Encomium
…Says local productivity, not foreign imports, the answer at 4th edition of Youth Stakeholders’ Forum
For the fourth year running, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Saturday kept a date with youths by attending the graduation of trainees under the Lagos State and After School Graduation Development Centre (AGDC) IGNITE Employability Project, urging Nigerians to embrace the mental mindset that solutions to the nation’s problems lie locally and not abroad.
Addressing several hundreds of youths including graduating participants of the Scheme in Streams V, VI, VII and VIII, at the New Haven Events Centre, G.R.A Ikeja, the Governor reiterated that the opportunity for growth is better here than any part of the globe that he knows today explaining, however, that the growth will not lead to jobs if people do not begin to do things for themselves.
Noting that a major solution to the problem of youth unemployment and allied economic problem can be found in truly Made in Nigeria products, Governor Fashola charged the youths to rise up and take the opportunities that many foreigners like South Africans, Ghanaians are seeing and moving into the Nigerian economy to take up since the resources are that of Nigerians.
To spread the virtues of employability training, Governor Fashola tasked beneficiaries to always look back and share what they have learnt with others and reach out to as many people as possible stating that it is only through that means that many more could benefit without necessarily undertaking the IGNITE training.
He said with the presentation of the scorecard of the last four years, he is inspired to continue to work because he sees a future of promise explaining that the issue of the number of people who are unemployed does not frighten him but encourages him because once the figure is diagnosed, the problem of unemployment can be dimensioned and tackled with pragmatic strategies like the Employability Project.
The Governor also told all those who were present at the event who have not registered as residents of the state to go forward and register under the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA) stressing that the programme would assist the state in getting a definitive figure of residents in the state.
Governor Fashola who took a retrospective look at the programme since inception said it started with the employability programme which dovetailed into recruitment of health volunteer workers who are positioning the state to be able to meet one of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 through their activities in Primary Healthcare Centres.
He added that by the second year of the programme, when the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Vocational and Technical Education Board, Engineer Olawunmi Gasper came on board, the fears and complaints of many about dearth of technicians, and plumbers have been addressed such that now all those who are undergoing training under the IGNITE scheme have jobs waiting for them.
On the teachers’ conversion scheme, the Governor said the emphasis should not be about how many people have benefitted yet but about the prospects for the future and noticeable improvement in the educational sector already.
“It is not about how many people have benefitted from our teachers’ conversion scheme but the prospect it holds for the future that we see and imagine. Our performance in public examinations in terms of students who scored five credits at one sitting have moved from 7percent to 11percent, 18percent, 21percent, dropped to 19 percent, moved up to 39percent and now at 41 percent”.
Speaking on waste management, he said Agege Motor Road and Idi- Oro had mountainous heaps of refuse which was left unattended to by the people before government decided to intervene by clearing it and in the process waste management has become one of the new vistas by which many people are becoming employers of labour as Private Sector Participants operators who are carting away refuse and making money.
While charging the participants to be innovative about the way they live, the Governor explained that innovations in the process of partying in Lagos has brought about fundamental changes that has given birth to a multi-billion naira business enterprise which has radically changed the way parties are organized in the state.
“I have done a study about the cultural side of Lagos party life. The money moving in that economy is enormous. We did a study between October and November last year from Thursday to Saturday night through Sunday morning every week for four weeks and involved 1,555 parties with a sum of N1.2Billion Naira. The total picture in the State is about N3Billion every month and people are partying heavily in that sector”, he stated.
The Governor who also fielded questions from some of the participants on diverse issues said though he has about 18 months left in office, his determination is to ensure that the general conviction that the present administration started very well, is sustained to ensure that it ends very well.
Speaking on the mortgage based housing scheme which is being constructed round the state, the Governor said the state would ensure that by the end of the year, the process of allocating housing units in some of the estates would commence.
He said before this year finishes, the home ownership mortgage scheme will be flagged off and the first set of beneficiaries will get their homes explaining that the motivating force behind the scheme is sustainability and that the determination of the government is to ensure that it is those who do not have shelter that will benefit from it and not those who already have homes.
According to the Governor, the problem of education currently is that of quality of the education as distinct from what used to be the situation many years back when many could not even read and write in any language noting that the literacy level in Lagos is about 84 percent
On healthcare delivery, the Governor said the state regularly conduct medical missions to provide free healthcare to the citizenry and that the next stop is Badagry where people will get free medical healthcare in the next few weeks.
Responding to another question, Governor Fashola said there are no ghost workers in Lagos explaining that the biometric system deployed keeps track of those who secure employment, who leaves service and those who are dismissed hence the existence of up to date records.
Explaining that okadas were not “banned” in response to another question, the Governor said they only had their operation restricted to some routes, adding that from available data of an average of 646 accidents that were recorded, it has reduced to 121 in March while in some months, no accidents were even recorded.
He said there is a need to have a harmonized academic calendar for schools nationwide so that there would be uniformity and avoidance of multiplicity adding that before the end of the year Lagos would have succeeded in having a harmonized calendar in place.
Speaking earlier, the State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mrs Sola Oworu said out of the 800 graduates already trained under the After School Graduation Development programme, over 70 per cent have gained full employment.
She added that over 17 Skills Acquisition Centres have been put in place and have trained over 29000 people who are also assisted to get capitals through micro finance schemes to get finances to start their businesses.
The Commissioner stated that since the commencement of the programme, over 1300 applicants have put in for the programme but that the state can only have capacity to train about 400 at a time.
While giving an insight into the programme, the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Vocational and Technical Education Board, Engineer Olawunmi Gasper said on the portal of LASTVEB as at today, a total of 4,256 graduates have been registered for the various programmes.
He said the DFID has also agreed to use one of the templates under the GEM 2 Programme round the nation while the Board has received delegations from several states to understudy the programme towards starting similar ones in their states.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the After School Graduation Development Centre (AGDC), Mrs Ibukun Awosika urged everyone who lives in Lagos to look around and explore new ways of solving problems.
She added that with the Cultural Innovation Programme which is a new programme that she is passionate about, she would ensure that whoever emerges after the rigorous process of selections will be given a shot at the best opportunities that the world can offer.
The Managing Director of Lagos State Waste Management Authority, Mr Ola Oresanya commended the passion with which the State Governor has been pursuing the AGDC programme, explaining that LAWMA has had a fruithful partnership with the body and has produced Street Captains under the Street Captain Youth Empowerment Programme.
The Executive Director of the Programme, Mrs Detoun Ogoh in her welcome address said looking back since the commencement of the Programme, the labours of the organizers have not been in vain considering the gains made.
She commended the State Governor for his support and commitment to the Programme since its commencement and urged the participants to remain committed to the values they have gained.
The event was witnessed by dignitaries from diverse sectors including some members of the State Executive Council like the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Lateef Ibirogba, Special Adviser for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Seye Oladejo, Special Adviser on Public Health, Dr(Mrs) Yewande Adeshina, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and industry, Mr Wale Raji and former Vice -Chairman of the National Communications Commission, Chief Ernest Ndukwe and participants in the After School Graduation Development Programme.
