Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, on Monday promised to give priority attention to the power, environment and transportation sectors in the next two years in order to drive all-round development of the state.
The governor gave this promise while speaking with newsmen, saying the three sectors were crucial to driving every other social infrastructure which the state government intended to address headlong.
“The last two years, what we have done is just to create a foundation of a vision that drives Lagos till the next 50 years. There is nothing that we can do in the next two years that is ever going to be enough.
“There are three things I want people to watch out for in the next 12 to 18 months: the issue of power, the issue of environment and the sanitation and issue of transportation. I believe those three sectors are the key sectors that can drive every other social infrastructure that we will be dealing with in Lagos,” Governor Ambode said.
On the environment, the governor said it was pertinent that the state must strive to be cleaner and safer not just for residents alone, but also for visitors and investors willing to do business in the state.
“Lagos must get cleaner, safer and the way people commune from one place to another and one thing with Lagos, the more success you record, the more people want to come into the city,” Governor Ambode said.
As regards transportation sector, he said the Bus Reform Initiative would take off before the end of the year with the introduction of modern buses that would not only transform the transport system, but also make it easier for Lagosians to move from one place to another.
On the power sector, Governor Ambode said efforts were ongoing to ensure stable power supply for all industries in the state, adding that the intention was to create embedded power in clusters in the city.
He, however, noted that despite the successes recorded, the state was also willing to learn from other states, saying that it had also extended same to other sister states.
“There are also things that we are looking at from other states. We do not know everything. So, there are other states that are doing some things better than us. So, we must be submissive enough to learn from them and the same thing with other states from us. And that is whole lesson about leadership, leadership is about learning, it is about listening and which is what we do very well in Lagos,” the governor said.
It would be recalled that the state government has already concluded plans to commence the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, a brain child of the present administration aimed at improving the environment to make it cleaner, safer and healthier for all Lagosians by promoting a harmonised and holistic approach to the challenges, and as a result, improving operational efficiency.
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