Fashola

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Tuesday said the State Government would soon constitute Transition Councils to manage the Local Governments following the recent expiration of the tenure of the former Council Chairmen.

Governor Fashola, spoke in an interview with journalists at the Nigeria Police College Parade Ground, Ikeja venue of the 5th Year Anniversary of Uniformed Voluntary Clubs in Lagos State Public Schools.

He said the Transition Council, to be comprised of politicians, would hold forte during the transition period when the process of conducting voter’s registration update and ward delineation would be concluded preparatory to the State holding elections.

Earlier, he explained the reasons for the relaunch of uniformed Voluntary Clubs in public schools, stating that the objective of the administration is to build the infrastructure of the mind in the young ones.

The Governor reiterated that while some people have opted to develop the infrastructure of the stomach, he is convinced that when they reflect on it they would realize that it is better to prepare people to feed themselves by educating them and equipping them instead of preparing to feed them.

He added that the State government understood that there were challenges in the education sector which included infrastructural where there was the need to upgrade existing classrooms, build new ones to cope with growing population demand and also provide learning aids and make the schools a destination once again.

He maintained that by many measures, the State Government has made significant progress in that respect and if measured by the progress made at the annual public WAEC exams, one would see that from very modest beginnings of about seven percent of the students who obtained five credits with English and Mathematics at one sitting, the results have improved to 11percent, to 18 percent, to 38percent, 41percent and now to 45 percent.

The Governor stressed that the infrastructure challenges in the educational sector only represented one half of the story as the State Government also needed to build more hospitals , news roads, remake existing ones and so many other things in order to bridge the infrastructure deficit that arose as a result of the population running ahead of infrastructure.

According to him, for those who are already members of the various uniformed voluntary organizations, as they proceed in their education, one thing that would stand them out in terms of how people relate with them would be their character.