• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Agbaje to spend 50% of Lagos annual budget on education

Jimi Agbaje
Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje, says if elected governor in the forthcoming election, his first strategic action will be to jumpstart the economy of the state through certain decisive actions, including spending as much as 50 percent of the state’s annual budget on the education sector.
Agbaje, who stated this while delivering a paper entitled: “The Transformation of Lagos: Education as Anchor, The Big Idea,” at the Lagos Business School, Wednesday, said his vision for Lagos was anchored on an education driven economy. 
He said: “I will as Governor of Lagos State, if necessary, be prepared to spend as much as 50 percent of our annual budget on education, education eco system and education value chain.
“I will bet the future of Lagos State on an elaborate education and skills development value proposition.  I will, create an education driven economy.”
According to Agbaje, he was prepared to commit (subject to the state’s absorptive capacity) up to N500 billion, “to establish and recalibrate our educational eco-system and its related value chain in our first year; and strive for a minimum of 45 percent of total annual budget thereafter.”
He also said he planned to devote 50 percent of the state’s annual budget to education by getting all the state’s MDAs to allocate substantial portions of their budgets towards the education eco system and value chain.
In addition, he plans to make the schools, other education institutions and skills development centres, the “heart of every community in the 20 local government areas,” he said.
Similarly, he said within the first six months of coming to power, his administration would rehabilitate all the 1,700 existing state schools, “through open tending process driven by a block chain procurement system to aid the selection of a myriad of vendors, which will include larger companies that must work with SMEs within the framework of a youth and women engagement programme.”
He emphasised that rehabilitation would include borehole facilities for water, power generators for electricity supply and internet access for digital connectivity in every school.
He said his government also planned to pay additional allowances and fresh privileges to teachers to encourage the right people into the teaching profession.
To him, his administration will locate as much as possible, primary health care centres near or within the premises of every primary school, which will be manned by qualified doctors and nurses, serving as neighbourhood clinics to deal with basic ailments. 
The PDP governorship candidate said he believed that the pursuit of education and skills development, “can provide the anchor on which every other activity of government and the private sector can latch on to create what we describe as an education economy.”
He further disclosed that if elected, his administration will: “Invest massively in the eco system that surrounds education, its infrastructure and facilities requirements, including the value chain of activities of that deliver and facilitate it. This will include massive investment in engineering and information technology.”
As he put it: “We do not have a choice.  Lagos State’s education focus will be significantly about technology. We will partner with the best providers globally.” 
He explained that his manifesto, which focuses on re-anchoring Lagos forms the foundation of “The big Idea” that will dive the re-anchoring of the state.
As he put it: “The big idea is about the rejuvenation of the inner city, urban redevelopment and securing the long term future of Lagos State.”
The PDP Governorship candidate said his vision is to make Lagos State the second largest economy in Africa by  2029, anchored on building a State that focuses on its people.
Stressing that human capital development is key to his vision for the State, Agbaje noted that the knowledge, skills and health of Lagosians would equip them and their future generations for a lifetime of prosperity.
He stated, “Education is so critical to our   success and even more critical to our ability to sustain that success and it will become an anchor for economic, social and even political development.”
He also plans to create an education economy with the aim of populating the state with well-educated, skilled healthy people; enabling Lagosians to achieve their personal entrepreneurial and professional aspirations; confirming Lagos as a regional hub for financial, professional services and commercial enterprise and re-establishing Lagos as a technical hub for engineering, competence and leadership in digital technology.