12th August, 2010
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, Nigeria has handed over 500 projects to rural communities across the state in a bid to stem rural-urban drift.
The projects spread across rural communities in the five divisions of the state and ranged from rural electrification; provision of modified type ‘A’ water project; toilets; rural jetties, micro-water works, among others.
On Tuesday, several projects, such as Modified Type A water projects and rural electrifications were handed over to rural communities in Eti-Osa and Ibeju-Lekki local council development areas.
Special Adviser to Governor Fashola on Establishment and Pensions, Hon. Adebanjo Olufemi represented the governor during the ceremony to hand over part of the projects to rural communities in the two areas.
Fashola told the villagers that the projects were meant to bring development to them and ensure that they were not left out in the scheme of things in the state.
Commissioner for Rural Development, Prince Lanre Balogun, whose ministry executed the projects said government believed that people in the rural and urban areas should have access to social amenities.
He disclosed that the provision of electricity and water in rural areas will help to curb rural-urban migration in the state and reduce the pressure on the cities.
“This is the reason why government is spending lots of resources to develop the rural areas in order to make them attractive for people to stay and work there,” he said.
According to him, “we want to ensure that people’s lives were touched. We have gone to the remotest part of Lagos State to site these projects. We have done a lot of interaction with them and provide what they need.â€
On maintaining the projects, Balogun said a team of engineers from the ministry have been mandated to take care of the maintenance.
He explained that projects were handed over to benefitting communities through their community development associations (CDA) and tasked to ensure their maintenance.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga