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By Chukwudi Nweje
Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said no one will be left behind as he takes the state to the next level.
The governor, whose first term policy was anchored on T.H.E.M.E.S agenda, an acronym which stands for Transportation and Traffic Management; Health and Environment; Education and Technology; Making Lagos State a 21st Century Megacity, Entertainment and Tourism; and Security and Governance, said his priorities would now be anchored on T.H.E.M.E.S+.
“Henceforth, it will be known as ‘T.H.E.M.E.S+,’ the ‘plus’ representing the incorporation of an intensified focus, in these next four years, on social inclusion, gender equality and youths.
“In other words, we are strengthening and reinforcing THEMES with a ‘No One Left Behind’ philosophy. No one will be left behind on account of their social status, gender or age; we will design all our policies and programmes to ensure everyone is carried along and catered for. This is our solemn promise to you,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said his agenda would be driven through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
The Office of Public-Private Partnerships (OPPP), Lagos State Government, an agency created by the 2011 PPP Law of Lagos State, has the primary objective of facilitating the development of public infrastructure or public assets and providing social amenities and other facilities for Lagos State through PPP.
Globally, the PPP, a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions, has become the most-embraced developmental model because it typically involves private capital financing government projects, particularly infrastructure projects, and even services up-front.
Some of the benefits of the PPP in Lagos include ongoing healthcare initiatives such as laboratory, radiology, blood screening and pharmaceutical services; x-ray and ultrasound machines at the Maternal and Child Centre, Eti-Osa.
In the education sector, the administration in collaboration with private developers is set to deliver an unprecedented 6,016 bed spaces at the Lagos State University. Construction of 16 blocks of hostels of 94 rooms each with 376 beds per block is at the completion stage and the hostels will help in solving the acute accommodation problems facing university students.
In the housing sector, there is the ongoing Ilubirin Foreshore Housing Scheme project, which sits on 28.6 hectares of land. The government said it believes when completed, Ilubirin Estate, a public foreshore housing project being built on reclaimed land in Ikoyi Island at the foot of the Third Mainland Bridge, facing the Lagos Lagoon waterfront, will bridge the yawning accommodation gap in Lagos State.
In tackling the perennial gridlock issue in the state, Sanwo-Olu brought in the Artezia Traffic Violation Management System, a PPP initiative that is deployed as a solution that captures, processes and stores traffic violations data as well as billing and payment for vehicle inspection.
The deployment of handheld devices across Lagos to capture traffic infractions has contributed in sanitising Lagos roads.
