Fashola'a 800 days in office provides 156,779 jobs

STORIES BY DAYO ADEJOBI
Fashola Marks 800 Days In Office, Pledges To Provide Platform For Youths To Unleash Potentials.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Thursday,6th August 2009 marked his 800th day in the saddle of leadership, affirming that the responsibility of his administration and the present generation is simply to provide the platform and environment that will unleash the power and potential of the Lagos and Nigerian Youth.Governor Fashola who spoke at the Governor’s Forum with the theme: “Repositioning the Youth for Future Challenges” held at the Blue Roof, Lagos Television, Agidingbi as part of activities marking the event. He however added the country’s problems can be solved by the Youth.Said he: “ We have become the continental leaders in many fields like sports, music, fashion and business to mention a few and that convinces me that we can be leaders in all fields”.“What has kept us back is that we have been engaged for too long in fighting for the survival of our country and development has not taken place at the necessary pace to match the growth in population”, he added.He explained that while the state had a population of only about 5 million people in the 1970’s, it has exceeded 18 million in 2009 with a whooping growth of about 260 percent. He lamented that in those almost thirty years, water supply has not grown in that size and neither have new roads been constructed at the same pace.Governor Fashola added that this has led to the situation where the growing population has struggled to share the existing assets of roads, hospitals, schools, power, water, markets, entertainment centres, sports facilities and much more. “This is why life seems difficult, this is why new jobs are not emerging, this is a 30 year deficit which we are determined to reverse and this is why you must understand why we do what we do”. He eulogized.“We are building at an aggressive pace to provide more roads and create choices to ease traffic congestion; we are rebuilding and repairing classrooms and schools, new hospitals, new stadia, water works as well as markets to expand opportunities for as many of you as we can. We are clearing canals and drainages that in some cases have not been attended to in 15 years or more”.Governor Fashola added that in doing this, the administration is using people and in the process creating jobs for builders, for suppliers of building materials, food for workers, jobs for accountants, engineers, transporters and so much more to keep the economy going, thus keeping parents at work so that they can support the children.The Governor said in the last 100 days after the 700 day, the administration has been very busy in diverse sections of the economy such as transportation where 1,255 new taxis have been added to the growing fleet in Lagos.In the area of education, Governor Fashola reported that, the State successfully convened an education summit whose recommendation it is in the process of implementing, just as the State House of Assembly has been active in passing the Vocation and Technical Education Institutions Law to help accelerate the development of Technical and Vocational Education.The Lagos State Governor also listed the Model City Law which will help stem the incidence of illegal constructions that usually end up collapsing and causing deaths and the Lagos Court of Arbitration and Magistrates Court Law which would help enhance the quality of justice delivery to all as some of the accomplishments in the last 100 days.“One of the many innovative features of the Magistrate’s Court Law is that for the first time in Nigeria, Magistrates will now sit on Saturdays and in the hope that this will end the practice where people are kept in remand over the weekend simply because Courts are not in operation”, he added.Specifically as it relates to the young people, Governor Fashola added: “We have decided to do more this year and in the years to come, by focusing more directly on those things that affect you directly, even as we deal with those things that affect your parents and guardians and from which you indirectly benefit”.He explained that in the last 100 days, the administration undertook its second quarter budget review which not only recorded a 68 percent performance but has led to the creation of 156,779 jobs in 2009 alone.In his words: “We have been busy with sports through the hosting of the Federations Cup in which many of you turned out in large numbers and we have delivered another park and sporting facility at kernel Street in Surulere while we are almost completing the sports facilities in Agege and Campos Square”“We have provided 500 vacation job opportunities again this year for students on vacation within the public service to keep you busy, mentor you and provide some extra cash and pocket money to enable you address those needs that young persons have.We have aggressively through the law enforcement agents tried to protect you from those who try to corrupt you by arresting and prosecuting those who have taken advantage of your innocence to display pornographic material”, he added.He reiterated that in the last 100 days, the State has also received several accolades locally and internationally such as award as the cleanest capital in the Federation by the Federal Ministry of Environment, Award for Good Governance at 2009 African Business Awards in London and the award of transport Planner of the Year 2009 by the Transport Planning Society of United Kingdom.On the on-going ASUU strike, Governor Fashola described it as a manifestation of the imperfect Federation which neglects or fails to recognize the autonomy of states as Federating units who should be competent to take decisions in their areas of constitutional authority without any adverse consequence from decisions taken by the Federal Government.“If states own and run universities like the Federal Government as the Constitution allows, why should a disagreement between employees of the Federal Government in a Federal University paralyze the activities in all State Universities where there is no labour dispute”?. Fashola Questioned.“Why should every university lecturer whether employed by the State or Federal University earn the same wage?. What happened to the principles of competitive advantage in economics?. Can we and must we continue to fund tertiary education in the way we currently do and still attract the best lecturers or should we develop a process of guaranteed scholarships for indigent students while those who can afford to do so pay a fair fee in order to guarantee autonomy to universities and to provide funding for them”, Governor Fashola wondered.He asked rhetorically: “How does the frequency of strikes in our educational system and the uncertain academic calendar affect proper planning and what are its impacts on the job creation capacities of the public and the private sectors”.
According to Governor Fashola, it could be quite difficult for employment to be guaranteed for people if we do not know how many we are, asking: “How successful can a budget based on wrong population assumptions be”.He charged that this is probably the time to re-define the concept of jobs from job seekers to aspiring entrepreneurs, asking, “in an economy where growth is not assured on a sustainable basis should young graduates continue to look for employment or begin to think about being self employed?. Are our School Curriculum limiting job opportunities by producing graduates that the economy needs?The Forum was attended by the Deputy Governor, Princess Sarah Adebisi Sosan, members of the State Executive Council, pupils and students representing various schools, institutions, voluntary organizations and youth bodies including political parties.