The Chairman of Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), David Odunmbaku has stated that his two years in office witnessed several livelihood programmes geared towards boosting household economy in local Communities of the area council.
Odunmbaku made this known while recounting achievements in his two years in office at an interactive session with newsmen in Ikeja as part of activities marking his two years in office, even as he promised to leverage on available resources for collective benefits of the people.
He explained that in the last two years, the LCDA under his leadership had carried out development projects cutting across sectors such as Health, Education, Environment, Youths empowerment and Social Infrastructure, including road rehabilitation.
The council boss disclosed that seven roads in the Council area had been given face-lift, while over 2,000 youths had been empowered with skills as part of efforts to reduce unemployment.
He said, “With the level of deficit infrastructure that we met , it was necessary for us to have a vision and narrow down our needs into these four acronyms. I have been privileged to be the secretary in Ikeja local government and Ojodu LCDA before taking up the mantle of the chairmanship. So I gained one or two experiences and was prepared for the office that if given the mandate, I would want to do things differently.
“In the health sector, we did the survey of the Primary Healthcare Centres(PHC) As at that time we had six PHCs in Gbadamosi, Aguda, Oluwole Ogba, Akiode, Akpata and we commissioned one six months into this administration, then the new one at Agidingbi. Out of the seven we have been able to upgrade two to 24 hours services, which is Akpata and Gbadamosi.’’
He said the council engaged the relevant stakeholders, saying plans are afoot to take the PHC in Gbadamosi and Akpata to the next level of full- fledged maternity to be able to service more residents of the locality.
He said given the challenge of epileptic power supply they are planning to equip the PHCs with alternative power energy in terms of Solar panels and Inverters , saying they council have able to do three, while reaching out to multi-nationals to get three done in the next two years of the administration so that the PHCs can have sufficient power supply for its operations.
To cushion the impact of the current economic hardship, Odunmbaku said 14 mini-buses were released to some residents of the LCDA to ease transportation, while plans are underway to provide free shuttle buses for students and pupils when school resumes in September.
He said arrangements are also underway in partnership with LAWMA to turn waste to energy to boost electricity supply.
The Ojodu LCDA Council boss urged residents of the area to be patient and continue to cooperate with the government at all levels, just as he warned the residents against indiscriminate dumping of refuse.
He said they should look forward to more poverty alleviating initiatives from his administration, including widows food bank, protein day, during which meat would be sold at very cheap price, while another palliative market days, during which all items would be sold at a subsidized rate of one N1,000 would also be held before the end of the year.
Odunmbaku added that his administration is also planning to decongest the Ogunnusi Road by opening and upgrading inner roads.
Harping on the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the council chairman berated some big organisations in the area for not engaging in such noble responsibility.
He lamented that companies like Coca Cola and Guinness had failed to carry out CSR in the council, but would prefer to deal with the Lagos State government.
In the last one year, Odunmbaku disclosed that the council has raked in between N60m to N70m as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), adding that his government was still trying to improve on the IGR.
He also hinted at plans to redevelop the popular Sunday market to take in more people, saying that when it rains, there is always the issue of flooding.
