half, I will be surprised if he comes to run for the House of Reps. For me, like I said I challenge anybody to come up to say that I’m discussing contesting for elections. When it comes to times like this people expect that you can’t just sit down, that there has to be something but that’s the time you communicate with God. For me God knows where the next step is and at the end of the day I will rather focus on the task God has and keep giving to me at the moment. For me I will rather be seen as a blessing than threat. If they choose to see me as a threat that won’t be a result of my own doing. The most important thing is cultural intelligence, how to interact and take criticisms. God has blessed me with common sense to see positive criticisms and negative criticisms. I speak out the positive one that I think will work for me and I leave the rest of the basket of fruits to be taken away. I used just that which is important and leave the rest.
You are also accused of disconnect from Kosofe, your political root, what’s your reaction to this?
If you are somebody from Kosofe then you should know the truth. I don’t understand the meaning of disconnect, maybe they’ll have to tell us. Why would you pay attention to those things, that’s why I pay attention to the real issues at hand, how have they benefitted from Waterfront or will they continue to benefit from Waterfront? That is the real issue.
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