Continuity Of Excellence
Text of a press conference addressed by the Lagos State Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, AC N, Otunba Oladele Ajomole, at the party secretariat, Acme Road, Ogba on Thursday, 3rd March, 2011.
Massive construction of new drainage channels as well as the creation of Drain Ducks as well as the Emergency Flood Abatement, EFAG, to clear existing drains and respond to flooding.
•Rehabilitation of primary and secondary schools in all Divisions of the state through the Schools Rehabilitation Programme, massive construction of school furniture and equipping of laboratories, provision of free education in all public primary and secondary schools including payment of WAEC/NECO fees as well as internal examination fees to ensure that indigent children do not drop out of school.
•Construction of 6,000 housing units such as Abraham Adesanya Estate, Ajah, Ibeshe low income housing scheme, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan Estate, Lekki, Ayangburen Phase II, Ikorodu, Gbagada Medium Housing Scheme, Amuwo-Odofin Housing Scheme, Abraham Adesanya Estate, Phase II, Ojokoro Millennium Housing Scheme, Alaagba low income housing scheme as well as the Oke Eletu and Oko Oba low income housing schemes among others.
•Massive construction of rural roads as well as rural electrification and water supply schemes; construction of micro water works at Onikan, Ikeja, Iwaya, Igando, Oworonsoki, Atan, Bariga, Isolo, Shomolu and Iponrin among others to improve water supply in Lagos State.
•Construction and equipping of new High Courts, computerizationof court registers, enhanced welfare for judicial officers to strengthen the rule of law, establishment of the Office of the Public Defender, OPD, to provide free legal services to indigent persons and the establishment of the Citizen Mediation Centre as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
•Establishment of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, for enhanced traffic management, establishment of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, to plan and manage an integrated transportation master plan for Lagos; construction of 55 bus stop shelters, construction of 25.9 km of median barriers to enforce lane discipline and improve travel time on major high ways; fabrication and installation of 50,000 units various types of traffic signs to improve road safety; installation of at least 63 functional traffic lights at major road intersections among others in the transportation sector.
•Initiation despite stiff opposition by the federal government of the first successful Independent Power Project, IPP, by any state government generating 260 MW of electricity from Ikorodu to the National Grid.
•Completion of such abandoned project as Teslim Balogun Stadium and the new Government House at Alausa as well as finding a permanent solution to the erosion and perennial flooding of the Bar Beach by constructing an enduring shoreline defensive barrier.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are only brief highlights of our party’s productive governance in Lagos State during the first eight years of this dispensation. We are the only state that successfully created new local government councils and have maintained them as agents of grassroots development despite the illegal withholding of their funds by the Obasanjo administration for three years. Under our leadership, Lagos State has been at the forefront of the struggle for true federalism in Nigeria wining several landmark cases against the federal government that have strengthened state rights in critical areas including taxation, the environment and local government administration.
It was on the basis of our unrivalled accomplishments that our party presented Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, to Lagosians as our governorship candidate for the 2007 elections. We urge the people of Lagos State to vote for continuity of progress, prosperity and development in Lagos. Governor Fashola has demonstrated beyond all doubt in the last three and half years that he is and remains the best man for the job. He has more than justified the immense confidence reposed in him by our party and the good people of Lagos State.
Governor Fashola has accelerated the development and transformation of Lagos State in an unprecedented manner in the last three years. Under his leadership, for instance, Lagos has become a role model in the provision of effective security to safeguard lives and property. This is in sharp contrast to the federal government, which remains clueless as violent crime including armed robbery, kidnapping, militancy, assassinations and communal strife continue to ravage different parts of the country.
The establishment of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund is a path breaking innovation to enhancing public safety through Public-Private-Sector Partnership. The Security Trust Fund has ensured effective funding of the security challenges of a mega city like Lagos on a sustainable basis. Through this initiative, the Fashola Administration has procured 500 patrol vehicles, 18 Armored Personnel Carriers, 2 helicopters, arms and ammunition as well as patrol motor bikes for the Rapid Response Squad and the state police command.
This is in addition to the installation of communication links to coordinate all security formations, the construction of an ultra-modern Security Command Centre at Alausa for a coordinated response to emergencies and disasters, the installation of Closed Circuit TV Cameras to monitor strategic areas and the construction of 463 new courts as well as renovation and furnishing of 48 others to strengthen the justice administration process.
The positive outcome of these initiatives includes the decrease in armed robbery incidents in the state by 89% and 54% in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Murder cases in the state fell from 221 in 2007 to 94 in 2010 – a 75% decrease. For every 10 cars stolen in Lagos State in 2009, at least 9 were recovered in the same year while the judicial process has become more efficient with sentences passed on 61% of all criminal cases tried in 2009, up from 13% in 2007.
A vastly improved security system complemented by aggressive infrastructure renewal and expansion have made Lagos the country’s prime investment destination at a time when the PDP-controlled federal government’s inept economic policies have resulted in massive business flight and de-industrialization of the country. The commencement of the 10-lane Lagos-Badagry Expressway as well as the first phase of the state’s light rail project, the Agbado-Iddo-Marina line, are indications of the new heights of excellence to which the Fashola administration is elevating Lagos State.
Over the last three years, the administration has rehabilitated and constructed 147 roads of 165.3 km length across different Divisons of Lagos State. It has also installed 2,142 street lights and constructed 3 major jetties at Ikpakodo, Osborne and Badore while re-equipping LASTMA and increasing its staff strength from 2,023 in 2007 to 3,023 in 2010 to boost traffic efficiency. The administration has efficiently maintained and expanded the scope of the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, system that continues to transport millions of commuters daily on modern, comfortable and safe buses running on dedicated lanes to optimize travel time.
The transformation of the environment of Lagos by the ACN is evident for all to see. Thousands of new jobs have been created and public health enhanced by the administration’s systematic beautification of open spaces across Lagos State. The new look Oshodi is a testimony of the AC N’s determination to ensure that our people live and work in a healthy environment that enhances public health and human dignity.
In the last three and a half years, the Fashola administration has planted over one million trees across the state, dredged 91 canals, procured 150 compactors, supplied 500 sorting and recycling bins, placed 17,000 waste and wheeler bins in strategic locations and engaged 42,015 waste management and environment work force. To combat flooding the administration has rehabilitated and constructed 117 drains totaling 167,430 meters and desilted over 550 storm water drainage channels.
The Fashola Administration has increased the accessibility to potable water from 30% to 59% by raising water supply from 36 million gallons per day to 78.55 million gallons per day. This has been achieved through the rehabilitation of two major water works, rehabilitation and construction of 42 mini-water works and the installation of an Independent Power Plant of 12.5 MW dedicated to the Lagos State Water Corporation. The completion of the eight new mini-water works currently under construction will further improve water supply in the state.
The administration’s rural development policies have impacted positively on agricultural productivity and rural employment particularly in livestock and fisheries. Over the last three and a half years, Fashola’s government has constructed 19 rural jetties statewide, provided potable water in 315 communities, rural electrification in 131 communities while constructing 13 new rural roads and rehabilitating 346 others.
In accordance with the ACN’s progressive platform, the administration has maintained and strengthened our various free education and free health programmes. It has further elevated the standard of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, through the construction and equipping of the Bola Tinubu Health & Diagnostic Centre, the Dental Care Centre and the ongoing construction of the institution’s cancer, renal, trauma and burns treatment centres.
This is in addition to the construction of six new Maternal & Child Care Centres, the 20-bed highway Accident & Emergency Centre at the old toll gate on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the upgrading of 17 public health facilities and the maintenance of 276 functional Primary Health Care Centres. During this period, 13.2 million out patients were treated in the state’s public health facilities, 21,217 eyes glasses were given out free of charge, 999 cases treated at the toll gate Accident & Emergency Centre between April and December, 2010 while the quarterly Eko Health Mission continues to provide a wide range of free health services to rural communities.
In education, 2,500 new prototype classrooms were constructed, over 1,000 class rooms rehabilitated, 166 school structures erected under the ‘Adopt-a-School’ policy and six multi-lingual laboratories constructed and equipped for French, Arabic and Mandarin studies in each of the six Education Districts. Other accomplishments in this sector include the rehabilitation of five Government Technical and Vocational Colleges, intensive training of 49,788 teachers between 2007 and 2009, distribution of 4.2 million free text books in 1,664 public schools, supply of 46,505 students’ furniture to schools, payment of N888.1 million as examination fees from 2008 to 2010 and the payment of pension arrears of N5 billion to teaching and non-teaching primary school and local government retirees in 2010.
Our teeming youths and dynamic women have also been the beneficiaries of the Fashola administration’s poverty alleviation policies. For instance, over 22,000 persons have benefited in the last three years from loan disbursements by the Lagos State Micro-Finance Institution, LASMI, established to empower indigent persons to start small scale businesses. In a similar vein, 55,000 women have graduated from the 16 skills acquisition and empowerment centres established to help pull vulnerable groups out of poverty while 472 new taxi cabs were financed for the Lagos Yellow Cab Drivers and Owners Association.
The Fashola Administration completed nine new youth centres, organised 30 successful youth competitions and programmes, upgraded and transformed 3 stadia and resuscitated five voluntary organisatons to inculcate positive values in public school children. It successfully hosted two national/international football finals while 436 teams participated in the Street Soccer competition during which 934 matches were played in 20 centres.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is no local government in this state that the Fashola administration has not touched with one life enhancing project or the other. We have provided the secure and conducive environment that has made Lagos attractive for members of all ethnic groups in Nigeria to live and work in safety and harmony. It is simply impossible at a press conference like this to exhaust all that has been achieved by the most dynamic administration in Nigeria today. The ACN in Lagos is not like the party at the centre that has squandered 12 years of our life as a nation immersing us deeper in poverty and instability and yet has the audacity to ask for another four years to perform magic.
Over the next four years, the Babatunde Raji Fashola Administration in Lagos State will intensify the on-going modernization and expansion of infrastructure in Lagos State. The ACN in Lagos State will aggressively rehabilitate and modernise our inner city roads to facilitate smoother traffic flow and stimulate economic productivity at the grassroots. We will complete both the on-going light rail mass transit project from Agbado through Iddo to Marina as well as the second line that will run from Okokomaiko to Marina. The Fashola Administration will also construct more jetties to further reduce pressure on our roads through efficient water transportation. Another emphasis of our administration will be power supply, which is so crucial to economic productivity and employment generation. Already, we have completed an Independent Power Project, IPP, at Ajele which will power 22 streets, schools and government offices on Lagos Island. This is in addition to the IPP plant that is now supplying electricity to the Lagos State Water Corporation with positive impact on water supply. We will multiply such off-grid IPP projects across the state to improve power supply, boost economic activities and reduce poverty.
The Fashola Administration in the next four years will give priority to the provision, modernization and expansion of infrastructure in areas like Badagry and Epe to boost agriculture, promote tourism, expand economic opportunities in Lagos State and stem rural urban migration. We will continue to implement policies that will accelerate economic growth, create jobs for our people and reduce the level of poverty.
As we commence our statewide campaigns, we will be urging the good people of Lagos State to vote for the continuity of excellence as symbolised by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, and all our House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senatorial candidates. Even though we have accomplished so much in Lagos, we still have much more to do to make this acknowledged Centre of Excellence the model global mega city of our dream.
We have demonstrated our competence and sincerity as a party and no doubt enjoy the trust and confidence of the vast majority of our people. Our party is determined to mobilize our people to come out massively to perform their civic responsibility in the various elections and to stoutly defend their votes as we have always done in this state. However, our candidates and supporters will be peaceful and law abiding.
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