REPORT: Seven months left for Sanwo-Olu, seven major promises unfulfilled

With about seven months and three weeks left before the end of his second and final term as Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu still has several major promises made to Lagos residents during his 2019 campaign that remain either unfulfilled, substantially unmet or delayed beyond their original deadlines.

Western Post established this through a review of verified sources, including official government records, budget documents, public statements and credible media reports.

One of the clearest outstanding commitments is the pledge to increase the state’s budgetary allocation to education from 12.07 per cent to 18 per cent during his tenure, a promise documented by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), a Nigerian nonprofit investigative journalism organisation, on March 5, 2019, and subsequently reiterated by the governor in December 2019 and August 2022. However, Lagos allocated only 6.98 per cent of its 2024 budget to education, while the 2026 budget allocated ₦249.13 billion out of ₦4.444 trillion, representing about 5.6 per cent.

Sanwo-Olu also pledged during the 2019 campaign to raise health spending from about 8.6 per cent to 15 per cent of the state budget, but the target has remained unmet. The ICIR reported in July 2024 that health received 7.15 per cent of the state’s budget, while the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, said in May 2026 that health spending remained at about eight per cent.

Another major health commitment was made on February 3, 2019, when Sanwo-Olu promised to ensure that all 345 primary healthcare centres had at least three doctors, three nurses and five community health workers by 2021. However, the deadline passed without the target being fully achieved. The shortage of health workers remains significant, as the governor said in August 2026, at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention at the Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos, that the state had about 7,000 doctors but needed approximately 40,000 to adequately serve its population, while also requiring about 40,000 additional nurses.

In February 2019, Sanwo-Olu also promised to rehabilitate key waterworks and all 48 existing mini and micro waterworks within six months. He later gave Adiyan Waterworks Phase II an 18-month completion timeline in October 2019, but the project remained unfinished years later. In December 2025, during an inspection of the Adiyan Waterworks Phase I and II and the Iju, Adiyan and Akute facilities, Sanwo-Olu said the 140-million-gallon-per-day Adiyan project was expected to be ready in 2026.

Security infrastructure provides another example of a missed target. On December 11, 2019, while appearing on Channels Television’s “Sunrise Daily,” Sanwo-Olu said Lagos would have up to 2,200 high-definition cameras across the state by 2020. However, in December 2024, he said almost 500 high-definition cameras had been installed, with another 200-camera phase ongoing. By January 2026, the governor also acknowledged that the state had not made significant progress with its broader plan to deploy between 5,000 and 10,000 cameras across Lagos.

The long-promised Fourth Mainland Bridge also remains outstanding. On December 30, 2022, the Lagos State Government announced the CCECC-CRCCIG Consortium as the preferred bidder, with construction expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023 and the project to be completed within four years. Sanwo-Olu subsequently said in January 2024 that construction would begin by March or April that year. However, as of September 2026, the project had yet to reach the construction stage.

Sanwo-Olu also pledged on February 2, 2019, to provide 10 new primary healthcare centres in riverine and other underserved areas, while refurbishing and equipping 37 non-functional PHCs. Although the administration has subsequently constructed and renovated several primary healthcare facilities, it is yet to publicly demonstrate that the specific 10-centre target for riverine and underserved areas was fully achieved, making it one of the commitments that warrants a final status report before the end of the administration’s tenure.

The administration, however, has recorded significant achievements in other areas, particularly infrastructure and transportation. Lagos said in June 2026 that it had completed 362 roads covering about 347 kilometres since 2019, while 181 road and bridge projects were still ongoing. The administration also delivered the Blue Line, which began passenger operations in September 2023, while the first phase of the 37-kilometre Red Line was inaugurated in February 2024.

With the administration’s final full year already underway, the remaining months present an opportunity for Sanwo-Olu to accelerate work on commitments that have missed their original deadlines, particularly in education, healthcare, water supply, security infrastructure and major transportation projects. It is also important that the administration provides Lagos residents with clear updates on the timelines, funding and implementation status of each outstanding promise.

As Sanwo-Olu prepares to leave office on May 29, 2027, Lagos residents will be watching to see whether the governor can use the governor can use the remaining seven months, three weeks and three days to narrow the gaps between his campaign commitments and actual delivery, with the hope that outstanding promises that remain feasible will be fulfilled before the end of his tenure.