We expect Lagosians to continue to hold govt to account —Omotoso

Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, speaks with BOLA BADMUS on the gains of democracy in the state, especially under the currrent administration.

Lagosians’ expectations are far from being met after 22 years of democracy. Should they expect a turnaround under Governor Sanwo-Olu?

I think Lagos State under Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has done a lot in showing that he really cares for Lagosians through all the policies that he has announced and is implementing. They are focused at the people, they are people-friendly.

If you are talking about education, about infrastructural development, about the roads he is building, about the things that would help transportation, everything that has to do with development, even what you can call poverty alleviation that just would make ordinary people have a sense of belonging like this thing in the Office of Civic Engagement under the programme like Sanwo-Olu Cares, where the people that are in need get their problems solved directly, where he touches people’s lives who don’t have money to buy things that they need for their jobs, the governor has made a lot of impacts.

People are being attended to under the poverty alleviation programme which has 21 skill acquisition centres, and people who don’t have any jobs, who don’t have any skill are being trained at the centres in trades like hairdressing, dress making and carpentry.

When they are trained, they are not just thrown into the streets to fend for themselves; they are given equipment to start businesses. Everything that the government is doing is people-centered. All of these, we have been able to do in two years, the bridges, I mean, 400 roads.

Everything is centred on the people. So, in my own view, it is not correct to say that the dividends of democracy have not trickled down to the people. On the contrary, people are praising Mr Sanwo-Olu for all that he is doing on education, health, infrastructure, transportation, in everything.

A few measures is the government taking to improve the security of the state?

About two weeks ago, we called a stakeholders’ meeting on security that was attended by security experts, religious leaders, young people, labour leaders, civil society organisations. They came together to discuss security of Lagos. They did this on the prompting of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The governor felt that all these things that we read about other states, all these things we hear that are happening in some other places shouldn’t happen here in Lagos.

And thank God, the meeting ended with some resolutions, among them are that the government should ban commercial motorcycle operations, that the government should take over control of buildings that hace been abandoned and that that the government should not give criminals who are involved in traffic robbery, kidnapping and other nefarious activities a breathing space in the state.

And the government adopted the resolutions and part of what the governor promised on that day was that he was going to do something about commercial motorcycle operations. He said that in changing the face of that sector, he was not going to throw commercial motorcyclists into the employment market and that people who are patronising them would not be left to their own fate.

About a week after, he launched what we call Last Mile and First Mile buses for people to let us know that as Lagosians, we deserve a decent, comfortable and reliable alternative to commercial motorcycles so that people who are using commercial motorcycles to perpetrate crimes will not have the opportunity to do so again, so that commercial motorcyclists, if they do not behave, if they do not stick to the restrictions the state has put on them, they would be having the big hammer by August.

The governor said we are trying to keep Lagos safe, protect Lagosians through the use of technology. Apart from all the materials, the equipment that the government is going to be buying for the police and other security agencies, such as bulletproof vests, vehicles, motorcycles and all that, it is all about deploying technology to protect Lagosians.

Presently, we are laying round the state 6,000km of cables, fibre optic cables. We have done almost 2,000. In the first phase, it is going to be 3,000. Under this programme, there would be cameras all over the city for the monitoring of events and activities going on around our neighborhoods, around our highways, around our streets so that anybody planning any evil, it can be easy for us to check that person out so that we can nip in the bud whatever evil that person is planning to do.

We expect Lagosians to continue to support Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. We want Lagosians to trust in their government. We expect Lagosians to continue to perform their civic duties. We expect Lagosians to come out to pay their taxes, we expect them to continue to hold the government to account on all aspects of the THEME agenda that the governor has promised and that he is implementing now. We expect Lagosians to pray for the government, cooperate with the government, especially in the fight against COVID-19 which has disrupted so many things. But we are grateful that we have been able to handle it by the grace of God, with due diligence of Mr Governor and the doggedness of the team with which he is working.

What legacy is Sanwo-Olu looking at bequeathing to Lagos?

I will talk about Governor Sanwo-Olu in four years. He has a mandate of four years which he is executing now to the benefit of Lagosians, to the excitement of everybody, including visitors, and he is doing well in that area.

There are so many things Governor Sanwo-Olu would be known for even before he finishes his four years. Already, Lagosians are seeing them. They are enjoying them.

In the area of roads, I think what we have is worthy of note. People are seeing them, the bridges we have been able to build, what we have done in road transportation, in water transportation. That would tell you that Mr Sanwo-Olu wants to be seen as the governor who came and saw the railway projects and decided to complete them. He is bent on completing the Red Line. He is bent on completing the Blue Line and I assure you, by the grace of God, before the end of this administration, his tenure of four years, by the end of the last quarter of next year, the Blue Line that would be moving from Okokomaiko/Mile 2 to Marina, the Red Line that would be moving from Agbadi to Oyingbo, that would be carrying about a million of people every day, would be completed.

So, I believe that if he can do all that, history will remember him as a good governor who came and saw the problems of the people and was able to tackle such problems in a manner that will make Lagosians hail him forever and ever.

And I believe that everything that Mr Sanwo-Olu has done in health, in education is in people’s interest. If you go round, we are building new schools and he has done about 1,097 school projects since he came on board such he and the Commissioner for Education could not even go again to commission all these. All members of the executive have been going out to commission the projects.

Apart from that, look at what Mr Sanwo-Olu has done in the areas of health. Everybody, thought by the time coronavirus, came. Experts said we were going to be picking bodies on the streets, but by the grace of God and the diligence of the governor and doggedness of Lagosians, that did not happen. We have been able to use coronavirus as a springboard to change things. So many things have changed about our health infrastructure. We have been able to turn things around because of the coronavirus pandemic. We were able to train our doctors and our health workers and they are better now.

Apart from that, he is going to be talking about what he is going to do in the health sector to make the journey for a Greater Lagos continue without any hassle. He is going to be talking about the New Massey Children Hospital that he is going to be building. It is going to be the biggest in Africa and already, he has done the ground breaking.

He is going to be talking about the Mental Health Centre in Epe that he is going to build. He is going to be talking about the Research Centre that we are going to build in Yaba. It is going to be the biggest in Africa so that next time when we have an incident of coronavirus or anything close to that, we won’t have to go to Europe or America for the supply of vaccines. Our own people are intellectually capable. They have the facilities they can work with to be able to give us our own vaccines in Africa.

So, all of the things that Mr Sanwo-Olu is doing now are things that he will be achieving, things that you can hold him accountable for and they are things that after he has served his term, people can say that a governor was really here.

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