Lagos State and California, United States, have entered into a sister-state agreement to strengthen cooperation in technology, transportation, entertainment, culture and other sectors.
The agreement was signed last Thursday in Sacramento by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and California Assemblyman Matt Haney.
The ceremony was witnessed by Chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Appropriations Committee, Lukmon Saheed Olumoh; Chairman of the Public Accounts (State) Committee, Kehinde Joseph; Assembly Member Isaac Bryan; California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin; Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty; businessmen and members of the Nigerian community.
Bryan co-authored the resolution with Haney that paved the way for the agreement.
The signing took place at the historic Leland Stanford Mansion, a 19,000-square-foot Victorian-era building where visiting leaders are hosted in Sacramento.
Ahead of the ceremony, Eyo masquerades performed alongside gangan music and Yoruba songs by Nkan Eleduwa, who highlighted Lagos’ cultural and economic strength.
Sanwo-Olu drew comparisons between Lagos and California, particularly their technology, entertainment and commercial ecosystems.
“Lagos is a city-state of more than 20 million people, on a coast where the Atlantic meets the lagoon. If she were a country, she would be among the largest economies in Africa. She is where Nigeria banks, trades, films, sings and codes.
“Nollywood is her studio. Afrobeats is her voice, and I gather it has been heard in Los Angeles once or twice. Her young people, who are most of her, are the most restless and inventive people I know. From a few streets in Yaba they built the companies that now move money across a continent. She has new rail lines under her feet and, at Lekki, the deepest port in Nigeria. And she is not finished.”
The governor said the partnership was based on mutual recognition and shared interests rather than charity, citing similarities between the two economies and their challenges.
“So, when Assembly member Haney and Assembly member Bryan chose Lagos, and when this Legislature passed ACR 129 with votes from both sides of the aisle, they were not doing charity. They were recognizing a mirror.
“California has Hollywood; Lagos has Nollywood. California has Silicon Valley; Lagos has Yaba. California has the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach; Lagos has Lekki. And both of us live in front of an ocean that is changing — you with your fires and your droughts, we with our floods and our rising tides. We have things to teach each other, and things to learn.”
Haney recalled his visit to Yaba and expressed his appreciation for Afrobeats, mentioning Nigerian artistes whose music he enjoys. He urged more people to visit Lagos, describing opportunities for cooperation in fashion, food and culture as “limitless.”
He also pointed to the youthful populations of Lagos and California, saying both sides had opportunities to learn from each other.
Afretrade CEO Lekan Salaam, who also spoke at the event, recounted travelling to California as a young man and finding opportunities associated with the American dream. He now runs a company that encourages businesses to invest in Nigeria.
Lagos has a gross domestic product of about $259.75 billion and is described as Africa’s second-largest city economy after Cairo, Egypt. California, meanwhile, is the largest state economy in the United States, with an estimated GDP of between $4.25 trillion and $4.3 trillion, accounting for about 14 per cent of the US economy.
