Peeved by the over 2 million out-of- school children in Lagos State, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (JANDOR), on Tuesday vowed to immediately declare emergency in the education sector, make primary and secondary education completely free and compulsory across the state.
He said if elected governor on March 11, 2023, one of his immediate priorities would be to take the education of “our children very seriously” and “our solution to taking our children out of the streets and have them back in school would be to declare a state of emergency in our education sector and proceed to make primary and secondary education completely free and compulsory”.
Adediran’s promises are contained in his manifesto titled: “My Vision for Lagos” released to journalists captured as “WEALTHY Lagos, is a TREAT” everyone deserves.
The major focus of his administration, he pointed out would be “to change the face of governance in Lagos and make it a WEALTHY State in truth as against it current status of being a wealthy state only on paper. Our Agenda for a WEALTHY Lagos, is a TREAT everyone deserves. This agenda has been outlined as follows;
W – Works, Housing & Road Infrastructure; E – Education; A – Aquaculture & Ease of Doing Business; L – Law, Order & Security; T – Tourism, Transport & Traffic Management; H – Health & Environment; Y – Youth, Women & Social Development.
According to him, blueprints are only as good as the excellence in implementation, adding that part of “our plans to ensure that we deliver on the promise of a WEALTHY Lagos, will be guided by the following pillars;
Tech-driven approach to governance; Rule of Law; Equity & Inclusiveness; Accountable Representation and; Transparency (TREAT).
Elaborating on action plan for education, he said “Our administration will provide free school uniforms and learning aids to all pupils in our primary and secondary schools. Majority of these children are out of school because their parents are unable to afford ancillary school requirements such as uniforms and learning aids that are presently not part of the free education scheme of this current administration.
“These uniforms will be produced by local tailors in all local governments. This means local tailors within Ikeja local government will sew uniforms for all pupils and students schooling within the confines of Ikeja local government. This way, we would also have succeeded in boosting the economy, especially the earning power of the locals all at a cost no more than N24b in a fiscal year.
“Another reason for having over 2million out of school children in Lagos is lack of infrastructure and human resources…our immediate plan would be to first go into partnership with private schools and ensure these children are admitted and spread across the over 18,000 private schools in Lagos, among which only 5,000 are registered, in exchange for tax incentives while we embark on infrastructural renewal and upgrades in our public schools.
“We will address shortage of school teachers by being the first to implement the 65years retirement age and 40 years of service. We will also bring back those that have been retired since the signing of this law to complete their years of service”.
The statement read in part: “Today marks a special point in our journey to the ballot and our resolve to offer ourselves for public service in the quest to create a Lagos state of our shared desire. Officially, the electoral umpire has signaled the commencement of political campaigns allowing us to formally seek your votes and support in the 2023 gubernatorial election.
“We are not beckoned to serve or railroaded into a project of which we have little knowledge. This journey started exactly seven years ago, after a detailed appraisal of the performance of successive governments in the State of Lagos from 1999.
We are convinced that our state will fair better when well-meaning stakeholders graduate from armchair criticism of the systemic decadence to becoming active players by throwing their hats into the ring to salvage the state.
“The experience of an average resident of Lagos state across the 5 IBILE divisions in the 20 Local Governments since the beginning of our nascent democracy left much to be desired. We can have it better; our lives could be much easier when altruism, transparent honesty, accountability, and empathy govern the conduct of public officeholders.
“We are set to make Lagos work better in the interest of all residents by decentralizing development to all parts of the state and ensuring that the flow of the wealth of the state is redirected from the pockets of an individual to the benefit of all.
“We are very intentional about our vision of birthing a true Mega City led by a servant leader who is truly independent and will not need a second level of approval before taking decisions. The power will truly reside with the people and not an individual pretending to be a demi-god.
“We will make Lagos truly WEALTHY by giving a breath of fresh air in the area of Works & Infrastructure, Education & Environment, Aquaculture & ease of doing business, Law & Order, Transportation & Traffic management, Health & Housing, Youth & Women empowerment, and other critical areas of governance.
“It is public knowledge that endemic corruption is one of the biggest problems stagnating the development of our state, we will bring on financial re-engineering through critical reforms that will fast-track operational processes and plug financial leakages in the public service. We will hit the ground running.
“We are bewildered that over 2 million of our children are out of school. We are pained to see our people suffer so much to access very basic healthcare services. We are ashamed of the poor state of infrastructure and the widening gap in infrastructure deficit. We are not comfortable that our State’s wealth is only on paper, nothing significant is on the ground to justify the humongous revenue generation, including our local and foreign borrowings to fund budget deficit, year on year.
“Every time we think we have seen the worst, somehow, the ones we handed our dear state will always find a way to outdo themselves in how bad things can get. “For 23 years, they have rewarded the love of the people with so little. We are the wealthiest state in Nigeria, yet 66% of Lagos residents still live in slums.
It is better to imagine and never experience another four years of no real solution to waking up at 4am everyday because of the awful traffic across Lagos metropolis. Or four more years of being scared to stop at traffic lights for fear of traffic robbers? I don’t think we can continue with another four years of 2 million of our children still out of school.
“The solution to the problem of Lagos is to make real change.
political wards and 13,325 polling units across the 20 Local Government areas of the state to seek your vote and your support for Funke and I on March 11, 2023 date for the governorship election and all other candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party for the legislative offices.
“We will continue to communicate our plans to you in the coming days as we solicit your feedback from time to time on this project of our mutual interest.
I am not here to make promises that are not achievable but with your mandate, our vision is to transform Lagos into a functional, prosperous and secure state that will deliver the promise of making Lagos work for all”.
