Sanwo-Olu: The Man Who Carried a City, and Turns 60

Some men walk through office, but there is Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who carries his.

Now, as Lagos prepares to blow out 60 candles for its governor on June 25, the moment feels less like a birthday and more like a bookmark in a still-unfolding epic. This is not your average “public servant celebrates milestone” piece. This is Lagos, where milestones aren’t just marked—they’re engraved in concrete, glass, and policy.

And someone’s already written the book. Literally.

Enter ‘The Man Who Carried a City,’ a new 250-page coffee-table tribute penned by Lanre Alfred, Nigeria’s answer to Gay Talese if Talese covered politicians in caftans and flood resilience strategies. Known for chronicling the lives of Nigeria’s elite with a velvet scalpel, Alfred’s eighth book doesn’t just document Sanwo-Olu’s story; it curates it.

There’s the whimsical chapter titled ‘The Clockmaker’s Spawn,’ threading the governor’s disciplined upbringing into his calibrated governance. Then ‘Lagos in His Lungs,’ a lyrical portrait of a man so attuned to his city that you half expect him to breathe in BRT timetables and exhale drainage blueprints.

But beneath the book’s gilded prose lies a harder truth: Sanwo-Olu hasn’t had an easy ride. From the #EndSARS protests to navigating COVID-19 in Nigeria’s largest metropolis, he has governed through firestorms—and somehow emerged soot-free.

It helps that he listens. “The Politics of Listening,” as Alfred names it, is not a metaphor—it’s modus operandi. Even his suits get a chapter. (Yes, His Tailored Creed argues his wardrobe is a metaphor for governance: structured, functional, never louder than the mission.)

This isn’t just biography—it’s strategic mythmaking, wrapped in full-color gloss and intellectual sincerity. And in a nation where political literature often reads like promotional pamphlets, Alfred’s work dares to offer both polish and perspective.

So, as Lagos honks, builds, floods, dances, and dreams, its governor turns 60, steady at the helm. And now, officially, a man in print.