By: Kayode Adelowokan 12:07 am, June 25, 2015.
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), on Wednesday, called on Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, to make sure things worked better for the people. CACOL is a group of civil society, community-based and other non-governmental organisations with the objective of fighting corruption and corrupt persons by any means possible at all levels in Nigeria.
The group, in a letter to Ambode, signed by its Executive Chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran, urged him to embark on projects that would alleviate the hardship of majority of the people. CACOL said though the rich had already had a fair share of the available opportunities, so the middle and lower classes hitherto deprived of same should be the focused on.
“We are urging your government not to equate Lagos State with the developed cities in the world, in the area of enacting policies, because our people do not have the exposure and advantages those of the advanced countries benefit from. The group said: “It is a known fact that an average Nigerian is living under two dollars a day; so how could such a person afford a housing unit that runs into tens of millions of naira? We enjoin your administration to build houses truly meant for the poor. Cheaper but durable building materials could be used. “We appeal to the Lagos State government to chart a new people-centred course which should be pursued to a logical end, where the people will be able to testify that they truly have a government of theirs. “The extent to which the elitist policies of the past administration negatively affected the masses cannot be over-emphasised and it is an unacceptable trend that should not continue.”
In the same vein, the group commended Ambode for his positive disposition to the plight of the Lagosians, especially with the declaration that residents of the state who lived in the Lekki axis would no longer pay tolls at the second toll point on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. “We must also commend your government on the recent shake-up in the civil service – including the Lagos State Ministries, Departments and Agencies. This shake-up is a tidy development. “We, however, would want to advice the government not to stop the shake-up but ensure that the searchlight is beamed on other agencies of the Lagos State Government. “Worthy of mention is Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) that is saddled with the responsibility of maintaining roads in Lagos State with the Lagos State Ministry of Works that is to construct and reconstruct bad roads. It is no news that these agencies are not fully awake to their responsibilities. As a matter of fact, they have made it impossible for most state roads to be motorable as alternative to Federal Government roads. “In essence, bridges and flyovers need to be built in places where there had been perpetual traffic, internal roads in all parts of Lagos need to be fixed, and the ones tarred have to be resurfaced because many of them are riddled with potholes or bumps. “The Ministry of Education and SUBEB that are to maintain existing schools need to also be looked into. The Lagos State schools need total overhauling.
“Existing schools need rehabilitation, because there are no enough equipment, materials, furniture and other necessary facilities. Several of the schools don’t have sidewalls and windows while their personnel are poorly motivated morally, technically and materially. It is a shameful thing that pupils still sit on bare and broken floors in the so-called ‘Centre of Excellence’ schools,” the group. It also demanded that Ambode, look into the direction of those who are supposed to see to the drainage and continual drainage. Flash-flood is not supposed to be a perpetual thing the way your predecessor had always wanted Lagosians to accept it as a normal thing. “It is not normal for flood to wreck constant havoc on the people. Lasting solution must be found to the cause of such flashfloods because it endangers lives and properties and also disrupts economic activities in the state. A situation where traffic would become static amounts to wasting of several man hours on the road. Once it has been discovered that flashflood occurs in a particular place for a renewed time.
SOURCE: Daily Times.