30th November, 2015
The Senator representing Lagos East Senatorial Constituency, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, has called on the general public to join in the fight against the adverse effects of climate change.
Speaking on Sunday at an event targeted at addressing the effects of climate change and eroding poverty in Ketu, Lagos state, the senator advocated for the constant use of cooking gas as against the use of charcoal or kerosene.
“We all should inculcate the use of gas which produces pure energy and clean environment, as against
kerosene or charcoal that increase global warming and ozone layer depletion which produces intense heat that we all experience today,” Senator Ashafa said.
The senator also donated cylinders of cooking gas to beneficiaries at the event.
Below is the full speech by Ashafa:
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to welcome you to the maiden edition of the revamped empowerment programme targeted at small and medium scale businesses. It is indeed a maiden edition of the success story that began in my first term and with exemplary impacts on the businesses of artisans and small & medium scale entities across the district. The success story recorded on this initiative, in part, led to the increased grass-root participation of artisans, students and youth in the last election that ultimately gave victory to the APC.
Throughout the last dispensation, we embarked upon various forms of empowerment programmes and thankfully, hundreds of thousands of our people benefited across the Senatorial District. For the record, allow me share just a fraction of the recorded success story of the empowerment programme undertaken in my first tenure:
Over 16,000 constituents benefitted from our weekly and mega empowerment programmes through the collection of tools and implements such as Sewing Machine, Pepper Grinding Machine, Vulcanizing Machine, Hairdressing Dryer and Wash-Hand Basin, Barbing Kits and Generator Set, Welding Machine etc.
A total numbers of 558 youths were trained in the monthly ‘Gbenga Ashafa ICT Training Programme, with about 100 of them collecting Desktop Computers with Printers.
Another one was the Multi-Million Naira Youth Energy Career Programme organised in partnership with the Lagos State Electricity Board and SIEMENS Power Academy. This was designed to train some graduate youths in power/energy system. Many of them now work with the Lagos State Electricity Board (LSEB), Oando Gas, Eco Solar, Marine Power, General Electric USA, ALM Consulting etc
Under the Gbenga Ashafa Trust Endowment (GATE), many small and medium scales business have been encouraged through financial assistance and several scholarships awarded to indigent students from Primary Schools to Higher Institutions across the Senatorial District
Our farmers were not left behind. During the first edition of our Back-TO-FARM Initiative, many farmers collected farm inputs and implements like Fishing Nets, Bags of Fertilizers, Cassava Stalks, Plantain Sucker, Maize Seeds, Herbicides etc.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, as I mentioned earlier, the increasing numbers of unemployed among our people calls for worry, and as the saying goes: “an idle hand is a devil’s workshop”. It is our commitment to keep coming up with special intervention programs that would empower the youth of our constituency to become self-reliant and entrepreneurially inclined.
In the same breath, the incident of climate change has caused drastic changes in weather conditions which in turn has made the seasons largely unpredictable. The direct effect of this is the fact that our farmers are on the receiving end when seedlings are planted at the expected planting season but the rains refuse to water the grounds due to the effect of climate change.
We all have a part to play in the reduction of dangerous greenhouse emissions that are caused by release of CO2 into the atmosphere through the uncontrolled burning of coal, usage of kerosene burners and other fossil fuels. It is for this reason that we are sharing amongst others these gas cylinders.
Therefore, we all should inculcate the use of gas which produces pure energy and clean environment, as against kerosene or charcoal that increase global warming and ozone layer depletion which produces intense heat that we all experience today.
I congratulates today’s beneficiaries and I urge you to make the best use of the empowerment tools you are about to collect today.
Once again, congratulations and I wish you all journey mercy back to your various abodes.