Almost one month after the take-off of the new administration in Lagos State, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has proffered an agenda for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The anti-graft promoter, in the agenda, listed some priority areas the administration should focus on, while calling on him to immediately declare a state of emergency on the health sector to arrest the downward slope and nearly calamitous state of public health care system.
Comrade Debo Adeniran, CACOL’s Executive Chairman, in a statement issued in Lagos and made available to NEXT EDITION on Wednesday, also said the governor should embark on immediate and urgent review of the Lagos Masterplan on Education towards revamping the sector and restoring the values and pride of the state in education.
He also urged the governor to carry out a review and reinvent a housing scheme for Lagosians and workers through provisions of affordable houses throughout the state, reminiscent of Alhaji Lateef Jakande’s housing scheme for low-income earners in Lagos.
According to him, housing scheme should be done in partnership with mortgage institutions and traditional rulers in various local government areas and local council development areas in the state
Adeniran also counselled Sanwo-Olu to “Initiate giving unemployment allowances to all graduates from state and Federal Government-owned higher institutions like the universities, polytechnics and monotechnics towards restoring pride to our youths and laying a precedence in social welfare care.
“Revamp the sports facility by giving facelift to all sporting facilities in the state and building more sporting centres and reviewing incentives for sportsmen and women who, occasionally do the state proud in sporting events.”
He maintained that while many of Sanwo-Olu’s visions and those of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Lagos state are quite laudable, as encapsulated in his programme, titled, “Making Lagos A 21st Century Economy”.
Adeniran stressed: “CACOL, strongly notes that the task of returning Lagos to a real modern, Mega city is no small assignment and as such, the governor needs not set out incurring the wrath of the same people that brought him to power through a cathedral of punitive traffic laws in a state where the history of affairs between traffic law enforcement agents and the ordinary people is far from palatable.
“In actual fact, this at one time necessitated that his predecessor suspended the operations of Vehicle Inspection Officials (VIO) for over three years until he left office sometime in May this year without heaven falling.”
Adeniran, however, expressed reservations over Sanwo-Olu’s action in exhuming several draconian traffic laws enacted by his predecessor, but were left dormant because they were unpopular among Lagosians, adding that many of those laws were outrageous and contradictory to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended).
Among the about 64 traffic laws, he stressed 20 of the offences listed carry outright forfeiture or confiscation of owners’ vehicles, describing them as outrageous.
Adeniran stressed: “Though the GM/COO of LASTMA in Lagos State, Musa Maroof Olawale, sensing serious public outrage that greeted the laws after its pronouncement, was quick to insist that there was nothing new or strange about the law as it was in existence since the time of governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (2007-2015), in Lagos and that the series of Law were just reinforced for effectiveness and clarity, many observers countered that not only were many of those laws outrageous and contradictory of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), some of them like confiscation of motor vehicles and okada motorcycles are new enactments.”
