COMING BACK FROM CHINA

Adejare Thomas lists benefits of Sanwo-Olu’s trip to China

 The crucial role Lagos plays in the economic stability and prosperity in Nigeria, and by extension West African nations, informed why the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu featured prominently in the delegation who joined President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Forum of Africa-China Cooperation in Beijing, the capital of China.

The global expanding economic frontiers of China as an economic world superpower is finding more expression in Africa, more than other regions of the world. As the emerging economies, most African nations, particularly Nigeria, has a long standing trade relationship with China. Lagos being the most prosperous and economically advanced state in Nigeria, has a more compelling reason why opportunities should be explored and harnessed for the advancement of the bustling city hosting over 22 million people.

Governor Sanwo-Olu, in a media chat on the sideline of the China trade talk, expressed optimism about the economic opportunities of the trip. While acknowledging and saluting the pragmatic leadership of President Tinubu, and the cooperation of the Chinese authorities, he said Lagos State will gain tremendously from the Memorandum of Understanding inked in China. The robust partnership between Lagos and Chinese companies that have helped in building road, rail and waterway infrastructure, among others, came to the fore.

He said, “ I want to thank him and thank the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, for opening up the country for all of us, for hosting President Bola Tinubu, and for what I would call, a very mutually beneficial relationship and visit to China.

“But, to speak specifically, standing in here as the Governor of Lagos State and what we believe we are taking back home, and like you rightly observed, we directly have been able to take some Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) forward and that we are taking back home.

“First, was the visit with President Tinubu to CRCC, the parent company for CCEC. There, we were able to sign an agreement because we had been having some conversations before then on constructing and developing a second Epe-Lekki bridge.

You would remember that about two years ago, we went on a massive reconstruction of the Lekki-Epe expressway, where we constructed – all the way to Ajah, up into six lanes in some places. But, when you get to the tail end of this whole development, Epe still has one bridge that crosses from Lekki to Epe.

“So, we are going to build a second bridge given the level of vehicular movement that would happen on that corridor with the refinery and with trucks, it’s now more than important that we build that second bridge. That is an agreement we have completed and we believe that will start very quickly when we get back home.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu who has performed remarkably well in the areas of Infrastructure and social services, also used the opportunity to alert Lagosians and other stakeholders on other great interventions that are underway. He said, “The other thing we signed with CCEC was something regarding energy transition which is where we have signed a collaborative engagement to power some facilities in our tertiary institutions – there are three of them, using solar panels which is part of the renewable energy component that we are talking about, getting power off the grid and bringing about better efficiency in terms of greenhouse emissions, that is clean power that we will be installing in our universities. These are well-signed with China Civil Engineering Company in their parent office of China Railway Construction Company (CRCC)”.

The renewable energy drive that the governor is eyeing is another masterstroke that will open the massive economic potential of Lagos State.

On food security, which has become one of the major crises facing the nation today, Governor Sanwo-Olu was already seeking global partnership on how to deepen food security in Lagos State, and to ensure that over 22 million residents of the State do not go to bed hungry. On this critical note, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Wilmar, the world’s largest producer of Rice.

Speaking specifically on the MOU, the governor disclosed, “The second MoU is also critical. It is something regarding the food security of Lagos where the Ministry of Agriculture was able to sign an agreement with the biggest rice producing (commodity) company in the world, Wilmar  Wilmar has a solution in China called ‘Karry&Quila’. They are also the biggest paddy producers and millers out of China.

“The strategic partnership there is around skills development. How do we ensure that we can improve the yield per hectare on our paddy growing capability in the State and the country? How do we encourage farmers, what are the seedlings, and the implements, what are the things that they need to do to improve the quality? We are not only trying to buy paddy, no, we actually want to transfer the technology back home where we will be able to develop those skills back in our space.

“There is going to be a lot of knowledge transfer, a lot of training and retraining. Somewhere along the line, there could also be procurement of paddy, and brown rice, based on the approvals we get from the federal government. That is also being wrapped up and we are very excited about that. Because, for us, food security in Lagos is a cardinal deliverable. We have seen the pressure around the challenge of food in the country. So, it is as important to us as we are building roads or we are building schools to ensure that we can feed our people and we can feed them well.

The icing on the cake is the plan by the administration to enhance the existing train service assets and connect other parts of the state, particularly the Ibeju-Lekki corridor to train service.

By and large, the China trip was not a jamboree. Governor Sanwo-Olu came back with many juicy packages that will further improve the socio-economic conditions of the state.

 Thomas writes from Abule-Egba, Lagos