We expect Sanwo-Olu to reduce out-of-school children — AA governoship candidate
Mr Abdurrazaq Balogun, governorship candidate of Action Alliance (AA) in the March 18 governorship election in Lagos State, has advised Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to invest in education to reduce out-of-school children in the state.
Balogun gave the advice in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, in reaction to Sanwo-Olu’s inauguration for second term.
He said that currently, Lagos State had over two million out-of-school children.
While congratulating Sanwo-Olu on his inauguration, Balogun said that AA’s ‘Rebirth Agenda’ would be made available to the governor, if requested.
Balogun said his rebirth agenda was geared toward the hallmark of governance “which is the provision of comfort, tranquillity and succour to the populace.
”Our rebirth agenda which we promoted during the electioneering, actually showed a lot of things going wrong with the present day Lagos.
”So, if the governor does not mind, he can actually visit some of those agenda of ours and some of the things we have proffered as solutions to the present problems of the state.
”We expect Sanwo-Olu to improve on so many things that have been done in the past, especially those specific areas that are disturbing Lagos residents.”
He listed some of these areas to include insecurity, touting, street urchins and criminal tendencies that were rampant in nook and crannies of Lagos state.
Balogun noted that there was no way any administration could sustainably address the security issues in the state without looking at the recruitment centres for many of the criminals.
He said: “For us, we believe the recruitment centre that is so fertile to produce as much as possible juveniles into criminalities is our school system.
“Today, Lagos State has one of the highest population of out-of-school children.
”A good attention and investment in education and vocational trainings can stem the tide that is becoming a danger to all.
“It is just a normal thing for us to have a commensurate increment in the number of classrooms and teachers as the population increases.”
According to him, investment in education will prevent over-bloated classes, where the teachers find it difficult to manage the excesses.
”If a teacher is expected to manage 25 students and he/she now struggles to manage 100 students in a class, at the end of the day, we will be having a lot of truants.
“These truants will form gangs and be sent away from school to become a problem to the society,” he said.
Balogun, however, called on stakeholders across party lines to join hands with the government as individuals or groups to bring comfort into reality for the people.
On whether he would be ready to join Sanwo-Olu’s administration if called upon to serve, Balogun said that he would be supporting from afar.
“We will be ready to present our ideas but we will not come into their government,” he said.
NAN reports that Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, were on Monday sworn in for second term at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.
