In honor of his 100th day in office, InsightnaijaTV spoke with Hon. Alabi Kolade David, Executive Chairman of Bariga Local Council, about what he has accomplished and his aspirations for Bariga Local Council.
The Chairman explained why education has been a priority in his government and how he intends to get Bariga youths off the streets and into the workforce.
Full interview video and text below
Tell us about you, Sir?
I am Hon. Alabi Kolade David, the Executive Chairman of Bariga Local Council. I am the Chairman of Conference 57. I am also the president of ALGON
What have you been able to achieve in the past 100 days?
To me, 100 days is just a number or a figure. I think that infrastructural development and service delivery to the people shouldn’t be measured by a number of days. We transited from one administration to another, our work didn’t stop so we moved in. I lose count. I didn’t count 100 days. We have a lot of projects that are ongoing and some that are completed to be commissioned very soon. I mean legacy projects.
Tell us some of these projects?
Very close to the council, we have a school that we are building and it will be built with precision. It will be equipped with modern infrastructure amidst all other road works that are ongoing in the council. This time we are expecting the people of Bariga to enjoy more than what we delivered in the last administration.
I noticed that education has been the focal point of this administration, why the focus on education?
We have to be very careful, we shouldn’t miss the foundation. Primary education is the purview of local government, so if we want the government to strive our attention and focus should be on that critical sector of primary education which is the foundation. That is why we put all our attention on revamping primary education and improving infrastructural decay that has dominated this area. Of course, you can’t find us wanting in terms of good infrastructure and good health delivery.
What are you doing to ensure that youths in Bariga are productive and not taking to crime?
Before now, Bariga is synonymous with crime. If you go around now you will be discover that Bariga is relatively peaceful. The methodology that we adopted is not magic. What we did was that we engaged our youths meaningfully. We provided employment for them and we gave them the space to strive. There is a disconnect between government and youth, what we have done was to bridge that gap and we engage them in all our daily activities with that they will be well informed and they will not engage in criminality. Security to me is local and to solve security problem we have to adopt local methodology and that is why I am in the front runner of clamouring for state police so that local authority will be involved in solving security problem and challenges that we have faced with.
NDLEA under Gen. Burba Marwa has been doing a lot in terms of curbing the use of Indian Hemps and other drugs, being the conference 57 chairmen of Lagos State is there a way conference 57 is going to collaborate with NDLEA to rid the state of the abuse?
Yes, any collaboration will be welcomed. Like I said, we have to apply the local methodology in solving all these problems. All problems, all security challenges, all students problem, and youth problems are local and it is only the local authority that can solve these problems. Therefore, a partnership with NDLEA will be a very good idea and I think that if we have that we will have a very good partnership that helps in solving crime.
On the part of Con’57 what exactly are the programmes you are bringing out to address youth challenges? If you are able to do it in Bariga, how about other…
We have peculiarities in all local governments, the situation of Bariga is not what we have in Ijede, so whatever method we use in Bariga can and may not be used in Ijede. As an umbrella, we meet regularly and we share ideas and once we share ideas that idea may or be used in their various localities to solving their problems.
As a leader, what is your message to the local government chairmen on how to be very effective in their administration?
Let me use Lagos State as a case study, if you look around Lagos, I am saying this without fear of contradiction that Lagos state local government are performing creditably well. There is this healthy rivalry among the local government in Lagos. When you traverse round Lagos what you will see is one project after another. So, there is this healthy competition among us and of course the people of Lagos state that voted for us want us to deliver mandate. Our people are poised in delivering these mandate that is given to them to address the deficit that we have in infrastructure, health care, education and other areas that are begging for our attention. So, it is a must that we have to do. We are voted into office to deliver and we going to deliver.
As the leader of con’57, many people believe that the councils are not replicating the giant stride of the governor in their respective local government. In some council, we find the road in front of the council in a bad state. What do you discuss in the meeting? How do you tell them to live up to expectations?
I disagree with that. Governance at the local level has a lot of things that are begging for our attention, not only roads we have environment, health care, youth empowerment, education is there. We have a whole lot of things that are begging for our attention. If we take for instance in Bariga, we have 366 roads. Those 366 roads we have in Bariga cannot be done in one year, in two years, in three years on in ten years. It is going to be continuous. At times I tell people that change is a continuous process, it is not a magic. So, you have to move from one area to another area. We cannot do all roads at once. So, as we are attending to roads we will also be attending to health care, as we are attending to health care we will also be attending to education and the environment and all others. We won’t face one direction, if we face one direction it will be a failure of that government. So, we have a whole lot of things that are begging for our attention. Don’t also forget that all inner roads belong to the local government and they cannot attend to all the roads at once. We are trying our best to fix all that and to the fullest of time, I can assure you that all the infrastructural deficit we have in the local government in Lagos will be a thing of the past.
Sometimes ago we did 114 roads and later 118. The current governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has instructed that very soon all local governments must commence these 114 roads so that all inner roads will be given attention. Of course, there is this synergy between the local government and the state government. All of us are key to the THEMES agenda of this present government, so we are doing all we can and we are going to deliver at the end of the day. In our inaugural speech, we promised Lagosians that they should expect better governance from all of the local government in Lagos State and we are poised to deliver that.
Let’s talk about Covid-19, so far what have you been doing as the Local Government Chairman of Con’57, and ALGON President to curb the spread and collaborate with the state in curbing the spread?
First of all, in this regard, Lagos state is the front runner of this war against Covid-19. I am also saying this without fear of contradiction that Lagos state has delivered in this area in terms of contact tracing and other things that can be used in curbing this has been put in place. There is no problem; there is a collaboration between the local authorities and the state ministry of health in curbing further spread of this Covid-19 that ravaged the entire nation.
What is your message to everyone concerning this?
My message to everyone is that they should continue to pray for us, believe in us and as you pray and believe in us we will not disappoint you, we will deliver on the mandate that you have given us to serve you.
On the issue of allocation to local government, so have been calling that there is a need for a way to jig it, that more money should be pumped to the local government, what is Con’57 take on this?
It is a national issue, this is an issue that is not limited to only Lagos state local government. Of course, I will tell you that we have a lot that is begging for our attention, and for us to treat all those things that are begging for our attention we need more money local level. That was why in recent times we advocated that there should be a review of the allocation sharing formula. More money should come to the state and the local government, the aggregate of development that you have in a local government makes a state, and what you have in the state will make the entire nation to be a beautiful place. If more money comes to the state and the local government it will be a perfect thing so there should review of the allocation sharing formula. To me it obsolete, it is outdated it should be reviewed. I thank the federal government; they are now doing sensitization and of course, have involved all local authorities and state government in seeing that this allocation sharing formula is reviewed.
In the last administration of the local government, we have a series of issues between chairmen and vice-chairmen but here in Bariga nothing of such occurrences and both of you are back, what is the magic here and how are you trying to import that to other local government so that they have a cordial relationship?
Let me correct that, yes there is no way we can have a perfect system. Yes, we have some issues but not in all local governments, I think in one or two or three that have such problems in the last administration. It is natural and here in Bariga there is no magic that we have adopted to have this harmonious relationship. Can I say it is God? Well, there is no magic. Maybe one or two or three local governments have issues and it was resolved. It is not a big deal. It is natural for misunderstanding to occur during the course of administration. Here, we have been doing our work as one big family and we have been delivering. Let me also say that has given us an edge in having a modest achievement in the last administration. I promise that we are not going to stop, we will continue to deliver and we are going to surpass our achievement in the last administration.
What is your vision for Bariga in the next 2 years? What are the priority projects you want to achieve?
The question is a very big one and I will tell you why I said it is a big one. My vision in the next two years is to turn Bariga into a smart community. When we were campaigning in the last administration, I said to my people that I want to bridge the gap between dreams and reality. What I meant by bridging the gap between dreams and reality is that people will look at some of the things that we want to do as a dream that will never come through. We did a 1.6km road network terminating at the third mainland. When we got there, it was a dream that will never come through for some people, but we achieve that. So, in the next two years what we want to focus on is regeneration. And you ask me, why regeneration? I think we should move now to the regeneration of all old phases, I mean old building, and regenerate it to something that has a good aesthetic. If you look at Gbagada estate, for instance, Gbagada estate used to be an edifice area. If you look at it now it is going down. What we have to do is to now start regenerating our own edifice and begin to turn it into a smart community. That is the next phase of our vision but that does not mean that we are moving away from addressing infrastructural decay. Bariga water level is high, just last week we listed about 31 roads to be touched. We know it is huge but we will try to ensure that we will deliver on those 31 roads in this administration. We are also looking at the area of primary schools. We have 30 primary schools in Bariga and we want to start by addressing it one by one. If you look at the school that we building, it is two schools in one compound leaving 28 schools. We are also going to move to Ajidagan by also building another 5 schools, making it 7 schools. Before the end of our administration, we want to at least achieve not less than 15 schools that would have been upgraded to a model school. I am a product of public primary school and regrettably, a lot of our people are moving away from public primary school to private school. So, what we want to do here in Bariga is to encourage the residents of Bariga to patronize public schools by upgrading the standard of primary schools. That is what we are doing, we are going to equip the schools with modern infrastructure, and we are going to have a field and sickbay. We are also going to equip the place with an ambulance because we are going to have an emergency service centre that will be carve-out from that school. At the end of the day, what we want to achieve is good and standard public primary schools. I can assure you that this will be replicated in all local governments in Lagos state because all of our work in tandem. In the next two years expect a lot of things because Bariga is moving from analog to digital community. Our health centre will also be touched. We are going to advertise it very soon, all our primary health centres will be upgraded to standard health centres. So, we are going to touch all areas, the environment will be revamped; we have a rapid response gang in our environment in Bariga. What I mean is that we work every day. We are going to improve in that area, we will also address in agricultural aspect. These are what you should expect in the next two years.
All listed are huge, are you thinking along with PPP or you want to do it alone?
Well, that is a very good question. Some of our work will be PPP and some will be directed by the council. Those that will be PPP are those properties that we have in Bariga that are … so, we are going to involve PPP arrangement in this area particularly in the area of regeneration and it will involve a lot of money. We have engaged a consultant in this regard. It will cost not less than a trillion to turn Bariga to a smart community. So, where do we get the money from? We are going to involve a PPP arrangement. We have engaged ULTRAGON, it is an award-winning contractor in this regard. We have really gone far. God willing within the next year we shall commence this regeneration project.
How are you convincing the house owners to key into this project?
That is another good question. In the last administration, we went round, we engaged the critical stakeholders and landowners. Nobody is going to lose their title; some of them that are willing can invest their properties. We have a well-articulated plan that will make the landowners benefit more from this scheme. King Sunny Ade happened to be the brand ambassador of this lofty project and he has also donated his land in Ilaje to kick start this regeneration plan by erecting Bariga tower that will be facing the third mainland bridge. We have a whole lot of things.
