South Africa Chapter of the APC, has lauded Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State for towing the steps of late Gov. Lateef Jakande.
Mr Bola Babarinde, the Chairman of the chapter, gave the commendation on Tuesday in a statement in Lagos entitled: “The Scary Lagos: Bike and Motorcycle Menace”.
Babarinde, who commended Sanwo-Olu’s strides in public transportation and efforts to address the menace of commercial tricycle and motorcycle riders in the state, said the governor was towing the path of the late first civilian governor of Lagos state, Jakande.
“We nicknamed our Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu as “Omo Agba” as he is towing the footsteps of Baba Jakande in areas of infrastructural development, especially with his vision of providing affordable and quality housing, quality roads and improved transportation system for Lagos residents.
“We congratulate him on his second year anniversary of being the Lagos state governor and we wish him more successful years of service to humanity,” Babarinde said.
He said that in the ’70s and ’80s during his high school and university education days, scholar pass, uniform or school ID enabled students to enjoy free rides on the Lagos State Transport Corporation (LSTC) buses.
According to him, the system was very effective in those days and there were “checkers” to control corruption on the buses.
He said that after the UPN government headed by late Jakande was overthrown and a military administrator was appointed, and all ongoing projects were suspended.
Babarinde added that between June 1990 and January 1992, Col. Buba Marwa was appointed to administer Lagos and came up with a short term solution to transportation issue in the metropolis.
He said that these included the introduction of the tricycle (popularly call Keke Marwa) and later motorcycle (Okada) as means of transportation, which was a serious setback from the vision of the metro-rail that was aborted by the military administration.
The chairman said that consequently the nation has been faced with the menace of these two means of transportation in not just Lagos but all over Nigeria.
Babarinde said that the two means of transportation had created a menace including pollution and security threat to the states due to non proper documentation and unruly behaviour of the riders.
Other challenges associated with the riders, he said were lack of proper training of the riders, which brought about traffic violations and avoidable accidents on roads.
According to him, the government has set up various laudable interventions to control the situation, but most of the time, such interventions are often not well researched, coordinated, planned and implemented to ensure sustainability.
Sanwo-Olu will mark two years in office on May 29, having assumed office on May 29, 2019, as the 15th governor of Lagos state.
