‘We’ll Go the Way of PPP to Develop Lagos Island’

In this interview with Kunle Aderinokun and Chris Paul, Prince Adewale Taorid Ojora, former CEO, Lagos State Law Enforcement Training Institute, who is contesting in the coming Local government election in the state on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, explains how he will deliver on his promises and actualise his aspiration for the people

Who is Adewale Ojora?

I was born five decades ago, on the Island, into the Royal family of Chief, Prince Abdulazeez Ojora; then Olori Omo Oba of Lagos.

My mother, Alhaja Abiola Ojora, a descendant of the Gbajabiamila and Williams family of the Olowogbowo fame.

An Islander per se, I attended my primary school in Lagos Island, Olowogbowo Methodist school; excelled with a distinction. Then, I proceeded to Lagos Baptist Academy, where I obtained my school certificate; and then to the prestigious University of Lagos where I had my first degree in Industrial Chemistry with second class upper and Masters in Chemical Engineering; from the same University of Lagos.

I am a member, International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST), USA, May 2016. Fellow, Institute of Criminological Studies and Security Management, Nigeria (FICSSM), Fellow, Chartered Institute of Commerce of Nigeria (FCICN), June 2019

I attended the Year 2016 international conference of international association of directors of law enforcement standards and training (IADLEST), Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. I am a big socialite on the Island. I belong to the Island club. Yoruba Tennis club. Eko club and so many other ones on the Island. I started my active political career in 1999 when I joined the Alliance for Democracy.

In 2003, I aspired for the House of Assembly, Lagos Island Constituency 1. After then, I was appointed the Supervisor for Works, Lagos Island Local Government, in 2004. In 2006, I was appointed Secretary to the Local Government. In 2008, I had a shot at the Local Government chairmanship of Lagos Island. In 2011, I also had a shot at the Chairmanship of Ifelodun LCDA. In 2017, I contested with the incumbent chairman for the chairmanship of Lagos Island Local Government. At that time, the party leadership invited the two of us and asked me to step down for him. Here we are, four years after.

But in 2015, I was appointed by the immediate past Governor of Lagos State as the CEO and head of Lagos Enforcement Training Institute. That was the institute that was meant to provide qualitative training in Law Enforcement to all Law Enforcement Officers in the Lagos State Government. It was not limited to LASTMA, LAGESS, which is now rebranded as KAI. I was part of the team that trained the over 5,700 Lagos State Neighborhood Watch, among others. Once you serve in the Lagos State Government as a law enforcement officer, it was my duty to train them; and I served in this capacity for three years and ten months precisely, on October 2019.

Now, I’ve reverted to my private business.

What is your motivation for aspiring to this office?

I told you I was born and brought up on the Island. All my families, connections and houses are on the Island; from my mother to my father’s families, both paternal and maternal. That is why I am so passionate about the Island.

The Island you have today is not the same Island we grew up in 50 years ago. In 2003, the Local Government was divided. The whole Lagos Island was subdivided into Lagos Island Local Government and Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area (LCDA). Where we are now (i.e. Freedom Park where we held the interview) was Lagos Island Local Council Development Area.

The new Local Government Area started from Olowogbowo, around Apongbon. Elegbata extending to Isale Eko, Oyebanji, Adeniji, Olola, Tinubu, Siemens, and so on. Also, part of the Inner Marina, when you get to First Bank headquarters… I will tell you that when we were growing up, Broad Street and Marina were the biggest economic hub anybody could think of in Lagos State; and even in Nigeria, at the time. We had all the biggest multinationals there. But at a point, that started dwindling. And people started moving away from the Island. It wasn’t as if the Island was no more conducive; there were lots of factors coming to play at that time.

I believe different persons who had occupied that office at different times had tried their own very best. But I know I have so much to offer. You see, each time I visited my primary school, I am not always happy. This was a missionary school turned into a public primary school.

It was owned by the Methodist Church but later, Lateef Jakande picked it up and made it a public school; and they were fantastic.

There was no difference between what we had in those schools back then and in the high-flying private schools we have today. But if you visit those primary schools now, they are an eyesore.

That explains why in public primary schools now, you hardly see up to 50 in a class or in some cases, the entire school; from primary one to six. People now prefer to patronise mushroom private schools instead; where they pay N100 or N200 a day or something.

How do you intend to actualise your vision and implement your ideas for the local government?

What we will be doing once we come on board is this: we are going to convene the first Lagos Island Economic Summit. Here, we will invite all the blue chip companies and business moguls on the Island. You cannot be doing your business, making your daily bread on the Island and you are not giving something back to the Island.

We believe there needs to be a greater level of connect between the government and the corporate community to accomplish this task.

Past administrations, like I said earlier, have done their best in establishing a relationship. What we will be doing, therefore, is to creatively build a functional synergy that will serve the mutual interest of the state government, the people and the corporate community. Let’s say we are coming to lift the relationship to higher heights that will excite all the stakeholders. Because, what we are bringing on board is meant to advance the prosperity of the corporate community while at the same relieving Lagos Islanders of stress and ensuring that their lives and their peace are well maintained.

To a large extent, it is also about making the people happy in their various roles in the Lagos Island community.

As you will bear witness, Lagos Island will instantly stand out, not just for usual distinguishing feature of being the seat of the economic hub of West Africa, but our ‘make-the people-happy-and-prosper’ policies will be visible for all to see and for Islanders to feel.

So that is why we are going to, through constructive consultations, partner with relevant institutions and people and ensure that as they contribute their quota to the advancement of the Lagos Island vision, we will protect their interests as well.

We are determined to establish and entrench the good intentions of our founding fathers and leaders for Lagos Island and all who are resident here.

One of our major objectives is to take a deeper look into the development of education on the Island. That is why we are going to apply an ‘adopt-a-school’ policy.

We will want some of these corporate entities to adopt some of these public primary schools. They will be the ones taking care of these schools. They will renovate, rehabilitate and keep it in shape on a yearly basis.

We also recognise that a healthy environment will create room for greater productivity. While I was growing up, there were nearby health centres you could easily access. But now, most of the health centres have been converted to shopping malls and a lot of others are not functioning. There is a lot that is wrong. We have 10 wards on the Island, what we want to ensure is to have a primary health centre in each Ward. There are supposed to be 10 health centres, but currently we have about four that are not functioning properly. The goal here is to ensure we have 10 fully functioning health centres in all the 10 wards. This is so that our people on the Island don’t have to go all that distance to access quality healthcare. We need for them to, at a walking distance reach the ward health centre nearest to them. You can imagine someone in great pain and almost on the verge of death being subjected to additional torture of going through so much stress to access care going such a long distance to receive medical treatment. No Islander will be subjected to this under my watch.

So, it will be one health centre per ward; so our people don’t go through such long distances to come to Island Maternity, Mercy or General Hospital for treatment.

We also recognise that land is a challenge on the Island. What we will be doing in the short term is that we will rent good accommodation where we will host some of the health centres. For the long term, we will acquire properties, within the particular wards to take in the health centres.

We know we are going to execute most of our plans through the public private partnership arrangements. It then means we will be engaging the corporate community on the Island and meeting with the business moguls to join hand with us to bring out the beauty and strength of Lagos Island in a sustainable manner that will benefit all on the Island.

For instance, back to the health centres I just talked about, I know through this engagement some of them will be willing to acquire properties for us to host some of these health centers and brand them.

For instance, if First Bank decides to acquire a property and build a health centre there, they will be glad to take up the responsibility of the maintenance of the facility. They can brand the place and all that.

We are going to have one ambulance per ward health centre and a toll-free hotline where you can reach us at any time to address health and other emergencies on the Island.

Once a call is made to that call centre, you will have an ambulance arrive there in less than an hour. Ditto with any other emergency especially in the area of security.

Another issue we have discovered on the Island is that of drainage. Lagos Island used to have one of the best drainage system and network in the whole of Lagos State, when we were growing up. All the drainages are interconnected and discharge into the Lagoon.

What exists now are drainages filled with pet bottles, sachet water nylons and all sorts. Our drainages are not working.

So, once you have a 30 minutes or one hour rain, everywhere is flooded. We cannot continue like that. By my experience in the Works department, I know that drainage is part of its job.

So, we are going to set up drainage gang; where we will recruit young men who will be clearing the drainage everyday. We want a situation whereby in our first one hundred days in office, we are able to clear all the drainages on the Island.