Students travel 10km to access schools in Badagry – Lawmaker

OKUNADE ADEKUNLE |

A lawmaker in Lagos State, Mr Setonji David, has appealed to Governor Akinwumi Ambode to provide more schools in Badagry to ease pupils’ difficulties in accessing education in the area.
David, representing Badagry II constituency in the Lagos State House of Assembly, said that students travelled up to 10 kilometres to attend schools in some areas of Badagry due to their insufficient number.
He said on Sunday in Lagos that the state government needed to provide more primary and secondary schools in the area to ease the difficulty.
According to him, the basis of development is education and this should be made accessible to all and sundry.
“I am here to ensure that various projects are carried out to ensure that our people have the benefits of democracy. We will tell the government about the needs of our people. There are so many areas in Badagry, where we don’t have enough secondary schools.
“Some go as much as 10 kilometres to get to secondary schools, while there are areas that don’t have primary schools. So, we expect the state government to give us more schools in Badagry,’’ the legislator said.
Commenting on the 10-lane Lagos-Badagry Expressway and the Badagry Deep Sea Port projects, David urged the governor to endeavour to complete the projects started by his predecessor in office.
According to him, the completion of the projects would improve the socio-economic development of the area, the state, in particular and the country in general.
“Having a sea port in Badagry will reduce the pressure on the Lagos ports. It is a good development.
“Whatever it will take the federal and the state governments to collaborate on the project would be good because the economy of Lagos State would be positively affected.”
However, the lawmaker advised the government to carry along the people of the state who might be affected by the execution of the projects.
“Every project is meant to serve the people; every project must have human face, you must provide for the people, as this is why some projects fail.
“The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has changed its strategy and it now believes in discussing with the people, to allow them to be able to buy into the project.
“When the people buy into it, they would find a way to accommodate it, and it would not be alien to them. You must not treat the people as if they are not important.
“Whatever you want to do, you must carry them along, educate them and let them be able to buy into it,” he said.
David, who was the former chairman, Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, urged the state government to collaborate with the Federal Government to achieve the objectives of the projects.
According to him, as the people’s representative in the area, efforts would be made to educate and enlighten the people to key into the projects.
He said that residents of the area were progressively-minded and the completion of the 10-lane Lagos-Badagry Expressway was of immense priority to his constituency.
“The completion of that road is my number one priority and I will give the governor every support on it. That is one project that we are all yearning for its completion. It is the gateway to my place and to Nigeria and we are pleading with the governor to complete it.
“We all pray that he would live up to his promise and once it is completed, Badagry would be transformed,” David said.
It would be recalled that Ambode recently pledged to commence work in September on the state’s proposed $1.5 billion seaport and resume work on the 10-lane Lagos-Badagry Expressway project.
The governor had said that the seaport, which would occupy a land mass of over 1,000 hectares, would be the biggest in Africa, with a free trade zone and a container terminal.