Assembly Dreams Special Status For Lagos

Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has said that the pursuit of a special status for Lagos will be one of the legislative agenda of the 8th Lagos Assembly.

The speaker promised that in doing this the Assembly will work hand-in-hand with fellow lawmakers at the National Assembly to ensure the actualisation of the quest which is long overdue.

According to him, this is imperative because apart from being a former federal capital Lagos still remains the economic and commercial nerve center of the country and the destination of so many Nigerians seeking better life.

“It is therefore important that the federal government takes a special interest in the state by according it a special status and making necessary provisions to cushion the pressure on infrastructure in the state,” Obasa said.

Obasa stated this at a plenary after the Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade presented a report on the June 12 Anniversary lecture, which took place in Lagos in commemoration of annulment of the June 12 election acclaimed to have been the freest and fairest election and won by the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

Agunbiade said that one of the recommendations at the ceremony was that since the All Progressives Congress, APC, has formed the government at the federal level, the state should seize the opportunity to ensure that the state is granted the status.

He said almost all participants at the event agreed that there is no better time than now to push for special status since the state will have a listening ear now that the APC is in control at the center.

Rising from its first plenary session after inauguration, the Lagos State House of Assembly also passed a resolution calling on the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode to direct the relevant agencies to sanitize the state of gridlock.

The resolution followed a motion raised by Lanre Ogunyemi (APC Ojo II) stating that road users at the Lagos-Badagry expressway have been undergoing harrowing experience due to on-going reconstruction on the road.

The lawmaker added that the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, should urgently brace up to carry out palliative measures on the road to ensure that sanity is restored as the rainy season begins in earnest.

“We are all aware with situation of roads especially during rainy season. Lagos is below sea level and you know the effects of flooding on our roads where we battle with potholes leading to heavy traffic. Lagosians spend productive hours in traffic particularly where we have commercial drivers driving against traffic,” Ogunyemi said.

Also speaking in similar vein, Bisi Yusuff (APC Alimosho I) who is a co-sponsor of the motion pointed out that contrary to situation of roads when the traffic law was first introduced, the traffic situation in the state currently should be urgently addressed.

According to Yusuff, “Even law enforcement agents do drive against traffic. The corridors dedicated for Lag Bus and BRT are now being plied by other motorists. Law enforcement agents must be drafted to such areas to restore sanity.”

In his contribution, Abiodun Tobun (APC Epe I) noted that some hoodlums in the state now take advantage of of the traffic situation to dispossess Lagosians of their valuables.

While reiterating on the need to address the traffic bottleneck, the Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade believes now that APC is at the central government, FERMA would rise to its responsibility. Agunbiade explained that the immediate past federal government had been playing politics with the demand of the state government on the need to intervene on federal roads in the state, adding that the old order of negligence would be upturned.