Lagos Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat Mocks Lagosians, Calls Traffic a Lifestyle

Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat has sparked outrage after telling a crowd at PODFEST Naija 2026 that Lagos traffic is not a problem but a lifestyle. “Anyone who has crossed Third Mainland Bridge at 6 p.m. knows that Lagos traffic is not a problem; it is just a lifestyle,” Hamzat said. He described the city’s traffic as part of the everyday experiences that shape Lagos’ cultural identity.

Just imagine. A man who has never had to sleep in his car on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. A man who has never spent twelve hours from Falomo to Berger because a bridge was closed without a traffic plan. A man who has never trekked to work because no buses were available. A man who has never watched his children grow up while he sits in gridlock on Third Mainland Bridge. That is the man telling Lagosians that traffic is a lifestyle.

For millions of Lagos residents, traffic is not a lifestyle. It is a daily nightmare. It is hours lost every day. It is wages lost. It is businesses bleeding. It is health problems caused by sitting in a car for hours. It is the fear of sleeping on the road and being robbed. It is the pain of not seeing your family because you spend more time in traffic than at home. It is the reason some Lagosians leave home before dawn and return after midnight.

Hamzat’s statement is not just insensitive. It is a confession. It is an admission that the Lagos State Government has failed to solve the problem and has decided to celebrate it instead. Instead of fixing the roads, building a functional mass transit system, and providing alternatives to the chaos, the government is telling Lagosians to accept suffering as culture.

The deputy governor should take a trip on a commercial bus at 6 p.m. on Third Mainland Bridge. He should sit in traffic with the traders who are losing money, the workers who are losing jobs, the students who are missing classes. He should listen to their stories. He should see their tears. Maybe then he will understand that traffic is not a lifestyle. It is a failure of leadership.

Lagos deserves better. Lagosians deserve a government that works for them, not one that mocks their pain. Hamzat’s words are a slap in the face of every Lagosian who has ever been stuck in traffic. And they are a reminder that the people in power have no idea what the rest of us go through every single day.

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