EmogInspiration

From my point of view, the highlight of the Lagos Economic
Summit was the lecture by Mr Enrique Penalosa who was the
former mayor of Bogota in Colombia. Bogota is a city that has
similar challenges faced by Nigerian cities like Lagos. He was
able to transform this city into a model city and he shared some
of his experiences and how major issues where handled.

The first thing he emphasized was the fact that in any democracy,
public good is above private interest. A city must be built and
planned around the needs of its people. The city must be
environmentally friendly. Nigeria as well as other developing
countries have the advantage of learning from the successes
as well as avoiding the mistakes of developed countries. Our
weakness, our advantage.

In building a city, the first thing that comes to mind is the
people. No matter how beautiful the infrastructure in the
city is, if the people in it are not educated and prepared for
it, it will depreciate as quickly as possible. In building the
infrastructure in Bogota, the low and medium income earners
were taken into consideration. Side walks were constructed
first before bicycle lanes, then commercial buses lane and
finally private cars are considered.

This gives everyone a sense of belonging. There is so much
value in building parks of world class standard. It will bring
everyone together. A football field with flood lights will be
more beneficial to an area than a police station. If the youths
are engaged in soccer, there will be reduced crime and more
social activities.

The crime rate in Bogota reduced drastically for one reason.
The Government showed interest in her citizens. Building a
beautiful pedestrian bridge will give the low income earners
a sense of belonging. The slums we have is as a result of the
system and the people. To avoid slums, the Government has
to give subsidies for housing and make mortgages available.

The absence of side walks on our streets and multiple road
lanes shows a lack of respect for human beings. Multiple lanes
have not solved the problem of traffic jam in any major city in
the world. Things always return to the way it used to be. In
developed countries, they seek to reduce private car use while
in developing countries they seek to increase car use.

The savings from the construction of more roads in Bogota
was used to develop the slums and under developed areas
of the country as well as construct more side walks, pedestrian
bridges and bicycle lanes.

After the lecture, the participants were elated. He identified
with the major issues affecting our nation. I believe we could
learn from him. There is no need re-inventing the wheel. It has
been done before and all we have to do is re-apply. In his
words,

“all it takes is a political decision”