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42 — VANGUARD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2019
GREATER LAGOS: Sanwo-Olu’s score card in 200 days raise dust
* He has failed to deliver on all fronts — Gbadamosi, Lagos PDP
* They’re assessing Sanwo-Olu from their bedrooms – Omotosho, Info commissioner
* Says Lagos now on fast lane of devt
By Clifford Ndujihe, Dapo
Akinrefon & Olasunkanmi
Akoni
THE Lagos State
Government, on Sunday,
reviewed its 200 days in office and
gave itself thumbs up for steering
the ship of the state on the path of
growth and development despite
initial teething problems and
inclement weather.
However, the state government’s
claims were thumbed down by the
Lagos Governorship Candidate of
the Action democratic Party, ADP,
in the 2019 election, Mr. Babatunde
Gbadamosi; and Publicity Secretary
of the Lagos Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Taofik Gani.
Gbadamosi and Gani said the
Sanwo-olu administration has not
lived up to the expectations of
Lagosians since May 29, 2019 and
has failed on all fronts so far.
Specifically, Gbadamosi scored
Sanwo-Olu less than 20 per cent
on performance.
Lagos State Commissioner for
Information and Strategy, Mr.
Gbenga Omotosho, faulted
Gbadamosi and Gani, saying that
the duo were oblivious of the facts
on ground.
‘’When we took over we could not
do much road repairs because of
the rains. Now, the roads are being
fixed across the state. We have
revived many abandoned housing
programmes and doing so much
in the health, and education sectors
and infrastructure. I am confident
we will succeed. Those giving us
20 per cent may be doing so in their
bedrooms. They are not seeing
what is being done,’’ he said.
According to him, the state
government is refurbishing 300
schools, restarted the Lagos-
Badagry Expressway construction
of which the Marina-Okokomaiko
railway line will be operational in
2021 adnd opened bid for the
construction of the Fourth mainland
bridge among others.
How we are ensuring greater
Lagos
Reeling out its achievements in
the last 200 days, the state
government led by Mr. Omotosho
said the move to make Lagos a 21st
century economy has started with
the signing of the $629 million
funding for the Lekki Seaport
project with funding provided by
China Development Bank.
The officials recounted the
achievements on each of the
THEMES agenda of the governor.
Transportation, traffic management
Under the First Pillar of
THEMES, Transportation and
Traffic Management, various steps
were taken to aggressively address
the challenge of bad roads and ease
movement across the State. Eight
Multi-national construction firms
were mobilised to carry out massive
repairs on critical highways in what
we christened Operation 116.
This was followed by extensive
palliative and maintenance works,
especially by the Public Works
Corporation, which has
rehabilitated hundreds of roads and
Gov Sanwo-Olu
cleared several drainage channels
in various parts of the State.
Others include the flag-off of the
reconstruction and upgrading of
strategic roads in Ikorodu such as
the 6.05 kilometres Phase One road
from Itamaga to Ewu Elepe town;
7.8 kilometres Owutu-Agric-Ishawo
road Phase One; Bola Tinubu-
Igbogbo-Imota road; and Victoria
Island, Lekki Traffic Circulation
project on Oniru axis
The government ensured Public
Infrastructure Improvement
Partnership (PIIP) agreement that
involves banks handling
rehabilitation of roads as Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR). For
instance, Access Bank is
partnering with the State
Government in Infrastructural
upgrading of Oniru Network of
roads under a Public Infrastructure
Improvement Partnership (PIIP)
arrangement.
To strengthen the drive for a
multi-modal transport system,
Governor Sanwo-Olu launched the
Uber Boat water transportation
service. The business, a
partnership between the global
ride-hailing company and Lagos
State Waterways Authority, LASWA,
is exploring the State’s abundant
waterways and reducing the
pressure on roads. Besides, it attests
to the confidence global investors
repose in Lagos as an investment
destination of choice.
To ease movement, the
government advertised bids for the
38 kilometre Fourth Mainland
Bridge of which 39 constructions
including Julius Berger expressed
interest and were short listed,
yesterday.
The arrangement will include the
construction and operation of a
tolled road plus a bridge between
Ajah, Eti-Osa and Mainland Lagos
to serve as an alternative route to
the eastern part of Lagos State.
Health, environment
The officials said Sanwo-Olu administration
is bringing about a renaissance
in the state’s public
health sector. Under Pillar H, which
stands for Health and Sanitation,
the 149-bed Maternal and
Childcare Centre, MCC, in
Alimosho General Hospital was
commissioned. The specialist
centre, facilitated through the Office
of the Senior Special Assistant to
the President on Sustainable
Development Goals, is evidence of
the working partnership between
the Federal and the State
Babatunde Gbadamosi
Governments. The facility is
equipped with ultra-modern equipment
that aid prompt delivery of
maternal and child care services.
Presently, the administration is
working hard towards the completion
of more MCCs. In fact, the
Badagry and Epe MCCs are nearing
completion.
The latest of the several people
friendly medical interventions in the
State is the free surgical
intervention programme for
residents, which was organised in
partnership with a non-
Governmental Organisation
(NGO), Benjamin Olowojebutu
Foundation. It comprised free
When we took over we
could not do much road repairs
because of the rains.
Now, the roads are being
fixed across the state. We
have revived many abandoned
housing programmes
and doing so much in the
health, and education sectors
and infrastructure. I am
confident we will succeed.
Those giving us 20 per cent
may be doing so in their bedrooms.
They are not seeing
what is being done
surgeries for residents suffering from
Lipoma, Hernia, Fibroid and Breast
Lumps, as well as free dental and
general health screening.
Also, the government has resuscitated
the Adiyan Waterworks,
Phase Two with contractors mobilised
to site. The water treatment
plant, with a production capacity
of 70 million gallons per day, was
begun in 2013. After resuscitation,
it will provide drinking water for
more than five million Lagos residents
and will help to address sanitation
challenges and fight water
borne diseases.
Within the period under review,
LAWMA acquired 10 boats to boost
its marine waste operations.
Following the launch of the Lagos
Blue Box initiative on September 5
2019, five Community Recycling
Centres were activated in five Local
Council Development Areas
(LCDAs).
Since the inception of the
initiative about 340,050 bags were
distributed to various households
to encourage sorting of waste.
Education, technology
On the the third Pillar E, an acronym
for Education and Technology,
a new primary classroom block
with computer laboratories and
outdoor recreational facilities, was
commissioned at Ajegunle; rehabilitation
of public schools has begun,
with the inauguration of a
Special Committee; and no fewer
than 5000 primary school teachers
will be trained to complete the
three-pronged education strategy
of fixing the infrastructure, fixing
the curriculum and fixing the manpower
through recruitment, training
and development of teachers.
Giving credence to its policy to
promote a smart city with
technology, the administration
organised the Art of Technology
Lagos where the governor
announced a N250m grant for tech
start-ups to encourage young
people with fantastic ideas.
The administration gave a
N350million bailout for personnel
cost and increased the subvention
of the Adeniran Ogunsanya
College of Education from
N200million to N250mllion.
Economy
In continuation of the use of skill
acquisition as a tool of
empowerment, 4, 885 youths
graduated from 17 Skill Acquisition
Centres located in the five
Divisions of the State.
In line with the national
campaign for return to agriculture,
the administration boosted the
fortune of farmers through the
Agricultural Value Chains
Empowerment Programme.
Hundreds of farmers were
empowered with inputs to kick start
or improve their businesses. The
32 metric tones per hour capacity
Imota Rice Mill is also one of the
many strategies for expanding
revenue accruable to the State and
also attain sufficiency in rice
production. The rice mill which is
situated on a land mass of 8.5
hectares of land will produce 650
bags of 50kg rice per hour and has
two lines to produce 16 metric tones
each.
The disbursement of N1.181
billion to the Retirement Savings
Account of 279 retirees of the Civil
Service confirms the priority
accorded the well-being of the
senior citizens.
Sanwo-Olu performed poorly,
no cause for cheer – Gbadamosi
Disagreeing with the state government’s
claims Gbadamosi, who
said he is aspiring to take over from
Sanwo-Olu in 2023 because he can
do the job better, scored Sanwo-Olu
low across all sectors of governance,
saying that “the governor could
have done better.”
He said: “Sanwo-Olu needs to
find his spine, he needs to find his
backbone, he needs to find his will
and execute what he said he will
execute if elected the governor of
Lagos state when we had that
famous pre-election debate. The
governor needs to wake up and sort
out the lowest of the low hanging
fruit.”
According to him, his mission is
to help the incumbent government
in office by pointing out how to get
things done in a workable and
practical way. “It is not just about
criticising and pointing out the
flaws, it is about pointing out how
well to achieve what we all want,
which is good governance.
“So, we have to do whatever we
can do to help the incumbent
government to achieve good
governance.”
According to Gbadamosi, there
are still very many green areas
which are not built up in Lagos
State because there are no roads to
open up such areas.
“And the reason they are not built
up is because there is no road. For
instance, the Lekki -Ajah axis is still
largely undeveloped. There’s no
road; no coastal road. Imagine if
we put a 10-lane expressway along
the coastline, the area will develop;
and if you build a solid infrastructure
in Lagos, you make money,” he
said.
Sanwo-Olu celebrating 200 days
of failure, wastefulness—Lagos
PDP
In like manner, the Lagos PDP
Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani
said the Sanwo-olu administration
has not lived up to the expectations
of Lagosians.
Gani said: “It is very unfortunate
that Sanwo-Olu would celebrate
failure and the peoples’
disenchantment with his
administration. Again it’s a waste
of tax-payers money. This governor
has left undone the pains of
Lagosians. Many of which can be
done within 50 days.
He belatedly announced
minimum wage but has not paid it.
Rather than remove tolling of roads,
he introduced strenuous payment
style, eventually worsening traffic
jams. The inner roads repairs policy
initiated by his predecessor has
been viciously abandoned hence
all inner roads have gone worse.
‘’Lagos has been rated amongst
three northern states as four states
with unqualified teachers; Lagos
debt profile has geometrically
increased with him gulping more
loans.
‘’Sanwo-Olu should be mourning
that innocent girl who died because
Lagos could not have standard
hospitals close to communities,
could not have contract with private
hospitals to treat and get paid,
could not provide so called touted
CCTV on our streets. All street
lights have gone. Everywhere in
Lagos is cult and gang wars. Yet
Lagos realises at least N60billion
every month.
‘’Lagos has gone down within
Sanwo-Olu’s 200 days, yet he is
celebrating failure and
wastefulness. We will have all these
accounted for one day.’’