Lagos state remains the epicenter of COVID‑19 infection in Nigeria. To facilitate the emergency preparedness and response to COVID‑19, the State Governor and Incident Commander constituted a Think Tank comprising 13 experts from various disciplines committed to the health of the public. The Think Tank assisted the government with decision‑making strategies and supported the emergency operation centre (EOC) for the COVID‑19 response. Their main achievements were developing frameworks for decision‑making and strategies for phased easing of the State‑wide lockdown. The challenges encountered were that it was often viewed as a parallel structure to the EOC and separated from the traditional civil service structure; causing some reluctance to implement ideas generated by the Think Tank. Nevertheless, the Think Tank played an important role during the COVID‑19 pandemic; the lessons learned might help other states and resource‑limited countries wishing to adopt this approach to emergency response.