Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi, the Labour Party (LP) Governorship candidate in Lagos State says if elected, all political office holders must have their children in public schools to reposition education for national growth and development.
Awamaridi made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Saturday.
He said that until quality education is prioritised and made free or affordable to the majority of the citizens, many of the problems confronting the nation would remain.
The don noted that the best weapon to fight poverty, insecurity and hunger anywhere in the world remained education, saying that if voted into office, education would take priority.
“We are committed to free education up till university level that will be qualitative. All the dilapidated schools will be rebuilt.
“We will make sure that all public officers have their children in public schools. If their children attend public schools, the schools will be okay, there is no magic there.
“This must start with political office holders. As a governor, your child must not go to private school.
“If the children of commissioners do not go to private schools, then things will really change for better, ’’ Awamaridi said.
The LP candidate said that the party was also committed to free Internet services all over the state by simply creating colocation centres to provide free WiFi for emergency Internet operations.
Awamaridi said that the party also wanted to invest massively in electricity to provide minimum of 22 hours power supply daily for residents.
“This is not rocket science. All we need to do is to explore and combine wind, solar, hydro, coal and all other means of power generation as it is done in California and not just concentrating on one source.
“We want to make Lagos State hub of Information Technology (IT) in the whole of Africa. We have the potential and we have the market.
“Many companies, including IT offices had relocated to other countries because of power supply issues,’’ he said.
Awamaridi said that the party was committed to advancing small and medium scale Enterprises in informal sector to reduce poverty and unemployment as well as creating wealth and growing the economy.
“We want to build 100,000 stalls for the unemployed across all the local government areas to be given out free with small capital to commence business.
“We are talking about those who want to sell bread, fruits and other things to feed their families.
“The programme is for those who have not been engaged at any time before. It is for those not working at all and we have started compiling list already,’’ Awamaridi said.
He mentioned that the party would commit about N10 billion of the state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) into this to lift people out of poverty and hunger.
On health, the Labour Party candidate said that the party had planned free local health services for regular ailments and crash training programmes for all quacks, auxiliary nurses and traditional healers; others to end quackery.
On potable water, Awamaridi said that the challenge was still huge in the state, noting that provision of potable water remained the responsibility of the state.
The professor said that the comfort and welfare of citizens and workers would be the driving force of his government if elected governor of the state.
He said that the party was committed to restructuring, saying that the party would reunite the whole Southwest states for accelerated growth and development.
On his chance of winning the election, Awamaridi was optimistic that he would emerge as the next governor of Lagos State. (NAN)