Press Releases

Fashola’s 800 Days And The Youths

Aug 6, 2009 - Like the twinkling of an eye, it is exactly 800 days since Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) assumed office and commenced the task of accelerating the pace of socio-economic and infrastructural transformation of Nigeria’s most populous, politically sensitive and economically strategic state.

As he has faithfully done every 100 days since becoming the chief helmsman of the Mega City’s Ship of State, Governor Fashola will today be rendering an account of his stewardship to another critical segment of the public: representatives of various youth groups in Lagos State. Right from his first day in office, the governor had decided that regular and sustained accountability to the electorate would be the pivot around which his focused and purposeful leadership would revolve.

In the last 800 days of dynamic service delivery to the people of Lagos State and unprecedented performance in the annals of governance in Nigeria, the Fashola administration has carved a niche for itself as a pace setter in terms of qualitative social service delivery as well as infrastructure renewal and expansion. So much has its impact been in this respect that Lagos is now reputed to be the construction city of Africa. There is certainly no local government area or local council development area in Lagos State today where at least a major road, bridge, pedestrian crossing, traffic light, market, drainage channel, shopping mall, water supply facility, child and maternal healthcare centre, recreational centre, classrooms, laboratories, libraries, jetty, drivers’ institute and other critical facilities is not either under construction or has indeed been completed and handed over for public use.

One writer has perceptively opined that every human being on earth is on a journey, which commenced with those who had gone before, is sustained by those currently responsible for running the society and will be carried on by the next generation who are the leaders of tomorrow. We, therefore, owe our today to those who invested their yesterday in us and the quality of our tomorrow will be a function of the quality of our investment in the leaders of the future. This realization informs the sustenance by the Fashola administration since its inception on the provision of free education in all public nursery, primary and secondary schools in Lagos State; the provision of over six million free text books in key subjects to children in all public nursery, primary and secondary schools in the state; the payment of WAEC and NECO external examination fees as well as all internal examination fees at all levels to ensure that no child drops out of school due to inability to pay and the aggressive rehabilitation of existing classrooms, laboratories and libraries and the construction of new ones to ensure that all children no matter the social status of their parents have access to qualitative standard of education. During the period under review, the administration in demonstration of its commitment to consistently elevate the quality of education in the state successfully hosted the second annual Lagos State Education Summit at which critical stakeholders in the education sector brainstormed extensively on challenges confronting all levels of education and came up with far reaching resolutions for more effective funding of the sector to enable it meet the critical challenge of manpower development to serve the needs of an emergent mega city.

Equally critical to the welfare and well being of the youths in Lagos State is the irrevocable commitment of the Fashola administration to the provision of its various specialized free health care programmes including free healthcare for children under 12, the aged above 60 and free ante-natal care for women; free treatment for malaria, tuberculosis and leprosy; free limb deformity corrective surgery; free cleft lip and palate corrective surgery; free open heart surgery and the quarterly intervention to provide a wide range of free medical and surgical services at the grass roots by the now institutionalized Eko Free Health Care Mission. The youths in Lagos State will also be major beneficiaries of the ongoing construction of new major healthcare facilities including five new 100 bed Maternal and Child Health Complexes at Gbaja, Gbagada, Amuwo Odofin, Ifako Ijaiye; the new Trauma and Burns Centre as well as Cardiac and Renal Centre at Gbagada General Hospital in addition to the continuing upgrade of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) into a first class tertiary health facility of the highest global standards.

During the period under consideration, Governor Fashola personally demonstrated his commitment to the health of the state’s children and youths when he personally flagged off the sub-national immunization days in Lagos at the Ikota Primary School on Lagos-Epe Expressway with a renewed commitment to eradicate polio in the state within the shortest time frame. Stressing that polio is a veritable enemy of development because of its deadly capacity to prevent children from growing into healthy and productive youths for the benefit of society, Fashola urged all relevant stake holders to rededicate their efforts towards completely eliminating the menace in the state. In combating polio, the governor urged the relevant healthcare workers to “make sure you knock at every door, make sure you give opportunity to every child in the area you have been assigned to administer this polio vaccine and ensure that we don’t leave any child behind.” Impressed with the governor’s commitment and zeal as regards the anti-polio campaign, Dr. Labaran Ibrahim of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency noted that the state has achieved 75 per cent eradication of the disease and that at the current rate polio will soon be a thing of the past in the state.

It is well known that the central policy thrust of the Fashola administration is the achievement of poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth particularly through mass creation of new jobs. Thus, every opportunity including beautification of the environment and construction of infrastructure in diverse sectors is utilized to put thousands of new hands to work. It is only natural that as the most energetic and enterprising segment of the population, the youths will be the prime beneficiaries of any government’s job creation policy. This is because the youthful age category, ranging from 18 to 35 years are those on whom both the under aged and the aged substantially come to depend for their daily sustenance. In concrete terms, this was reflected in the creation of 156,000 new jobs within the first half of the year. A breakdown of the jobs created shows that 6,114 health and education sector workers at the lower levels were employed, 52,685 persons were given direct employment into the public service, while 98,000 persons were employed indirectly at various construction sites as sub-contractors and employees of contractors handling schools, hospitals, markets, drainages, bridges, beautification and other construction projects. As I noted earlier, most of these job opportunities were naturally to the benefit of the youthful segments of the population. A critical measure of the economic strength of any jurisdiction is obviously the percentage of its agile workforce that it is able to engage productively.

Five hundred young people were trained and empowered for self employment at the Agricultural Institute, Araga-Epe; another batch of 500 trained at the Fishery Institute, Yovoyon in Badagry; 500 unemployed youths were sponsored for various six-month intensive vocational training programmes at the Lagos State Polytechnic; 20 unemployed graduates were trained in shirt making for export in collaboration with UNDP; 200 indigent youths were sponsored for a four-month training in computer desktop publishing; 300 youths went through the photography apprenticeship scheme; 50 youths were trained in block making and concreting, welding, metal fabrication, windscreen repairs, painting and application; 16 young people were trained by the Ministry of Science and Technology in electronic document management system live link application course while sixty youths are currently undertaking the Lagos State residents Registration Agency Course on optical character reader and scanning of documents. Over 2000 youths were thus beneficiaries of these initiatives through the strategy of utilizing every opportunity no matter how seemingly minute to get young people engaged.

The 16 Vocational and Skill Acquisition Centres under the supervision of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation are also major avenues for empowering young people with the requisite skills to lead self-reliant and productive lives. Over the last 800 days, at least 5000 young people have been trained in these centres acquiring diverse skills in hair dressing, tie and dye, vulcanizing/wheel balancing and alignment, screen transfer, printing technology, air conditioner repairs, photography, interior decoration, refrigeration and air-conditioning repairs, dress and shoe making among others. Through the Lagos State Micro Finance Institution set up by the Fashola administration to provide collateral free credit to indigent persons to start their own businesses, graduates of these centres are empowered financially to put their newly acquired skills to practical use and become employers of labour. At any point in time, there are no less than 4000 young persons undergoing training at these centres that have become important institutions of learning in their own right and issue duly accredited and respected certificates.

Under the direct and indirect youth employment programmes of the Fashola administration, 4,380 youths have been employed in the various road infrastructure projects of the Ministry of Transportation, 385 youths employed in the Ministry’s Vehicle Inspection Unit, 1,710 employed by the state Traffic Management Authority and 1,540 persons engaged to work in the newly established Drivers’ Institute. Similarly, 6,530 persons were employed by the LAGBUS Asset Management Ltd; 36,740 jobs created through the diverse operations of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA); another 305 persons by the state Waterways Authority, while the Ministry of Transportation Test Centres has created 9,700 new job opportunities. In the waste management sector, the state Management Authority (LAWMA) has provided jobs for 3,242 sweepers, 37 youth corps members and another 26 persons are undergoing their industrial training attachment.

Another major development of the last 100 days was the phenomenal expansion by the administration of its ultra-modern taxi scheme with the addition of 1,255 new buses thus creating 1,255 jobs mostly, again, for young people. The enthusiastic endorsement by critical stakeholders in the Lagos-Badagry corridor of the immediate commencement of the construction of the new 10-lane Lagos-Badagry Expressway complete with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and Light Rail Mass transit corridor is another momentous development of the 800 days of Fashola in office. As the governor stressed during his address to the stake holders, this not only offers the prospects of creating 1000 jobs daily for people during the construction period, the students of the State University School of Transport will witness, learn and participate in the construction first hand so that projects of such magnitude can in future be undertaken by Nigerian expertise.

The Fashola administration has equally been committed to providing recreational facilities and open spaces in our communities to enable our youths engage in wholesome leisure and sports. For instance, Teslim Balogun Stadium has been upgraded to a FIFA rated sports facility; Campus Square is being upgraded to a 5000 capacity mini–stadium, while the new Agege Stadium with a capacity of 15,000 is also under construction. Furthermore, nine additional youth centres with recreation, sports and relaxation facilities are being provided at Imota, Agbowa, Mosan–Okunola, Ori-Ade, Ajara, Badagry, Ibeju, Oto-Awori and Mushin.

It will be recalled that the state in collaboration with MTN organized the MTN Lagos Street Soccer Championship. This is a five-aside, grass-roots development project, geared towards youth development, empowerment and talent hunts in the 347 wards in the state. The championship helped to reduce juvenile delinquency to its barest minimum as the energy of the youths was redirected to this noble activity. The official launch of the project was performed by Rio Ferdinand, the England and Manchester United Captain between 6th - 8th June, 2008, while kick–off matches were played at the Elegbata Youth Centre on 3rd August, 2008 and final matches played on Saturday, 29th November, 2008. The Street Soccer Championship empowered both the able bodied and physically challenged. For example, Master Bimpe Quadri, a 16-year-old student and Miss Ruth Okafor, a 20-year-old undergraduate were the youngest referees discovered during the training of referees in preparation for the tournament. In the same vein, the Fashola administration’s very successful hosting at the Teslim Balogun Stadium of this year’s Federation Cup final confirms that the state is fast re-gaining her glory as a centre of sporting excellence with the numerous new opportunities this provides for the youths.

Other initiatives taken by the administration in this regard include the introduction of the Beach Soccer invitational tournament as an annual event; the expansion of the scope of the Oba Cup Football Competition to cover the five administrative divisions of the state; the reinvigoration of the annual Principals Cup Football Competition for secondary schools and the introduction of female participation in the event; the setting up of the Sydney Bialosa Asiodu Foundation to raise funds for the development of athletics in the state and the creation of a Lagos International Youth Under-17 football team in preparation for the forthcoming FIFA under 17 World Cup championship.

The administration sees the youth as responsible individuals who must begin to play leadership roles in society today even as they prepare for tomorrow. This is why the administration has come up with initiatives such as the Climate Change Clubs in schools to facilitate the maintenance of a healthy environment; the School Traffic Advocacy programme to promote the culture of safety on our high ways; the return of uniformed voluntary organizations in schools to restore the values of voluntarism and community service; the re-introduction of schools debate and quiz competitions to stimulate the intellect of young people and the resuscitation of the Schools Festival of Arts and Culture to strengthen appreciation of our rich cultural heritage. All of these are designed to keep the youths profitably engaged and develop in them a sense of responsibility and leadership from an early age.