Leadership (Abuja)
Taiwo Ogunmola
28 April 2008
Lagos State governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has appealed to President Umaru Musa Yar'adua to expedite action on the request of the state government for deployment of military men to complement the efforts of policemen in crime prevention.
Governor Fashola who spoke in an interview with a national weekly said he is assured that the President would accede to the request of the state as similar gestures have been approved in the past for states like Rivers, Kaduna and Kano .
In his words; "I am still appealing to Mr. President and the Commander –in- Chief: we have made representations to him and of course, he has promised to look at them favourably. We need the military support for now until we can have more policemen to complement the number of people patrolling the streets. I am hoping that sooner or later, I will get a favourable reply. I think some other states have benefited from similar consideration"
On plans by the state to install close circuit camera at strategic places in the state, he said the first cameras are already in place and that work is progressing on the command centre where messages from the cameras can be decoded.
He added that by the time the designs are incorporated with the installation of all the cabling and electronic devices that will feed the data to the camera is incorporated and keyed up across the state, it would become functional.
The governor also disclosed that as a person he dislikes noise and disorder which the use of siren promotes and that his personal experience has shown that rather than solve traffic bottlenecks, siren compounds it.
He said traffic is not a disease but a sign of a working economy which has however been worsened by the culture of people who stop in the traffic to buy different items like pepper and fruits pleading that "we all have to change our attitude".
Governor Fashola called for a stoppage of the continued deductions of N225Million monthly from the state account for the Independent Power Project (IPP) project, despite a court injunction to that effect saying as at today N9Billion has been deducted from Lagos State without any justification.
He explained that the state government enjoys a good working relationship with the President because he has been complementing him and not distract him, explaining that in areas where the state feels that there have been injustices it has the option of going to court while for issues that needs the fulfillment of obligations he writes to the President directly.
Governor Fashola added that the mortgage scheme of the state was informed by a study which revealed that everytime the government tried to build houses for the poor, they ended up not being the beneficiaries because of the 'pay all the cash at once' syndrome.
He said the process has been simplified that a worker just needs to approach any of the participating banks requesting to finance housing by deducting from his salary, adding that the state will guarantee the repayment.
He pledged to do everything within his powers to support the State Independent Electoral Commission to conduct a free and fair local government election, adding that today he is enjoying the dividends of a free and fair election in the State.
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Kudos to Gov. Fashola for his successful constant endeavor to improve the quality of life in Lagos area showing an understanding of his responsibility to the people - he already introduced the minicipal bus system successfully and he is striving to elimnate or curtail the insecurity and the deteriorating personal safety concerns in Lagos area. If the ruling and lawmaking Senate and NNA members could have been able to boast of having 10% of the members with an understanding and sense of responsibity as demonstrated by Gov. Fashola, Nigeria would have been different - moving forward instead of retrogressing… [Read Full Text]