Follow Us on Google
By Job Osazuwa
Perturbed by incessant crimes in Lagos State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu recently banned commercial motorcycles, popularly called Okada, in six local government areas (LGAs).
The governor announced that the total ban, which takes effect from June 1, affects Ikeja, Surulere, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mainland, Lagos Island and Apapa. He ordered the police to enforce the ban without compromise. The governor explained that the decision was to immediately address the chaos and menace created by Okada riders in the listed areas.
The ban a came days after Okada riders killed and burnt a young sound engineer in Lekki after an argument over N100 balance.
Many residents believe that the total ban was long overdue, submitting that the menace constituted by the riders has continued unabated
Indeed, robbery and other forms of crime have unleashed pains on Lagos residents.
Also, the traffic jams choking Lagos residents and slowing down movement were some of the issues that have given Sanwo-Olu a nagging headache since he became governor of Lagos, the industrial hub of Nigeria.
Infrastructure deficit in many parts of the state, high rate of unemployment and an avalanche of other socio-economic challenges also stare the governor in the face.
As the chief security officer of the state, he had admitted on many occasions the need to stamp out all forms of criminal elements from the state, even as he solicited the collaboration of all stakeholders to tame the ugly trend.
He stated that equipping vigilance groups such as the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) with new vehicles and modern security gadgets to complement the efforts of all security agencies has paid off in making the state safe for all to live in.
Lagos State witnessed an unprecedented security challenge during the #EndSARS anti-police brutality protests of 2020, which resulted in the destruction of public and private property, including 27 police stations and the Igbosere High Court, among others. However, the governor said the state was able to bounce back as a result of consistent donation of security equipment to law enforcement agencies by his administration.
“These days, not a day goes by without law enforcement agencies in Lagos, particularly the police, including the Special Task Force, announcing arrests of suspects,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu recalled how, on June 10, 2021, the state government donated 150 vehicles, four high-capacity troop carriers, 30 patrol cars and two anti-riot water cannon vehicles to the police to strengthen security responses across the state. President Muhammadu Buhari, who was visiting the state, personally took inventory and inaugurated the security equipment.
As of April, the state said it had donated security equipment worth billions of naira to the police, including 180 patrol vehicles, 200 patrol motorcycles, 1,000 security gadgets and the emergency security regional centre, Epe, among others.
On the deplorable state of roads, the governor observed that many critical state roads and several others owned by the Federal Government needed urgent attention, particularly as they were compounded by persistent downpour.
The bad roads had made user experience a painful one. Some of the affected roads include the Ojota stretch of Ikorodu Road, Motorways-Kudirat Abiola Way, Apogbon highway, Babs Animashaun Road, Agric/Ishawo and Ijede roads in Ikorodu, and the Lekki-Epe expressway, from Abraham Adesanya to Eleko junction, among others.
Sanwo-Olu identified these bad roads as the major cause of the traffic jams and, on October 13, 2019, declared a state of emergency. The governor engaged eight construction firms to immediately fix the roads “considered critical to the reduction of traffic congestion in the state.”
He added that, while the highways were being renovated, the Lagos State Public Works Corporation (LSPWC) would be carrying out repairs on 116 inner roads across the state. Over two years later, he said that he was excited that there was relief from most of those traffic jam hotspots.
According to data published on the Lagos State Government’s official website in April 2022, the roads completed and opened to the public include 34 roads at Kosofe, Somolu, Victoria Island and Ikoyi, 384-capacity multi-level car park at Onikan, three network of roads at Oniru, Victoria Island (Adeola Hopewell, Idowu Taylor and Afribank/Churchgate streets), and Ijede Road Phase 1 in Ikorodu. Others are the 1.4km flyover and dual carriageway Pen-Cinema flyover, Agege; Tedi-Muwo Link Bridge, Lagos-Ogun boundary roads in Alimosho and Agbado-Oke-Odo access roads. They also include network of 31 roads in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
One key road infrastructure that undoubtedly will solve major traffic conflicts in Ikeja and environs, according to Sanwo-Olu, is the 3.89-kilometre Ojota-Opebi link Bridge, which will open into Ojota axis in Kosofe, taking traffic from Opebi U-Turn and dropping it at Ikorodu Road via an intersection that will be constructed under Odo Iya Alaro Bridge at Mende. It was flagged off on January 27.
The carriageway, which is a new connection, would create an easy exit for commuters leaving Ikeja-Onigbongbo towards Ojota and Maryland. The project was initiated to proffer a permanent solution to the inadequacies of Opebi Link Bridge and the Opebi U-Turn, and to ease pressure on overburdened routes within Ikeja, with the objective to reduce travel time along the corridor.
To tackle the high rate of unemployment and boost residents’ livelihood and businesses, the governor said 1,050 rural women received intensive training in boosting outputs in agricultural production and the beneficiaries were given equal access to markets.
“The state also supported 2,704 residents whose means of livelihood were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, supported 18 outstanding students from the skill acquisition centres with N100,000 each in 2019 and rescued 48,000 households from poverty through various social intervention programmes under which women got cash transfers and acquired skills.
“Added to this was the medium and small-scale enterprises (MSME) programmes of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund under which the state supported 3,673 businesses with N1.156 billion and backed 1,835 businesses with N939.97 million. And it saved 10,005 direct jobs, 40,020 indirect jobs via the MSME Recovery Fund, an intervention programme to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and #EndSARS protests on businesses, initiated the N5 billion EduFund in partnership with First Bank and EdFin MFB, set up a N1 billion fund targeted at businesses in the tourism, hospitality, entertainment, arts and culture sectors. Both loans and grants and introduced N1 billion Agriculture Value Chain Fund targeted at businesses that operate within the agric value chain, among others,” the governor said.
Sanwo-Olu, on July 24, 2021, rewarded Nigeria’s only individual Olympics gold medalist, Chioma Ajunwa, a police officer, with a three-bedroom flat at the Babatunde Raji Fashola Housing Estate, Iponri. The reward came 25 years after former Lagos State Military Administrator promised Ajunwa a house for winning the long jump gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The governor said the house was one of the 132 home units (88 home units and 44 home units of three-bedroom apartments respectively) competed by his administration. Others include the 480-unit housing project in Ibeshe, Ikorodu, 774 housing units LagosHOMS, Sangotedo Phase 1, 100 housing units in Ikate, Lekki, 360 home units, comprising 120-units home in Igbogbo, 252 home units, Idale, Badagry, and 120 units Courtland Villas, Igbokushu, Lekki, among others.
In the area of health, Sanwo-Olu stated that 563,210 Lagos residents have been covered under the Health Insurance Scheme, adding that it had established 10 triage and oxygen centres, completed and launched the Mother and Child Centre (MCC), Epe, Eti-Osa, and MCC, Ajah, among others.
Other health projects, according to the governor, include activating one oxygen plant in Yaba for COVID-19, while 1,417 residents successfully had paediatric eye surgery, adult eye surgery, paediatric surgery, dental surgery, orthopedic surgery and ear, nose and throat surgery through the initiative.
The schools built and rehabilitated, according to government’s records, are recreational facilities at Elemoro Junior Secondary School, Ibeju-Lekki, 180-bed hostel, block of classrooms at Model College, Igbokuta, two higher institutions upgraded to universities, 4,000 flats for staff of Lagos State University (LASU), 243 digitalised public secondary school libraries and 8,272-bed for LASU students, among others.
