Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has appealed to Lagosians for patience over the bad state of roads in the state saying the continuous rainfall since he was sworn-in about four months ago is slowing down rehabilitation/palliative work on the roads.
Sanwo-Olu made the appeal while answering questions on the traffic situation and bad roads in the state at ‘The Platform’ put together by The Covenant Place, which took place at Iganmu on Tuesday.
The event which was a question and answer programme coordinated by Pastor Poju Oyemade has as its theme: ‘Re- designing the Nigerian Economy with new ideas’.
Sanwo-Olu promised that there would be extensive and massive rehabilitation of roads after the raining seasons, but that all the roads can not be tackled at the same time.
The governor said it has been raining since he was sworn-in and bitumen does not like rain and so work on the roads is being slowed down because of this.
He however assured that the government was still working day and night to remedy the state of the bad roads in the state.
Apart from bad roads, the governor said water, small landmass and population explosion were responsible for traffic congestion but that his government’s remedy for the traffic problem being experienced on a daily basis was a multi-modal transportation system.
This he said involves developing the rail, water transportation and bus transit system which the government is already working on.
“On water transportation, we are encouraging the building of a lot of jetties and we have just acquired 6-7 new passenger boats that can take 60-70 passengers at a time”.
These, Sanwo-Olu said will be the long term solution to the transportation problem, adding that the government was working on a short, medium and long term solution to issues surrounding transportation.
On commercial motor-cycle operators, the governor said because he wants to give everybody a chance to be part of the state development plan, the government is trying to harmonize and come up with a regulation system for them.
“This is designed to know who they are, their activities and how to manage them to ensure that they don’t add to the problem of traffic flow in the state, we don’t want to disenfranchise anybody,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The governor also disclosed that since his assumption of office it is only in the education sector that he has given a major approval for the recruitment of about 10, 000 teachers into the state public schools, a process that is already on-going.
Adding that he would also ensure proper and adequate regular training for teachers to increase and enhance their efficiency and capacity.
According to him, through the fibre initiative of his administration which is already on-going, everybody, especially schools and hospitals will have access to high speed internet services and as a technology enabler, it will manage traffic and other security issues in the state.
“We are constricted in term of finances, but it is a marathon, we need to continue to run to ensure we meet up and I can assure you that we will meet up and Lagos will continue to be greater”, Sanwo-Olu assured.