To ameliorating the current hardship faced by residents of Lagos, the state government recently rolled out relief measures that would somewhat ease the burden. From reduction of transport fare to availability of cheaper foods, as well as health and education palliatives, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said it is targeted at the vulnerable population to bring about immediate ease, just as the federal government leads the recovery efforts. Precious Ugwuzor reports
Nationwide, most citizens are groaning under the rising cost of living, resulting in inflation of food and commodities prices, hence the pockets of protests that was witnessed recently, including in Lagos.
Taking into cognisance the plight of his citizens, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is bent on doing something different to ease such pains of economic hardship.
Just last week Thursday, the governor held a live media chat where he unveiled his plans for such relief measures, especially the vulnerable population to mitigate the impact of the hardship and bring about immediate ease.
The governor, accompanied by his deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat, and selected members of the state Executive Council, who spoke during a live media chat titled, ‘Sanwo Speaks,’ revealed steps being taken by his administration to reduce the economic burden on the residents.
In the live chat anchored by media practitioners like Dr. Reuben Abati of Arise TV; Babajide Kolade-Otitoju of Television Continental (TVC); General Manager of Lagos Television, Mrs Adesola Kosoko; Jeffery Uzomma of Channels TV, the governor unveiled his plans while fielding questions.
While conveying empathy to citizens over the current hardship occasioned by inflation commodities prices, he said: “We are not unaware and unmindful of the current situation, but as leaders, we have the responsibility to bring immediate ease to our people. Given the nature of challenges that we are facing presently, we have designed creative means to ease the hardship on our people.
“As incident commander, I am giving you the commitment that the bipartisan advisory committee that we have put together, will welcome ideas and advice from everyone that can lead to more solution out of the challenges that we have found ourselves.
“In terms of policies, we will continue to do everything within our means that the greatest good gets to the greatest number. Lagosians are resourceful and hardworking, they are commercially driven self-starters. Those are the values I want all of us to build our hope around”.
Relief for Civil Servants
According to the governor, one of the immediate measures was targeted at new work schedule for the workforce in the state’s civil service. From this week, the civil servants on Grade Level 1 to 14 would be permitted to work three times weekly until further notice while civil servants on Grade Level 15 to 17 would work four days in a week.
Giving assurances that this measure would not disrupt governance, he said it was to reduce the pressure daily borne by workers in carrying out their duties in the period of economic hardship, adding that it would save the staff of additional stress.
Reduction in Transportation Fare
In terms of cost of transportation, the governor gave a 25 per cent fare slash across the state-owned public transport channels, including BRT, train and ferry services, adding that all government departments and agencies have been instructed to design modalities for immediate implementation of the measures.
On this he said: “Rising cost of transportation has also made it pertinent for us to initiate an intervention in the sector. For the public using the government-owned transport services, we are implementing 25 per cent fare reduction on all our public transportation channels.
“We are also working with various commercial transporters to assist in little way we can to ease the situation. Instructions have been given to government functionaries for the implementation of these measures; modalities will be provided.”
Rising Food Prices and Layers for Agricultural Interventions
To address the rising food prices, the governor announced three layers of agricultural interventions, one of which would be distribution of combo packages of food items to vulnerable Lagosians, targeting 300,000 households, adding that the state had concluded the procurement of over 100 trailers of rice and other food items, but currently fine-tunning the logistics for seamless distribution to the beneficiaries.
Another layer would be the opening of “Sunday Market” for the next five weeks in 42 communities across the state, where staple food would be available for residents to buy at reduced prices. He said shoppers would only be able to buy items not more than N25,000, with each shopper getting 25 per cent rebate immediately after purchase.
On the third level of agricultural intervention, he said it was the “Soup Bowl”, like was rolled out during COVID-19 lockdown. “We have identified local cafeteria operators and caterers within communities. Funds will be sent to them to prepare the soup bowls. Vouchers will be given to anybody to walk in and eat free of charge. We want to be able to feed between 1,000 and 1,500 people in every local government area daily for the next 30 to 60 days at the first instance”.
Support for Education Sector
In education, Sanwo-Olu introduced additional transport support for classroom teachers to enable them keep their work schedule, while pupils across public schools would continue their five-day school attendance.
For the time being, he however suspended the directive compelling parents to show evidence of tax payment in order to enroll their wards in school. According to him, this was to discourage absenteeism and dropping out of school.
Medical Interventions
In the health sector, Sanwo-Olu also reintroduced free child delivery programme for expectant mothers in all the state-owned General Hospitals and special maternity centres. Essentially, this means that the state government would take up the cost of the child delivery, including Caesarean section.
He said: “We believe this measure would help reduce pressure on families. We are also working with the state-owned hospitals to reduce the cost of some certain drugs, such as hypertension medication. All the six health districts in Lagos will roll out bi-weekly community health mission over the next three months, where residents would enjoy free check-up for diabetes, blood pressure and eye testing. There will be free medications to be given to patients to manage observed conditions.”
Infrastructure
Infrastructure-wise, the governor revealed the collaborative plan with the local government authorities to reconstruct 180 inner roads across the state.
Reacting to the complaint of lack of street lights in some parts of the state, the governor blamed unscrupulous people for the vandalism of cables.
He said: “Some of the lightings we do usually have a lifespan as some of the bulbs need to be changed after sometime but more importantly, there is always a lot of sabotage on our cables. We have cables that have been laid for street lights and people go and cut those cables. Two days ago, we even caught somebody removing iron on our rails. So, we have caught a lot of people.
” There are people that are just vandalising the street lights. They would rip off the wires from the poles themselves. That is why I mentioned we are changing them from cables to LEDs and solar. It is a lot of money but it’s something we would do intermittently.“
Early Payments of Pensions
Taking cognisance of the challenges pensioners often face in accessing their pensions, Governor Sanwo-Olu said the state government would ensure the prompt payment of pensions to retired civil servants in the state, adding that they should be able to receive their cheques within a month after retirement.
Security
Given the importance of security, the governor said measures are on ground to secure the Citizenry. On the recent move by FG to approve state policing, he reiterated Lagos’ readiness to deploy 10,000 men from the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) to assist with the provision of security across the state.
The governor said this will come into effect once the Federal Government and the National Assembly firm up constitutional provisions for the establishment of state police.
Buttressing his point, he said the LNSC, a uniformed security agency established by a law of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2016, would be pulled out to join state police.
He said: “I am an advocate for it. I believe we needed it like yesterday. And the interesting thing is that we have the Neighborhood Watch and it is still functional, about 6,000 of them. The good news is that I have given approval for us to recruit additional 4,000 of them. And this is job for our youths and our able-bodied men.
“What that means for me is that if they give approval for state police, I have 10,000 men that I can further train and get them ready. These are people that know the entire community- the nooks and crannies. Already, they provide intelligence at our state security meetings and you can imagine what happens if that is turned around to a proper security agency.’’
Call for Patience, Shunning of Civil Unrest
While pleading for patience and understanding, he said the nation would be out of the woods in the fullness of the reforms initiated by President Bola Tinubu. This is just as he urged those calling for civil unrest and industrial action to desist from the plan, noting that paralysing the economy would not bring about solutions.
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In terms of policies, we will continue to do everything within our means that the greatest good gets to the greatest number. Lagosians are resourceful and hardworking, they are commercially driven self-starters. Those are the values I want all of us to build our hope around
