When ABDULGANIYU VINOD OBASA was elected as the Vice Chairman of Agege Local Government in the last local council election in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, and his eventual assumption of office as the Acting Chairman of the local government, critics did not give this young man any chance. Their thought was, what could a youth with no experience in politics do? A few months into his tenure, VINOD OBASA did not only surprise these doubting Thomases, he is setting a record as the youngest performing local government chairman in the Centre of Excellence. How did he do all the good work the residents of Agege are talking about today? VINOD OBASA bares it all during a brief media hangout he recently had with some Editors in his office at the Agege Local Government secretariat. He talked of how he was able to touch every sector to set a pace for his dream of Agege of the future. To the surprise of many, VINOD OBASA has effectively managed mobilisation and grassroots engagements. He spoke with authority how he has been able to strengthen ongoing initiatives and deepen collaboration with community stakeholders to enhance service delivery in Agege Local Government.
Education
In the area of education, we have been able to rehabilitate and renovate some schools. At least, I can say about seven Nursery and Primary Schools while others will be included very soon. Our plan is to create an ICT room, functional library and sick bay for these schools.
We also organized Spelling Bee competition for the pupils while we also gave no fewer than 7,000 pupils educational materials in order to ease the burden off the shoulders of their parents.
We purchased 250 GCE forms for our students and also put in place a follow up mechanism for those who received the forms to prepare them for their examination.
Roads and Infrastructural Development
Between the time I assumed office and now, we have been able to rehabilitate 11 roads and drainages with the aim of deflooding Agege and its environment. Though some of these roads do not fall under the purview of the local government, we took them upon ourselves because these roads need urgent attention.
I want to be a service provider and problem solver. It is the local government that is closer to the people and their welfare must be our priority.
Healthcare Delivery
We are planning to have Health Booths across all the wards in Agege. Between now and the end of December, 10 of these Booths will be in operation. The Health Booths will be packaged in such a way that they will be able to communicate directly to the health centres we have in the local government.
We also have plan to build Theatre that will be primarily responsible for the pregnant women to solve any complication such as CS problem. There is also plan to have Health Insurance for these women. The plan is to link this up with Ile Eko policy.
Security
I had series of stakeholders’ engagements where I was able to tell my people that if they see something they must say something because we can’t leave this security problem alone for the security agents.
We have also put on place an outfit call Agege Crime Fighters to beef up our community policing in partnership with the CDC and CDA.
As part of our efforts to secure Agege, we have begun to light up the environment with street lighting across eight major roads in Agege. I am happy to say that since I came into power, there has been improvement in the security architecture of the Agege Local Government.
Youth Empowerment
We have a series of programmes for the youths in Agege Local Government. We have put in place the Youth Entrepreneur Program with the initial target of 200 people to be empowered.
This is a SME Training and Entrepreneurship Empowerment Program, designed to equip the residents of Agege particularly, small and medium scale enterprise owners with the knowledge and relevant training to thrive in the economy and to fuel their business growth.
We target existing entrepreneurs and at the same time, we want to bring in new ones. We have plan to inaugurate Agege Tech Hub very soon. Our aim is to continue to engage the youth for them to find their potentials.
Sports Development
Before I came into politics in Agege, I have been handling the annual Obasa Games. Now that I am in charge of the affairs in the local government, I want to take the Games to the next level. We have six players discovered in the past, while many more to be discovered as we bring new innovations into Obasa Games.
The playground which is popularly known as Ile Pako at Amoo Street will be turned to an ultra modern sports facilities very soon. I have also been talking to the Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on the need to bring back the glory of Agege Stadium.
Revenue Generation
I want to commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the boldness to remove fuel subsidy and channelled the gains into more funds for both the state and local government administrations. This has been a big plus for us in Agege Local Government because we now have more money to execute our numerous projects. Our people in the grassroots now feel the impact of governance in the grassroots.
Lagos State has been one of the states where local government autonomy is now been fully practiced in the country. The President did it and the state government enabled it. I want to commend the House of Assembly and the State Governor.
The essence of what we are doing is that we want the people to feel the good impact of what Mr President is doing that is why we are deploring all resources to ensure that our people are well taken care of.
Since we came on board, we have blocked all revenue leakages by gathering data. We are also benefiting from our closeness to Ikeja, the capital city of Lagos State and our proximity to both the local and international airports.
Environmental Sanitation
As a government, we have very much concern about a clean environment. We employed about 600 sweepers. I have engaged stakeholders in the local government about the need for us to have a clean and safe Agege. I set up a task force to work in the night in order to monitor our people in the area of waste disposal. Our plan is to change the narrative of keeping Agege clean.
People’s Welfare
I want to say that a lot has been happening in Agege to make our people receive dividends of our government. One of such efforts was the food subsidy that we did for about 5,000 households and by this December the plan is to double it to about 13,500 households. We have been able to sustain the empowerment of 100 people of monthly.
Agege and the Future
My plan is to see Agege as a community where people can become anything they so deserve to be irrespective of status. I want to see Agege as a safe community where there is dignity in hard work. I also want to change the that Agege is not a Lagos rural community but a great city.
Legacy I Want To Leave Behind
I want to leave a legacy of a young man who does something out of ordinary and change the perception about youth in government. A legacy that young people can do great things. My presence position is an opportunity to be here and I don’t want to waste it.