Abuja — Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state has promised to continue the pace of development in the Centre of Excellence if he wins Saturday's election, which will offer him a second term in office.
The governor who made the commitment at an interactive session with newsmen at the weekend, said new infrastructural development is a sure path to catapulting Lagos State to higher pedestal among the comity of nations.
Represented by his Public Relations and New Media aide, Mr Segun Fafore, the governor said projects like the railway, includes the blue line that was inaugurated last month by President Muhammadu Buhari and undergoing testing.
He also disclosed that the red line which will soon be ready and others are testaments to the foresight of his predecessors and the governor's determination to deliver them on time for the use of the people.
His words: "Also, development of social infrastructure like schools, improvement of classrooms, training and retraining of teachers and deployment of modern learning devises in public schools have culminated in the construction of over 1,000 schools in the state in the last three and half years. Apart from the free education at the primary and secondary schools in the state, tertiary education attracts the lowest tuition in Lagos state compared to the rest of the country. And the Sanwo-Olu administration has also founded two additional universities to expand access and increase specialised expertise. One of the universities is for education; the other is for science and technology. Speaking further on the state's progress, Fafore revealed that apart from the manner Covid-19 was handled which helped to minimise the spread of the deadly pandemic, the healthcare sector has witnessed tremendous improvement.
"The children's hospital under construction in Lagos Island, General hospitals under construction or those fully renovated have helped to expand access to healthcare services across the state.He maintained that the THEMES Agenda, which guides the administration's policy framework, have been pursued diligently in the past three and half years. THEMES, the agenda for Greater Lagos, represents the six-pillar development plan of the Sanwo-Olu administration. It stands for Traffic Management and Transportation; Health and Environment; Education and Technology; Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy; Entertainment and Tourism; and Security and Governance.
"Further on transport, apart from the success recorded in the rail sector, the governor's aide said that his administration expanded the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system by opening new routes. It also expanded water transportation with the construction of new jetties and deployment of more LagFerries. This has helped communities around the Lagoon like Ikorodu commute seamlessly. The launching of cheaper, cleaner LagRide, a car hailing service that has revolutionised the way Lagosians move around. In terms of technology, we are all from different parts of Lagos State and we would have seen the internet cables that are being laid across the City. And today, these things are already connected to power supply, hospitals and some homes. The essence of that is that the people who started using internet, particularly our generation, I'm not sure if anybody in this room, has at the point the person was leaving the university had the benefit of anything like that.
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"So, now I'm sure that we would have forgotten what light was then. I'm not sure that any of us here can live without internet because without internet you will feel that something is wrong. And when we have quality and better speed from that sector, there must be a thousand and one things you will do. "One of the reasons for that is for us to get connected so that we can explore the opportunities, particularly the generation behind us."He added: "In healthcare, waste management, in arts and tourism and all that the city around us has made tremendous progress. If you saw Lagos before 1999 and now; we have monitored the progress across all stages. I'm not sure there's anybody who can deny the fact that this is a governor that is really working very hard in moving strategically with the times. He is committed to serving the state and he's confronting many challenges".
