SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY,THE GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE,MR BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA (SAN), ON THE OCCASION OF HIS 2200 DAYS IN OFFICE AT THE LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY ON THURSDAY JUNE 6TH 2013.

PROTOCOL

We gather again today to review the progress of a journey we started 2200 days ago and the performance of our social contract.

Our regular 100 day accounting and reporting program has facilitated communication between us and many sections of members of the public who are our employers.

Today it has brought us to the critical stakeholders. The ones I call the leaders in training and in waiting. And I will explain why.

The decision to move this edition of our 100 day accounting period to LASU and dedicate it to communicating with higher education institutions and the undergraduates in training is deliberate.

The reason is simple. Our human resource is the most important resource we have and will ever have.

Our students in tertiary institutions are in the generation right behind us. They are the ones who are being prepared for the job market and leadership responsibility.

They are the ones who will replace me and the commissioners, the permanent secretaries, the legislators and the judges, indeed the entire public service.

They are the ones who in a short time will bear the responsibility to refine our crude oil, generate our electricity, produce our water, manage this university, build our trains, secure our state and country and generally be responsible for our people’s well-being.

All of these will happen very soon.

The question then is this. Do these leaders in waiting and in training understand what we are doing?

Do they understand why we are doing it?

What are the choices of study that they themselves have made?

Why did they make them? Does our society still require those skills they are learning?

Is there an inherent flaw in the training we are offering in a way that it does not connect with our societal needs?

Why do we have so much to do in our country and yet still have so many unemployed people?

It seems clear from what I hear from our experts that the GOWN (which is the generic word for our higher institutions of learning such as LASU, AOCOED, LASPOTECH, MOCPED.) is not communicating with the TOWN (the generic word for the larger society comprising the government and its institutions, as well as private sector)

So the GOWN and the TOWN must begin to talk. There must be a handshake.

It seems to me therefore that our training methods must be re-orientated to retain the critical building blocks but they must also become adapted to the real needs of society.

That is why we have started a school of transportation here, to prepare a new generation of professionals that will become our transport planners, transport managers and transport operators.

The reason is simple. Transportation is a global problem and it is no less so in Lagos or any other part of Nigeria.

Major cities and countries including our state are building transport facilities such as the rail project on the Badagry corridor and the Expressway expansion.

But how many Nigerians have the knowledge about rail construction and how many are involved in building our bridges and highways?

That is why I advised the University management not to move the Transport School to Epe but to leave it in Ojo, so that the students can use the on-going construction as their laboratory.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why I am here today:- To facilitate and encourage the discussion and communication between the GOWN and the TOWN.

We need to build more water works. But how many of us even know how the current water supply is being produced?

We need constant power supply. But how many of us have visited our power generation, power transmission and power distribution facilities?

How many of us know how cars are made from design to assembly?

Twenty five years ago I was still in school and I did not have an answer to these questions.

I studied in Nigeria, in a government owned University of Benin, like LASU, so I understand this problem.

Twenty five years later I have become your Governor with the responsibility to solve these problems.

I expect many of you to assume leadership responsibilities even earlier than I did.

I am here because I want you to be better prepared than me.

I am here because I want you to leave school with the jobs waiting for you rather than you looking for the jobs.

Or better still to leave school with a clear idea of what you are going to establish or produce and how you want to go about it, instead of idling at home looking for employment.

But whatever you do, there are three things you must do.

First you must become adaptive. Secondly, you must be innovative and thirdly, you must be creative.

But I will come back to these issues if you just permit me to quickly digress and deal with the reporting part of my 100 day programme.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, since the last time when we presented our 100 days report on February 26 this year, your government has made some more progress.

First I am pleased to report the first quarter budget performance which was 61%.

The impact across various sectors has been encouraging.

The implementation has helped us to continue to progress many civil works projects such as the Adiyan Phase II water works, the Lagos Badagry Expressway, Mile 12 – Ikorodu Road, over 200 inner city and neighbourhood roads across Lagos, educational projects within LASU, AOCOED and other institutions.

Many housing projects across Lagos are now at roofing stage while we have commenced many more as we prepare to start allocation later this year.

We have also completed some projects in the last 100 days such as the Emeka Anyaoku Housing estate in Ikeja, the flagship twenty-four hour Primary Health Care centres in Lagos Island, Mosan Okunola in Alimosho and Ajara in Badagry have been fully re-fitted, re-staffed and now operational.

Two more will be added in June as we march on to fulfil our commitment to deliver a pilot of 57 (Fifty Seven) flagship primary Healthcare facilities that will set the pace for Grassroots Healthcare and a robust preventive and referral based health care system.

During the last 100 days our Ministry of Tourism hosted our Annual Heritage Week that climaxed with a Boat Regatta and Carnival. They have become the subject of international understudy because they get bigger and better year after year.

Our commitment to Education was also heightened as we hosted our 3rd Education Summit which showed a successful implementation of the recommendations of the last summit.

Permit me to share two quick indices of the successful implementation with you.

From a baseline of an average of 7% of students who passed WAEC in 2007 with 5 (five) credits including Mathematics and English in one sitting, we now have an average of 39% of students who passed as at 2012.

At the University level, from a baseline of a withdrawal of accreditation for 10 (ten) courses, all courses have received accreditation except 1 (one) and LASU is now ranked 11th amongst the list of 129 (One Hundred and Twenty Nine) Nigerian Universities and is the highest ranked State University.

This is of course not to suggest that we are satisfied with where we are or that we will ever stop seeking to improve.

On the contrary, it is to measure how steadily but gradually we are progressing and to encourage you to keep pushing and pressing because our efforts are yielding results.

It is also to emphasise what can happen when disputes which are inevitable, are resolved by negotiation and constant engagement, instead of strikes, lockouts and disruptions.

During the last 100 days we have also approved bursaries and scholarships to the following category of students in order to help them support themselves through school and to ensure that no child is left behind only because the parents are poor.

Some of the beneficiaries are:

• 1,385 LASU Students - N41.635m
• 907 Lagos Students in other Universities – N33.690m
• 109 College Students – N2.460m
• 50 Blind Students N3.0m
• 140 Students in the Nigerian Law School and 21 Students in the Maritime Academy N32.2m
• 390 Lagos Students in other tertiary institutions across Nigeria – N87.5m
• 11 Students overseas N37.124m

We will certainly do more as the requests are evaluated and recommended for approval.

In the last 100 hundred days we have been vigorously battling crime and the security reports I received at our monthly meeting which held yesterday shows that things are getting better.

In addition to the security reports, our security agents and agencies have become more pro-active.

We have published security tips for citizens and we are translating them into the 3 main languages.

Our border patrols have been intensified to ensure that only law abiding citizens enter our State.

We continue to monitor and raid known dark spots and criminal hideouts.

In the last few weeks, 360 (Three Hundred and Sixty) of such suspects have been charged to court, for possession of drugs or other dangerous weapons.

We have also successfully impounded large amounts of drugs and arrested the merchants of such drugs which are used to fuel crime.

We are also intensifying training for investigating officers to provide them with new skills for evidence gathering to support criminal prosecution.

All told, we have raised our game and there will be no comfort for criminals in our State.

I can only urge citizens to co-operate with law enforcement and support our efforts to further equip them by contributing to the Security Trust Fund.

So my message to you is, if you see anything unusual, say something by calling 767 or 112.

But do not be afraid. Be vigilant and safety conscious and go about your business because we are working hard to ensure that criminals do not harm you and that our State continues to remain uncomfortable for them.

Of course just a few days ago, we completed and opened the first cable stayed bridge in West Africa, the Lekki Ikoyi Link Bridge as a transport solution to decongest Lekki, Victoria Island, Ikoyi and access to the Mainland.

I will conclude this part by re-assuring Lagosians that your Government remains focused on service delivery and our commitment to you in the remaining 2 (Two) years will not be different from our commitment on the first day.

Having concluded in summary form, the reporting part of the 100 days programme, let me return to the future and our main discussion, about the GOWN and TOWN.

In order to help the GOWN assist in developing the TOWN, we have created an Innovation Council led by the Honourable Commissioner for Science and Technology and other members drawn from the private sector.

Their brief is to promote innovation and development.

We are also operating an After-School Graduate Development Programme where we are investing graduates with new skills to help them adapt to the needs of our economy and find well-paid jobs or start their own business
We have also created in our State budget, a provision to fund research and I have inaugurated a Committee to set guidelines for access.

Currently for this year the sum of N1,500,000.00 (One Billion, Five Hundred Million Naira) was budgeted and to my knowledge no person has applied for the research fund.

Why is all these important? You may ask.

The answer is simple. The key for finding a solution to unemployment and joblessness is in 3 (three) simple words – ‘made’ ‘in’ ‘Nigeria’.

No other nation has done it another way.

We barely competed in the agricultural age before oil overcame us. We missed industrialization, but we can leapfrog industrialization and get on the train of the age of technology.

Do not misunderstand me. Without agriculture, processing and industrialization, there will be no made in Nigeria. So we cannot do without those two.

What I mean is that we must use technology developed by our own people to fast track our deficit of agriculture.

So to get to “Made in Nigeria”, we must innovate and be creative.

They may sound like catchy or fancy words but I think they mean something very simple.

Innovation requires us to start looking for new and more efficient ways of doing the same thing.

Creativity is the hand maid of innovation which suggests we must develop things for ourselves.

This is the road to “Made in Nigeria”. This is the super-highway to a new economy that is home-grown and increasingly self-dependent and self-reliant.

Let me attempt to illustrate what I mean with a few examples.

The training of our doctors must adapt to what we are seeing today. Public health issues, life style diseases like hypertension, heart and kidney diseases and cases of cancers. We must find ways to treat these locally and keep the jobs here.

Our medicine must now focus also on sports medicine which is a growing area of need and which requires specialization.

We must stop thinking about treating malaria, and start thinking about how to eradicate plasmodium or create a vaccine for it.

We have put a research fund there. Please use it.

Our lawyers for example must receive training in either contract or commercial law on how to negotiate PPPs or concessions.

Otherwise we will be forced to hire lawyers from overseas because this is the new way that is gaining ground globally for financing public infrastructure.

The content of our criminology courses must change in order to become responsive to the new types of crime that we have to deal with.

As a State and a nation that has so much to build, our bankers, economists, architects, engineers and town planners must be trained in proper project planning, project implementation and project monitoring.

The essence of these skills explains why projects are not delivered on budget, on schedule and why we have thousands of projects across the country which are uncompleted as we see in the print and electronic media reports.

It is ironic that there is unemployment in a nation that has so much to finish.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, these examples are not exhaustive.

They are just indicative of how we can do old things differently and I have only sought to use examples that we are familiar with.

My dear students, I hope that I have stirred something in you. If I have, then my mission has been useful because we can start a new journey together today.

It will be a journey of GOWN and TOWN, in which you will have a lot of questions to ask me, starting from when I conclude my address today.

I hope I will be able to answer some of your questions.

As for those that I am unable to answer, I hope you will let us work together to look for the answers.

A critical part of that journey between GOWN and TOWN requires that you get involved in the political process.

The debate for gubernatorial and presidential candidates in other countries takes place in their Universities.

I participated in 7 (seven) debates in 2007 and 6 (six) in 2011. None of them took place in this University.

Maybe we can excuse that omission by the fact that you did not have the facilities to host such debates.

But the facilities are now here in this hall. We are building more. You must create the environment, by being peaceful, stopping violent clashes so that people feel safe about coming here.

Being involved in the political process is the first step to the GOWN and TOWN handshake.

The research you conduct, your term papers, project works on varied subjects must get to us to assist us in formulating policies.

As we constantly engage, you must innovate and be creative to begin to respond to the demands of the TOWN.

This is the only way in which our economy can have beneficial impact on our people.

If we fail to act along these lines and I truly hope not, we will continue to see a growth in the African and Nigerian economy as we have been witnessing but we may not see enough jobs.

The reason is simple. Africa has a young and growing population as we all know. Nigeria’s population is the largest of that population which is a big market.

Unfortunately, the goods that service that market from shoes, wrist watches, cars, underwear, food, writing materials, telephones, televisions, music systems and almost anything you can think of are not made in Nigeria.

This is the reason for jobless growth.

Innovation and creativity from our institutions of learning can reserve this trend.

My dear students, let us seize the moment. We know the problem, the solution is obvious, the only thing that stands in the way is us.

Thank you.

Eko o ni baje o!





Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State

June 6, 2013

Creativity is the hand maid of innovation which suggests we must develop things for ourselves.

This is the road to “Made in Nigeria”. This is the super-highway to a new economy that is home-grown and increasingly self-dependent and self-reliant.

Let me attempt to illustrate what I mean with a few examples.

The training of our doctors must adapt to what we are seeing today. Public health issues, life style diseases like hypertension, heart and kidney diseases and cases of cancers. We must find ways to treat these locally and keep the jobs here.

Our medicine must now focus also on sports medicine which is a growing area of need and which requires specialization.

We must stop thinking about treating malaria, and start thinking about how to eradicate plasmodium or create a vaccine for it.

We have put a research fund there. Please use it.

Our lawyers for example must receive training in either contract or commercial law on how to negotiate PPPs or concessions.

Otherwise we will be forced to hire lawyers from overseas because this is the new way that is gaining ground globally for financing public infrastructure.

The content of our criminology courses must change in order to become responsive to the new types of crime that we have to deal with.

As a State and a nation that has so much to build, our bankers, economists, architects, engineers and town planners must be trained in proper project planning, project implementation and project monitoring.

The essence of these skills explains why projects are not delivered on budget, on schedule and why we have thousands of projects across the country which are uncompleted as we see in the print and electronic media reports.

It is ironic that there is unemployment in a nation that has so much to finish.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, these examples are not exhaustive.

They are just indicative of how we can do old things differently and I have only sought to use examples that we are familiar with.

My dear students, I hope that I have stirred something in you. If I have, then my mission has been useful because we can start a new journey together today.-Fashola

Why do we have so much to do in our country and yet still have so many unemployed people?

It seems clear from what I hear from our experts that the GOWN (which is the generic word for our higher institutions of learning such as LASU, AOCOED, LASPOTECH, MOCPED.) is not communicating with the TOWN (the generic word for the larger society comprising the government and its institutions, as well as private sector)
[b]
So the GOWN and the TOWN must begin to talk. There must be a handshake.

It seems to me therefore that our training methods must be re-orientated to retain the critical building blocks but they must also become adapted to the real needs of society.

That is why we have started a school of transportation here, to prepare a new generation of professionals that will become our transport planners, transport managers and transport operators.

The reason is simple. Transportation is a global problem and it is no less so in Lagos or any other part of Nigeria.

Major cities and countries including our state are building transport facilities such as the rail project on the Badagry corridor and the Expressway expansion.

But how many Nigerians have the knowledge about rail construction and how many are involved in building our bridges and highways?

That is why I advised the University management not to move the Transport School to Epe but to leave it in Ojo, so that the students can use the on-going construction as their laboratory.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why I am here today:- To facilitate and encourage the discussion and communication between the GOWN and the TOWN.

We need to build more water works. But how many of us even know how the current water supply is being produced?

We need constant power supply. But how many of us have visited our power generation, power transmission and power distribution facilities?

How many of us know how cars are made from design to assembly?[/b]

A critical part of that journey between GOWN and TOWN requires that you get involved in the political process.

The debate for gubernatorial and presidential candidates in other countries takes place in their Universities.

I participated in 7 (seven) debates in 2007 and 6 (six) in 2011. None of them took place in this University.

Maybe we can excuse that omission by the fact that you did not have the facilities to host such debates.

But the facilities are now here in this hall. We are building more

eko ileee:




Talk about inspiring and taking the leadership battle to the actual leaders of tomorrow. This man went there to remind them that they are next in line and practically dropped the baton on their laps to think and worry about.

eko ileee: ^^^^ Good thing I didn't take you seriously. Just another troll. Sounds like Agbero is what you are or love to be..


BACK TO TOPIC..

Omexonomy: If fashola is doing what you claim why did he came and leave lasu by a very expensive military helicopter You better not take me seriously.

UNDERGROUNDWATER: FASHOLA CALLS FOR PRUDENT MANAGEMENT, AVOIDANCE OF POLLUTION

“Water is the resource that will define how long we will live on earth, how well we will enjoy that stay”

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Tuesday flagged off a one-day seminar with the theme “Ground water Abstraction in Lagos State: Environmental and Health Impact”, calling on residents to be prudent in the management of the underground fresh water and to avoid doing anything that would pollute it.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at the capacity filled Adeyemi Bero, Alausa, venue of the event, also advised Lagosians to always get information from the State’s Water Regulatory Commission before drilling borehole in their compounds in other to avoid drinking contaminated water.

The Governor told the gathering of residents, stakeholders in underground water abstraction and environmental experts, “Water is the resource that will define how long we will live on earth, how well we will enjoy that stay and how meaningful and satisfying it will be for us”.

Likening water to electricity and mobile phones, Governor Fashola explained that just as electricity would expire if over used and mobile phone calls would stop if the money in the card runs out, the underground water which constitute the water we drink, would run out if not prudently managed.

He further explained, “Whether it is water, whether it is electricity, whether it is the telephone, they are utilities and we all need them. Sometimes, they will never be enough. So, you cannot have enough electricity if there is no regulator. Even if we have whatever thousand megawatts and we just decide to put everything on, we know that it will finish if we don’t conserve”.

“It is the same way with water. Sometimes you will also see that when you want to make a call the call drops, the network is congested. There are so many people on the wave band. You are making a call, someone else is sending e-mail, somebody is tweeting, and somebody is sending photographs; so there is need for some waveband management”, the Governor said .

Recalling that the Guest Lecturer mentioned the word “subsidence” which means the failure of the ground as a result of over extraction of water, Governor Fashola said it would not be improbable to divorce such phenomenon from the incidence of collapsed building in parts of the State in recent times.

Governor Fashola declared, “We are not saying don’t drill boreholes, we are saying get information before you do. We are saying if you must drill borehole it is possible one may be enough for a whole street or two streets instead of drilling 20 so that we can share and we can conserve”.

“Water is an important part of our public health strategy. Its management is also important in our security and defense system. It is an asset that helps us to do so many things”, the Governor said adding, “This is important for some of what the guest speaker, Dr. Oteri, has told us that if we don’t conserve, if we don’t manage, we will lose everything”.

He said the Lagos State Government has set up the Water Regulatory Commission, headed by Mrs.’Tanwa Koya, to regulate and monitor the abstraction of underground water in the State in order to ensure conservation and reduce indiscriminate extraction throughout the State.

“They are going to regulate water corporations and all those people who produce water. They will be like the Central Bank for all the banks setting the standard. They will be like the National Communications Commission for all the Telecom operators. They will be like the National Broadcasting Commission for all the Television stations. So they will be the policeman of water”, the Governor said.

Governor Fashola also warned against human activities that lead to the pollution of the underground water such as defecating or urinating in open places and dumping of refuse in unauthorized places saying such activities have led to rampant cases of Cancer and Kidney diseases in recent times.

“High salt intake is not good for the system and it is not impossible to say that high salt intake is not unconnected with the water we drink. It has been demonstrated to us today that if we continue to abuse the groundwater sources, salinity will happen because we are close to the coast. The Atlantic Ocean is full of salt and there is nothing we can do about that. So if we allow it to leak into our fresh water, there is a potential health hazard that will result”, the Governor said.

The Governor also called for caution on how people mix waste and water adding, “There is a very poisonous by product of our waste which comes from the food we eat, the paper bag, the nylon bags; so it is human activity. We should not be afraid of it but we must continually tell ourselves that we must control and manage how we get rid of it”.

“Why are people suddenly dying in their prime of kidney diseases? When I was a child, Cancer was what we read in books, now every other person you and I know or somebody who knows somebody that you know has one form of Cancer or the other. Is it impossible to divorce the rapid occurrence with what we eat, what we drink, how it is produced and also how we are discharging chemicals back into the environment?”, the Governor wondered.

According to the Governor, when people urinate, defecate or discharge their refuse in open places, they will eventually decay and sink into the underground water which is eventually extracted and used by people resulting in the aforementioned diseases.

He called on manufacturers to also be conscious of how hey discharge there effluence saying, “It will come back to us possibly in terms of poisonous or contaminated ground water. Now, when chemicals begin to enter our body at the rate and regularity with which we use water, to bath, to drink, to wash, we have to avoid it. So even if it is small chemical every day, it is on our skin and it can result to deadly disease”.

The Governor hoped that the interactive meeting would lead to a better understanding of the need for conservation of underground water and avoidance of human activities that could lead to pollution of the water.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, called for a better understanding of the need to avoid activities that could pollute underground water saying because the result of such activities take time to manifest, a long term perspective was needed to manage the resource.

He said as a result of this, the Lagos State Government has developed “a time-tested culture of interactive and consultative approach to policy making, planning and strategizing adding that the Government believes that domestic perspectives must be brought to bear on issues that may be global in nature but with local peculiarities.

“We have gathered experts from the Academia, the Health sector Drilling Practitioners and legal minds to educate us on all the issues of the impact of our collective activities on the ground water resources of Lagos State and what we must do to ensure that these resources are preserved”, the Commissioner said.

Present at the occasion were the Deputy Governor, Hon. (Mrs.) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Executive Secretary of Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission, Mrs. ‘Tanwa Koya, members of the State Executive Council and House of Assembly, Experts and Stakeholders in Water Abstraction, Lagos residents and top government functionaries.

kcjazz: The problem is half solved when you understand it. Fashola understands problems. Enlightening SPEECH,

segiwest:
I just understood your plight with this your vocabulary. Nothing good comes cheap.

Omexonomy: the problem of educating rich non indigene en mass is half solved or the problem of turning indigene to agberos en mass is half solve. Which one are you saying.

eko ileee:



Funny enough, LASU wasn't much before the Governor intervened with serious state attention, investments and upgrades... LASU is now the best state University in Nigeria and even better than countless Federal universities ..


LASU gets the last laugh..

eko ileee:


The fact that you think your life is destined for agbero doesn't mean it applies to other people and instead of spewing rubbish on NL, spend more time in elementary school and work on your English and spelling..

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (middle)with the Winners of the Junior and Secondary School Category of the Essay Competition on Taxation – Third Position in the Junior category, Miss Temitope Akinbinu (2nd right) from Gbagada Girls Junior School (right), Second Position in the Senior Category, Miss Sunmisola Oyetomi (2nd right) from Apapa Senior High School, First Position in the Junior Category, Miss Yesirah Adepeju Adebiyi (3rd right) of Ashafa Tijani Memorial High School, First position in the Senior Category, Miss Ibukun Ajayi (3rd left) from Lagos African Church Grammar School, Third position in the Senior Category, Miss Blessing Idokwe (2nd left) from Lagos African Church Grammar School and the Second position in the Junior Category, Master Ibrahim Adeyemi Olalekan (left) from Federal Government College Ijanikin during the 6th Lagos State Taxation Stakeholders’ Conference at The Haven, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, on Thursday, January 18, 2013.

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (middle) in a group photograph with winners of the Secondary School Essay Competition on Taxation and their parents during the 6th Lagos State Taxation Stakeholders’ Conference at The Haven, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, on Thursday, January 18, 2013.

Gov Fashola at Lagos State Power Kids Awards 2013

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (left) congratulates the winner of the Lagos State Power Kids Awards 2013, Master Osadara Gideon of Iju Junior Secondary School (middle) while the General Manager, Lagos State Electricity Board, Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi (right) watches with admiration during the Lagos State Power Kids Awards 2013, a Lagos State Government Energy Conservation Initiative, held at the Memorable Gathering, NERDC Road, CBD Alausa, Ikeja on Tuesday, May 14, 2013

We Are Setting New Levels In Quality Assurance In Public Schools - Fashola
…As State Holds Awards/Breakfast Meeting on Support Our Schools initiatives

The Lagos State Government on Tuesday recognized some corporate organizations and individuals for their support to public schools in the State with the Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) stating that the Government is setting new levels in quality assurance in public schools.

Fashola Visits, Offers Scholarship To Students Of Vocational Centre For The Blind As He Turns 49


• Appeals to Lagosians to keep walkways free for the use of pedestrians, physically challenged
As has been his tradition since the last five years, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Thursday celebrated his 49th birthday with students of the Nigeria Society for the Blind's Vocational Training Centre in Oshodi offering annual scholarships to the students and support for the development projects of the school.

In his remarks at the occasion, Governor Fashola said the State Government would give yearly scholarships to the full capacity of inmates in the school as a way of showing appreciation to the founders, the Board of Trustees and management of the institution for the selfless service they render to the society.

Governor Fashola said in the last five years, his administration has not only put in place a legislation to protect the physically challenge in the society, it has taken concrete steps to show a consciousness of the needs of the group. Among others, he said, Government had made it mandatory to include ramps and walkways while building hospitals, schools, courts and roads especially for the use of the physically challenged as a matter of law enacted by Government which sets guidelines about what it should do to give the