Lagos is a city that never stops moving, but the question confronting its residents is whether governance is moving fast enough to meet the realities of a rapidly growing population. From traffic congestion and housing pressure to flooding, unemployment, healthcare, electricity and the rising cost of living, Lagosians face challenges that require fresh ideas and deliberate action. It is against this background that Prince Laja Adeoye, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) governorship candidate, has placed Àtúntò Èkó 1.0 — Reset Lagos at the centre of his 2027 campaign. Recent reports describe the agenda as a policy blueprint focused on inclusive prosperity and a people-centred approach to governance.
What makes the Atunto Eko conversation significant is its attempt to connect everyday problems with specific policy proposals. Prince Laja Adeoye has spoken about independent power projects, affordable housing, flood management, improved transportation, healthcare, education and job creation. His proposals also include stronger support for SMEs and the informal sector, technology and creative industries, agriculture and the blue economy. For a state whose economy depends heavily on entrepreneurs, traders, artisans, professionals and small businesses, the question is no longer simply how to build Lagos bigger, but how to make economic opportunity more accessible to the people who keep Lagos running every day.
Another important component of Atunto Eko 1.0 is its emphasis on grassroots governance. Prince Laja Adeoye has proposed full local government autonomy and the conversion of Lagos’ 37 LCDAs into full-fledged local governments, alongside greater transparency in public finances. His campaign has also highlighted community participation, youth technology hubs and women-led cooperative schemes. These proposals deserve serious public discussion because effective governance cannot be measured only by major projects in commercial centres; it must also be assessed by what happens in neighbourhoods, markets and communities across the five IBILE divisions.
PLA’s professional background is another element which he brings into the political space. He is a accomplished professional in banking, business, real estate, and oil-and-gas, while his campaign presents his private-sector experience as part of the foundation for his governance philosophy. Whether that experience ultimately translates into effective public administration is a matter voters will have to assess, but it provides a basis for examining his proposals through the lens of management, investment, accountability and service delivery.
Ultimately, embracing Atunto Eko 1.0 should mean more than embracing a campaign slogan. It should mean subjecting the blueprint to rigorous public scrutiny: asking how its promises will be financed, how they will be implemented, what timelines will apply, and how success will be measured. Lagos deserves an election in which programmes, records and practical solutions receive serious attention. Prince Laja Adeoye and the Atunto Eko 1.0 agenda have put forward one such policy proposition for consideration. The responsibility now belongs to Lagosians to study the proposals, compare them with the alternatives and decide what kind of future they want for Lagos.
Olusegun C. A. Taiwo (OCAT),
SSA Digital Media Communication,
Laja Adeoye Campaign Organisation