IKORODU YOUTHS ANGRY WITH SANWO-OLU
Youths in Ikorodu division have joined other stakeholders in the division to protest the exclusion of the division from the list of the nominees of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the Lagos State Local Government Service Commission.
In their attempt to find ways of addressing what they described as deliberate marginalization of the people of lkorodu Division, particularly from the Local Government Service Commission and generally from the scheme of things in Lagos State, the youths, under the aegis of Concerned Ikorodu Division Youths (CIDY), have written a letter to the Governor to express their disappointment over the issue and demanded for the inclusion of the representative of the division on the Commission. The youths based their demand on legal and moral grounds and the Division’s unrelenting cooperation with and support for successive governments in particularly, and generally to the State since inception.
The Governor had on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, released a list of nominees for the Lagos State Local Government Service Commission, which he intends to forward to the Lagos State House of Assembly for screening and approval with no representative from Ikorodu division on the list. The list of the nominees are: Hon. Kamal Bayewu (Ajeromi/Ifelodun in Badagry Division), Chairman; Hon. Taofeek Adaranijo (Agege in lkeja Division), Member; Mr Ahmed Seriki ( Epe Division) Member; Engr. Biodun Orekoya (Shomolu in lkeja Division), Member, and Hon. Hakeem Bamgbola (Lagos Division), member.
In the letter, titled, ‘Call for the Inclusion of Ikorodu Division in the Newly Constituted Lagos State Local Government Service Commission (LSLGSC),’ dated 9th of November, 2020, the concerned youths of the Division, while stating that they are major stakeholders in the State, called on the Governor to use his good office to correct what they called ‘injustice and unfair treatment of the Division.’
“As major stakeholders in Ikorodu Division and Lagos State as a whole, we, the concerned youths of lkorodu Division, are adding our voices to the clamour by other stakeholders in the division to call your attention to the exclusion of the good people of Ikorodu Division from the newly constituted Lagos State Local Government Service Commission”. They cited sections 14 (4) of the Nigerian Constitution and section 45(2a) of the Lagos State Government (Administration) Law to buttress the demand of the division for inclusion in the Local Government Service Commission.
“Your Excellency, the recently approved list of Chairman and members of Lagos State Local Government Service Commission with the exclusion of Ikorodu division, yet again, does not only expose a presumed resentment against the division, but also berates some extant laws, especially S. 14(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, which mandates that the composition of State or Local Government or any of Government Agencies to be carried out with due recognition of the diversity of the people within its area of authority as it emphasizes the need to promote a sense of belonging among all the people of the Federation.”
“In addition, S. 45(2a) of the Local Government Administration Law of Lagos State complements the provision S. 14 (4) of the Nigerian Constitution by stating that members shall be nominated from each of the divisions of the State and each nomination shall be confirmed by the House of Assembly. We are appealing that you should use your good office in correcting this injustice by reconstituting the Commission to include a representative from Ikorodu Division before sending it to the Lagos State House of Assembly for screening and approval”.
The youths also alleged that the Division had been suffering from marginalization since 1999 and that despite this, the indigenes have been supportive of the party in power in the State since then while their homeland has been persistently treated unfairly. They stated that they had expected that the present administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu would redress the situation, considering the support the Governor got from the Division during the last gubanatorial election, and accord Ikorodu Division its dues in terms of political appointments and projects, but that nothing has changed yet.
“Considering the acceptance and support that your person and your administration have enjoyed from the good people of Ikorodu Division, we expected that we would be treated fairly and justly, but from all indications, nothing has changed from what we had been experiencing since the advent of this democratic dispensation in 1999, when Ikorodu Division started witnessing marginalization in terms of political appointments and allocation of projects,” the concerned youths alleged. “Yet, Ikorodu has continued to be with the progressive party the same way it had been from the days of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the current era of the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
“During the last general elections, we gave our votes without hesitation at the APC primaries, even after the party’s primaries, we still did not rest on our oars as we did not only vote for you massively in the general elections, but also guarded our votes jealousy, beat our own voting records and created new one by recording 45,879 votes and emerged third in the highest votes cast at the election,” the youths recalled in their letter to the Governor.
“This, we did, believing that your government would realize our importance as an integral asset and Division in the State and prioritize our needs by providing for us basic amenities that will better our lots; consider us for appointments and work towards ending the marginalization that we had been constantly made to face by successive governments. WE SAW HOPE IN YOU. Mr. Governor, twenty months after your inauguration as Governor, the narrative seems to have gone worse; even what should naturally situate here viz positions and benefits, are either being heavily debated before it is finally given or we don’t get it at all.”
While also stating that the disappointments over the exclusion of Ikorodu Division from the Board of Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission few years ago, among others, are still very fresh in the minds of the people of the Division, the youths pleaded that the Governor should reconsider the list of the Lagos State Local Government Service Commission and include a representative of Ikorodu Division in the Commission.
“Mr. Governor sir, we hope that your administration will do everything necessary to change the marginalization narrative towards Ikorodu Division by revisiting the composition of the Lagos State Local Government Service Commission Commission as released by the Head of Service of Lagos State last week (Tuesday, November 3, 2020) and include a representative from Ikorodu Division,” the concerned youths stated in the letter.
The youths also commended the Governor for confirming Ms Abisola Olusanya as the substantive Commissioner for the State’s Ministry of Agriculture. Ms Olusanya, an indigene of Ikorodu, was formerly the Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture and was also made the acting Commissioner for the same portfolio in June after the resignation of the former Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, following the State Executive Council’s approval of his selection as the Oniru-elect.