Lagosians living in the United Kingdom and Ireland, known as Lagos State Union UK, have asked the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to empower Lagosians to be productive for themselves and the state instead of sharing food items to them.
The call came as Sanwo-Olu announced the state’s moves to feed at least 1000 people daily across each local government area through meal vouchers that could be accessed at selected canteens in the state to cushion the current economic hardship in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by its President, Mr. Toyin Ibrahim Igbo, General Secretary, Mr. Olanrewaju Oluwa and issued by the Publicity Secretary, Engr. Kayode Ajayi, on Saturday, the Union said it is time for the Lagos State Government to launch empowerment programmes aimed at making the people of the state more productive to feed themselves than dolling out interventions that can not be sustainable.
Although the Union commended Governor Sanwo-Olu for his interventions, it noted that Nigeria’s current economic hardship is not like a lockdown where people are meant to sit at home and cannot go out to work therefore required more and lasting efforts.
The Union further stated that the economic hardship is biting harder because the majority of the people are jobless and salary earners’ salaries are nothing to write about considering the current high cost of living in the country.
The Union said that “The government cannot continue to share food and money to address economic hardship and expect to get out of it. What the government should do in this circumstance is make ways for people to be productive.
“People should be made to do something themselves. For instance, the government should ensure stable electricity supply to reduce consumption of fuel, gas and diesel; release funds for SMEs to boost the informal sector.
“Vocational centres should be busy now producing some things that can be exported to neighbouring countries. This is also the time for the government to think more of agriculture.
“We can use our land for agriculture or do a regional farm in collaboration with more neighbouring states to augment the existing one between Lagos and Ogun States. Security of such farms will be the responsibility of states involved. It is doable. We must think out of the box now.
“The 25 percent reduction in the cost of state-owned transport services, beginning from this weekend, is a welcome development. This will certainly ease the cost of movement within the state.
“But for the state’s civil service on grade level 1 to 14 to work three times weekly and level 15 to 17 will be required to work four times in a week until further notice is not necessary because even at home they will still face pressure due to need to survive.
“Governor Sanwo-Olu said he would be distributing combo packages of food items to vulnerable Lagosians, targeting 300,000 households. They said plans have been concluded for the procurement of over 100 trailers of rice and other food items.
“He said Sunday markets will open in 42 communities across the state, where staple food would be available for residents to buy at reduced prices.
“Shoppers according to the Governor would only be able to buy items not more than N25,000, with each shopper getting 25 percent rebate immediately after purchase.
“He said they have identified local cafeteria operators and caterers within communities and funds will be sent to them to prepare soup and vouchers will be given to anybody to walk in and eat free of charge.
“He said they want to be able to feed between 1,000 and 1,500 people in every Local Government Area daily for the next 30 to 60 days at the first instance.
“We want our Governor to know that these measures are going but not enough to get us out of the current hardship as they are merely consumption measures not production. We can only get out of the economic hardship through production.
“We should be mindful of mental laziness in times like this in our efforts to make life easy for our people, otherwise, we might just be creating another problems afterwards.”
Credit: Sahara Reporters
