By Ajala Jalingo
You do not understand Lagos until you have walked its markets. Not in a convoy, not for cameras, but on foot, in the heat, listening. In the last month, Obafemi Hamzat has done that walk — from Mile 12 to Alaba, from Oyingbo to Tejuosho, from Ikotun to Ajah. And what the markets are saying speaks louder than any billboard.
In Mile 12, the pepper sellers did not ask for money. They asked for roads that don’t wash away their profit every rainy season. They remember who gave them the Agric-Ishawo Road when he was Commissioner for Works. They pointed and said, “That man no dey forget us.” At Alaba International, the electronics dealers spoke of one man who understands both their daily wahala and the global supply chain.
They said Hamzat fixed their ICT Village issues as Commissioner for Science and Technology when others were still typing memos. They trust an engineer who knows a server from a stall.
In Oyingbo, the fishmongers and meat sellers asked about flooding. They reminded us that Hamzat, as Deputy Governor, chaired the drainage de-silting that saved their shops in 2022 and 2023. They don’t call him “Your Excellency.” They call him “the man wey dey pick our call.” At Tejuosho, the young fashion designers were not talking politics. They were talking power, internet, and access to loans. Three of them pulled out phones to show emails from Lagos Innovates — a program Hamzat midwifed. They said, “He no dey do audio empowerment.”
This is why the markets matter. Markets are where Lagos takes its pulse. They are where zoning dies and competence lives. A Balogun market woman from Isale Eko does not care if you are from Ikorodu or Epe. She cares if her goods reach Apapa without three hours in traffic. A spare parts dealer in Ladipo does not ask your religion. He asks if the task force will seize his container tomorrow. In market after market, the answer keeps coming back to one name because Hamzat has been solving Lagos problems for 16 years, not just promising to solve them for 16 weeks of campaign.
Lagos in 2026 is not a sentimental choice. It is a survival choice. The ocean is coming closer. Danfo is getting more expensive. Landlords are becoming bolder. Small businesses are suffocating under levies. You do not hand this state to a man who needs Google Maps to find Alausa. You hand it to the man the markets already know — the Commissioner who built roads they use, the Tech Commissioner who digitized land they fight over, the Deputy Governor who chaired meetings they benefited from.
The traders have a saying: “We no dey follow person wey never sell for our market.” Hamzat has not just sold in their market. He has supplied it, secured it, and scaled it. He is a Prince of Lagos who hawks competence, not just title. He is a UK-trained engineer who can debate infrastructure with the World Bank in the morning and price tomatoes with Iya Basirat in the afternoon. That is not common.
Other aspirants are still printing posters. Hamzat is cashing goodwill built since 2007. Other aspirants are holding town halls. Hamzat is being hailed in town markets. That is the difference between ambition and acceptance.
Lagos cannot afford an experiment in 2026. Lagos cannot afford a Governor who will start by asking “what is IGR?” Lagos needs a Governor who increased it. Lagos cannot afford a learner. The markets have spoken: they want the man who has worked for Lagos to lead Lagos.
From Mile 12 to Alaba, from Oyingbo to Ajah, the message is the same: Obafemi Hamzat is not a candidate. He is a conclusion.
