Stop playing politics and grant us Special Status, Lagos tells National Assembly

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government has told the National Assembly to stop playing politics and grant Lagos the special status it rightly deserved.

Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami reinstated government’s call for a special status on Monday while launching the ‘Eko Shirt’ in preparation for the celebration of Lagos at 50 held in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The commissioner called on the National Assembly to put politics aside and do the needful by granting Lagos a special status, lamenting that the state had been agitating for this for long.

“I will use this forum to reach out to the National Assembly to set aside politics and regional bias in the implementation of awarding Lagos State a special status that has been agitated for and to which the state graciously deserved,” he said.

According to Folami, the government of Akinwunmi Ambode had recorded great achievements than any other state in the federation and that as such, everyone must support him to deliver more on its promises on improved infrastructure, programmes and projects.

However, he said the government is partnering with Team Nigeria to launch the ‘Eko Shirt’ after which a road show would be embarked on for 10 days to create awareness on the coming celebration of Lagos at 50.

The commissioner added that the current government promoted the concept of inclusive governance, a system in which government policies, projects and programmes shall be driven by the needs of the communities, thus adopting bottom up approach in the development of the state.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, Fola Padonu called on Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, to collaborate with the state government so as to build a prosperous Lagos to be the model of governance in Africa.

Speaking on the anniversary T-Shirt initiative, the Creative Director of Team Nigeria, Mr. Olafemi George commended the Ministry for giving the group the leverage to discover creative and talented youths across the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the State.

He said that the meaningful engagement of youths has helped in giving qualitative life to some of them who were initially victims of neglect and societal misdemeanour.

According to him, the Group is planning to host an uninterrupted theatrical performance of 150 hours in a bid to set the Group and the State on the international scene and take a prime place in the Guinness Book of Records as the convener of the longest marathon theatre performance.

George said that the group is also counting on the kind gesture of benevolent individuals in the course of the anniversary celebration to bring to reality its vision of donating a primary school to the State Government in Somolu area of the State.

He said that the unveiling of the 7-feet T-Shirt version precedes the 50-feet by 35-feet T-Shirt that would eventually be presented to the State Government to herald the anniversary.