Sanwo-Olu: Lagos Cannot Survive A Generation Of Unprepared Leaders

Kehinde Adeleye

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy, LJLA, was established as a lasting institution for developing future leaders of Lagos and not as a personal project of his administration.

Sanwo-Olu made the statement on Friday at the graduation ceremony of the academy’s 3rd cohort and the induction of the 2026/2027 fellows at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Ikeja GRA.

The Governor, who described the ceremony as the last LJLA graduation he would attend in office, said he was particularly proud that the academy had been backed by law to guarantee its continuity after his tenure.

“This is the last graduation of the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy that I will attend as Governor of Lagos State. By this time next year, someone else will hold this office, and someone else will stand at this lectern,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu said his administration deliberately designed the academy to survive changes in government, stressing that its purpose was to serve Lagos rather than any individual administration.

“We did not build this Academy for a Governor. We built it for a State. We wrote it into law so that it would not depend on my goodwill, or my successor’s, or on anyone’s mood in a budget season.

“An initiative belongs to an administration. An institution belongs to the people. The Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy is now the 2nd kind of thing, and of everything we have done in these years, that is among the achievements I hold closest,” he said.

According to the Governor, the academy was created around a fundamental question of who would take responsibility for Lagos after the current generation of leaders.

He said the question was not limited to political succession but extended to those who would manage public institutions, hospitals, budgets, infrastructure, concessions and relationships with communities.

“A city can survive a bad year. A city cannot survive a generation of leaders it did not prepare,” Sanwo-Olu said.

Reflecting on his administration’s infrastructure projects, the Governor said roads, rail lines, hospitals, schools and bridges would only deliver lasting value when placed in the hands of capable and responsible people.

“I have spent 7 years building things you can see. Roads. Rail. Hospitals. Schools. Bridges. I am proud of every one of them. But I learned early in this office that concrete does not lead itself,” he said.

He explained that the quality of the people responsible for managing public assets would ultimately determine whether such projects remained useful for decades or deteriorated within a few years.

Sanwo-Olu therefore described leadership as another form of infrastructure, saying the academy represented an investment in human capital and institutional continuity.

The Governor also reflected on the legacy of the late former Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, after whom the academy was named.

He noted that Jakande governed Lagos for only 4 years but left behind policies and projects whose impact remained visible more than 4 decades later.

“Baba Kekere proved that what a leader leaves behind is measured not by the length of his stay, but by how long the work outlasts him,” Sanwo Olu said.

Addressing the graduating fellows, known as the “Class of Catalysts”, the Governor urged them to translate their training into responsible leadership and remain firm when confronted with situations that could pressure them to compromise their values.

“Lagos has enough certificates. What Lagos is short of is people who will do the right thing at the moment it costs them something,” he said.

He challenged the fellows to consider how they would respond when offered opportunities to take shortcuts, misuse authority or inherit weak institutions.

“That is the only examination that matters now. It has no invigilator. It lasts the rest of your life. And I expect every one of you to pass it,” he added.

Sanwo-Olu also welcomed the 2026/2027 cohort, revealing that more than 16,000 Nigerians applied for the fellowship.

He warned that while the programme would expand, its standards would remain high.

“We will grow this Fellowship, but we will not dilute it. Bigger is not the goal. Better is,” the Governor said.

He disclosed that the academy would expand its leadership development initiatives beyond the fellowship to reach young people in schools, communities and other platforms.

According to him, Lagos could not secure its future by investing in only a few hundred young people each year and must create multiple opportunities for young Nigerians to develop leadership skills.

Sanwo-Olu also announced the institutionalisation of the LJLA Excellence Pathway, designed to create a recognised route into the Lagos State Civil Service for fellows who choose public service and meet the applicable requirements.

He said the initiative would help address the perception among young people that public service was inaccessible to talented and qualified individuals.

“For too long, the best of our young people have looked at public service and seen a closed door, a place where merit waits in line behind everything else. If we train leaders and then give them no way in, we have trained them for somebody else,” he said.

The Governor said the pathway would transform the academy from a 1 year fellowship programme into a talent pipeline for government.

“It is how a Fellowship stops being a year of experiences and becomes a pipeline into the machinery of government itself. It is how an idea becomes a system. And a system is the only thing that survives its founder,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu commended the Executive Secretary and staff of the academy, mentors, facilitators, partners and various ministries, departments and agencies that provided practical learning opportunities for the fellows.

He also acknowledged the support provided by the families and friends of the graduating fellows.

Concluding his address, the Governor charged both the graduating and incoming fellows to uphold the values associated with Lateef Jakande and demonstrate ethical leadership wherever they find themselves.

“The true measure of an institution is not what it does while its founder is in the room. It is what it does the day after he leaves,” he said.

“Baba Kekere had 4 years, and Lagos still lives in his work. You have the whole of your lives. Use them.”

Addressing the new fellows, Sanwo Olu added: “You have the seat. Now earn it. Carry the name of Lateef Jakande with pride. Carry his standard with even greater care. And wherever you find yourselves, leave it better than you found it.