As the February 6, 2027 governorship election approaches, Lagos faces a clear choice between Continuity under the All Progressives Congress (APC), represented by incumbent Deputy Governor Dr. Femi Hamzat, and Reset Lagos under Laja Adeoye of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM). Adeoye’s campaign, branded Atunto Eko 1.0 (Yoruba for “Reset Lagos”), frames the contest as a break from more than two decades of the same political structure. Public frustrations over traffic, flooding, housing costs, power shortages, and the influence of informal power centers make the Reset case resonant for many residents.
The Limit of continuity
APC and its predecessors, AD/ACN, have governed Lagos since 1999 under a tightly controlled structure centered on the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), an influential body of elders widely associated with Bola Tinubu’s long-standing influence. While the state has recorded notable in internally generated revenue about ₦1.77 trillion in 2025, far ahead of other states, everyday experience for many Lagosians remains defined by chronic gridlock, recurrent flooding, high rents, often demanding two years in advance, shortage of housing, multiple taxation, unreliable power, lack of basic amenities, inadequate emergency response team, and waste management challenges.
Critics, including opposition figures and residents, argue that high revenue has not translated into proportional relief on housing deficits which is estimated in the millions of units, affordable public transport, or flood resilience in a low-lying coastal city. Forced evictions in areas such as Makoko and Oworonshoki have drawn human rights scrutiny for lacking adequate consultation or alternatives. Hamzat’s own 100-point “Lagos Promise” agenda, promising more buses targeting 4,000, rail extensions, housing completions, and health insurance expansion, is presented by supporters as consolidation. APM Lagos led by Laja Adeoye as its governorship candidate has countered that many of these issues have persisted or worsened during his tenure as Deputy Governor since 2019, making another cycle of the same machinery feel like deferred accountability rather than progress.
The 2023 presidential result in Lagos, where the APC narrowly lost to Peter Obi, already signaled cracks in long-term dominance amid youth and middle-class discontent, signaling that APM can win massively with Reset Lagos agenda, which is more realistic, and will profer practical solutions to the everyday problems of Lagosians than the bogus promises of the APC.
Who Is Laja Adeoye and What Is Atunto Eko 1.0?
Atunto Eko 1.0, “Re-engineering Lagos for Inclusive Prosperity” is built on five pillars: affordable healthcare, quality education, job creation through SMEs, modern infrastructure, and security via community policing. The Atunto Eko 1.0 blueprint gives a detailed roadmap how ans when to achieve all the items ans how they will be funded, and how the public private sector will play a major role in achieving them.
For instance roughly 100,000 direct jobs within two years and up to 1.5 million jobs within four years through tech hubs in Yaba, Ogba, agro-processing Badagry, Epe, Ikorodu, skills academies, and an “Eko Skill Code” program.
About 100,000 affordable homes via private-sector partnerships with single-digit mortgages.
At least 2,000 MW of electricity through independent power projects across the five IBILE divisions, aiming for a more independent grid.
Building or rehabilitating more than 300 primary healthcare centres within 18 months.
Exceeding the UNESCO benchmark on education funding yearly for all Lagos State public schools, targeting returning over 300,000 out of school children tp classrooms, with girl child education as well.
Setting aside N50b yearly MSME seed capital/grant funding to support early start for graduates, entrepreneurs, targeting 50,000 youths and women.
Structural reforms, replacing the GAC with a broader elders’ and advisory council including traditional rulers, market leaders, youth, women, and business voices; raising an executive bill converting the 37 Local Council Development Areas into full LGAs (raising the total toward 57, through federal legislation, for deeper grassroots governance; reducing duplicate taxes and levies to ease the cost of living and doing business; and decentralizing economic activity to reduce pressure on the city.
Adeoye has framed the agenda as service rather than rule: “We are not coming to manage Lagos, we are coming to reset it.” The campaign emphasizes town-hall engagement, public-private partnerships, and inclusive growth that treats both indigenes and non-indigenes as stakeholders in a cosmopolitan city.
Why the Reset Case Resonates
Supporters argue Adeoye brings private-sector delivery discipline, pricing projects, managing contractors, and completing mixed-use developments, rather than pure political patronage. His youth relative to longer-serving figures, combined with early campaign organization and concrete numerical targets, positions him as a “frontline alternative” to the ruling structure, according to APM youth leaders. The Reset pitch directly addresses pain points, housing affordability, power, jobs for a young population, flood control, and tax burdens, while proposing to open up opaque decision-making centers like the GAC.
Continuity advocates point to institutional knowledge, ongoing projects, rail, scanty housing estates, health schemes, which is underserving people with no drugs or free medicare for those who desperately needs them, and the risk of disruption in Africa’s largest city-economy. Hamzat’s manifesto and debate performances emphasize experience from prior commissioner roles in Science & Technology and Works, plus two terms as Deputy Governor, however, the experience which should be to the benefits of the people have placed much more burden and discomfort, making life unbearable for an average Lagosians.
The argument for Reset gains traction precisely because high IGR coexists with persistent daily hardships. For many Lagosians, market women facing levies, young people seeking jobs and skills, tenants facing advance-rent demands, and commuters stuck in traffic or floods, the question is whether another cycle under the same political machine will deliver differently, or whether a private-sector-rooted candidate with a clear “Atunto” reset/reorganize blueprint offers a more responsive path.
Laja Adeoye of the APM has posited that when he assumes office as the next Governor of Lagos State, he will not disrupt ongoing projects, and even prioritize payment of all contractors who have completed their projects but being owned by Lagos State government under the APC, promote civil servants who are deserving, and institute a better incentive and reform that places services to the people above personal interest of anyone.
Elections will ultimately test these claims against organization, resources, and voter turnout. But the framing of Atunto Eko 1.0 as a deliberate reset rather than incremental continuity, has given APM a distinct message in a crowded field of 17 candidates. Lagosians who prioritize measurable relief on housing, power, jobs, and more open governance have a concrete alternative to weigh on February 6, 2027.
