Meet Tokunbo Wahab, New Lagos Commissioner For Environment And ‘Brain Behind LASUSTECH, LASUED’

In November 2022, the National Universities Commission (NUC) approved 66 new academic programmes for the new Lagos State University of Education (LASUED). The approval came only 10 months after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu signed a bill establishing the university into law.

However, the bill establishing LASUED was not the only bill the governor signed on Wednesday, February 2, 2022. He equally signed the bill establishing the Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH) on that day. The signing of the bills was the actualisation of the Sanwo-Olu-led administration’s vision to transform the tertiary education sector in Lagos. Six days later, on February 8, 2022, the NUC approved the take-off of both universities.

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While the cameras focused on Governor Sanwo-Olu during the bill signing ceremony, one man who is said to be the brain behind the creation of the new universities was behind the scene. That man is Tokunbo Wahab, the new Commissioner for Environment in Lagos.

Wahab was one of the 37 commissioners and special advisers whom Governor Sanwo-Olu swore into office on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.

The new environment commissioner is a native of Epe, Lagos. He is a lawyer-turned-public servant. He graduated from the University of Benin, Edo State, where he obtained a degree in law. He also attended the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Wharton University of Pennsylvania; both in the United States of America.

Since 2014 when a 42-year-old Wahab burst into the political scene in Lagos as a governorship aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC), he has displayed incredible passion and capacity to be of service to his state. There was little surprise when Governor Sanwo-Olu appointed him as his Special Adviser on Education in 2019.

The appointment proved to be a masterstroke by the governor as Wahab went on to be one of the stars of the governor’s first term in office. He quickly keyed into his principal’s vision to transform the tertiary education sector in Lagos. At the point of his appointment, Lagos had only one state university, the Lagos State University (LASU), which meant Lagos indigenes had limited options when it came to varsity choices.

Conversely, Wahab said, “Ondo has three (higher institutions) and Ogun has two. Not until recently when Osun and Oyo states went their separate ways on the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, the two also had more than one state-owned university. The implication is that our students from Lagos continue to struggle to gain admission to universities because other states usually introduce classification based on indigeneship.”

Faced with this reality, the former Special Adviser to Governor Sanwo-Olu on Education sprung into action, consulted extensively, and networked widely to ensure that the state’s bid to get two more universities accredited by the NUC was achieved.

His efforts bore positive results as the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education and the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education successfully morphed into LASUED while the Lagos State Polytechnic was upgraded to (LASUSTECH).

For Wahab, the approval and eventual take-off of the universities was the culmination of many years of hard work and a fulfilment of one of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s cardinal promises to give Lagos youths more access to affordable and quality varsity education.

Besides helping to establish two new state universities, the new Commissioner for Environment engineered a turnaround in the fortunes of LASU, the preexisting state university. Forty years after the university was established, it is set to become a residential tertiary institution as the state government, under the Public-Private Partnership has signed a Build, Operate and Transfer agreement with six property developers to construct 8,272 units of hostels on the school’s premises.

Wahab also masterminded the collaboration between LASU and Cornell University, New York, for 16 professional certificate programmes to be run by the two institutions. He said the collaboration with Cornell University, rated as one of the leading universities globally, was borne out of the desire to keep and sustain LASU’s pedigree and high academic profile as the “second-best university in Nigeria and one of the best 600 in the world.”

According to the former adviser on education, the establishment of LASU/Cornell University Postgraduate Professional Certificate Programmes was aimed at giving prospective students across the country an opportunity to gain global skills and professional expertise that will not only make them relevant and employable but globally competitive in the 21st Century digital economy.

Small wonder Governor Sanwo-Olu decided to entrust Wahab with a greater task by appointing him as the commissioner overseeing the critical Ministry of Environment in his second term. As they say, the reward for hard work is more work.

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There is no doubt the new commissioner will excel in his new role as his antecedents show. Everyone at Eko Hot Blog wishes Commissioner Wahab a fruitful and successful tenure in steering the wheels of the environment ministry in Lagos.

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