Lagos state Governor -elect , Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday said the issue of urban renewal occupies a top priority on the agenda of the incoming administration.
Speaking with State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhamamdu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, on Monday, the Governor however said such must be done with sincerity
The Governor – elect who noted that Lagos truly needs regeneration especially Lagos Island, said it was “part of the things we promised on the campaign trail”
“So, we’ll see the kind of redevelopment that is important as it’s done in other big cities.
“Well, it’s really not that it’s been a challenge, but because we have not been able to see it through to the end.
“When you want to take people’s properties and you want to regenerate, they must first see a sincerity of purpose – what are the additional plans that you have for them? Before you could regenerate”
He assured that his administration will need to provide a stop gap for at least two to three years , adding that “ And you need to do what we call proper enumeration”
“Once you can enumerate properly and determine who are the original owners, and you sit and have an agreement, then the regeneration will start”
He also assured that his administration will workout a proper model before embarking on the project to ensure strong confidence
“ I have said, the major thing is sincerity of purpose knowing fully well that you are not out to circumvent them or to shortchanged them or to bring about things in which there will be desolation.
“Once that is put on the table very clearly and transparently, I believe that as it’s also done in other jurisdictions, we will get a success of it.”
Sanwo- Olu also assured that his administration will immediately embark on bringing about solutions as promised during the campaigns that will solve the various challenges Lagos is facing currently.
“We know that with a mega city of our status, it comes with a lot of challenges but we are lucky that we have been part of it before now and we are excited that the solutions we are bringing up – that we’ve identified on the campaign trail will very quickly, be able to bring about positive development that will improve the quality of lives and ease all of the challenges that we currently have in Lagos.
He described the latest case of collapsed building in Lagos as “ very unfortunate incident” adding that “even when I was in government before, I used to be the Vice Chairman on collapsed Building Committee .
“That was something of about ten years ago which led to us creating an agency called LABCA, it was meant to begin to identify structures well ahead before issues like this begin to happen.
“But it’s an unfortunate thing, extremely very unfortunate and it also means that we expect it would happen again.
He however blamed the current government for not carrying out integrity tests on most buildings.
“imagine the current government have started very quickly the integrity testing of the properties in the state.
“You know Lagos island is part of the old colony of Lagos, so, you expect to see houses that are over a century old and in those numbers, we need to be sincere to ourselves and we need to be real” he said.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
