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A New Beginning: The Lagos State Sanwo-Olu Affordable Housing Projects By Babajide Fadoju

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The Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration has undertaken a number of new housing projects aimed at providing affordable houses for low-income families in the state. The projects, which have been in development within the short space of three years of his time in office, have indeed turned out to be a marvel to all to see and an example to other Governors.

These housing projects being executed by the Lagos State Ministry of Housing have proven that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is a man on a mission to take the poor masses out of the shackles dingy and poor living conditions.

The problem of affordable housing in Lagos state is a serious one. The rapid population growth in the state which according to the metro area population of Lagos in 2022 was at 15,388,000, a 3.54% increase from 2021 and the lack of affordable housing options have led to a housing crisis, with many low-income families unable to find safe and affordable housing. In an effort to address this problem, the government proposed the affordable housing project, which aims to provide new homes for low-income families.

The planning and development of the project had been a complex process. Securing funding and navigating complex regulations initially posed some challenges for the Governor Sanwo-olu’s administration. Despite these obstacles, the project has made significant progress, and it is now fully completed.

The 38 unit of two (2) and three (3) bedroom flat channel point apartment at Victoria Island is a game-changer for the selected low-income families. They will have access to safe, affordable housing that they can call their own. It will provide them with a sense of security and stability, and it will open up new opportunities for them, all thanks to Governor Sanwo-Olu the change maker.

In addition to providing new homes for low-income families, the one hundred Housing unit at Ikate also has broader implications for the community. The new housing units will improve the overall quality of life in the area, and they will serve as a model for similar housing projects in other states in Nigeria.

The Governor Sanwo-Olu housing projects is a step in the right direction, but there is still more work to be done. Affordable housing is still a major issue in Lagos state, and the government must continue to invest in projects that address this problem, that is why continuity for His Excellency Sanwo-Olu is of great importance.

The Housing Projects by the Governor Sanwa-Olu administration includes but not limited to:

• Thirty-Eight units of two and three Bedroom flats Channel point Apartment at Victoria Island.

• Hundred (100) Housing unit at Ikate.

• One hundred and twenty (120) unit Courtland villa at Igbokushu.

• Seven hundred and seventy four (774) Housing unit Lagos Homes Sangotedo Phase 1.

• Three hundred and sixty (360) Units in Igbagbo.

• Six hundred and sixty (660) Housing Units in Odo-Onosa Ayeandelu Housing Scheme.

• Four hundred and eighty (480) Units in Ibese Ikorodu.

• Four hundred and ninety two home unit Lateef Jakande Housing Estate.

• One hundred and thirty two (132) home unit BRF Housing Estate Iponri.

• Twenty (20) Unit two bedroom Love Garden Apartment Service.

• Forty-eight (48) Unit of Greater Lagos LBIC Apartment pen CINEMA which was given to residents free of charge as compensation for the demolition of their homes during the construction of the 105 killometer of the prey Scheme Bridge.

• Two hundred and fifty two Bungalows at Idale Badagry.
These Housing schemes and structures have state-of-the-art ininfrastructure, accessible roads, drainage systems, steady power supply, and water supply for the comfort of the residents.

A greater Lagos is indeed Rising under the watch of His Excellency Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. He is a game changer who is just getting started in the mission for a NEW LAGOS.

BIG STORY

Victor Osimhen Grabs Brace On 100th Appearance For Napoli

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Victor Osimhen scored twice as Napoli were held to a 2-2 draw by Bologna at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara on Sunday afternoon.

Osimhen opened the scoring for the Partenopei in the 14th minute.

The Nigeria international added the second 10 minutes after the break.

Bologna rallied to equalise afterwards, earning a share of the spoils.

The game was Osimhen’s 100th appearance across all competitions for Napoli.

The 24-year-old has scored 25 goals in 31 league appearances for Luciano Spalletti’s side this season.

Napoli will host Sampdoria in their last league game of the season next week.

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Sanwo-Olu Unveils Official Portrait For Second Term

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Executive Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu has unveiled his new official portrait ahead of May 29th inauguration for his second term in office.

In a statement released on Sunday and signed by his media adviser, Mr. Gboyega Akosile, the new portrait, which is expected to be hung in all government and non-government offices across the State from Monday 29th of May, shows Governor Sanwo-Olu in a traditional white Agbada, with a carton brown handmade cap with blue stripes that has become his brand identity.

The new portrait is a departure from the previous one where the Governor wears a blue suit, white shirt and blue tie.

The portrait was photographed by ace photographer Ademola Olaniran, who brought his depth of professionalism and creativity into the finished work.

The portrait can also be found on all the official social media handles of Mr. Governor, Lagos State Government and websites.

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Chronicling Tokunbo Wahab’s Home Run In Education By Adeshina Oyetayo

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Each person is a thread in the tapestry of creation but some people stand outside of the weave directing the thread and painting the pictures that become reality. Tokunbo Wahab, the immediate past Special Adviser on Education to the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is one of the rare latter.

Undoubtedly one of the brightest but self-effacing stars in the first term of Sanwo-Olu’s administration, Wahab covets neither paeans nor rhapsodies for his commanding tour de force in the actualisation of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s vision for the rejuvenation of tertiary education as encapsulated under the ingenious T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda. And he is forever quick to counsel folk about his ordinariness while preventing them from dressing him in what he considers spurious cloaks of a ‘messiah,’ or ‘deity’ or ‘tin god.’

Gangling and genial, generous and god-fearing, everybody seems to love the successful lawyer-turned-public servant for his humility, generosity of spirit, and fierce loyalty to the success of Governor Sanwo-Olu.

Beneficiaries of his exceptional humaneness in private and public offices frequently have wonderful stories to share from their encounters with him. However brief or extended the encounter is, Wahab snatches grief or gloom from acquaintances and replaces it with joy and joie de vivre because he sees a relative in everyone. He believes humanity is one large family divided along race, religion, and other bigoted lines and his response to this defies the depths of human failings and pretensions of altruism.

His first emergence on the political circuit in Lagos State was as a governorship aspirant in 2014 in the All Progressives Congress. He was 42 years old with lush, emergent grey beards that accentuated his smouldering, boyish visage.

Apart from fellow lawyers, social collaborators, and a sprinkling of media people, the Epe-born University of Benin graduate was barely known. Yet, he aspired to govern Lagos State! His mantra was – “Think Lagos for a tomorrow that works.” It was an audacious and astonishing move that generated a lot of discourse in the media space. Wahab did not get the ticket but he had already announced himself to those that matter in the political configuration of the state and the party at large.

Fast forward to 2019; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu appointed Wahab as his Special Adviser on Education, charging him to steer and supervise his vision for tertiary institutions in Lagos State. Wahab went full gung-ho into the assignment, cutting large swaths through the convolution that is the tertiary education ecosystem while earning his principal accolades from far and near.

Until 2022, Lagos had just one university – the Lagos State University. Yet, statistics from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board revealed that in 2020, out of 574,782 candidates that applied to sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination from the six states in the South-West, Lagos State alone accounted for almost half of the figure at 240,829. LASU couldn’t admit more than 5,000 at a go, yet the applications were very high. It was a ticking time bomb.

Conversely, Wahab said, “Ondo has three (higher institutions) and Ogun has two. Not until recently when Osun and Oyo states went their separate ways on the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, the two also had more than one state-owned university. The implication is that our students from Lagos continue to struggle to gain admission to universities because other states usually introduce classification based on indigeneship.”

With just a tenacity of purpose and a terrier devotion to the belief that Lagos State, with its growing youth population, deserved more than one university, Wahab worked round the clock, consulted extensively, and networked widely to ensure that the state’s bid to get two more universities accredited by the National Universities Commission was achieved.

On February 8, 2022, the NUC, the regulatory body in charge of universities in Nigeria, approved the take-off of the two new specialised universities in Lagos State. While the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education and the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education morphed into the Lagos State University of Education; the Lagos State Polytechnic was upgraded to the Lagos State University of Science and Technology.

For Wahab, the approval and eventual take-off of the universities remains a veritable home run, the culmination of many years of hard work, and a fulfilment of one of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s cardinal promises to Lagosians to give the youths more access to affordable and qualitative varsity education.

He did not just help to birth new higher institutions, Wahab is also helping products of the state’s tertiary institutions to adequately prepare for the world of work with the Jobs Initiative Lagos which aims to fill the documented gaps in the current curriculum that is essential in the employment market and enhances the employability of graduates in Lagos.

The programme is a spin-off of the Ready-Set-Work initiative, an employability and entrepreneurship program aimed at preparing final-year students for immediate entry into the workforce as employees and employers of labour by equipping them with the knowledge, soft skills, business tools, and a mindset reorientation to the world of work.

It runs alongside the digital skills campaign, ‘Digital Skills Initiative Lagos’, launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown to empower young people in the state with digital skills that will invariably position Lagos as the Tech Hub of Africa.

Even more symbolic is the turnaround in LASU, which was infamous for its fractious transition of power. This time, a new vice-chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, was appointed in a transparent and seamless, and applause-worthy process.

With the strong backing of Governor Sanwo-Olu, LASU did not join the months-long Academic Staff Union of Universities strike.

More than four decades after it was established, LASU is set to become a residential tertiary institution as the state government, under the Public-Private Partnership has signed a Build, Operate and Transfer agreement with six property developers to construct 8,272 units of hostels in the school’s premises.

Not forgetting that Wahab masterminded the collaboration between LASU and Cornell University, New York, for 16 professional certificate programmes to be run by the two institutions.

Wahab said then that the decision to collaborate with Cornell University rated as one of the leading universities globally, was borne out of the desire to keep and sustain LASU’s pedigree and high academic profile as the second-best university in Nigeria and one of the best 600 in the world.

He added that the establishment of LASU/Cornell University Postgraduate Professional Certificate Programmes was aimed at giving prospective students across the country an opportunity to gain global skills and professional expertise that will not only make them relevant and employable but globally competitive in the 21st Century digital economy.

At the risk of sounding clichéd, Wahab has redefined the tertiary education landscape of Lagos State and inadvertently written his name in gold with his robust catalogue of achievements in the all–important sector.

For Wahab, the dissolution of the Sanwo-Olu administration last Wednesday, May 24, was the end of an impactful era, but for a man who sees the hydraulic lifts on which his public career is being hoisted and the machinery that is steadily and surefootedly wheeling him to the centre stage, May 29, 2023, or the days after, will signal, ceteris paribus, the beginning of an even more impactful era. Take a bow, Toks!

Oyetayo, a Lagos-based media executive, can be reached on social media via @shynewriter

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