The Lagos of today is not the vision of the old. It is also not the Lagos we all wanted in our youth. Definitely, it is not the Lagos of the future!
Almost all rural upbringings dream of a Lagos like London. They dream of a Lagos like Cape Town. They dream of a Lagos like Cairo, even without the Egyptian pyramids. But when you come in from Berger, or through Ota, or Badagry. You are welcome into the hustling and bustling of a city without all the benefits of same. A city languishing in the confusions and palavers of a heated transit; a costlier living with quite horrible standards.
You are welcome to a Lagos that is supposed to have all amenities from transport to waste management, to massive employments, with unique social security and welfare.
Lagos is supposed to be the hallmark of exemplary growth and development but we are all witnesses to the fact that Lagos is only growing in the pockets and fat bank accounts of a very few. Every month, the Lagos government declares #50bn as revenue. Lagosians have been paying through and through, but is there anything to show for it? Lagos remains the second most dangerous city people live in all over the world. At a point in 2020; almost all Lagosians in their streets became vigilantes. We were all threatened by the menace of child cultism and such other dangerous criminals.
Aside insecurities, the Lagos Market System has been wholesomely destroyed by the sheer greed of the Ruinous Cabals that have stiffened the markets with multi-taxation; tyranny of the Iyaloja; and the excessive costs of the stalls after same has been taken away from the actual owners of the markets from Tejuosho to Oshodi. Today, millions of poor people have been turned to street traders. Yet, the same Ruinous Cabals have criminalized street trading.
This Lagos is not the Lagos we all dreamt. This is definitely not the Lagos we all want, whether you are an indigene or non-indigene. So, which Lagos do we really want? Our party, the African Action Congress (AAC) believes in true pragmatic ways of doing things. We take all problems as challenges, and draw tasks for ourselves. We also see prospects in every momentum and opportunities. This is why we are here to show you why we are different from other parties. We are here to tell you what and how we will build a new Lagos. This is why we chose the slogan: IRAPADA EKO! DANDAN NI!!
EDUCATION
Lagos cannot continue to have a situation where our primary and secondary schools are mushrooms and unfit to transform the knowledges of the kids. We want to stop the ugly trend where private schools are times ten of public schools. We will also build quality schools to the point that private schools would be so threatened that they would have to copy our standards to survive.
We will also make sure we get at least one new higher institution per district, while we will build six (6) Technical Colleges within two years. Remember the whole of Lagos has just one Technical College at Agidingbi. This will change. Education should be for all of Lagosians. So, we will provide a truly free Education at all levels! We will with education eradicate child and youth cultism; crimes, and mass illiteracy.
HEALTHCARE
Today, the Chief of the Cabal has been sick, but cannot visit any hospital in Lagos. We will rebuild the health care system by creating three Medical Schools to serve at least three (3) new hospitals per Senatorial districts. This means we will create nine (9) new hospitals within three years of our coming into governance while we create three (3) Medical Schools that will train doctors, nurses and other medical workers to global standards.
SOCIAL WELFARE
Lagosians should know that it is a new dawn. There is the data with LASRA which our government will advance and deepen. With LASRA , we will be providing Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for all Lagosians especially those living below the poverty line. Millions of Lagosians don’t live on two (2) dollars per day. This is too absurd and alarming. We will also key into the AAC National manifesto of giving our students Cost of Study Allowance (COSA) which would be given to all students of higher education every semester (a sum of #100k). We will also be giving grants and soft loans to traders instead of allowing millions to be at the behest of Komule Lantern loans!
MARKET SYSTEMS AND THE INFORMAL ECONOMY
Lagos is the darling of all traders. But the market system is terrible. We will stop the tyranny of the Tinubu-imposed Iyalojas. We will encourage democratisation in our markets as well as using UNITAX instead of the multi-taxations that has turned traders to people who sweat without enjoying their labour. We will also make sure there is a creche per market which will provide for the children of the traders. We will also return the markets to the real traders instead of the expensive stalls that are owned by cabals.
We will work with organisations of Informal Workers to build the informal economy to be very viable and pro-masses. We will revamp, advance, and renew the Night Market economy from Agege to Obalende. We will create abundance that would make Lagos the greatest economy in Africa!
LG DEMOCRATISATION
The Local Government is the third tier of government that is closest to the masses. But Lagos LGs are just branches of the state government house. We will stop that! We will give the LGs their original allocations from the Federal purse without undue interferences. We will encourage the LGs to handle social welfarist programs that would help the masses directly.
SECURITY
We will work more on social security as it is entailed under our social welfare programs. This will help to build on the physical security channels we will lead. We will make sure the police and military work in a more digital and advanced manner instead of the ragtag and “hurry hurry” manners which we have today. We will make sure the whole of Lagos is on camera.
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
When we come in to government; there will no more be hold ups. We will not be like the APC failures who cannot resolve the impasse since 1999. What they can’t do in 33 years we will do in just three years. They keep lying that their Blue, Red, Purple and other four Rail lines are still in one grand document sleeping in Bourdillon. This nonsense will stop. We will build a fast lane and modern railway that will be delivered within two years through massive Direct Labour instead of the thieving contract system. We will also work with NURTW and other Transport Unions to TRANSFORM, DEMOCRATIZE AND DIGITALIZE the Bus System.
We will also employ the legendary Amsterdam Plan to build a Naval transport system that would help to ease the moving around of people.
ELECTRICITY
We will take the advantage national goal of our party for the Decentralization of the electricity grid. Thus, Lagos will build through building Solar Farms; Turning our Abbattoirs to Electricity Channels; and such others.
HOUSING AND LAND MANAGEMENT
We will advance the achievement of late Baba Lateef Jakande’s concept of Social Housing by building and retaking 10 Low-Cost Housing all over the states within two years. The era where Lagosians suffer to live will end. When we build our almost free housing system, private rents would reduce drastically!
WASTE MANAGEMENT
We will have a waste management system. that will be structural and community based. We will take back LAWMA for the people and advance the strategies of packing and recycling waste. We will also make sure we do not burden Lagosians with paying highly for waste management. The bills will be drastically reduced as the waste would make so much money already for the government.
AGRICULTURE
Instead of turning agrarian areas like Ikorodu and Epe to another hub of real estate, we will return and advance the state farming initiatives and make sure we provide at least 50percent of the food production in Lagos state.
CONCLUSIONS
We call on Lagosians to rise. It has been thirty three wasted years for the majority while a few cabals are cashing out in billions.
A new dawn has come. We are calling on Lagosians to join and vote the AAC at all levels. Our liberation can never be postponed anymore!