Personal Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Constituency Affairs, Hon. Khadijat Omotayo Kareem, has assured Nigerians that the president is working round the clock to fulfill his promise of bringing renewed hope to them.
Hon. Kareem gave this assurance during her courtesy visit to Oba Kabiru Shotobi, the Ayangbure of lkorodu, in his palace on Tuesday.
The visit was part of Hon. Kareem’s 5-day visitations to Lagos State, at the behest of the president.
It was indeed a kind of homecoming for Hon. Kareem who is not only related to lkorodu, but also married an lkorodu indigene, as she and her entourage as well as her media team were personally and warmly received by Oba Shotobi who expressed joy over the visit from the Presidency.
” My King sir, my visit here today is from the Presidency, and I want to extend the greetings from the President to you sir and ma. Mr President has sent me down to Lagos State, for five-day visitations.
” He said l should assured the good people of Lagos State, and Nigeria, that they should be rest assured that Mr President has not forgotten any of you”.
Assuring that Tinubu is working tirelessly to bring renewed hope to Nigeria, most especially Lagos State, Hon. Kareem informed the gathering that President said that he is representing Lagos State and has not abandoned the state.
” He is working tirelessly to bring renewed hope to Nigeria, especially Lagos State.
“Mr President said that l should remind you that he is from Lagos State and that he is representing Lagos State. There’s no way he is going to abandon Lagos State. Lagos State is his own, it’s his pride, and we will all rejoice together”.
Speaking on the reason for her visit, Hon Kareem explained that she had visited the Ayangbure, to identify the needs of the lkorodu people and explore ways to address them.
She added that since everyone can not get a white collar job, there’s need for collaboration in order to empower the people.
” Mr President believes in development and quality education, and that’s why he said that l should come down, because he can’t see everywhere.
” Everyone can not be a beneficiary of white collar jobs. We should look for ways to collaborate to empower the people. We want to see how we can make it happen that people are going to be self employed, and everything that belongs to the grassroots would get to them without delay or bottleneck”.
” We had a town hall meeting yesterday with critical stakeholders and they spoke their minds and told me what they want which l’m going to communicate to Mr President.
” Today, we are here with the number two paramount ruler in Lagos State, and we want to know the areas you want Mr President to look into in lkorodu”.
While stating that she would visit Oba of Lagos after leaving the Ayangbure palace, and also inspect some abandon Federal government’s projects in Lagos, she added that she had already visited some states in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country for the same purpose and plans to visit other states in the federation.
Meanwhile, Oba Shotobi, welcoming his August visitors, commended Hon Kareem for undertaking the visitations on behalf of the President, to get first hand feedback from constituencies across the country, stating that her competence would have made her suitable for the task.
He said that he and his fellow traditional rulers in lkorodu division, have collated the some of the needs of their people into a document titled, ‘The Time To Act Is Now’, a copy of which he presented to the personal assistant to the President.
While reading the document to the gathering, the monarch said that one of the critical needs of lkorodu division, is security which he described as the cornerstone for any thriving community.
He explained that though, private individuals like High Chief Adewunmi Ogunsanya, the Odofin of lkorodu Kingdom, through organisations like lkorodu Division Peace lnitiatives Liimited/Guarantee (IDPL/GTE), have made commendable efforts in reconfiguring the security architecture of lkorodu division, these measures are insufficient given the crime rate in neighboring states and the growing population of lkorodu which is well over 1.4million.
Oba Shotobi, therefore, called the Federal government’s support in the areas like provision of personnel and operational tools, strengthening the collaboration between private security outfits and government agencies and establishing community policing strategies, to ensure swift response to security threats among others, to further enhance security in the division.
Another area the monarch sought support from the Federal government is road infrastructure which he described as catalyst for economic growth.
He commended the efforts of Hon Babajimi Benson, the representative of the lkorodu Federal Constituency, for facilitating the construction of inner roads across lkorodu division, but emphasized that lkorodu, as the second largest city in Lagos State and third largest city in the whole of Southwest, needs better road networks compared to what they have currently which he said lags far behind what is available in other divisions in the State, and remained inadequate to support the division’s rapidly expanding population and economic activities.
Other community agenda mentioned in the document, for Presidential intervention are Agura IPP/Chevron-NNPC Joint Venture, revamping of the Odongunyan Industrial Estate, ecological impact of Egbin Power Plant, lmpact of water hyacinth on Ogun River at ltowolo, four-lane express road: Sabo lkorodu to ltoikin, flyovers at Ogolonto and lkorodu Roundabout, rehabilitation of Odongunyan industrial estate road network, expand other major roads to ease traffic congestion, improve access to rural areas to stimulate agricultural productivity and prioritise maintenance of existing road networks.
In her brief response to Oba Shotobi’s requests, Hon Kareem assured him and the people of lkorodu division, of the president’s interventions.
Others at the visit were Asiwaju Steve Anifowoshe, Asiwaju of lkorodu, Asipa Kaoli Olusanya, Otunba Ayodele Elesho, Chief Monzor Olowosago, Publisher, Oriwu Sun, Basorun Babatunde Rotinwa, Mr Rotimi Erogbogbo, Chairman, Ikorodu-Oga Development Association (IKODASS), as well as traditional chiefs, Baales, representatives of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), lkorodu branch, among others.